DATING THE BOOK OF REVELATION - new article

by EdenOne 50 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  EdenOne

  Just published another article on my website. I promised I would make a more complete study on dating the book of Revelation.

  As a result I published the article: “DATING REVELATION - SOLELY WITH INTERNAL EVIDENCE FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT”

  It’s an article in six parts:

  Introduction

  Part 1 - The anachrony of the book of Revelation

  Part 2 - Two dating elements in the messages to the seven congregations

  Part 3 - The “lord’s Day” in Revelation

  Part 4 - Paul reports a supernatural event

  Part 5 - More evidence in the pauline letters

  Part 6 - An order to keep a secret

  Here’s the introduction:

  "On my previous article “Sit At My Right Hand - When?”, I made a claim that the visions of Revelation were received by John around 41 CE, but only put in written form around 60-62 CE, likely in installments. I would like to address this subject in greater detail now.
  
  The Watchtower Society claims that Revelation was written circa 96 CE while John was exiled in the island of Patmos. However, this date for the exile is really guesswork. Scholars like John A. T. Robinson think that John probably wrote his gospel and letter(s) around the interval of time between 50 -65 CE [Redating the New Testament, 1977] ; It is commonly accepted among scholars that Revelation was written before John's synoptic gospel, since some passages in the Pauline letters and John’s Gospel seem to make reference to passages in Revelation.
  
  It’s not absurd to conjecture that John could have been exiled into the island of Patmos even before the great persecutions to Christians exacted by Emperor Nerus during 64-68 CE, the same ones that saw the execution of the apostles Paul and Peter. The Revelation could have been received earlier than 64 CE, since John apparently didn’t suffer martyrdom at Patmos (tradition says he died of old age in Ephesus with nearly 100 years of age), which may agree with the fact that his imprisionment and exile in Patmos happened outside a major outbreak of violent persecution such as those under Nero (54-68) and Domitian (89-96) and yet still in time to be known by Paul and the other apostles.
  
  By 60 CE, Paul wrote to his brethren in Colossus that “Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1; see also Ephesians 1:20; Hebrews 1:3) This “seating” equals being sitting in the throne as King of the Kingdom of God. (Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:24) How could Paul know for sure that, at the time of writing of his letters, Jesus Christ was already sitting in his throne and ruling as King? Naturally, because Jesus himself had disclosed that already in the Revelation given to the apostle John.
  
  But, is there further solid evidence that can help establish an earlier date for the Revelation? Yes, there is."

  I believe it draws a few innovative conclusions. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed researching it.

  Eden
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  *lost*

  Will definitely be having a look later
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  EdenOne

  On a superficial level, it may seem trivial to re-date Revelation to 41 CE ... but the implications are very deep.

  If Revelation was received and written before 66-70 CE, then you can imagine the amount of things in it that can now be prophetically tied with the events in the first century.

  Eden
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  steve2

  I dated the book of Revelation once but we couldn''t see eye to eye on the basis of an ongoing relationship because Revelation was all over the place about how old he was. I prefer my dates to be straight-up about such matters but he went into long spiels of justification - and honestly, my eyes and ears just glazed over.
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  Phizzy

  The majority of N.T scholars date Revelation as very late, between 90-95CE, even Irenaeus,who lived much nearer the time, puts it as around a similar time.
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  mP

  Eden,

  Revelation is about Nero and his persecution of jews. The number of hte beast 666 was originally 616 which spells nero caesar. Back then letters did double duty as numbers and letters. The symbolism such as the 7 and 10 horns arebecause the ancients believed that nero was ressurrected and came back as the 10th caesar etc. The more you understand his history the more you will see the symbolism of rev is code for nero's life.
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  EdenOne

  I dated the book of Revelation once but we couldn''t see eye to eye on the basis of an ongoing relationship because Revelation was all over the place about how old he was. I prefer my dates to be straight-up about such matters but he went into long spiels of justification - and honestly, my eyes and ears just glazed over.

  LOL Steve ... I had to read that a few times to get over the "huh...?" factor

  Eden
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  EdenOne

  The majority of N.T scholars date Revelation as very late, between 90-95CE, even Irenaeus,who lived much nearer the time, puts it as around a similar time.

  Phizzy,

  I consider the internal NT evidence quite overwhelming. Some scholars agree with an earlier date for Revelation (50-65 CE). I think the other scholars should revise their opinion.

  Eden
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  Larsinger58

  Interesting. But just for the record, neither Paul nor John ever died. The necessity to have 12K from the 12 tribes required that some with genealogy records from the 12 tribes during Jesus' time be selected to survive down to our time to re-create the technical 12 tribes of Israel from these common individuals. 144,000 are required to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant, making up 1/10th of the total number of the elect (Isa 6:13). That means the entire elect of the heavenly class is actually 1,440,000.

  At any rate, Christ indicated that some who were standing there with him would never die and other scriptures confirm that John and Paul were among those who would not die. In Jesus' time, there were thus two classes: one that would die and need to be resurrected, and a class that were chosen not to die.

  Having noted that, I would think one of the things those living from the 1st Century would influence would be the Bible. Plus who knows what critical ancient writings they maintained over all these years that might one day show up. Because of this, if even you take this theoretically, it wouldn't really matter when Revelation was written by John; he could have edited it at any time along the way. Of course, John and Paul are the major contributors to the NT.

  I'll check out your commentary and comment further. Thanks for your focus on scripture!
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  Vanderhoven7

  marked as important