Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 110
Gary responds to a recent video by Joel Richardson about a Roman coin that he claims “proves” that the book of Revelation was written during Domitian’s reign.
Quite a bit of diversity existed in early Christianity regarding the date that John wrote the book of Revelation, and the dominance of one opinion is not synonymous with unanimity of opinion. Several writers in recent years have noted that markedly different opinions about the date of Revelation abounded among early Christian writers. For example, Adela Yarbro Collins took notice of “traditions about the date of Revelation” that “were apparently independent of Irenaeus.”
More recently George Wesley Buchanan wrote that in the church fathers “there is no consistent agreement on the precise time when John lived and wrote.” In an earlier book, The Early Church and the End of the World co-authored with Gary DeMar, I categorized these various opinions regarding the date of Revelation under different headings, from “very early,” e.g., the time of Claudius, (41–54 A.D.) to “very late” during the reign of Trajan (98–117 A.D.).
This chapter and the next expand significantly upon that research. The two chapters provide passages from ancient and medieval texts, showing that there were at least ten different traditions favoring a date of the book of Revelation before 70 A.D. These interpretations all predate the seventeenth-century commentary of Luis Alcasar, which is regarded by many as the first preterist commentary of Revelation. In this chapter I have arranged the texts starting with those that portray the earliest dating of the Apocalypse around 30 A.D. to those which dated it about 53 A.D.
Revelation and the First Century
Criticisms against preterist interpretations of the book of Revelation elicit questions: Did any early and medieval Christian writers interpret the visions of Revelation in a preterist manner? Are preterist interpretations of the book of Revelation a modern, seventeenth century invention, as is claimed by some? This book answers these questions by providing selections from ancient and medieval commentaries on the book of Revelation, writings composed long before the seventeenth century. Many of these selections are translated into English here for the first time. All of the selections reflect the fact that some Christians in ancient and medieval times interpreted visions in the book of Revelation in a preterist fashion.
Buy NowGary responds to a recent video by Joel Richardson about a Roman coin that he claims “proves” that the book of Revelation was written during Domitian’s reign. Richardson challenges those who hold to an early date (i.e., before AD70) to answer his claims, even though he admits that the coin can’t actually prove a late date.
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