The Message of Revelation

Wilcock’s The Message of Revelation is one of those comparatively short expositions whose influence and insight are far greater than its size suggests. His reading of Revelation as a recurring drama rather than a chronological timetable, structured in a series of scenes that repeatedly portray the church’s conflict, suffering, judgment and final victory from different perspectives, has proved extraordinarily fruitful and helped shape later evangelical interpreters such as Beale. Wilcock is especially good at allowing Revelation’s Old Testament imagery, dramatic movement and appeal to the imagination to communicate its theological message rather than reducing every symbol to a coded prediction. He occasionally underplays the value of Jewish and Greco-Roman background for explaining particular images, and this is an exposition rather than a technical commentary. Nevertheless, for grasping how Revelation works as a book and why its visions matter to the church in every age, it remains exceptionally useful and deserves its status as a modern classic.

Read together with William Hendriksen's one, both are easy to read, grest amillenial commentaries.