AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Chris RagsacWho is the author of Revelation? The Revelation is written by a man called John. However, scholars are divided about the identity of John and the date of his writing. Early tradition is unanimous in its opinion that the Apocalypse was written by John the Apostle. II. The Name "John" The name John is very common name in early Christianity. In the Book of Revelation, the name "John" occurs four times in Revelation. First, in Rev. 1:4: "John to the seven churches that are in Asia"; second, Rev. 1:1: "servant"-a link in making known what must soon take place; third, Rev. 22:8: "who heard and saw these things"; third, Rev. 1:9: "I John, your brother..." III. Church Fathers Justin the Martyr believed that John wrote the Book of Revelation. This assertion was substantiated Irenaues who claimed that the apostle John, son of Zebedee, wrote both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel of John. Clement of Alexandrian accepted the Revelation as the work of John the Apostle. Carthage Tertullian said that it was the work of the apostle John. However, Papias argued that John the Elder as distinct from John the disciple of the Lord. Until the second century church, Apocalypse was widely accepted as the work of John the apostle. On the contrary, David Aune argues, "The otherwise unknown author of Revelation was probably a Palestinian Jew who had emigrated to the Roman province of Asia, perhaps in connection with the Jewish revolt in AD 66-70." IV. Argument against Majority of modern writers are unwilling to assign the Apocalypse to John the apostle. First, the author of Revelation calls himself John (1:1), a servant of God (1:1), a brother of his readers (1:9), and a prophet (22:8), but nowhere calls himself an apostle. Second, there is nothing in the Apocalypse that indicates the author knew the historical Jesus nor are there any indications that he was present at those events depicted in the gospels which involved the disciple John. Third, there exists a tradition that John the apostle suffered an early martyrdom which would preclude the possibility that he wrote any of the "Johannine" material. Charles concludes that John the Apostle was never in Asia Minor and died a martyr's death. Fourth, which I believe is the most important, Dionysius of Alexandria said "for reasons of differing content and style John the Apostle could not have been responsible for both books." In the Fourth Gospel, Greek is simple but correct, most elegant in diction, writer studiously avoids any mention of his name and the themes "light, life, truth and grace." In Revelation, Greek is rugged and vivid but notoriously incorrect, uses barbarous idioms, and in some places solecisms, repeatedly mentions his name, and the themes "light, life, truth and grace" do not dominate in Revelation. V. Who then was the John who wrote the Revelation?