JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

16. Indeed, the “Great Tribulation” in the book of Revelation 19 certainly seems to be a
reference to the awful seven-years-long “Great Tribulation” and greatest bloodbath the World
had ever seen or ever shall see (cf. Matthew 23:15-16,29-33 & 24:1-9,15 22,28). It started
with Nero’s destruction of Rome in A.D. 64. And it terminated only with the Roman
destruction of faraway Jerusalem itself, in 70 A.D.
17. According to the external evidence, a 64 to 70 A.D. date (of around 69 A.D.) for
the inscripturation of the book of Revelation is widely attested. Such a date is claimed by the
various early (Pre-150 A.D.) ‘Introductions’ to the several Syriac translations of that book.
And Pre-70-A.D. dates for Revelation are claimed also by Melito of Sardis (165 A.D.), by the
170 A.D. Muratorian Canon often attributed to Caius of Rome, 20 and by the more than fifty
later authorities mentioned in sections 34 to 36 below.
18. The A.D. 300f Early-Church Historian Eusebius explains that the 165 A.D.
“Melito, Overseer of the Parish of Sardis, and Apolinarius Overseer of Hierapolis, enjoyed
great distinction.... The following works of these writers have come to our knowledge. Of
Melito, the two books On the Passover...and the books On the Devil and The Apocalypse of
John...and finally the book To Antoninus (addressed to the Roman Emperor).” Thus
Eusebius.
19. Until recently - see sections 21 to 28 below - none of those works of Melito was
known to be any longer extant. But Eusebius knew about some of Melito’s works in his own
day. For he wrote about the book To Antoninus, which Melito addressed to that Pagan
Roman Emperor. In that book, declares Eusebius, Melito “records that...our [Christian]
doctrine flourished for the good of an Empire.”
20. Of all of the leaders of that Roman Empire, explained Melito (according to
Eusebius), “Nero and Domitian alone...have wished to slander our doctrine.” 21 As we shall
show in our very next section: Melito believed John’s Apocalypse was describing the
persecution of the Early Church by Nero. Indeed, Melito also believed that John wrote the
book of Revelation before he and other Christians too were once again persecuted during the
later (Post-Neronian) reign of Sole-Emperor Domitian during the nineties of the first century
A.D.
21. In 1930 A.D., the first of two separate copies of Melito’s Homily on the Passion
was discovered in Egypt. It was then first published in 1940 A.D., but not regarded as really
significant until about 1977 A.D. 22 This Melito, the 165 A.D. Overseer of the very same
Sardis previously mentioned in John’s Apocalypse (Revelation 3:1-4), apparently preached
this “homily” after he wrote his other book about John’s Revelation. (See our previous three
sections 18-20 immediately hereabove.)
22. For in his Homily, Melito apparently refers back to his other book The Apocalypse
of John. Melito identifies Revelation 11:1-14 with the 63 to 70 A.D. events in Jerusalem.
The apostate Jews (cf. Revelation 2:9 & 3:9), he says, then much harassed the “righteous”
(alias the Hebrew Christians in the city of Jerusalem from 63.5 to 66 A.D.). Cf. Revelation
11:1,3-10 with Matthew 24:1-14.
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