Seven churches

THE SEVEN CHURCHES
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29
Patmos
The name Patmos is erived from luxuriant palm groves of the Greece - Palmosa
– the land of the Palm Trees. This is a Greek translation of Indian word Kerala.
Patmos is a small island near Turkey which is about 8 miles long. It is 25 miles away from
the main coast and is essentially a mining township. Most of the workers in the mine were
political prisoners. John being very old - nearly 100 - probably was not forced into the
mine work and was left alone. Yet John was a political prisoner, a threat to the Rome - its
integrity and stable social system. Probably he was chained to the prison walls. But we do
not really have anything about the way he was treated in exile. John was exiled to this
island by Emperor Domitian who ruled Rome from A.D. 81 to 96. Iraneus who wrote about
this in A.D 170 declares that John saw this vision "towards the end of Domitian’s reign."
Hence we may date the vision at around A.D 96. Like most Roman emperors Domitian
claimed to be God. He rebuilt many shrines for Jupiter, Juno and Minerva at enormous
costs. His own image was excavated from Ephesus Temple where people probably
sacrificed to Domitian. We can therefore understand that Christians who refused to
sacrifice to their emperor were considered unpatriotic and aliens. Legend has it that John
was finally released from Patmos prisons and returned to Ephesus, his own parish and
died of old age in the year A.D 100. John was the last of the Apostles and the year A.D
100 brought to a close the Apostolic era of the church. It is interesting that John was the