Here is a book that will find interest among all students of the Revelation. Here you will find explanations you will not find anywhere else. The Revelation is full of Old Testament references, it requires an Old Testament scholar to understand them. Eminent Old Testament Lutheran scholar E. W. Hengstenberg approaches the book with a comparative approach and with a certainty borne of intimate understanding of the Old Testament, clearly explaining the mysteries of the Apocalypse. This book has been lost to the public discourse for 170 years, but here it is now available in this condensation and adaptation. Riddles that still evade the grasp of modern scholars are unravelled in this book. Difficulties that continue to baffle scholars have been solved here. In explaining the mysteries, new levels of meaning are opened up to the reader, which serve to further glorify the wisdom and wonder of the scriptures. The name and number of the beast is explained by the genealogies of Ezra, which in turn explains the nature of the blasphemy of the beast. Heathenism is the enemy with which the book concerns itself, and us today. Its view on the millennium is rooted in scripture and in fulfilled history, and forms a unique understanding of the thousand years. The fall of Rome, the power that oppressed the church in John's day, is explained. That the beast cannot be Nero or the Papacy is clearly explained. The seven heads of the beast find their fulfilment in ancient history. The ten horns have been conquered by Christ, with a subsequent millennia in Christian Europe, which now remains behind us. Gog and Magog is now on the world stage, its character already informed by John's account of the three enemies of God's kingdom, the dragon, the beast from the sea- the worldly heathen power, and the beast from the earth, which is explained as earthly, physical, demoniacal wisdom. The cherubim are seen as the ideal representation of all that is living, the angels often form an intimation of Christ. The book is seen, not as a progressive chronology but a number of independent groups, each supplementing the others. Some are general in nature, explaining the nature of God's judgments, others are more detailed and specific. This is a full orbed understanding of the Revelation that serves as an alternative to preterism, futurism, and a-millennialism today. Although written 170 years ago, the conclusions the author came to have been confirmed by the passing of modern history, proving them just as relevant to us as it was for him. The naive literalism that blights popular Revelation teaching today, finds a cure here with an understanding of scripture that understands the role of metaphor and poetry, and symbolism in the Bible. The original lengthy commentary of 1100 pages has been condensed, rearranged and typeset to make it more accessible to a modern audience.
