Horae Apocalypticae - Authorship and Date of Revelation

Authorship and Date of Revelation

Reverend Elliott believed Revelation to have been written down by John the apostle. For Elliott, only a connection with the apostle ensured a claim to divine inspiration. Without it, the Apocalypse could be dismissed as a later forgery and Elliott knew that those of anti-millennial views would be only too happy to oblige. His justifications for apostolic authorship were:-

• that Irenaeus said it was so and Irenaeus knew the facts,
• that the difference in language between the Gospel of John and the Apocalypse was inherent in the different nature of the books and didn't show that different authors were involved. The Gospel was a (later) work of mature reflection whereas the Apocalypse was written down as dictation "in the spirit",
• that only the apostle would have had sufficient authority to send such unwelcome comments to the seven churches and expect to command a hearing,
• that no human being other than the beloved disciple could have written such a book.

Edward Elliott believed Irenaeus was correct to say that Revelation was written "towards the end of the reign of Domitian", perhaps 95 CE. (Domitian was assassinated September 96). He did not accept any gap in time between the vision occurring and the writing of the book. He rejected the idea of an earlier Neronian date for Revelation because persecution under Nero would have meant martyrdom in Rome. Nero derived no pleasure from banishing people to Patmos. He also believed arguments for an early date based upon apparent similarities of terminology between Paul's epistles and Revelation were self-contradictory because they would require Paul to be quoting Revelation at three places in 1 Thessalonians and at that time there could have been no church at Ephesus for Revelation to have mentioned. Finally, he believed Laodicea to have been destroyed by an earthquake in 60CE and not completely rebuilt for at least another ten years so, if John wrote to a complacent and prosperous church there, it must be at a later date.

These two considerations taken together imply that the author of Revelation was a man in his late eighties sentenced to penal servitude on Patmos. Such a man would have every reason to feel persecuted! Age would also give him a pivotal position in the problem of the delayed Second Coming of Christ. He would be the only member of Christ's circle not to have died. As a result, Elliott suggested that Revelation was an attempt to use Daniel to provide comfort for those congregations dismayed by the apparent failure of parousia. Hence the offer of a millennial rule of martyred saints prior to any general resurrection of the righteous at the end of the millennium.

The storyline of Revelation can be found at Chronology of Revelation.