Acnt -- Revelation

I was a student of Gerhard Krodel. His Revelation course was so difficult that it wasn't unusual for 50% of the graduate level class to fail. The late Dr. Krodel was the greatest living expert on Revelation. This book is based on solid scholarship; not the ridiculous speculations about future events and end times. If you really want to understand Revelation for what it really is, this is your resource. Don't look for cheesy "Left Behind" sensationalism here. This is a work from one of the great Biblical scholars who was a master of both the times of Revelation and the Koine Greek in which it was written.

This is an excellent commentary on Revelation for pastors, preachers and students looking to the pulpit. It is scholarly without being over academic and it is readable. He has the knack of getting to the spiritual meaning of the passage, which makes it especially valuable for pastors wanting to feed their flock. He rightly highlights the twin themes of worship and idolatry, rather than emphasising persecution thus making it more useful to the church in the West. He served as a pastor for four years and I have a strong suspicion that he still regularly preaches; the preacher could easily preach whole paragraphs from this volume. The introduction is excellent for its history of the misinterpretation of Revelation. It has no footnotes, the Greek is kept to a minimum necessary to bring out the meaning of the text but it is sufficiently detailed to keep the preacher and student happy. The scholar may find that the lack of references to sources and a lack of an index frustrating. I might quibble with the author calling the four living creatures "God's pets", but this is a typical preachers prerogative. I certainly think that the publishers should have made the book from a larger paper size. However this is still one of the best commentaries available on Revelation today, especially for the preacher. Preachers looking for further application may find Keener useful, which does emphasise current day persecution.

I have read this commentary and studied it three times since about the beginning of the 1990's. It ranks in my opinion as the best commentary on Revelation ever written in church history! That is a lot to be said. It is better than the works on Revelation by Ireneus, Waalvord, Lindsay, Darby, Scofield, etc. Krodel penetrates into the heart of Revelation. He gets passed the time line syndrome that has bogged theologians for millenia. Krodel shows us the heart and soul of Revelation and how to survive in the end times. Krodel takes out the foolheartiness so commonly found in prophetic interpretations. I recommend the sound doctrine and exhortation to worship the Lamb as the chief guard against succumbing to the spirit of the Antichrist.