The Book of Revelation was written to do just that: reveal. But most commentaries nowadays either engage in bizarre speculations about the future, or they keep an embarrassed distance from all the apocalyptic events that the apostle John says will shortly take place.

In this commentary, Douglas Wilson provides a passage-by-passage walkthrough of the entire book, showing how John’s most notorious prophecies concern the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Explaining symbols and characters as he goes, Wilson shows from the text that not only is this book not an elaborate code, but that Revelation is not even ultimately concerned with the end of the world as we know it.

Revelation is about the triumph of the Church, which always happens when the Man comes around.

Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. -G.K. Chesterton