Several weeks ago, I stated leading a men's Bible study on the Seven Churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 2-3). One of the books I read to prepare for the study was Letters From Jesus: Studies from the Seven Churches of Revelation by Chris Palmer.
One important thing in looking at this book is that this is more of a devotional than a commentary. You may have noticed it reads "Greek for the Week;" the Greek refers to Palmer getting into the original languages, while the week points out that it's a weekly devotional, divided into 52 parts so it can last a year. Each chapter is four pages, starting with the verse in both English and Greek with the focal thought highlighted, an anecdote that goes through most of the second page, the Biblical thought for the third, and the final page including a prayer, projects for the week, and some cross references. (Since I was using it as research, I treated it as a daily devotional.)
Sometimes I think of devotionals as being a lighter study than a sermon or a commentary. This is not true of Palmer's approach. He tries to get into the meaning of the original Greek (I shouldn't assume that it's common knowledge that the New Testament was written in Koine - i.e. common - Greek, with the Old Testament written primarily in Hebrew with a few Aramaic segments). He succeed in getting into what the text is saying to the original audience and how it applies to today.
Following an introduction looking at "why Greek" and "why these seven churches, Palmer spends the first chapter looking at the image of Jesus in Revelation 1. He divides the remaining 51 chapters into looking at the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, with eight chapters each on Ephesus and Smyrna and seven each on the remaining five churches. He gives each basically equal treatment, from the four verses given to Smyrna to the dozen for Thyatira.
I will admit that I was disappointed in Palmer in a couple of points. One is that in he either missed or avoided dealing with Revelation 3:10, where Jesus tells the church in Philadelphia they would be spared from the hour of trial coming on all men. The other is more bothersome. I expected with his focus on Greek that he would give a good explanation of the compound Greek word "Nicolatian", with the Greek words for control and people (laity). But no! Palmer not only takes up the traditional theory that one of the 7 deacons in Acts 6, Nicolas, went rogue and became a Gnostic teacher and formed a false group, but even embellishes what Nicolas thought; other books have correctly pointed out there's no Biblical nor historical proof for that hypothesis other than the similarity of the names (not a strong argument). But remember this book is a devotional, not a commentary.
In conclusion, I recommend this book. Allow me to break said recommendation into two parts:
1. It is a very useful devotional. If you have the discipline to do it weekly and use it as Palmer designed it, go for it - you'll be blessed. You'll also be blessed if you make it a 52 day study instead of 52 week.
2. Should you consider using this for research? Yes. There are other books I think are better for that role because unlike this volume, they are written as commentaries. But you definitely will learn more in this book as well.
