The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Volume 1: Revelation 1-9

by Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.

The Divorce of Israel presents a “redemptive-historical” approach to Revelation. In it John presents a forensic drama wherein God is divorcing his old covenant wife Israel so that he can take a new wife, the new covenant “Israel of God” composed of Jew and Gentile alike.

Thus, Revelation presents the vitally important redemptive-historical transition from the land-based, ethnically focused, temple-dominated old covenant economy to its worldwide, pan-ethnic, spiritual new covenant fulfillment. And it does so by highlighting God’s judgment upon first-century geo-political Israel.

Genres: Reference

1873 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2024

About the author

Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly (RPCGA). He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of orthodox preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy and six day creation. He holds that each of these theological distinctives are logical and theological extensions of his foundational theology, which is Calvinistic and Reformed.

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Reviews

[Matthew Rawlings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I worked through both volumes while preaching through Revelation when it was first published (but wasn't listed on Goodreads). I am reading again as part of my dissertation research. I have been studying Revelation and the Johannine corpus for more than twenty-five years and I can comfortably say that Dr. Gentry's commentary is the most insightful work on Revelation since Milton Terry. It is an absolute must own.

[Joshua Horn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year I've been working through Revelation, using this commentary and Philip Kaiser's sermon series. Both have been very helpful, and in my opinion both have their strengths and weaknesses. Revelation has so much complex imagery, that even though Kaiser and Gentry are in the same camp and agree on the big picture, there are a lot of differences in the details.

I might have more to say when I get to volume 2, but I'll go ahead and give my thoughts so far. This commentary is quite academic, meaning it engages with the perspectives put forward by a huge number of other commentators. The book starts with a bibliography, and it is quite substantial. For the average reader (including usually myself) this means that there is more material than is necessary. But for the larger postmillennial movement it is helpful.

Whether I preferred Kaiser or Gentry depended on what part of the book I was in. I appreciated Gentry's thorough handling of Revelation's dating, but I thought Kaiser's interpretive principles pulled from the first few verses were very good. The first few chapters I found myself preferring Kaiser's handling, which tends to be much more applicable. But later on Kaiser begins adopting a strict chronology with the seals, trumpets, etc., at which point I began preferring Gentry's more broad interpretation as not stretching the secular history, as I understand it. There are times, though, when I felt that Gentry glossed over a bit on interpretation of some specific symbols, when Kaiser makes more direct connections (which is great as long as they are correct).

The commentary and the sermons are good, and I look forward to finishing them up throughout the rest of this year.