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New Covenant Commentary
Revelation: A New Covenant Commentary
Revelation is a book that many Christians find confusing due to the foreign nature of its apocalyptic imagery. It is a book that has prompted endless discussions about the end times with theological divisions forming around epicenters such as the rapture and the millennium. In this book, award winning author Gordon Fee attempts to excavate the layers of symbolic imagery and provide an exposition of Revelation that is clear, easy to follow, convincing, and engaging. Fee shows us how John s message confronts the world with the Revelation of Jesus Christ so that Christians might see themselves as caught up in the drama of God s triumph over sin, evil, and death. Fee draws us into the world of John and invites us to see the world through John s eyes as the morbid realities of this world have the joyous realities of heaven cast over them. In this latest installment in the New Covenant Commentary Series we see one of North America s best evangelical exegetes at his very best.
354 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2010
99 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Gordon D. Fee
71 books210 followersGordon Fee was Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Regent College, where he taught for sixteen years. His teaching experience also included serving schools in Washington, California, Kentucky, as well as Wheaton College in Illinois (five years) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts (twelve years).
Gordon Fee was a noted New Testament scholar, having published several books and articles in his field of specialization, New Testament textual criticism. He also published a textbook on New Testament interpretation, co-authored two books for lay people on biblical interpretation, as well as scholarly-popular commentaries on 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and on Galatians, and major commentaries on 1 Corinthians and Philippians. He is also the author of a major work on the Holy Spirit and the Person of Christ in the letters of Paul.
Gordon Fee served as the general editor of the New International Commentary series, as well as on the NIV revision committee that produced the TNIV. Besides his ability as a biblical scholar, he was a noted teacher and conference speaker. He has given the Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar lectures on fifteen college campuses as well as the annual NT lectures at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, North Park Seminary, the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, the Canadian Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, Golden Gate Baptist, Anderson School of Theology, Asbury Seminary, and Chrichton College. An ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, Gordon Fee was well known for his manifest concern for the renewal of the church.
Gordon Fee was married and had four married children.
Gordon Fee was a noted New Testament scholar, having published several books and articles in his field of specialization, New Testament textual criticism. He also published a textbook on New Testament interpretation, co-authored two books for lay people on biblical interpretation, as well as scholarly-popular commentaries on 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus and on Galatians, and major commentaries on 1 Corinthians and Philippians. He is also the author of a major work on the Holy Spirit and the Person of Christ in the letters of Paul.
Gordon Fee served as the general editor of the New International Commentary series, as well as on the NIV revision committee that produced the TNIV. Besides his ability as a biblical scholar, he was a noted teacher and conference speaker. He has given the Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar lectures on fifteen college campuses as well as the annual NT lectures at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, North Park Seminary, the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, the Canadian Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, Golden Gate Baptist, Anderson School of Theology, Asbury Seminary, and Chrichton College. An ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, Gordon Fee was well known for his manifest concern for the renewal of the church.
Gordon Fee was married and had four married children.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 18, 2019
My familiarity with Gordon Fee was tied almost exclusively to his authorship of "How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth"--a book I own, but have not yet read. That being said, his reputation precedes him, and I was very interested to see how he would exegete and interpret the book of Revelation.
I've read almost exclusively in the postmillenial and preterist camp, though I've read enough premillenialist and amillenialist arguments to be familiar with the outline of their arguments. I was really hoping that Fee would present a compelling case for whatever interpretation he espoused. I was hoping to be further bolstered in my own view of the text, or to be challenged away from it.
From the outset, Fee is very clear that he is not going to fall into the trap of taking "an exaggerated interest in it, thinking to find here all the keys to the end of the world." He even takes a pot shot at Hal Lindsay's book "The Late Great Planet Earth", quoting two of his students that "there is not a single exegetical moment in Lindsay's entire book."
He comments on the so-called "popular" writings on Revelation:
"The unfortunate reality is that almost all of the popular stuff written on the Revelation, which tends to be well known by many of these students, has scarcely a shred of exegetical basis to it. Such interpreters usually begin with a previously worked out eschatological scheme that they bring to the text, a scheme into which they then spend an extraordinary amount of energy trying to make everything in the text fit, and which they then attempt to defend, but with very little success."
I took this all very positively and was impressed with his desire to examine the text from a truly biblical stance.
Having set the tone early, Fee looks at the text, examining it verse by verse, working through the entire book. He generally avoids raising any of the big questions that so many presuppositions about the text tend to force commentators into discussing. A pitfall in this approach is that he brings very little biblical theology or perspective from other books to his exegesis of Revelation.
One of the things I most appreciated about Fee's commentary is his belief that Revelation was written primarily for its first readers--that John was preparing them for the tribulation that would not only continue, but become even stronger in their own future. He comments regarding the prophecies in the book:
"Modern readers must note well that for many of the events “prophesied” here, we are now “between the time” of the two events. That is, some of the temporal events here prophesied have already occurred, while we still await the final eschatological fulfillment."
Again, this is not only a very sensible observation, more importantly, but it is also faithful to the text. He adds, while commenting on 1:1, "God gave him to show his servants has to do with what must soon take place..." that "this phrase has less to do with the End as such, and mostly to do with the somber events awaiting the churches of John’s day."
One of the most important and foundational decisions concerning Revelation is when it was written. Fee does not spend much time discussing this. In fact, as most interpreters seem to do, they bring their interpretations of the rest of the book to bear on the date.
Fee does agree that the author of Revelation is the same John "we meet in the Synoptic Gospels." So far, so good. However, when narrowing down the date of the letter he writes, "almost everything in the book suggests a period somewhere around the turn of the second Christian century..." He comes to this conclusion in a rather circular way, though, since it is derived from his belief that the book exhibits an "unrelenting tension between church and state...which did not occur in Asia Minor until this time."
He adds to this, "The only piece of evidence that would suggest an earlier date is the matter of the “counting” of the emperors in chapter 17..." In saying so, he ignores 11:1-3 which mentions the Temple, and its fate.
"Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” (ESV)
According to Fee's timeline, the Temple would have no longer existed at the time the letter was written, but the book itself presumes the Temple still exists. But Fee spiritualizes this, saying, "John is now positing the church as God's temple, in this case pointing also to the church's eschatalogical grandeur." In so doing, he then has to spiritualize the "1,260 days" turning it into a "time...understood as limited in scope."
By arguing for a near fulfillment of the book, but pushing out the date of the letter to the "late first--or early second century date" he then must find Rome to be the primary prophetic target for God's judgment and wrath.
So having pushed out the timeline, and targeting Rome, Fee must then turn all the prophetic imagery against Rome, neglecting the parallel denunciations of Israel particularly in Ezekiel, toward Rome. But this is entirely unconvincing for those drawing upon the biblical theological themes of the prophets themselves. Israel is always the primary target of the prophetic denunciations. And not only that, but when Gentile nations are judged and denounced by the prophets, it is always because of either their having turned away from God through prior revelation or covenant-making, or as a means of judging Israel itself.
Fee fails to recognize that Rome had no covenantal standing, so why should God treat it covenantly by employing one of his prophets to denounce it?
At one point, in discussing "the great city" in Revelation 11 (and later in 18) he acknowledges the difficulty in passing over Jerusalem, in favor of Rome. But again, it is his failure to recognize the repeated allusions to Ezekiel 16 where Israel and Judah are called "Sodom" and "Gomorrah", where Israel has become Egypt (Matthew 2:15). He also has to provide alternative explanations for the otherwise apparent connections between the lists of goods in Revelation 18:11-13 that are sacramental goods required in Temple service.
But, to quote him directly, Fee writes:
"the second way of identifying “the great city” creates a moment of dissonance for many readers, since John speaks of Rome as the city where also their Lord was crucified. This phrase, together with the imagery of the temple in verses 1 and 2, has caused some interpreters, understandably so, to see the referent as Jerusalem. But everything else in the narrative indicates that “the great city” is Rome itself. Indeed, John’s own readers would be quick to see this as a referent to Rome, since crucifixion (mentioned here alone in this book) was a singularly Roman form of execution. The fact that “the great city” is now likened to Sodom, the mother of all sexual perversity, and Egypt, the oppressors of God’s people, taken with the rest of the imagery in the book, seems to be conclusive that this imagery points to Rome."
All in all, there are many helpful things in Fee's commentary, but his failure to build upon the Old Testament prophets and especially the Gospels, leaves Fee without the foundation to see so many of the connections between Revelation and the rest of the Bible. Consequently he must innovate and find Rome everywhere. So much of what he tries to argue, is actually assertion without compelling evidence, leaving the close reader frustrated, and doubtful of his overall thesis.
I've read almost exclusively in the postmillenial and preterist camp, though I've read enough premillenialist and amillenialist arguments to be familiar with the outline of their arguments. I was really hoping that Fee would present a compelling case for whatever interpretation he espoused. I was hoping to be further bolstered in my own view of the text, or to be challenged away from it.
From the outset, Fee is very clear that he is not going to fall into the trap of taking "an exaggerated interest in it, thinking to find here all the keys to the end of the world." He even takes a pot shot at Hal Lindsay's book "The Late Great Planet Earth", quoting two of his students that "there is not a single exegetical moment in Lindsay's entire book."
He comments on the so-called "popular" writings on Revelation:
"The unfortunate reality is that almost all of the popular stuff written on the Revelation, which tends to be well known by many of these students, has scarcely a shred of exegetical basis to it. Such interpreters usually begin with a previously worked out eschatological scheme that they bring to the text, a scheme into which they then spend an extraordinary amount of energy trying to make everything in the text fit, and which they then attempt to defend, but with very little success."
I took this all very positively and was impressed with his desire to examine the text from a truly biblical stance.
Having set the tone early, Fee looks at the text, examining it verse by verse, working through the entire book. He generally avoids raising any of the big questions that so many presuppositions about the text tend to force commentators into discussing. A pitfall in this approach is that he brings very little biblical theology or perspective from other books to his exegesis of Revelation.
One of the things I most appreciated about Fee's commentary is his belief that Revelation was written primarily for its first readers--that John was preparing them for the tribulation that would not only continue, but become even stronger in their own future. He comments regarding the prophecies in the book:
"Modern readers must note well that for many of the events “prophesied” here, we are now “between the time” of the two events. That is, some of the temporal events here prophesied have already occurred, while we still await the final eschatological fulfillment."
Again, this is not only a very sensible observation, more importantly, but it is also faithful to the text. He adds, while commenting on 1:1, "God gave him to show his servants has to do with what must soon take place..." that "this phrase has less to do with the End as such, and mostly to do with the somber events awaiting the churches of John’s day."
One of the most important and foundational decisions concerning Revelation is when it was written. Fee does not spend much time discussing this. In fact, as most interpreters seem to do, they bring their interpretations of the rest of the book to bear on the date.
Fee does agree that the author of Revelation is the same John "we meet in the Synoptic Gospels." So far, so good. However, when narrowing down the date of the letter he writes, "almost everything in the book suggests a period somewhere around the turn of the second Christian century..." He comes to this conclusion in a rather circular way, though, since it is derived from his belief that the book exhibits an "unrelenting tension between church and state...which did not occur in Asia Minor until this time."
He adds to this, "The only piece of evidence that would suggest an earlier date is the matter of the “counting” of the emperors in chapter 17..." In saying so, he ignores 11:1-3 which mentions the Temple, and its fate.
"Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” (ESV)
According to Fee's timeline, the Temple would have no longer existed at the time the letter was written, but the book itself presumes the Temple still exists. But Fee spiritualizes this, saying, "John is now positing the church as God's temple, in this case pointing also to the church's eschatalogical grandeur." In so doing, he then has to spiritualize the "1,260 days" turning it into a "time...understood as limited in scope."
By arguing for a near fulfillment of the book, but pushing out the date of the letter to the "late first--or early second century date" he then must find Rome to be the primary prophetic target for God's judgment and wrath.
So having pushed out the timeline, and targeting Rome, Fee must then turn all the prophetic imagery against Rome, neglecting the parallel denunciations of Israel particularly in Ezekiel, toward Rome. But this is entirely unconvincing for those drawing upon the biblical theological themes of the prophets themselves. Israel is always the primary target of the prophetic denunciations. And not only that, but when Gentile nations are judged and denounced by the prophets, it is always because of either their having turned away from God through prior revelation or covenant-making, or as a means of judging Israel itself.
Fee fails to recognize that Rome had no covenantal standing, so why should God treat it covenantly by employing one of his prophets to denounce it?
At one point, in discussing "the great city" in Revelation 11 (and later in 18) he acknowledges the difficulty in passing over Jerusalem, in favor of Rome. But again, it is his failure to recognize the repeated allusions to Ezekiel 16 where Israel and Judah are called "Sodom" and "Gomorrah", where Israel has become Egypt (Matthew 2:15). He also has to provide alternative explanations for the otherwise apparent connections between the lists of goods in Revelation 18:11-13 that are sacramental goods required in Temple service.
But, to quote him directly, Fee writes:
"the second way of identifying “the great city” creates a moment of dissonance for many readers, since John speaks of Rome as the city where also their Lord was crucified. This phrase, together with the imagery of the temple in verses 1 and 2, has caused some interpreters, understandably so, to see the referent as Jerusalem. But everything else in the narrative indicates that “the great city” is Rome itself. Indeed, John’s own readers would be quick to see this as a referent to Rome, since crucifixion (mentioned here alone in this book) was a singularly Roman form of execution. The fact that “the great city” is now likened to Sodom, the mother of all sexual perversity, and Egypt, the oppressors of God’s people, taken with the rest of the imagery in the book, seems to be conclusive that this imagery points to Rome."
All in all, there are many helpful things in Fee's commentary, but his failure to build upon the Old Testament prophets and especially the Gospels, leaves Fee without the foundation to see so many of the connections between Revelation and the rest of the Bible. Consequently he must innovate and find Rome everywhere. So much of what he tries to argue, is actually assertion without compelling evidence, leaving the close reader frustrated, and doubtful of his overall thesis.
November 6, 2025
Un commentaire vraiment intéressant dans lequel Gordon Fee, justement, commente le texte. Il ne rentre pas en discussion avec les opinions sur le livre de l'apocalypse mais ce contente de suivre le texte en prenant en compte son genre littéraire. Ce qui bien évidemment lui fait, au passage, prendre position lui-même sur certains sujets. En résumé une lecture différente et rafraîchissante, pour moi, du livre de l'apocalypse.
July 13, 2019
A scholarly but accessible commentary on the book of Revelation, that will appeal both to the young and mature believers in Christ.
Gordon Fee writes a biblical exegesis of the book of Revelation, and roots it's explanation in the context of the early churches within the hostile environment of the Roman empire, rather than in unfounded speculations about the future. It is with this foundation that the reader is able to understand the key images and concepts within the book of Revelation, such as the two witnesses, the woman clothed with the sun and the dragon, the two beasts, and the great harlot, etc, before applying them to the church in the 21st century.
However, it is at this point of application that the weakness of Fee's commentary is revealed. I would have liked to have seen how the institutions of the 1st century that opposed the early church, exist in principle today, and to have been given some pastoral applications on how believers should respond to such anti-christian institutions in our own context today.
Nevertheless, this is a scholarly but accessible commentary on the book of Revelation, that will appeal both to the young and mature believers in Christ.
Gordon Fee writes a biblical exegesis of the book of Revelation, and roots it's explanation in the context of the early churches within the hostile environment of the Roman empire, rather than in unfounded speculations about the future. It is with this foundation that the reader is able to understand the key images and concepts within the book of Revelation, such as the two witnesses, the woman clothed with the sun and the dragon, the two beasts, and the great harlot, etc, before applying them to the church in the 21st century.
However, it is at this point of application that the weakness of Fee's commentary is revealed. I would have liked to have seen how the institutions of the 1st century that opposed the early church, exist in principle today, and to have been given some pastoral applications on how believers should respond to such anti-christian institutions in our own context today.
Nevertheless, this is a scholarly but accessible commentary on the book of Revelation, that will appeal both to the young and mature believers in Christ.
June 23, 2020
Gordon Fee cuts through the harmful interpretations that have been attempted to the Book fo Revelation over the years to reveal the meaning for the late first-century audience of the book. Overcoming persecution and spiritual laxity in the face of Imperial oppression take center stage. To those that overcome come the ultimate eschatological blessings of the Kingdom of God.
May 18, 2022
I haven't read a lot of Bible commentary but I would give this one my typical five stars for the readability without making it too easy, for the willingness of the author to just flat out say "this is puzzling", for the ability of the author to see the Bible as literature.
Ultimately I gave it four stars - because there were so many typos!
Ultimately I gave it four stars - because there were so many typos!
February 23, 2024
Great Commentary;
My church is currently doing a sermon series of the entire book of Revelation. I decided to read a commentary to receive more insight into what the pastor was preaching. This book did that quite well , it's a very accessible commentary written by a true scholar. I highly recommend it!
My church is currently doing a sermon series of the entire book of Revelation. I decided to read a commentary to receive more insight into what the pastor was preaching. This book did that quite well , it's a very accessible commentary written by a true scholar. I highly recommend it!
July 11, 2022
Outstanding exegetical analysis. Fee's approach to understanding this book is an essential guide to all readers of the last book of the Bible.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews