take comfort in the belief that their designated expert understands the book even if they don’t. Mindful of these concerns, I begin with three issues in need of clarification, all of them so important that they must be set forth at the outset. First, I address Revelation’s reputation as a book portraying (and relishing) violence. That there is violence in the book cannot be denied. But that is not the whole story. Most expositors attribute the violence to God, with no need to pursue other options