John Christopher Thomas: The Apocalypse

 

John Christopher Thomas, The Apocalypse: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2012), xvii + 716 pages, ISBN 9781935931270.

John Christopher Thomas (PhD, University of Sheffield; Clarence J. Abbot Professor of Biblical Studies at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, Cleveland, TN and Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor University, Wales, UK) has published what should be the standard for Pentecostal commentaries. Instead of offering a commentary on commentaries or commentators (as many do), he has made an original contribution to the field via his focus on the literary and theological elements of the Apocalypse. This commentary serves as a much larger account of Thomas’ interpretation when compared with his upcoming volume being co-authored with Frank Macchia in the Two Horizons Commentary series on The Revelation.

This volume should be standard fare in every Pentecostal pastor’s library and the first commentary turned to in any study of the Apocalypse. He does not offer any discussion of Dispensationalist interpretations, but instead drives to hear the text in its context. He follows particular impulses previously explored in Richard Bauckham’s helpful volume, The Theology of the Book of the Revelation (Cambridge University Press, 1993). His introduction to the commentary proper makes plain his objectives for a Spirit-empowered encounter with this Revelation where he even discusses a number of influences that the visionary elements of the Apocalypse have had upon U.S. popular culture.

While there are scatterings of some brief technical discussions of grammar, it remains significantly accessible for the pastor or learned lay-person. The Greek text is discussed at numerous points, being the foundation for Thomas’ work, but is always translated and discussed for the sake of those unfamiliar with reading Greek. A literary hearing (as opposed to simply reading) of the text of the Apocalypse is followed throughout the commentary along the lines proposed by Thomas’ coworker at the Centre for Pentecostal Theology, Lee Roy Martin’s work, The Unheard Voice of God: A Pentecostal Hearing of the Book of Judges (Deo, 2009). Thomas goes to great lengths to facilitate the reader of his commentary to be able to enter the visual and audible world of the Apocalypse. The text is thus intended to be experienced at multiple levels rather than simply as a “text”. He regularly emphasizes how the churches heard the text (just as John heard and saw what he recorded) and what they might have experienced as Spirit-empowered, prophetically gifted congregations. This pneumatic element is intended to offer not only the manner in which the Revelation was given, but also in which it is best interpreted for contemporary audiences.
 

Thomas has demonstrated throughout this work that the Spirit is the key to understanding this last book of our canon and functionally drives the readers (or more particularly, the hearers) to know and glorify God and the Lamb. Thomas’ contribution to scholarship on the Apocalypse is most noteworthy in following this pneumatic element which he points to as the major structural divisions of the book where John is stated to be “in the Spirit” (Rev.1.10; 4.2; 17.3; and 21.10). These broader structural cues are then followed as movements of the Spirit intended to draw on the pneumatic community to be faithful to the Spirit. This provides a thorough-going Pentecostal hearing of this Spirit-delivered, Spirit-interpreted book of Scripture and offers new life to all those who would themselves be numbered among those who will faithfully hear, obey and overcome.

Reviewed by Rick Wadholm, Jr.