Lectionary Thoughts: Dating John's Revelation

To properly interpret, understand and apply the message of St. John’s Revelation you must first decide when the last book of the Bible was written. If you favor an authorship date after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, then you will need to either spiritualize the events described, and maintain that the rulers, nations and battles cryptically described in Revelation have no earthly counterparts; no historical earthly fulfillment. Or, you will need to determine which post-A.D. 70 (actual and earthly) rulers, nations and battles were being prophetically described in apocalyptic language. These people and happenings could be past, present or future.

If you favor an authorship date before A.D. 70, then you will tend to understand the rulers, nations and battles depicted in Revelation as historic entities and events that took place before, or shortly after, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.

Here are five exegetical (i.e. from the book of Revelation itself) reasons to favor an authorship date before A.D. 70:

ONE: John’s partnership in “the” tribulation.

In verse 1:9, the John tells the recipients of his apocalypse that he is their “brother and partner in the tribulation. Not merely tribulation (no definite article.) Not a tribulation (indefinite article.) But rather, the (definite article) tribulation.

In other words, John, who lived in the first century, experienced firsthand the tribulation that he was describing to the “seven churches.”

TWO: The historicity of the “seven churches.”

The seven churches mentioned in the first three chapters were actual churches in actual cities at the close of the first century. (And there is some evidence that the order in which the churches are named coincides with the order in which mail was delivered and collected at that time.)

And note that the people of those seven churches were promised blessing (Rev. 1:3) if they read, heard and “kept” (i.e. obeyed) the words of John’s Revelation; a blessing impossible to obtain if the events and entities foretold in Revelation, along with the time-specific exhortations, were millennia away.

THREE: The Jewish Temple was still intact

In Rev. 11:1-2, an angel instructs John to “measure the temple of God.” This command assumed that the Temple was still standing.

So, the Jewish Temple; the temple that would be overrun by the Roman Army in August of A.D. 70, was still intact when John penned his apocalypse.

FOUR: Revelation 12:1-6

The first five verses of Revelation 12 describe, in apocalyptic imagery, Jesus’ birth, Satan’s attempts to kill him, and Jesus’ ascension to his heavenly throne. And note John’s use of the past tense to describe those events.

Verse 6 abruptly changes to future tense and prophetically describes how the Church having fled “into the wilderness” for safety directly after Jesus’ ascension, “is to be nourished” for three-and-half years.

It is interesting to note that there is not a shred of evidence indicating that a single Christian died in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. And it is extremely likely that Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 and John’s Revelation played a large part in convincing Christians to flee the city destined for divine judgment.

FIVE: John’s clear “time indicators”

John’s apocalyptic vision doesn’t begin until verse 1:9. So, the first eight verses of Revelation are composed of simple prose; non-apocalyptic and non-metaphorical.

In verse one, John says that he is writing about “the things that must soon take place.”

In verse three, as John exhorts his readers to read, hear and keep the words of his prophecy, he adds, “for the time is near.”

Conclusion:

Perhaps you’ve heard of “Ockham’s razor?” William of Ockham was a fourteenth century English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian who posited a principle that could be stated thusly: “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” In other words, the simplest explanation is usually (but not always) the best explanation.

If we apply Ockham’s principle to the dating of Revelation, an early (pre A.D. 70) is the simplest way to understand John’s vision. When John wrote “soon” and “the time is near” he meant, well, soon and the time is near. And if “soon” then God, through John, was preparing the newly formed church to endure some of the most cataclysmic, horrific, earth-shattering events of all time: The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the judgment (via death and enslavement) of thousands upon thousands of Jews, and the rising persecution of Christians in the Roman world.

One last observation: The Greek word “ge” appears in Revelation over eighty times. The word can be translated “land” or “earth.” The ESV Bible translates “ge” seventy-eight times as “earth” and only three times as “land.” This interpretive decision significantly affects how Christians read Revelation. So, as you continue to read through John’s vision, stop at every occurrence of “earth” (implying the whole earth) and remind yourself that it could very well have been translated “land” (implying the land of Palestine.)

GH