JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

272. See once again the etching of the marble relief on the ‘Arch of Titus’ at Rome,
reproduced on our outside front cover. And see again sections 155 to 159 above, for the
description of the return to Domitian in Rome of Vespasian and his other son Titus - together
with the Jewish prisoners-of-war and the items plundered by the Romans from the Jerusalem
temple before destroying it. See too, at least incipiently, also Revelation 1:12; 6:7; 8:2;
13:10; and l5:3f.
273. This, then, is Schaff’s conclusion as to the date of the inscripturation of the book
of Revelation: 102 “The internal evidence of the Apocalypse itself, and a comparison with the
fourth Gospel [and with Matthew’s and Luke’s account of Christ’s Olivet Discourse], favor an
earlier date” than A.D. 96. Now this “earlier date,” explains Schaff, must have been “before
the destruction of Jerusalem [in A.D. 70], and during the interregnum which followed the
death of Nero [in A.D. 68].” For then “the beast - that is, the Roman Empire - was wounded.”
However, it “was soon to be revived” by the rapid A.D. 68 to 71 imperial successions of
Galba-Otho-Vitellius-Domitian, and by the subsequent and more stable A.D. 71 to 96 reigns
of Vespasian-Titus-Domitian.
274. “If there is some foundation for the early tradition of the intended oil-martyrdom
of John” as Tertullian points out - at Rome, and at the same time as the slayings of Peter and
Paul in that same city - “it would naturally point to the Neronian persecution, in which
Christians were covered with inflammable material and burned as torches. The unmistakable
allusions to imperial persecutions [in the book of Revelation] apply much better to Nero than
to Domitian.” Thus Schaff.
275. Edmunson too concludes: 103 “After the terrible experiences of the year 69 A.D.,
John escaped martyrdom.... There is a high level of probability that his deportation to Patmos
took place very early in the year 70 A.D. (in January or February), through a sentence passed
in Domitian’s name.”
276. Very soon after his arrival on Patmos, and still before the destruction of the
Jerusalem temple in the August of A.D. 70, John received the Apocalypse, recording it in
writing either then or later. Vespasian finally arrived back in Rome, and took over as
Emperor from his son Domitian in 71 A.D. Now functioning as Emperor, “Vespasian took as
his colleague, in[to] the Consulship, in 71 A.D., M. Cocceius Nerva.” Nerva was Consul
from A.D. 71. He became Emperor only after the A.D. 96 death of Domitian, and before the
commencement of the A.D. 98f reign of Emperor Trajan.
277. “Nerva,” explains Edmunson, “held office [as Consul] during the first nundinum
of 71 A.D.... It is permissible to believe that, in accordance with tradition, one of the
sentences quashed by him, was that which sent John to Patmos. If by an order of Nerva he
were now released, his exile would have lasted exactly one year.”
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278. Now John had been a free man before Nero became Emperor in A.D. 54. John
probably remained a free man, almost throughout Nero’s reign (or at least until the time Nero
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