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Foreword by Professor David Aune

The Revelation of John is without doubt the most puzzling of all the books in the Bible. As a New Testament scholar, I have spent much of my professional life trying to understand this enigmatical Greek text. Dr John Able has produced an accurate, idiomatic, and insightful translation of this peculiar and difficult text that is often very, very good, and includes an incredible amount of historical research on religious history.

Though our approaches to the Revelation of John are quite different, over the last ten years or so, Dr Able and I have frequently had occasion to discuss some of the many problems associated with translating this first century text written in Koine Greek into modern English. With regard to ancient Greek, his autodidactic approach has both advantages and limitations. Important advantages in approaching a difficult text like that of the Revelation of John are the fresh perspective and enthusiasm that he brings to this peculiar Greek text. His translation, which has gone through many drafts, is couched in idiomatic English and is intended to capture nuances in the Greek original that are often unintentionally masked by standard English translations of the Revelation of John. Mitigating the limitations of his approach has been my role in our many discussions over the years of some of the many semantic and syntactic problems presented by this text. Much of our discussion has been carried on through e-mail, though we’ve met in various venues on three continents too.
Dr Able has produced a strikingly lively translation that sticks to the intention of the Greek original and provides an authoritative base for his distinctive interpretive approach to the text. Impressive.
David E. Aune, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins
The University of Notre Dame, IN