Dr. David Aune's thoroughness in this definitive commentary on the first five chapters of the book of 'Revelation' is nothing short of monumental.

'More is known today about the textual tradition of Revelation than about any other book of the New Testament,' he asserts.

In an introductory section that could easily stand alone, Dr Aune presents a comprehesive inventory and evaluation of all categories of textual evidence, and an exhaustive assessment of the peculiarities of the syntax in the Greek penned by John of Patmos.

Scholars and well-trained pastors will appreciate Aune's extensively annotated translation of the text with his illuminating insights into the variant readings and the nuances of every significant word.

An advocate of source criticism, Dr. Aune reaches into the gamut of secular and biblical literature in search of possible sources for the striking literary devices in the Apocalypse. His mastery of an incredibly broad range of ancient writings enables him to compare every pericope of Revelation to the literary traditions of the ages that preceded its writing and thus to elect or eliminate possible sources for the forms John employed to unfold his vision.

Although this volume of the Word Biblical Commentary series deals only with the first five chapters of Revelation, Aune in his detailed introductory comments scrutinizes the entire expanse of this mysterious book. He provides a minutely expanded outline of all 22 chapters and focuses on the total-book implications of such matters as:

* the use of chronological eschatalogical visions
* the recurring sets of seven
* the paired angelic revelations beginning in 17:1 and 21:9
* the scenes in the Heavenly Throne-room with their hymns
* possible connections between the scrolls in Chapters 5 and 10.

All serious students of Revelation will value this latest effort to unravel its mysteries. As he familiarizes his readers with a myriad of possible ways to see every detail in the text, Dr. Aune stakes out his own ambitions but well-informed theories. He calls his readers to look afresh at a majestic book, a book at once profoundly Jewish and Christian, and to think with him about this marriage of dissimilar apolcalyptic traditions might have taken place.