JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

180. Indeed, according to at least one version of a writing by the 380 A.D. Jerome, not
just the two chief Apostles Peter and Paul but even the almost equally famous Apostle John
was also persecuted “by Nero.” 68 Again, even before Jerome, especially according to the 200
A.D. Tertullian, 74 it was in Nero’s Empire - centred at Rome - where “Apostles poured
forth...their blood; where Peter endures a passion like his Lord’s; where Paul wins his crown
in a death like [the Baptist] John’s; [and] where the Apostle John was first plunged unhurt into
burning oil, and thence remitted to his island exile” (of Patmos). 75
181. For, continues Schaff, 76 “there began a carnival of blood such as even Heathen
Rome never saw - before, or since. It was the answer of the powers of hell to the mighty
preaching of the two chief Apostles which had shaken Heathenism to its center. A ‘vast
multitude’ of Christians was put to death in the most shocking manner (Revelation 7:9-14).”
182. As to “the probable extent of the persecution,” explains Schaff, 77 “the example set
by the Emperor in the capital could hardly be without influence in the provinces, and would
justify the outbreak of popular hatred.... The Apocalypse was written under Nero, or shortly
after his death” in 68 A.D. Now, it is almost universally conceded that the Apostle had
already written the last Gospel (‘John’) and his three letters (‘First John’ to ‘Third John’)
before John inscripturated his Apocalypse. “John’s exile to Patmos,” continues Schaff, “must
be connected with this [Neronian] persecution. It mentions imprisonment in Smyrna, the
martyrdom of Antipas in Pergamus, and speaks of the murder of prophets and saints and all
that have been slain on the Earth.” 78
183. Furthermore, adds Schaff, 77 “the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was written in
Italy, 79 probably in the year 64, likewise alludes to bloody persecutions, 80 and to the release of
Timothy from prison. 81 And Peter, in his First Epistle, which may be assigned to the same
year [A.D. 64], immediately after the outbreak of the persecution, 82 and shortly before his
death, 83 warns the Christians in Asia Minor of a fiery trial which is to try them, and of
sufferings already endured or to be endured not for any crime, but for [simply bearing] the
name of ‘Christians.’ 84 The name ‘Babylon’ for Rome” - in First Peter as too in John’s
Revelation 85 “is most easily explained by the time and circumstances of composition.” For
Paul too 86 was about to be martyred at Rome in the same “time and circumstances.” 77
184. Indeed, every book of the Bible seems to have been completed before the
destructions of Rome and Jerusalem around A.D. 70. Thus the Scriptures were, in fact,
completed at and by the termination of the Jewish temple (as a former instrument of divine
revelation) at the “end of the age” of the Apostles. Thus Matthew 23:24 to 24:28 & 26:61-64
& 27:50f & 28:20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 17:20-37 & 21:5-24 & 23:28f,45f & 24:26f;44f.53;
John 2:19f & 21:18-24; Acts 1:1 & 28:30f; Hebrews 2:3-4 & 5:1f & 7:27f & 8:3-13 & 9:24-26
& 10:9-11 & 12:18-19 & 13:10-14; Second Timothy 4:3-18; Second Peter 1:14-19 & 3:3-16;
Jude 14,18,23; and Revelation 1:1-9 & 11:1-13 & chapters 18 to 22.
185. At the end of the first volume of his famous eight-volume History of the Christian
Church (I:583f) Rev. Professor Dr. Philip Schaff rightly claims that all the books of the
New[er] Testament [except, he feels, John’s Gospel] - were inscripturated before the Fall of
Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He gives the following likely times of composition.
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