When was the Book of Revelation Written

When was the Book of Revelation Written

Writter: Evangelos D. Kepenes ((October 23, 2016) 

In the first century, the dominant kingdom in the Mediterranean Basin was the Roman one, a multinational and polytheistic empire, as Daniel had prophesied. At that time, Revelation was written, and all the events in the New Testament took place, with Judea being a province of the Roman state. The time of writing of the book of Revelation, is before 70 AD. and not in 96 AD. as erroneously spread in the 2nd century by Irenaeus. 

According to Epiphanius of Constantia of Cyprus (today's Salamis), John was on Patmos in the time of Claudius Caesar, who is either Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanic (41-54 AD), or Nero Claudius (54-68 A.D.). (Saint Epiphanius of Constantia of Cyprus - Against heresies eighty, book 2 p. 909 "Panarios")

Also, Patriarch Theophylact of Bulgaria states that it was written 32 years after the "ascension" of "Christ": " […] and  wrote in Patmos the island in exile, after thirty-two years of the ascension of Christ" (P. G 123, 1133, "Comments to the gospel of John»)

Other evidence of the time of writing

“John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne …” [Rev. 1:4]

The Christians of the first century lived in anticipation of the immediate coming of Jesus Christ [Second Coming] and the desolation / fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jewish Temple [Luk. 22:20].

Those of the fleshly Israel [biological descendants of Abraham] that did not recognize Jesus nor understand the utterances of the prophets, expelled the children of the promise, the Spiritual Israel, as the apostle Paul wrote.

“Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” [Gal. 4:28-30]

“Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.” [II Thes. 1:4-7]

Those Jews who denied Christ became enemies of the cross. Being sons of the murderers of the prophets, they filled up their sins by killing Jesus Christ, the leader of life, and persecuting the children of the promise and so the wrath of God came upon them to the end [I Thes. 2:15-16, Matt. 23:29-33].

The Lord Jesus Christ had asked the high priests and the elders:

“When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” [Mat. 21:33-41]

So, John was “partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” and when he wrote the Revelation Jesus was going to come. He was the Coming One, and hence the desolation of Jerusalem and the judgment upon the disrespectful ones of the fleshly Israel was imminent. So, the time for writing was before 70 AD, during the reign of Nero, who was the sixth Caesar of Rome with Julius being the first one, "five have fallen, one is" [Rev. 17:10], not 96 AD, as it was spread in the second century.

[Revelation, 11:2b] “And they will trample the holy city for forty-two months” also affirms that the Jerusalem of below existed at the time of writing.

Place of writing

John said: “I was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” [Rev. 1:9]

The simple past of the verb to be [I was] allows us to say that maybe the place where he wrote what he saw was a different one than Patmos.

John’s exile

John does not support what was spread in the second century about the cave and his exile; he attests the following:

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” [Rev. 1:9-11] 

“I, John, your brother” The fact that he had been active in Asia and was known to the brothers there is a given, as well as the fact that he was well aware of their situation, being himself also a "companion in tribulation." The references in the Acts to Mysia and Troy and in Colossians to Hierapolis also point to other Christian communities in Asia. So, the choice of the seven, due to geographic location and population, would facilitate the spread further. Another fact is that John was an apostle of the circumcision as well as Peter and James was [Gal. 2:9], that means the members of the seven churches in Asia were Jewish Christians. 

“I was on the island called Patmos”. John went voluntarily to Patmos for the apostolic mission, on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and over there he saw what he wrote later.

 The above is an extract from: https://www.thefulfillmentofpromise.com/home/johns-revelation-and-the-destruction-of-jerusalem-in-70-a-d

Conclusion

The Revelation of Jesus Christ was given to the historic seven (7) Judeo-Christian churches of Asia, which were the fruit of apostolic action. God gave it to Him to show to His servants  -the  contemporaries of John-  what was to be done quickly in their generation, which was the end of the old age of the Law and its typology and the end of the reign of  Abraham’s biological offspring, as well as the events that would accompany these proceedings

However, by the vainglorious catastrophists and false prophets, who for centuries trouble mankind, spreading fake news and constantly founding messianic movements and pseudo-apostolic churches, became the Revelation of Jesus Christ, for all mankind, for things that will be fulfilled years after such as the destruction of the world and the end of its history. This false faith abolishes the eternal Gospel of God (Mark 1:14, Rev. 14: 6) and the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, You are a priest FOREVER» Thus, they declare without shame, that when God created "everything in His Wisdom" was just killing His time.

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