Come Soon…finally arrived!

Quite some time ago I wrote about Coming Soon, a book by Dr. Michael Barber concerning the Book of Revelation (“Apocalypse”). I enjoyed Dr. Barber’s book a lot and I expressed how much I’d like to work through that book again in some kind of study group.

Well, nearly three years later, it has finally happened. Earlier this week I met up with a friend at a local Pub and we went through the first chapter of Coming Soon. I’ve affectionately dubbed our little group as “The Oratory of St. Arnoldus“ 🙂

As we work through Dr. Barber’s book each week I will attempt to do a short post summarizing our discussion…

Will the real John please stand up?

In the first chapter, Dr. Barber focuses on the authorship and date of composition of the Book of Revelation. Traditionally, authorship has been attributed to St. John the Apostle, sometimes referred to as “John the Revelator” or “John the Divine”.

There are a good number of scholars today who doubt that it was John the Apostle who wrote Revelation. Instead, they point to another John mentioned in the writings of the Early Church Fathers. The first mention of him comes from the First Century bishop, Papias:

“And again, if anyone came who had been a follower of the Elders – what was said by Andrew, or by Peter, or by Philip, or by Thomas or James, or by John or by Matthew, or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and what Aristion and the Elder John say…” – The History of the Church, Eusebius

In the above quotation, Papias appears to refer to two different Johns. Now, although Papias never said that this other John was the author of Revelation, some modern scholars assert this. Later Church Fathers such as Jerome (Fourth Century) believed in the existence of this other John, but still held that the author of Revelation was the Apostle.

Can I get an (early) Amen?

The reason that some modern biblical scholars doubt John’s authorship is due to the differences between the documents which supposedly came from John’s pen.

In the early Third Century, St. Dionysius of Alexandria made this argument, noting the differences in style between the Gospel of John and Revelation. However, this was a minority view, with many other Early Church Fathers attesting to the Apostle’s authorship:

Second Century: Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, St. Hippolytus
Third Century: Origen
Fourth Century: Epiphanius of Salamis, St. Jerome

Given this support, it does appear that the successors to the Apostles believed the Apostle to be the author of this work whereas, in contrast, they rejected the apostolicity of other apocalyptic works such as Apocalypse of Peter.

Why do they seem so different?

As noted above, the rejection Johannine authorship is primarily based on the difference in style between John’s Gospel and Revelation.

This is a somewhat odd objection given the different literary genres of the two books. In Coming Soon, Dr. Barber compares Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Fides et Ratio” to the story he wrote, “The Jewler’s Shop”. These two works have the same author but their radically differing genres make them appear to be completely unrelated.

Thematic Similarities

Having said that, there are, in fact, many common themes between these two Johannine books. In both books Jesus is described as the “Word”, the “Lamb”, the “Shepherd” and the “Temple”. Both authors say that Jesus gives the true “manna” and describe salvation as “living water”. Both speak about worship being done “in the Spirit” and the willingness to give up one’s “life”. Both talk about the expulsion of “Satan”, of the wedding of the “Bridegroom” and “Bride”. Finally, each refer to Blessed Mary as both “woman” and “mother”.

So maybe these books aren’t so different after all…

Picking an Emperor

The other main subject of contention with Revelation is determining its date of composition. When attempting to discern this, it helps to know something about the sequence of Roman emperors around the time of Christ:

1. Julius Caesar (46-44 BC)
2. Augustus (27 BC – AD 14)
3. Tiberius I (AD 14-37)
4. Gaius Caesar, aka Caligula (AD 37-41)
5. Claudius I (AD 41-54)
6. Nero (AD 54-68)
7. Galba (AD 68-69)
8. Otho (AD 69)
9. Vitellius (AD 69)
10. Vespasian (AD 69-79)
11. Titus (AD 79-81)
12. Domitian (AD 81-96)

Most scholars would assert that Revelation was written during the time of  Emperor Domitian, probably sometime during the 90s. However, this is somewhat problematic since it is clear from both the text of Revelation and from other witnesses that Revelation was written during a time of persecution. Although times were difficult under Domitian, there was no widespread imperial persecution.

Finding Nero

In contrast, there is a growing number of scholars who place authorship during the reign of the Emperor Nero. We know that under his rule there was a cruel and bloody persecution, starting in AD 68 after the Great Fire of Rome. It is said that St. Peter and St. Paul both martyred during this persecution.

Two Syriac works support the Nerodian hypothesis. The Syriac version of the text of Revelation and another Syriac work known as “The History of John, the Son of Zebedee” both assert that it was written during Nero’s rule.

The text itself also has some clues which support this assertion:

1. Urgency
There is a sense of urgency throughout the text, speaking about “what must soon take place” and that the time is “near” etc. This points to an early date, particularly if we consider these warnings to be pointing to the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

2. The Fall of Kings
in Chapter 17, it speaks of Rome where there are “seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet to come, and when he comes he must remain a little while” (Revelation 17:9-10). If we compare this to the list above, we see five Emperors, Nero and then one Emperor who reigns only a short time.

3. The Number of the Beast
In the ancient world it was common for letters to also represent numbers. For example, most people are familiar with Roman numerals where I has a value of 1, V a value of 5 etc.

It is significant, therefore, that when the Greek form of the name “Nero Caesar” is translated into Hebrew and added up, it comes to the dreaded “666”, the “number of the beast” (Revelation 13:18):

Neron Kesar = nrwn qsr = (50, + 200 + 6 + 50) + (100 + 60 + 200) = 666

The case for this is strengthened by manuscript variants which actually list a different number, 616, since this is the total you arrive at if you transliterate “Nero Caesar” into Latin:

Nero Caesar = nrw qsr = (50, + 200 + 6) + (100 + 60 + 200) = 616

I’ll do another post on Revelation after our next trip to the pub 🙂

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