Dating The Book of Revelation |

Dating The Book Of Revelation

By Steven Hawk

Some have discussed the idea of the dating/writing of Revelation being a post 70AD occurence citing historians “Polycarp”, “Eusebius” and “Irenaeus” which Lloyd addressed in his article John On Patmos. Hank Hanegraaf makes an important point: “It’s instructive to note that the late dating by Irenaeus for Revelation is largely dependant on a single ambiguous sentence in the writings of a church father named Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons. That sentence can be taken to mean either that John or that John’s apocalyptic vision was seen toward the end of Domitian’s reign. The credibility of Irenaeus as a source is called into question by his contention in the same volume that Jesus was crucified when he was about fifty years of age. I don’t think there are too many evangelicals that hold to that proposition”. While I agree with this statement, I would disagree with his other assertion on this topic, when he claims that the Apostle John makes no mention of the catastrophic event on apostate Judah. The Apostle John indeed does cite the event, only he prophesies it as a future event as we will soon see.

The Apostle John’s prophetic statements about the impending destruction upon the great whore unequivocally are predicted as future events. Revelation 1:1 one of several passages, makes this time statement, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass“. The demolition of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple at the hands of Titus as described in the Book of Revelation were prophesied to “shortly come to pass”.

Christ’s prophecy about the “temple and apostate Judah”…in Matthew 24:1-3 we read:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy prescence (original Greek word “parousia” important), and of the end of the world (“age”, my emphasis)?

…whether someone would argue that John was not referring directly but making indirect references to the destruction of Jerusalem in the several passages such as Revelation 12:10, 14:8, 15:5,8 (1 Peter 2:4-5, Eph 2:21 as in Rev 21:3 make reference to what would be now a living temple), Revelation 18:8-9,18,21, 19:6,21 20:2-3 all speak to to the demise of Babylon the Great which included the destruction of the old Jewish temple and system, of which the new could not be established while the old tabernacle was still standing Hebrews 9:8-9. Even without these references there would still be sufficient evidence to the early dating of the book.

When you consider that the apostle John did not make mention of this catastrophic event as a past fulfillment makes a late date totally implausible, especially since Jesus predicted it and considering the magnitude of the event makes it all the more inconcievable. A student of the Bible is well aware, when prophecy was fulfilled, the biblical writers mentioned it. And when the mother of all prophecies is fulfilled, it is inconceivable that John would not mention it as a past fulfillment, with that in mind it would seem the Book of Revelation had to be written before Judah’s destruction or pre AD70. Moreover from the standpoint of things which were to “shortly come to pass”, we do not seem to have anything of historical significance shortly after AD 95 that we know of which in itself would make the late date untenable.

Finally, what we have about Polycarp is purely speculative, there is nothing that actually declares the late dating. We don’t even know that Polycarp knew John except possibly by his own testimony and even that is suspect. If we stick with the Bible, the internal evidence tells us it could not have been written in AD95 as some claim. The Bible teaches in Revelation 11:1-3: Rev 11:1 And a reed like a rod was given to me, saying, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and the ones prostrating themselves in worship in it.Rev 11:2 “And leave out the court, the [one] outside of the temple, and do not measure it, because it was given to the nations [or, Gentiles], and they will trample the holy city forty and two months.

Rev 11:3 “And I will give [power] to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy a thousand, two hundred [and] sixty days, having been clothed with sackcloth.”

Historically we understand, through the works of Josephus, that the Gentiles were definitely in control of the outer court. If Revelation was written after AD70, how is it that John was to take a reed and measure the temple of God if the temple of God was not even existing? The temple was totally destroyed in AD70 approximately 40 years (a biblical generation Matthew 24:34) after Christ had predicted it to be, as noted in Matthew in the above passage, and it hasn’t even been built since. So, the Bible’s internal evidence of itself supports the fact that the book of Revelation was written prior to AD70, not AD95.

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