JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

86. It was apparently not John’s vision that was seen at that time. But it was John
himself who was then “seen” - viz. seen by “ men”; seen “face to face.” And John was “seen”
facially, in this direct way, apparently “no very long the since” or after “John” the Apostle
“had beheld the apocalyptic vision” - and himself either then, or thereafter, written down the
original autograph of what is now known as the book of Revelation. 46
87. Moreover, Irenaeus probably means that John “was seen” for quite a long while,
and not just for a mere moment “since” John “beheld the apocalyptic vision.” 46 Very
likely, Irenaeus means that John “was seen” for a considerable “time” even since the slow
copying out and subsequent approving and circulating of approved copies of John’s
original autograph of the apocalyptic vision.
88. Further, Irenaeus also seems to be saying that John “was seen” ever since the
approval and also since the subsequent circulation of previously-made copies of John’s
original autograph of the book of Revelation. Indeed, Irenaeus seems to mean that John
had been “seen” even since the further approval of “the most approved” copies (of all of
the various “ancient copies” of John’s original autograph of “the apocalyptic vision” which he
had “beheld”). 46
89. Quite clearly, then, John himself “was seen” alive “since” or after his Patmos exile.
This was pointed out by many of the Early Church Fathers (as shown in sections 281 to 290
below). For, after his Patmos exile, the Apostle was “seen” by “those men who saw John
face to face.” 46 It was apparently then that they asked the aged ex-exile what he had meant
by his previously-written statement about the number ‘666’ - which they themselves had read
about already in “the most approved and ancient copies” of John’s earlier autograph of the
book of Revelation. 46 (For Irenaeus’s own view as to the “very probable” identity of ‘666’ -
see sections 367 to 373 below.)
90. Third, we claim that all of the above, 46 means the following. 1, John certainly
received visions from the risen Christ, and shortly thereafter himself further inscripturated the
autograph of the book of Revelation (around A.D. 69). 2, from Irenaeus’s later viewpoint ( in
185 A.D.), many “ancient” copies of that Johannine autograph would next have been first
copied out and then “approved” ( from about A.D. 70 through A.D. 96). 3, “Domitian’s
rule” then terminated when he himself died (in A.D. 96). 4, Nerva next ruled as Roman
Emperor (from A.D. 96 to 98). And 5, John finally died only thereafter (as Irenaeus
himself elsewhere declared), 50 expiring during the subsequent rule of Emperor Trajan (from
A.D. 98 until A.D. 117).
91. Fourth, Irenaeus himself does not say that he personally had been able to contact
“those men who saw John face to face.” 46 That may, or man not, have been the case.
92. Of course, if Irenaeus had not been able to contact “those men,” 46 perhaps even on
account of their predeceasing him, then the ‘early date’ view of Revelation’s inscripturation
becomes even more probable. But even if Irenaeus himself did meet “those men who saw
John face to face” since John beheld the apocalyptic vision” 46 - that would still not disprove
dating John’s receipt (or even his inscripturation) of the Apocalypse before 70 A.D.
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