John of Patmos
- For John the apostle of Jesus, see John the Apostle.
Template:John
John of Patmos is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse of John) in the New Testament. According to the text of Revelation, the author, who gives his name as "John," is living in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. He writes to the seven Christian churches in Asia to warn them of various challenges and temptations that confront them, which have been revealed to him in a vision. He then relates several powerful visions he has had concerning the Last Days and the coming of Christ. John of Patmos is traditionally identified with John the Apostle and also known as John the Divine, or John the Theologian. However, many modern scholars believe him to be a different person.
Patmos
Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. John indicates that he exiled to this desolate location on account of an unspecified persecution, in which his fellow Christians have also been victimized, involving spreading the Gospel message and testifying to Jesus:
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."
Because of the island's association with John's suffering and his writing the Book of Revelation, Patmos became an important destination for Christian pilgrimage. Today, visitors can see the cave where John is said to have received his revelation, and several monasteries on the island are dedicated to Saint John.
John's biography and identity
Traditional view
The traditional view holds that John of Patmos is identical with John the Apostle—considered to have written the Gospel of John and Epistles of John. He was exiled to the island Patmos in the Aegean archipelago during the reign of Emperor Domitian or Nero, and wrote the Book of Revelation there. Those in favor of a single common author of the Johannine literature point to similarities between the Gospel of John and Revelation. For example, both works refer to Jesus as a lamb and possess a "high Christology," stressing Jesus' divine side as opposed to the human side stressed by the Synoptic Gospels. In both the Gospel of John and in Revelation, Jesus is referred to as "the Word of God" (Ő λογος του θεου). Explanations of the differences among John's supposed works include factoring in underlying purposes, the target audience, the author's collaboration with or utilization of different scribes, and John's advanced age of when he wrote Revelation.
Church Fathers
A number of Church Fathers expressed an opinion on the authorship of Revelation, most in the West favoring the view that John of Patmos was indeed John the Apostle, but some in the East expressing misgivings. Justin Martyr avowed his belief in the book's apostolic origin. Irenaeus (178 C.E.) likewise held the author of Revelation and the other Johannine literature to be the same. Irenaeus and others indicate that a sect called the "Alogi" denied the authenticity of Revelation, believing it to have been written not by John the Apostle but by the Gnostic teacher Cerinthus. Caius, a presbyter in Rome, helds a similar opinion. Eusebius quotes him as saying: "Cerinthus, by means of revelations which he pretended were written by a great Apostle, falsely pretended to wonderful things, asserting that after the resurrection there would be an earthly kingdom" (Hist. Eccl., III, 28). Theophilus of Antioch and Tertullian of Carthage, however both accepted the Book of Revelation as having been written by John the Apostle.
At the beginning of the third century, the book was accepted as apostolic by Clement of Alexandria and by Origen, later by Methodius, Cyprian, and Lactantius. Origen's disciple Dionysius of Alexandria (247 C.E.), however, rejected the book on the grounds that, although it was the work of an inspired man, he was not John the Apostle (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VII, 25). Some other authorities, especially in the Eastern Church, also rejected the book and thus denied that it could have been written by John the Apostle. The church historian Eusebius (315 C.E.) suspended his judgment, categorizing the book's apostolic origins as disputed. He contents himself with the statement: "The Apocalypse is by some accepted among the canonical books but by others rejected" (Hist. Eccl., III, 25).
During the fourth and fifth centuries the tendency to exclude the Apocalypse from the list of sacred books continued to increase in the Syro-Palestinian churches. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem does not name it among the canonical books (Catech. IV, 33-36); nor does it occur on the list of the Synod of Laodicea, or on that of Gregory of Nazianzus. It is also excluded from the Peshito, the Syrian version of the New Testament. In the West, Saint Jerome also expressed doubts that John of Patmos was truly John the Apostle.
Modern criticism
With the advent of modern biblical criticism, many scholars, both secular and Christian, came to believe that John the Apostle, John the Evangelist (who wrote the Gospel of John), and John of Patmos refer to three separate individuals.
In contrast to the author of the Gospel of John, John of Patmos speaks as Jewish Christian. He speaks of Jesus as "the holy and true one" that "holds the key of David" (3:7) and condemns the anti-Jewish attitude of the Pauline churches. They point to several lines of evidence suggesting that John of Patmos wrote only Revelation, not the Gospel of John nor the epistles of John. For one, the author of Revelation identifies himself as "John" several times, but the author of the Gospel of John and the writer of the epistles of "John" never identify themselves by name. Also, while both the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation liken Jesus to a lamb, they consistently use different words for lamb when referring to him—the Gospel uses amnos, Revelation uses arnion. Lastly, the Gospel of John is written in nearly flawless Greek, but Revelation contains grammatical errors and stylistic abnormalities which indicate its author was not as familiar with the Greek language as the Gospel's author.
Date
Scholars of both critical and traditional orientation agree that John of Patmos appears to have been in some type of imposed exile and that he wrote during a period when the Christian churches were experiencing persecution. According to early tradition, John wrote near the end of Domitian's reign, around 95 or 96 C.E. Others contend for an earlier date, 68 or 69, in the reign of Nero or shortly thereafter. The majority of modern scholars also use these dates.
Those in favor of the later date cite the external testimony of Irenaeus (d. 185), who stated that he had received information about the book from those who had seen John face to face. He says John recorded his revelation "almost in our day, toward the end of Domitian's reign" (A.H. 5.30.3). According to Eusebius, Domitian had started the persecution referred to in the book. Many scholars agree that the famous number 666, identifying the "Beast" of Revelation, refers to Nero. However those favoring a late date see this reference as an allegory, with Nero symbolizing a later tyrant, such as Domitian.
See also
- Authorship of the Johannine works
- Revelation - Authorship
Notes
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