JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

39. We claim, then, that the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation, while
temporarily exiled on the island of Patmos and during the time of well-nigh universal havoc
that followed Nero’s burning of Rome in 64 A.D. The book was written probably only after
the death of that particular Roman Emperor (in 68 A.D.). 27
40. John wrote the book of Revelation apparently while Domitian was being obeyed as
the new Caesar in Rome in A.D. 69 - just before his brother Titus destroyed Jerusalem and its
Jews’ temple in 70 A.D. Consequently, the book of Revelation would seem to have been
completed before Vespasian - already crowned Emperor while in Egypt in A.D. 69 - returned
to Rome in 71 with his son Titus (after the latter had destroyed Jerusalem in August 70 A.D.).
And at that return, Vespasian and Titus - together with Vespasian’s other son Domitian -
triumphantly paraded through Rome alias that Pagan Empire’s capital city in 71 A.D.
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41. The internal evidence from the book of Revelation itself, rather suggests an ‘early
date’ for that book’s inscripturation. So too does the external evidence from at least three
independent Pre-Irenaean sources. See sections 17 to 32 above.
42. Irenaeus himself (A.D. 180) is quite easily reconcilable with an ‘early date.’ See
sections 68 to 84 below. And so too are at least two Post-Irenaean though still Pre-Nicene
witnesses. See sections 24 to 36 above.
43. However, starting from the time of the apocryphal Acts of John (first mentioned by
Eusebius around 300 A.D.) - the advocates of a mandatory ‘late date’ for the writing of the
Apocalypse have steadily gained ground. Especially was this the case from the time of the
A.D. 385f Jerome onward.
44. This was particularly so, after the advent of the early Middle Ages. And this is
certainly the dominant popular view in our own day.
45. Of course, many (if not most) of those who take this ‘late date’ view - are
inadequately informed. For many of them are unaware of all of the above-mentioned internal
and external evidences favouring an ‘early date’ (before 70 A.D.) for the writing of the book
of Revelation.
46. Often lacking this awareness, such persons themselves favour an inscripturation
date of about 96 A.D. Chiefly, they do so for the following three reasons (see sections 47 to
115 below) - all of which they regard as rather compelling.
47. First. Those objecting to an ‘early date’ for the inscripturation of the book of
Revelation - do not feel that the septennium around Nero’s persecution of Christians can
appropriately be called the “Great Tribulation.” They believe Nero’s bloodbath was confined
to the city of Rome itself, and never became widespread enough (throughout the whole of the
Roman Empire) to be called the “Great Tribulation.” Yet, precisely that is indisputably what
the book of Revelation itself actually calls the persecution therein described! 28
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