Revelation

St. Louis: Chalice, 2005. Pp. xii + 146. Paper. $22.99. ISBN 0827205287. Jan A. du Rand University of Johannesburg Johannesburg, South Africa A constant flow of new commentaries on the book of Revelation is currently hitting the market. The pivotal question is whether a particular commentary puts any radically new information on the table. Ronald L Farmer, associate professor of Religious Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California, has produced this commentary in the Chalice Commentaries for Today series. The intention of the series is “to help pastors, seminary students and educated laity who are open to contemporary scholarship to claim the Bible in their personal lives and in their engagement with the crucial issues of our time.” The initial commentary in the series by William A. Beardslee, a founder of the series, on 1 Corinthians has provided the model for all the volumes to follow. The book of Revelation is like an asparagus: you like it or you dislike it. If you like it, you just love it, but if you don’t, you hate even the smell of it! I am convinced that Farmer loves asparagus! In his introduction, which consists of 21 percent of the commentary, Farmer gives a brief motivation for studying the book of Revelation. Like elsewhere in his discussions, he mentions different viewpoints without giving his own evaluation and standpoint. [Full Review]