The Book of Revelation
Matt Dorff (Adapter), Chris Koelle (Illustrator), Mark B. Arey (Translator), Philemon D. Sevastiades (Translator)
Published by Zondervan
192 pages

You can purchase this book from Bible Society Australia’s online bookshop. Click here.

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The Book of Revelation is one of those books in the Bible that you’ve probably tried to read once and never gone back to again. I remember trying to read it for the first time when I was a young Christian, and getting thoroughly confused about all the images of beasts with multiple heads and horns, all of the angels with bowls, and weird creatures who might have been Jesus … but I was never really sure.

I was even less sure of what I was meant to do with a book like Revelation. Was it supposed to help me know God better? How could it do that if I didn’t even really understand it?

Part of the problem with understanding Revelation is that it is highly visual. It’s based on a vision that the Apostle John had one day when he was in prison on the island of Patmos. And so it makes sense that artists through the ages have tried to represent parts of John’s vision. One such artist is Chris Koelle, in this graphic novel adaptation of the Book of Revelation, he’s had a go at illustrating the whole thing!

One of Chris Koelle’s illustrations.

The Book of Revelation (Every i Publishing, 2012) is quite amazing. Originally produced as an iOS app, the aim of the project was to take a fresh translation of the Book of Revelation and pair it with some amazing artwork. Zondervan noticed, and offered to publish it as a book.

The aim was to give us a cinematic approach to John’s vision: capturing what John’s visions might have looked like, and John’s reactions to the visions. And they’ve done a fantastic job. As a reader, you often feel like you are standing with John, watching his vision unfold, and seeing his fear, grief and anxiety, breaking through to joy at the end. The imagery of war, persecution and judgment are confronting: this is not a comic book for kids!

And the scenes of new creation towards the end are simply beautiful. Koelle is one talented artist!

This book has breathtaking moments: for me, the angels of the seven churches, every glimpse of Jesus throughout the book, and basically all of the vision of the new creation were ‘wow’ moments. Koelle described the production of this artwork as a big act of worship, and you can see that he’s paid a heck of a lot of attention to detail.

This is a good book to read as a companion to your normal Bible reading, and I’d recommend reading it with a good little commentary, such as Paul Barnett’s Apocalypse Now And Then.

Here’s why: a large part of the confusion around Revelation is understanding the imagery; the seven heads and ten horns mean something. The four creatures in chapter 4, with lots of wings and eyes and different animal bits all mean something. The beast climbing out of the sea, the woman riding the dragon … all of these details are a kind of code that John was writing in; all these details meant something reasonably obvious to the original readers, and these details can be easily lost on us.

Illustrating those details makes for some really impressive artwork (I have one printed and framed on the wall of my office), but doesn’t necessarily help us gain a clearer understanding of the book of Revelation. Read it alongside your normal Bible, with commentary in hand, and you’ll be built up in your faith, encouraged to stand firm, and longing for our Lord Jesus to return.

Matt Jacobs is the Youth Minister at Seaforth Anglican in Sydney.