William C. Nicholas

An excellent work which reveals how Apocalyptic literature functions in the Bible. This book is heavy on historical context from a Roman Catholic point of view. Nicholas focuses his study on The Book of Daniel and The Book of Revelation. This book is short but very dense. Well worth the time to read slowly. This book is the manual for a later series of YouTube videos which Nicholas made on the same subject. I've watched these videos many times.
This book is careful to NOT ASSERT that it is a commentary on The Book of Revelation but rather a more specific goal of showing how a specific type of Literature (Apocalyptic) works to bring together various elements of Old Testament and Gospel texts. Nicholas says that the Gospels are not a type of Apocalyptic literature (p. 62). This is unusual since I was taught that there are elements of Apocalyptic literature in John's Gospel since John also wrote The Book of Revelation. In my own study, John's writing was linked with the Letters of Paul under the category of Apocalyptic Judaism. Nicholas does admit that there is an influence of Apocalyptic Judaism in John and Paul but only when speaking of Christ's imminent return. Nicholas also holds that John did not write the Gospel of his own name or Revelation, using the more scholarly view that they were produced by a community of believers. This seems to be where he moves toward the limited aspect of The Book of Daniel and The Book of Revelation when speaking of the symbolic language of Apocalyptic literature. Nicholas seems to regard any other forms of Apocalyptic literature as apocalyptic eschatology. Apocalyptic eschatology sees the present world as a place where God is absent and looks to another unseen world for meaning to be obtained here and now.
This is an excellent book for those studying Revelation or Daniel, in the Catholic tradition. I learned a lot from reading this and watching the videos..… (más)