Understanding Revelation: Context, Dating, and Relevance

"Surely in any study of New Testament eschatology and anyone who's concerned about what the Bible teaches regarding the future, that concern inevitably leads us to a consideration of the content and significance of the New Testament apocalypse, or the book of Revelation. I don't think there's any book in the Bible that has been subjected to more scrutiny than that book and about which there is a wider diversity of interpretation than with respect to the book of Revelation; and part of the reason for that, of course, is the very nature of the literary forms that we find in it." [00:06:18]

"But there is a very pressing question about the book of Revelation that is widely ignored among Christians, and that is the question of when the book was written, because when we're seeking to understand any book of the Bible we have to do our homework and look at the setting, the life-setting in which it was first penned, and the dating of a book at that level becomes very important. We also want to know who wrote it and to whom it was written." [00:01:20]

"Well, the majority report in New Testament scholarship for a long time has been that the book of Revelation was written during the decade of the 90's, probably during the reign of the emperor Domitian, which would have made it appearing well after the fall of Jerusalem. And so that would make it extremely unlikely that the prophecies contained within the book of Revelation had any reference immediately to these catastrophic events that Jesus had predicted on the Mount of Olives." [00:03:50]

"Now, one of the most formidable arguments for the late date of the book of Revelation comes by way of the testimony of the church father Irenaeus, who is one of the most respected fathers of antiquity, because he makes a specific reference to the apocalypse in his book, his famous book, 'Against Heresies.' In fact, it's Book V of 'Against Heresies.' Now, before I read this quote from Irenaeus let me remind you that his original work was written in the Greek language and that the Greek manuscript of his book has been lost, but we do still have Latin translations, and now what I'm going to read from is an English translation, that is, a translation from the Latin text which was a translation from the Greek text." [00:07:58]

"Now, Irenaeus was born in the year 130 and died in the year 202. So he's a second century church father. And now he's talking about the mysterious character of the anti-Christ and of the apocalyptic references to him, that he said, 'If it were necessary that his name should be known by us, that it would be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision.' Now, what's he saying there? If we needed to know the name of the anti-Christ, John would have told us, because he's the author and the one who beheld the apocalyptic vision." [00:09:35]

"Now, if we look further at the writings of Irenaeus some other interesting facts emerge. One is that Irenaeus himself makes reference to quote, 'Ancient copies of the book of Revelation.' Now, you don't talk about something that was written in your own lifetime as an ancient manuscript. But had it been written a hundred years earlier than he was writing then obviously that appellation could justly be applied as he does here. So he makes references elsewhere in his own writings to ancient copies of the Revelation." [00:13:00]

"Now, in addition to that there are other internal references that we pay attention to, not the least of which is that so much of the language of the symbols of the book of Revelation is borrowed from the temple itself. It's replete with temple allusions throughout the book. And yet there's not the slightest hint anywhere in the book of Revelation that the temple is no longer standing. Now, this is an argument of silence, but it's one of those pregnant silences, that certainly an event as catastrophic to Christian Jewish history as the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple would be mentioned by an apostolic writing that took place after the event." [00:19:03]

"Now, the Greek terms that are used there to talk about soon, near, at hand, all are timeframe references in the language that have a very, very short time span. It's really stretching it to say that the Bible says that we have a revelation here that is given about things that are near at hand and are going to take place shortly, that you would expect a period of over 2,000 years to elapse after those timeframe references are given." [00:17:20]

"Now, the question, two questions here. First of all, what is the city of seven hills? It's possible that that is an obscure reference to Jerusalem itself. But in all of antiquity the most famous nickname for Rome was the city on the seven hills. And so if the author of Revelation is describing Rome here, he goes on to speak of the kings of Rome, and some scholars object to that saying that the Romans didn't call their emperors kings, they called them emperors rather than kings, but in any case we read here in the text that there are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come." [00:22:00]

"Now, some people say that because of the civil war and the rapid elimination of Galba, his successor Otho, and Vitellius, that those three aren't included in the list; they don't count. So now beginning with Augustus, the sixth, if you skip Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, would be Vespatian, who also comes too early. He's not into the 90's. His reign finishes in the decade of the 70's. Now, there's a third option. And that is that you start counting not with Augustine -- or with Augustus -- but you start with Julius Caesar, who by the way in ancient Roman lists of rulers, he is the George Washington. He really is the first." [00:24:27]

"Now, and I might just add to you the other problem of calling them kings. Do you remember when the Jews were interrogated about Jesus and so on in His political aspirations, what did they say? 'We have no king but Caesar.' There's ample evidence to indicate that the Jewish people called the Roman rulers kings. So, if we start with Julius Caesar as number one; Augustus, number two; Tiberias, three; Caligula, four; Claudius, five; who's six? -- Nero. It would indicate that the book was written during the reign of Nero, which explains a ton of questions with respect to the internal significance of the content of this book." [00:25:18]

"Also, in conclusion, the writer Clement has an interesting anecdote where he talks about the apostle John while in exile chasing an apostate and running down this apostate on a wild horseback chase. Kind of like a Roy Rogers chase, where you can John galloping across the plain racing to catch this bad guy. Now, let's assume that he was exiled during the reign of Domitian. That means that John would have chased this apostate down on this vigorous horse race when John was well into his 90's; where, that's really stretching it. I mean, it's possible, I guess, that a 90-some-year-old person could engage in that kind of vigorous activity, but it's unlikely, and it's just one more allusion by the church fathers that would place the writing well before the time of Domitian, and prior to the destruction of Jerusalem." [00:26:35]