Saviour? Able scholars, rationalistic as well as orthodox, have by thorough and patient investigation
discovered or fully confirmed its poetic beauty and grandeur, the consummate art in its plan and
execution. They have indeed not been able to clear up all the mysteries of this book, but have
strengthened rather than weakened its claim to the position which it has ever occupied in the canon
of the New Testament.
It is true, the sceptical critics who so confidently vindicate the apostolic origin of the
Apocalypse, derive from this very fact their strongest weapon against the apostolic origin of the
fourth Gospel. But the differences of language and spirit which have been urged are by no means
irreconcilable, and are overruled by stronger resemblances in the theology and christology and even
in the style of the two books. A proper estimate of John’s character enables us to see that he was
not only able, but eminently fitted to write both; especially if we take into consideration the
intervening distance of twenty or thirty years, the difference of the subject (prospective prophecy
in one, and retrospective history in the other), and the difference of the state of mind, now borne
along in ecstacy (ἐν πρεύματι) from vision to vision and recording what the Spirit dictated, now
calmly collecting his reminiscences in full, clear self-consciousness (ἐν νοΐ).^1255
The Time of Composition.
The traditional date of composition at the end of Domitian’s reign (95 or 96) rests on the
clear and weighty testimony of Irenaeus, is confirmed by Eusebius and Jerome, and has still its
learned defenders,^1256 but the internal evidence strongly favors an earlier date between the death of
Nero (June 9, 68) and the destruction of Jerusalem (August 10, 70).^1257 This helps us at the same
time more easily to explain the difference between the fiery energy of the Apocalypse and the calm
repose of the fourth Gospel, which was composed in extreme old age. The Apocalypse forms the
natural transition from the Synoptic Gospels to the fourth Gospel. The condition of the Seven
Churches was indeed different from that which existed a few years before when Paul wrote to the
Ephesians; but the movement in the apostolic age was very rapid. Six or seven years intervened to
account for the changes. The Epistle to the Hebrews implies a similar spiritual decline among its
readers in 63 or 64. Great revivals of religion are very apt to be quickly followed by a reaction of
worldliness or indifference.
The arguments for the early date are the following:- Jerusalem was still standing, and the seer was directed to measure the Temple and the
altar (Rev. 11:1), but the destruction is predicted as approaching. The Gentiles "shall tread
(πατήσουσιν) the holy city under foot forty and two months" (11:2; Comp. Luke 21:24), and the
"dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
(^1255) Comp. Rev. 1:10; 1 Cor. 14:15. See, besides the references mentioned at the head of the section, the testimony of Dr. Weiss,
who, in his Leben Jesu (1882), I. 97-101, ably discusses the difference, between the two books, and comes to the conclusion
that they are both from the same Apostle John. "Yes" (he says, with reference to a significant concession of Dr. Baur), "the fourth
Gospel is ’the spiritualized Apocalypse,’ but not because an intellectual hero of the second century followed the seer of the
Apocalypse, but because the Son of Thunder of the Apocalypse had been matured and transfigured by the Spirit and the divine
guidance into a mystic, and the flames of his youth had burnt down into the glow of a holy love."
(^1256) The great majority of older commentators, and among the recent ones Elliott, Alford, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Lange, Hofmann,
Godet, Lee, Milligan, and Warfield (in Schaff’s "Encycl." III. 2035). I myself formerly advocated the later date, in the Hist. of
the Ap. Church (1853), pp. 418 sqq
(^1257) The early date is advocated or accepted by Neander, Lücke, Bleek, Ewald, DeWette, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Reuss, Düsterdieck,
Renan, Aubé, Stuart, Davidson, Cowles, Bishop Lightfoot, Westoott, Holtzmann, Weiss; and among earlier writers by Alcasar,
Grotius, Hammond, Abauzit, and John Lightfoot.
A.D. 1-100.