Revelation - books

If it is true that of the writing of books there is no end, this seems especially true of Revelation.

I'm not going to mention all the books I have, just one or two ...

John Richardson 'Revelation Unwrapped: Revealing the blessing of John's Vision' MPA books, 1996.
This is a superb book, only 82 pages, but each one of them is solid gold. A brief book gives an overview, and with Revelation I think too many people get lost in the details. If you decide to buy only one book on Revelation, buy this one.

Michael Wilcock 'The Message of Revelation' IVP The Bible Speaks Today series, 1975/1989.
Another very good book, longer than Richardson, but now comes with a study guide. Very helpful on the shape and structure of the book.

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes 'The Book of Revelation: A Commentary' IVP 1990.
Hughes offers his own translation of Revelation aiming to make clear what he sees as the meaning of the text, this is very helpful. Hughes seeks to unpack the symbolism of Revelation that we might better see how such a text works.

Eugene H Peterson 'Reversed Thunder' Harper Collins 1988.
This is not a commentary on the text and should not be approached in that way. However, this is a wonderful, rolling meditation on the themes arising from Revelation and may be a good guide as to how we are to respond to this text. I'm a great Peterson fan so this is another highly recommended book.

Stephen S Smalley 'The Revelation to John: A Commentary on the Greek Text of teh Apocalypse' SPCK 2005.
I was amazed to pick this up very cheap in a sale in Dec 2007 and it would be my recommended commentary on the Greek text. The Greek of Revelation is challenging and if you are trying to use the Greek you will need a good text, this one is recommended.

I have Charles in the old ICC series from 1920, 2 volumes and I have two of the three volumes by Aune in the Word Biblical Commentary series. These are helpful on the Greek of the text, but I think loose there focus on the whole by following too many side roads. If you use the Greek books like these will be essential, but you really need something shorter to keep you on track.