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Seeing Things John's Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation

Author:	David A deSilva
Published By:	Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, Kentucky)
Price:	£26.99
ISBN:	978 0 664 22449 3

Reviewed by Luke Penkett.

It is a truism to write that the Book of Revelation poses some of the most challenging problems in New Testament exegesis. Yet, at the same time, Christians are drawn to its extraordinarily difficult passages, sometimes led there by commentaries of excessive fantasy.

David A deSilva, Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary, Ohio, and author of a number of books on the New Testament, presents the Book of Revelation as a work of ancient rhetoric and, in so doing, uncovers much that seems to have been lost by less gifted and insightful commentators.

He perceives the work as one written in a specific form and style to enable its readers and listeners to seek specific goals.

After a succinct presentation of the history of the interpretation of the Book, deSilva places the work in its rhetorical setting, clearly and convincingly examining John’s motives in writing in this particular manner. These give rise to a fascinating series of chapters on the cosmos according to John, the construction of ethos in Revelation, John’s use of the Hebrew Bible, his strategic arousal of emotions, and his appeals to Pathos and Rational Argument, before pondering what the Spirit might still be saying to the Churches.

Seeing Things John’s Way is a work of admirable yet accessible scholarship and will serve both the academic and the general reader well. deSilva’s bibliography and indices are outstanding.