 | Authorship of the Johannine works: Encyclopedia II - Authorship of the Johannine works - Revelation
Authorship of the Johannine works - Revelation
The author of the Book of Revelation identifies himself as "John", so that the book has been traditionally credited to John the Apostle. Evidence of this identification is found as early as Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Tryphon. Other witnesses to this tradition are Ireneus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian.
The first doubts about the apostolic authorship of the book came in the third century. The priest Caius of Rome (one of Epiphanius's "alogoi") identified the author as Cerinthus, whom he considered a heretic. Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria rejected apostolic authorship, but accepted the book's canonicity. More radically, in the fourth century, much of the Eastern Church rejected the book's canonicity. This viewpoint was shared by several Fathers of the Church, such as Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, and Theodoret. It was also rejected in Syria.
The question of canonicity was reopened in the West by the Reformers. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent, on the other hand, reaffirmed its canonicity. Most Christians today accept the book as part of the canon.
There are various affinities between the book and the Fourth Gospel: use of allegory, symbolism, and similar metaphors, such as "living water", "shepherd", "lamb", and "manna". However, the differences between the two are perhaps even more notable. The Book of Revelation does not go into several typically Johannine themes, such as light, darkness, truth, love, and "the world" in a negative sense. The eschatology of the two works is also very different.
Precise identification of an author is near impossible given the lack of evidence. Nonetheless, the work is normally assigned to the circle of disciples around the Apostle John. The date of composition is widely disputed. Ireneus cited the end of the reign of Domitian (this is repeated by Eusebius and Jerome). This is the most common opinion among those modern critics who consider the work to have been written as a whole. Nonetheless, Epiphanius cited composition in the reign of Claudius, and the Muratorian fragment suggests composition at the time of Nero.
Some exegetes (Touilleux, Gelin, Feuillet) distinguish two dates: publication (under Domitian) and date of the visions (under Vespasian). Various editors would have a hand in the formation of the document, according to these theories. The dating of the work is still widely debated in the scholarly community.
Other related archives382, Acts of the Apostles, Albert Schweitzer, Alexandria, Augustine, Authorship of the Pauline epistles, Book of Revelation, Cerinthus, Chapter 21, Christianity, Christology, Chronology of Jesus' birth and death, Claudius, Clement of Alexandria, Council of Rome, Council of Trent, Cyril of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Dead Sea Scrolls, Dionysius of Alexandria, Disciple whom Jesus loved, Domitian, Egyptian, English-speaking, Ephesus, Epiphanius, Essenes, Eusebius, F.C. Baur, First Council of Nicaea, German-speaking, Gnosticism, God, Gospel According to John, Gospel of John, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, Greek, Gregory Nazianzus, Hegel, Heracleon, Herod the Great, Higher criticism, Holy Spirit, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, Jerome, Jesus, Jews, John 21, John Chrysostom, John Mark, John the Apostle, John the Baptist, John the Divine, John the Evangelist, John the Presbyter, Julius Wellhausen, Justin Martyr, K.G. Bretschneider, Last Judgment, Last Supper, Lazarus, Logos, Mandaeanism, Mary Magdalene, Middle Ages, Montanism, Muratorian fragment, Nag Hammadi library, Nero, New Testament, Origen, Oxford, Palestine, Papias, Passover, Pauline, Persian, Philo Judaeus, Platonistic, Polycarp of Smyrna, Prester John, Ptolemy, Qumran, Reformers, Renan, Roman Catholic, Rudolf Bultmann, Rylands Library Papyrus P52, Sanhedrin, Secret Gospel of Mark, Semitic, Synoptic Gospels, Temple, Tertullian, Textual criticism, The Da Vinci Code, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, Thomas Aquinas, Valentinus, Vespasian, apologetic, baptismal, canonicity, catechesis, disciple whom Jesus loved, eschatology, first, heretic, higher criticism, mystery religions, philosophy, sacraments, second, third epistles of John, two-source hypothesis
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Revelation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
