Just as it stretches credulity to suggest that a history of the Jews in Germany would be written in the aftermath of World War II and yet make no mention of the Holocaust, so too it is unreasonable to think that Revelation was written twenty-five years after the destruction of Jerusalem and yet makes no mention of the most apocalyptic event in Jewish history.
Furthermore, those who hold that the book of Revelation was written long after the destruction of the temple in AD 70 face an even more formidable obstacle! Consider one of the most amazing prophecies in all of Scripture.
Jesus is leaving the temple when his disciples call his attention to its buildings. One generation later this prophecy, no doubt still emblazoned on the tablet of their consciousness, became a vivid and horrifying reality. As the student of Scripture well knows, New Testament writers were quick to highlight fulfilled prophecy.
Thus, it is inconceivable that Jesus would make an apocalyptic prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple and that John would fail to mention that the prophecy was fulfilled one generation later just as Jesus had predicted it.
Usually when people mention the book of Revelation, they immediately think about judgment. And without a doubt, much judgment occurs in the book. However, Revelation does not end with judgment. Instead, it provides a striking bookend for the entire Bible, which begins in Paradise and ends in Paradise. More than judgment on the evildoers, Revelation is a book about hope for the faithful in Christ.
What pains or indignities have you suffered? What broken relationship have you wept over? Revelation promises a world where pain and tears and death pass away. Revelation reminds us that there is indeed hope beyond the momentary trials and struggles of this life.
Morris has observed that variations in vocabulary, word order, and sentence structure are characteristic of the style of the Gospel of John. Therefore, it would not be surprising to notice variations in vocabulary and style between the Gospel, the Epistles of John, and the book of Revelation. John apparently likes variations and is capable of producing them. In these parallel cases, both words relate to the theme of perseverance, especially to perseverance in obedience.
Even so, faith is prominent in Revelation due to its placement in significant statements, just as believing is important in the other Johannine works. At the end of the day, different scholars provide different assessments of the importance of the stylistic differences. But these three main Johannine writings are not just related in style, they are related in theology, too, and they form with II and III John an individual group of writings which stand out very clearly from the other literature of the primitive Church.
In view of all this we have sufficient ground to ascribe these five writings to a common author of remarkable individuality and great significance, and to identify him as the apostle John. In conclusion, Revelation says that Jesus Christ communicated this revelation to John, who presents his work as a work of prophecy He seems like the most plausible candidate for the John of Revelation.
Significant evidence from the Church Fathers places him in Ephesus of Asia Minor and points to him as the author of Revelation. According to the portrait of the New Testament and the Church Fathers, John was a figure worthy of the three titles of Revelation , that is, saint, apostle, and prophet. Revelation is his major work of prophecy. The internal evidence from the book of Revelation has been read in various ways, but it does not appear to be decisively in favor of a different John.
It seems plausible, then, to attribute the book of Revelation to John the apostle and to see this book as his challenging and authoritative message to the churches of Asia Minor, and to the church of Jesus Christ generally. This post is adapted with permission from Paul M. See also Caird, Revelation , 3.
For the translation above, see ANF , vol. Maier says that Irenaeus was born around A. See also Aune, Revelation , li; Beckwith, Apocalypse , This quote is also cited by Maier, Offenbarung , It is contended that the Gospel of John has a much smoother style of Greek than does the Apocalypse. Thus, the latter must have been written many years prior to the fourth Gospel—when the apostle was not so experienced in the literary employment of Greek.
Archaeological discoveries and literary studies have recently demonstrated that along with Aramaic and Hebrew, Greek was commonly spoken among first century Palestinians. Thus John must have known and used Greek since his youth , Charles, author of the commentary on Revelation in the International Critical Commentary series, and perhaps the greatest expert on apocalyptic literature, regarded the so-called bad grammar as deliberate, for purposes of emphasis, and consistent with the citation of numerous Old Testament passages Gundry, It may be admitted that the Revelation has many surprising grammatical peculiarities.
His Gospel and Epistles, on the other hand, were composed equally under divine influence, but an influence of a gentler, more ordinary kind, with much care, after long deliberation, after frequent recollection and recital of the facts, and deep pondering of the doctrinal truths which they involve It is claimed that Revelation must have been penned before A. First, if John wrote this work near A.
Second, the contention that the literal city and temple were still standing, based upon chapter eleven, ignores the express symbolic nature of the narrative. Salmon says that it is:. For the whole scene is laid in heaven, and the temple that is measured is the heavenly temple ; We have only to compare this vision with the parallel vision of a measuring-reed seen by Ezekiel ch. Some argue for an early date of the Apocalypse by asserting that the enigmatic is a reference to Nero.
This is possible only by pursuing the most irresponsible form of exegesis. Additionally, Leon Morris has pointed out that Irenaeus discussed a number of possibilities for deciphering the , but he did not even include Nero in his list, let alone regard this as a likely conjecture , Noted critic Theodor Zahn observed that Nero was not even suggested as a possibility until the year In view of the foregoing evidence, a very strong case can be made for dating Revelation at about A.
Accordingly, the theory of realized eschatology, which is grounded upon the necessity of the Apocalypse having been written prior to A. Jackson, Wayne. Access date: November 14, Topical Index. About Contact. When Was the Book of Revelation Written?
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