I should take Sunday school classes

by Atilla 2 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Atilla

  Tonight on the History channel I was watching a program about the book of Revelation. Due to my WT backgrounds, I was told that the apostle John wrote this book, and had always assumed this to be true. What I now know for sure is much less. Apparently there is great controversy in the scholary world as to who exactly wrote Revelation with many thelogians saying point blank that some one, another John, but not the apostle who wrote the gospel account of John, wrote the book of Revelation. The show concluded by saying we may never really know who wrote the book because more evidence hasn't been find yet or simply doesn't exist. To think, a book that dubs use very heavily for their grip on power and authority, and we don't even know what crazy homeless guy/woman wrote it? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

  Being a JW, I always thought that I had such a good concept of Bible material but now I realize that even basic concepts elude me. Not that I care, I don't really believe in the Bible or any religion for that matter. I guess I need to take some in depth theological courses one day to round out my education. I think the reason that myself and other dubs didn't get a very good Bible education is because we were always so focused on in depth dogma and we missed the simple stuff. Even when I would do talks and focus on individual Bible characters, I would maybe focus on the guy for a minute and then think of some way to parallel that ancient guys life into the modern day JW life. That was always the motivation, think of some way we tie this Bible character into the preaching work or our so called persecution. Hell, and that's why I can't remember hardly any Bible characters but why I can tell you all about JW rules and beliefs. Unbelievable, I didn't even get a good Bible education for all those years being a dub, nothing to show for.
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  barry

  Revelation was the last book to be accepted because the churches in the east beleived it wasnt written by john some people beleive it was written by one of his disciples.
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  Leolaia

  Apparently there is great controversy in the scholary world as to who exactly wrote Revelation with many thelogians saying point blank that some one, another John, but not the apostle who wrote the gospel account of John, wrote the book of Revelation.

  The most likely candidate is John the Presbyter, an early church leader in Ephesus in the early second century A.D. In later tradition, he was confused with Apostle John (whom Paul mentions in Galatians 2:9), but Papias, the bishop of Hierapolis (a nearby city to Ephesus), who knew John personally, clearly distinguished the two Johns and noted that Apostle John had died with his brother James many years earlier. John the Presbyter is the likely author of 2 and 3 John, which are signed "the presbyter" (2 John 1; 3 John 1). There is also some controversial evidence that John the Presbyter edited the Gospel of John and added chapter 21, which is a second ending to the book. The letters in Revelation 2-3 were all addressed to churches in Asia Minor, all in the area where John the Presbyter had influence. And Papias, John's disciple, was deeply familiar with Revelation and was the first to write a commentary on some of its visions. Papias was also a chiliast, believing in a thousand-year restitution of Paradise as the Kingdom of God -- a view also shared by Revelation. Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who in turn was also a disciple of John the Presbyter, also held similar beliefs. Phyrgia, the district in Asia Minor home to Hierapolis, Ephesus, Smyrna, and other cities mentioned in Revelation 2-3, was the epicenter of chiliast thinking and was also the home of the gnostic Cerinthus, the main opponent of John the Presbyter, who also believed in chiliasm. Polycarp told a story of how John entered a bathhouse in Ephesus and discovered Cerinthus therein, and ran out in a panic fearing the roof would cave in. The followers of Cerinthus, interestingly, believed that he was the author of the Gospel of John and Revelation, not John. What is more likely is that Cerinthus edited a gnostic precursor of the Gospel of John (which is itself dependent on gnostic sources) and also edited a percursor of Revelation, which most scholars believe is a composite document containing earlier material from a Jewish apocalypse. But you are right...there is very little that is known for certain.

  If you are interested in more information on this issue, read my longer post on this issue:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/63037/970569/post.ashx#970569