The Book of

REVELATION

Robert H. Mounce

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

First edition © 1977

This revised edition © 1997 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /
P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mounce, Robert H.

The Book of Revelation

(The New international commentary on the New Testament)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-0-8028-2537-0 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Bible. N.T. Revelation—Commentaries

I. Title. II. Series.

BS2825.3.M69 1997

228´.06—dc21 97–25322
CIP

All scripture quotations, unless indicated, are taken from
The HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

TO
MRS. GEORGE D. MOUNCE, SR.,
in grateful appreciation for the
profound impact of her godly life.

Contents

Editor’s Foreword (First Edition)

Editor’s Foreword (Revised Edition)

Author’s Preface (First Edition)

Author’s Preface (Revised Edition)

Abbreviations

Select Bibliography

Introduction

i. Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature

ii. Authorship

iii. Date

iv. Circulation and Reception in the Early Church

v. Approaches to Interpretation

vi. The Language of Revelation

vii. Structure

viii. Analysis

Text, Exposition, and Notes

i. Prologue (1:1–20)

ii. Letters to the Seven Churches (2:1–3:22)

iii. Adoration in the Court of Heaven (4:1–5:14)

iv. The Seven Seals (6:1–8:1)

v. The Seven Trumpets (8:2–11:19)

vi. Conflict Between the Church and the Powers of Evil (12:1–14:5)

vii. The Seven Last Plagues (15:1–16:21)

viii. The Fall of Babylon (17:1–19:5)

ix. The Final Victory (19:6–20:5)

x. The New Heaven and the New Earth (21:1–22:5)

xi. Epilogue (22:6–21)

INDEXES

i. Subjects

ii. Authors

iii. Scripture References

Editor’s Foreword
(First Edition)

The volume on Revelation in the New International Commentary on the New Testament was one that the former General Editor, the late Ned Bernard Stonehouse, had reserved for himself. His interest in this book was of long standing: his doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam was awarded in 1929 for a dissertation on The Apocalypse in the Ancient Church, and a sample of his exegetical study appeared in the article, “The Elders and the Living-Beings in the Apocalypse,” which he contributed to the Festschrift for his former teacher, Professor F. W. Grosheide, Arcana Revelata (1951). But when he died in 1962, the projected commentary had not taken shape, and it became necessary to find someone else to undertake the task. Happily, Dr. Robert H. Mounce was willing to undertake it, and he has devoted nearly all his spare time to it in the intervening years. The finished product now lies before us.

Dr. Mounce received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1958 for a thesis entitled “The New Testament Herald: ...