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Reading the Book of Revelation: Five Principles for Interpretation
How to read Revelation rightly.
Let's face the book of Revelation is difficult to read! Many neglect it, leaving it to the experts or the obsessed. Others fixate on the details, focusing on current events but missing Christ in the process. But Revelation promises a blessing on all who read it. Why is it so hard to understand?
In Reading the Book of Revelation , Alexander E. Stewart offers five simple keys that unlock this difficult book. He then illustrates their profit in explaining Revelation chapter by chapter and provides recommendations for further study. With this short and accessible guide, readers will see how Revelation is approachable, applicable to their lives, and glorifying to Christ.
Let's face the book of Revelation is difficult to read! Many neglect it, leaving it to the experts or the obsessed. Others fixate on the details, focusing on current events but missing Christ in the process. But Revelation promises a blessing on all who read it. Why is it so hard to understand?
In Reading the Book of Revelation , Alexander E. Stewart offers five simple keys that unlock this difficult book. He then illustrates their profit in explaining Revelation chapter by chapter and provides recommendations for further study. With this short and accessible guide, readers will see how Revelation is approachable, applicable to their lives, and glorifying to Christ.
192 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
About the author
Alexander E. Stewart
10 books1 followerAlexander E. Stewart is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Badhoevedorp, The Netherlands.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 11, 2023
My main takeaway from this book is that the central concern of Revelation is faithfulness in the face of great persecution and pressure. John wrote his apocalypse to the Church to instill faithfulness and hope in the face of great societal pressure and persecution.
Practically, I would use or recommend this book in the study of Revelation. It is not the most in-depth book on Revelation I have read, but it is nonetheless helpful. I think it gives good tools to apply when approaching the text. I particularly find the first part of the book to be helpful. The five principles are not groundbreaking, but they do provide a solid foundation for responsible exegesis and exploration.
As well, this book serves as an easy-to-read commentary that maintains easy readability. If someone were to come to me and ask what to read for Revelation, I would likely recommend this book as a starting point. It was both easy and fun to read and maintained solid engagement throughout. Therefore, I think it is great for lay-leaders or non-academic study.
I also appreciated the recommended reading list at the end. Some of the books mentioned I have previously read (and enjoyed!) and some of the others I have on my shelf waiting to be cracked open! It is always helpful to point others to other helpful resources to deepen and further understanding. Therefore, again, if someone was to ask me where to start, I would likely point them to this book and afterwards the recommended reading list!
Overall, this is an enjoyable and helpful read that I can see myself returning to in the future and recommending to others. Stewart successfully demonstrated and applied the five principles as well as explored Revelation in a responsible and comprehensible way.
When I was younger, I used to fear the book of Revelation. I always heard about the scary visions and prophecies of what was coming when Christ returns. Now, Revelation is my favorite book in the Bible. I love the imagery, symbolism and language used by John. It isn’t a code to bee cracked or a mystery to be solved, but a vision of hope. As Stewart shares in the opening chapter: “the book’s primary goal is to motivate hearers to overcome.” God is victorious, Jesus is victorious. No matter what beastly occurrences happen around us or to us, nothing can change who sits on the throne!
Practically, I would use or recommend this book in the study of Revelation. It is not the most in-depth book on Revelation I have read, but it is nonetheless helpful. I think it gives good tools to apply when approaching the text. I particularly find the first part of the book to be helpful. The five principles are not groundbreaking, but they do provide a solid foundation for responsible exegesis and exploration.
As well, this book serves as an easy-to-read commentary that maintains easy readability. If someone were to come to me and ask what to read for Revelation, I would likely recommend this book as a starting point. It was both easy and fun to read and maintained solid engagement throughout. Therefore, I think it is great for lay-leaders or non-academic study.
I also appreciated the recommended reading list at the end. Some of the books mentioned I have previously read (and enjoyed!) and some of the others I have on my shelf waiting to be cracked open! It is always helpful to point others to other helpful resources to deepen and further understanding. Therefore, again, if someone was to ask me where to start, I would likely point them to this book and afterwards the recommended reading list!
Overall, this is an enjoyable and helpful read that I can see myself returning to in the future and recommending to others. Stewart successfully demonstrated and applied the five principles as well as explored Revelation in a responsible and comprehensible way.
When I was younger, I used to fear the book of Revelation. I always heard about the scary visions and prophecies of what was coming when Christ returns. Now, Revelation is my favorite book in the Bible. I love the imagery, symbolism and language used by John. It isn’t a code to bee cracked or a mystery to be solved, but a vision of hope. As Stewart shares in the opening chapter: “the book’s primary goal is to motivate hearers to overcome.” God is victorious, Jesus is victorious. No matter what beastly occurrences happen around us or to us, nothing can change who sits on the throne!
August 4, 2026
8.0/10 - Stewart nailed a balance here. This is a book you can hand to someone ambitious enough to read a full book on Revelation while not burying in them in voluminous fine details that dominate the scholarly literature.
The five interpretive principles are solid. Notable was his fleshing out of how these words would have landed to the original hearers. His core contention — that Revelation is primarily a book of motivation, not of future-telling — is something people of all backgrounds should hold. He also lands something I'll keep: no significant Bible doctrine depends upon the particular view of the millennium. I think that's correct.
I've now read a couple pre-mills and a couple a-mills. I'm not fully in the Revelation round I'll eventually get to (will take MUCH scholarly slogging). For now, this gave me a working basis, balanced out the thinking, and gave me some good 20% effort 80% results foundation.
He presents a compelling case for amillennialism. I took a couple extra months to finally finish it. He could trim it further despite it already being concise (I have strong speculation that the motivations of publishers drive authors to fluff things up a bit in all circumstances), but you really do feel like someone went out and read 20+ books on the subject is giving you something distilled.
The five interpretive principles are solid. Notable was his fleshing out of how these words would have landed to the original hearers. His core contention — that Revelation is primarily a book of motivation, not of future-telling — is something people of all backgrounds should hold. He also lands something I'll keep: no significant Bible doctrine depends upon the particular view of the millennium. I think that's correct.
I've now read a couple pre-mills and a couple a-mills. I'm not fully in the Revelation round I'll eventually get to (will take MUCH scholarly slogging). For now, this gave me a working basis, balanced out the thinking, and gave me some good 20% effort 80% results foundation.
He presents a compelling case for amillennialism. I took a couple extra months to finally finish it. He could trim it further despite it already being concise (I have strong speculation that the motivations of publishers drive authors to fluff things up a bit in all circumstances), but you really do feel like someone went out and read 20+ books on the subject is giving you something distilled.
December 17, 2024
4.5 Stars
This is an excellent resource for teaching Revelation in a setting where the goal is to give broad strokes. It does not dig incredibly deep into contrary views, which leaves some to be desired.
This is an excellent resource for teaching Revelation in a setting where the goal is to give broad strokes. It does not dig incredibly deep into contrary views, which leaves some to be desired.
April 27, 2025
The five principles provided a new focus on the book of Revelation that allows focus on actionable parts of the visions while identifying distraction that we get sidetracked with in arguing interpertations.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews