Revelation

While feminist interpretations of the Book of Revelation often focus on the book’s use of feminine archetypes—mother, bride, and prostitute, this commentary explores how gender, sexuality, and other feminist concerns permeate the book in its entirety. By calling audience members to become victors, Revelation’s author, John, commends to them an identity that flows between masculine and feminine and challenges ancient gender norms. This identity befits an audience who follow the Lamb, a genderqueer savior, wherever he goes.
 
In this commentary, Lynn R. Huber situates Revelation and its earliest audiences in the overlapping worlds of ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and first-century Judaism. She also examines how interpreters from different generations living within other worlds have found meaning in this image-rich and meaning-full book.

"Lynn Huber is the ideal person to write Revelation’s first major feminist commentary in a generation. She grapples with Revelation’s most glaring theological and ethical liabilities yet persistently seeks its potential for resistance and hope. By blending queer and multicultural perspectives with attention to material culture, Huber shows us what’s at stake in interpreting the Apocalypse."
Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary

"This monumental book is a wonderful interdisciplinary and intersectional reading of Revelation, bringing much needed insights from feminist, womanist and queer theory. As engaging as it is accessible, this volume will surely become the go-to commentary for a notoriously rich and challenging text."
Meredith J. C. Warren, University of Sheffield

"If you have questions about the gendered imagery in Revelation (and who doesn’t?), now you have a reliable guide in Lynn Huber. In this commentary, Huber’s grasp of Roman history, Greek translation, and modern interpretations of Revelation illumine John’s vision at every turn. At the same time, she manages to avoid simplistic answers that flatten John’s layered imagery. Essential reading for anyone who wants to dive deeper into Revelation’s mysteries."
Susan E. Hylen, Almar H. Shatford Professor of New Testament, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
“In this important and comprehensive volume, Lynn Huber unseals the scrolls of two thousand years of interpretations of this confusing and confounding biblical book. Huber stands firm in the messiness and chaos of the apocalypse, as a reliable guide through the rubble. Through the engagement with diverse approaches and voices, Huber shows us how to ‘see and hear’ this text in new ways, ways that matter in the present. She also provides us with ways to talk back to the text, questioning translation, metaphors, historical assumptions, and heteropatriarchal and political manifestations of Revelation in the world. Huber is a clear, competent, and creative translator of Revelation for our current time.”
Tina Pippin, Wallace M. Alston Professor of Bible and Religion, Agnes Scott College

"Revelation is a demanding and sometimes dangerous text to which Huber brings great wisdom, indicative of someone who has wrestled deeply with Revelation in both its historical context and ours. Her feminist lens offers new insights that will surprise, disrupt, and challenge readers. All this is delivered with an inviting and approachable writing style. This critically important commentary is a brilliant resource for anyone, students and scholars alike, wanting to strengthen their understanding of the Book of Revelation."
Robyn Whitaker (Acting Head of College), Associate Professor of New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity, Australia
"No academic, theological or religious library should be without it."
Magistra
"For those interested in a challenging and insightful analysis of the last book of the Bible, Huber and O'Day's volume will not disappoint."
The Bible Today
“The volume provides historical-critical commentary, enriched by Huber’s hermeneutical insights and supplemented by sidebar comments from various voices presenting alternative perspectives.”
Catholic Media Association Book Awards

Lynn R. Huber is the Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Huber completed a BA in philosophy at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho, and an MDiv and PhD at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her first two books, “Like a Bride Adorned”: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse (2007) and Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation (2013), explore Revelation’s use of gendered imagery and the ways the book invites interpreters to see along with these images. 

Gail R. O’Day (1954–2018) was professor of New Testament and preaching and dean of Wake Forest School of Divinity in 2010 to 2018. In 1987–2010 she taught at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, where she was also an associate dean for seven years. O’Day’s research focused on the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation. The author of several books, O’Day was also editor of Journal of Biblical Literature in 1999–2006 and general editor of the Society of Biblical Literature book series, Early Christianity and Its Literature, in 2009 to 2014. She was an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

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