David

It is time for me to begin my study of Revelation.  First, I’d like to provide some historical context.  The book itself names the author as John and states that the vision therein occurred on the island of Patmos.  I completely believe that this John is the apostle though I know that this is sometimes in dispute.

I don’t know the exact dates of John’s banishment at Patmos, but I do have a good feel for the time range.  The church historian Eusebius chronicles that the tradition handed down was that the apostle and evangelist John was condemned to live on the island of Patmos during the persecution of the Roman emperor Domitian (Eusebius Book 3, Chapter 18).  He does not provided clarity on when the persecutions began or when John was exiled.  However, in introducing these persecutions he does say that “Domitian … at length established himself as the successor of Nero in his hatred and hostility to God” (Eusebius, Book 3, Chapter 17).  This indicates that the persecutions did not begin at the onset of his reign.

Regarding John’s return from Patmos, Eusebius provides us with the history provided by Tertullian who lived around 160 A.D. to 220 A.D.  Tertullian wrote that John returned from Patmos upon the death of Domitian.  Thus John could have arrived as early as the beginning of Domitian’s reign in 81 A.D. though it seems he was exiled later.  And he would have returned after Domitian’s death in 96 A.D.

Now that I have some dates for John’s vision, I will survey some of the history of the time to provide historical context.  First, by that time two great persecutions of Christians throughout the empire have occurred.  In fact, one was occurring at that time since Domitian was still alive.  The first was by Nero who reigned from 54 A.D. to 68 A.D.  During this persecution Nero also had both Peter and Paul killed.  The gospel had spread to much of the Roman world by that time and certainly in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and Italy.  The Romans had already laid siege to Jerusalem and captured it by 70 A.D. destroying the temple.  Of course there is more, but this is just my quick survey.

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