JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

History of the Christian Church has often been acknowledged as the finest detailed outline of
the development of Christianity in existence). The following statement is seen to be
particularly valuable, when it is remembered that Schaff had himself previously assumed a
late date for the Apocalypse. 64 After many years of subsequent deeper study, however, Schaff
came to the different and (we believe) correct conclusion that Revelation was actually written
“between the death of Nero (on June 9th in 68 A.D.) and the destruction of Jerusalem (on
August 10th in 70 A.D.).” 65
170. Schaff insists that “the internal evidence” (contained in the book of Revelation
itself) does not support the Post-Eusebian suggestion that John’s Apocalypse was not
inscripturated until about 95 or 96 A.D. Instead, says Schaff, “the internal evidence strongly
favours an earlier date, between the death of Nero (on June 9th in 68 A.D.) and the destruction
of Jerusalem (on August 10th in 70 A.D.).” 65 Here are Schaff’s reasons:
171. “1. Jerusalem was still standing, and the seer was directed to measure the temple
and the altar (Rev. 11:1).” 66 Indeed, ‘the allusion to the crucifixion” (Revelation 11:8)
“compels us to think of the historical Jerusalem.” 66
172. “2. The book was written not long after the death of the fifth Roman Emperor,
that is, Nero - when the Empire had received a deadly wound (compare Revelation
13:3,12,14). This is the natural interpretation of Revelation chapter 17:10, where it is stated
that the seven heads of the scarlet-coloured beast, i.e., heathen Rome, ‘are seven kings; the
five are fallen’.... The first five Emperors were Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and
Nero.” 66 Alternatively, if the list commences with Julius Caesar (before Augustus), Claudius
becomes the fifth Emperor-King (who died or became “fallen” in A.D. 54). “Five are fallen,
and one is.” This makes Nero himself the sixth Emperor-King (from 54 to 68 A.D.), or the
“one” that “is” in John’s own day. And this too once again dates the Revelation as very likely
written before 70 A.D.
173. Schaff s next argument for giving an early date to the book of Revelation, is even
stronger. “Christ pointed in His eschatological discourse (Matthew 24 etc.) to the destruction
of Jerusalem and the preceding tribulation as the great crisis in the history of the theocracy,
and [as] the type of the [final] judgment of the World. And there never was a more alarming
state of society! The horrors of the French Revolution were confined to [only] one country.
But the tribulation of the six years preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, extended over the
whole Roman Empire, and embraced wars and rebellions, frequent and unusual
conflagrations, earthquakes and famines and plagues, and all sorts of public calamities and
miseries untold. It seemed, indeed, that the [very] World, shaken to its very center, was
coming to a close.... Every Christian [then alive] must have felt that the prophecies of Christ
were being fulfilled before his [very] eyes!” 67 For all of these facts “are well supported by
Heathen and Jewish testimonies - especially Tacitus, Suetonius, Strabo, Pliny, Josephus, etc.”
Thus Schaff. 67
174. The seven years 64 to 70 A.D., then, saw the “Great Tribulation” prophesied by
Daniel and Christ, 68 and described by John in the book of Revelation (apparently even while
that “Great Tribulation” was taking place). 69 That “Great Tribulation” raged throughout the
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