Ray Summers (1910–1992)

A contextual examination of the book of Revelation.

While in many contexts the author's premise would be uncontroversial, among Evangelicals enamored with dispensational premillennialism, it would be game-changing: if one cannot make sense of one's interpretation of Revelation in terms of John's original audience of first century Christians of Asia Minor, one has not made good and proper sense of the text.

This focus informs the rest of the work. As with Pieters, most of the book is consumed with introduction, surveying the field of both the text itself and its recent history of interpretation. The author makes his robust case for a contextual understanding in terms of the struggle against the oppressor embodied in Rome, her Empire, and Emperor. He then goes through Revelation section by section, explaining the text in context.

As with Pieters, Metzger, Wright, et al, this is not a thorough commentary with in-depth examinations of texts with cross-references; it is more of a survey, although the author does well at explaining most of the images in terms of the survey. If one is reading the authors listed above as well, much of what is said here will seem redundant, but there is still value in its consideration.… (mere)