Tuesday, February 21, 2017

KREGEL BOOK REVIEW: INTERPRETING APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

With Apocalyptic Literature of the Bible being fulfilled daily in front of us; it is no surprise that prophecy has moved from the back of the Bible and Biblical Teaching to the forefront of our churches and research. Richard A. Taylor’s book “Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature” is a great jumping off point for both trained ministers and lay speakers alike. As a theologian, I have spent many hours poring over the prophets of the Old Testament as well as Daniel. When I was offered the chance to review this book, I knew I had to do so!
There are several pros to this book; I will review them here:
1) Ease of reading: While this is a text book, it is an easy read. One that both undergraduate and graduate students can easily use in their classes. It is also user friendly, maybe you didn’t go to Bible college, that doesn’t matter, this book is not so over the top that the lay speaker whose primary interest is Biblical Prophecy can’t read or understand it.
2) Worldview: The book contains a Biblical World view. While it covers extra biblical texts (which I think is needed for full Biblical study of the Apocalyptic Scriptures) it maintains a balanced Christian world view into prophecy.
3) It covers major apocalyptic themes. This is not just the themes of the book of Revelation. Rather it is all themes of apocalyptic theology.
4) Hebrew and Lexicon Resources. Want to know what various words mean? Look no further than the text in the book, Taylor gives you information that you can use.
Finally what I love about this book is that it helps bridge modern interpretation to ancient texts.
I don’t have a list of cons to this book, maybe because I did enjoy it a lot as I was using this book also during a study I was doing on apocalyptic scripture; but I certainly do recommend this book to both seasoned ministers, and lay speakers.


**The book was provided by the publisher for an unbiased review. The reviewer received no monetary compensation from the publisher for this review.**

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