Latest / Reformed Thinking / Authorship of Revelation | C. Marvin Pate

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Authorship of Revelation | C. Marvin Pate · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you uncover an ancient, terrifying manuscript.
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It is filled with a vivid, chaotic imagery.
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We are talking about multi headed beasts, falling stars,
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cosmic battles, and you know, predictions about the end of the
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world as we know it. And it is signed by a very
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famous man. Right, But there is a massive
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problem. The brightest minds of the
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ancient world are looking at this document and they are
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screaming that it has to be a forgery.
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Oh yeah, they say the grammar is just a complete disaster.
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Yeah, they say the vocabulary is completely wrong compared to
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everything else this man has ever written.
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So you as a reader, well, you have a choice.
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Do you trust the signature on the document, or do you trust
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the ancient scholars who say the linguistic math just does not
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add up? It really is the ultimate
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historical cold case. I mean, you have ancient
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testimony colliding head on with textual forensics.
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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I am thrilled you are joining us
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for today's Deep Dive. We are taking a shortcut through
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the historical detective work behind one of the most debated,
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scrutinized and frankly misunderstood texts in all of
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antiquity. We are talking, of course, about
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the Book of Revelation. We are basing our entire
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investigation today on the rigorous, objective scholarship
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found in excerpts from, see Marvin Pate's book, The Writings
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of John. If you want to be well informed
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about the origins, the genuine authorship and the concrete
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historical grounding of This Ain't You Vision, well, you are
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in the right place. It is going to be a fascinating
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discussion. OK, let's unpack this, because
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pay starts by tearing down a very common assumption about how
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apocalyptic literature actually operates.
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He certainly does, and we really have to start there, because to
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figure out who wrote this text, we first have to understand the
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specific nature of the text itself.
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That makes a lot of sense. When modern readers pick up
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Revelation, they often lump it into a broad, generic bucket of
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ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature.
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We tend to think all ancient doomsday writings follow the
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same rule book. Like they all use the same
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template. Spot on.
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But Pate points out that Revelation operates on a
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completely different frequency. For starters, it is not
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pseudonymous. Wait, let's pause and translate
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that pseudonymous meaning written under a false name,
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right? Like a pen name?
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That is correct, or more accurately, in the ancient
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world, a forge name of a highly respected historical figure.
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Oh wow, so they were basically stealing identities?
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Essentially, yes. In antiquity, if you were
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writing an apocalyptic text, it was incredibly common, almost
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expected to hide your true identity.
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You would attribute your fresh manuscript as someone from the
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distant, revered past. So a writer in the 1st century
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might claim their new book was actually written by Moses.
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Or Abraham. Or Enoch.
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Yes. So it was an ancient marketing
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strategy. You want people to take your new
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vision seriously, so you slap the name Moses on it to give it
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immediate, unquestionable authority.
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That is precisely what it was. It was a recognized literary
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convention of the era. But the author of Revelation
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does not play that game. He completely breaks the mold.
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He clearly and explicitly states his own name, John, right there
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in the opening sentence. Revelation 1.1.
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He doesn't try to hide behind a patriarch.
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Not at all. And he does not just do it once.
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He repeats it at the end of the text in chapter 22, verse 8.
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He takes personal contemporary ownership of the vision.
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That is a massive distinction, and there is another convention
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of that ancient genre that John completely ignores, which is
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this concept of vatisinia ex eventu.
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Yes, that is a big one. For anyone who does not speak
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Latin at the breakfast table, let's break that down.
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It translates roughly to prophecies after the fact.
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Right, you got it. This is a crucial concept to
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grasp it if we want understand ancient literature.
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Fetasenia ex eventu was a highly popular literary trick.
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Let me make sure I have the mechanics of this trick right.
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Let's say I am an author living in the year 100 BC.
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OK, I am with you. I write a book, but I claim to
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be a famous patriarch who lived 1000 years earlier, say in 1100
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BC. Right, using that pseudonymous
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strategy we just talked about. Then, speaking in the voice of
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that ancient patriarch, I write down a prophecy about the rise
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of the Greek Empire and Alexander the Great.
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Which from your actual standpoint in 100 BC is just
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history. It already happened.
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Right. But to the reader who believes
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the book was written in 1100 BC, well, it looks like an
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impossibly accurate prediction of the future it.
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Looks miraculous. I am essentially betting on a
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sports game after I've already watched the recording.
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I manufacture predictive credibility.
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I write down history, call it a prophecy, and when the reader
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that my ancient prediction came true, Florida State, they are
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completely primed to believe whatever actual future
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predictions I decide to make later in the book.
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It was a highly effective rhetorical device, and it was
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everywhere in ancient apocalyptic writings.
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It built trust through chronological deception, that
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is. Wild but.
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Paytay highlights that John entirely rejects that procedure.
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John does not use this trick at all.
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It plays it straight. Yes, he firmly plants himself in
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the contemporary world of the 1st century AD.
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He does not pretend to be an ancient figure predicting the
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rise of the Roman Empire from centuries past.
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I mean, he is writing openly as a man currently living under the
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heavy, dangerous shadow of that very empire.
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Precisely. He is not hiding behind the
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historical mask. He is saying I am here right now
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in the middle of this mess with you.
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Furthermore, Pate points out that John's entire theological
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outlook is fundamentally different from his
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contemporaries. It really is.
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Many apocalyptic writers in that era were thoroughly pessimistic
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about God intervening in present history.
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They had given up on the current world.
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Pretty much. They looked around, saw the
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oppression, and concluded that the current world was entirely
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lost, completely irredeemable. For them, all hope belong to
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some distant, abstract future reality.
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But John does not see it that way.
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Not at all. John views the eschatological
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consummation, which is a dense theological phrase for the final
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wrap up of human history, the end of the world as we know it,
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right? He views it in the same manner
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as the classic Old Testament prophets.
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It is not a distant, disconnected fantasy for John
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that consummation has already begun breaking into human
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history. How does he see it breaking in?
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It is an actor process initiated by a specific literal historical
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event, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Oh wow, so the victory has already been secure in history,
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even if the final implications are still playing out.
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Spot on. That theological grounding
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changes everything about how the text is written.
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I think about it like modern communication.
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If you receive a generic chain letter in your inbox, it has no
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date, no specific sender. It just floats in the ether,
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disconnected from reality. That is a great comparison.
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You could read it in 1995, or you could read it in 2025, and
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it feels the exact same. It is untethered.
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But Revelation is not a chain letter.
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It has what scholars call an epistolary framework.
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Yes, the structure itself screams that it is a genuine
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historical artifact. Paint notes there is a formal
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prescript in chapter 1, verses 4 through 8.
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And a prescript in ancient letter writing is like the
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header of an e-mail. That is a good way to picture
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it. It contains all the typical
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required components of ancient correspondence.
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It identifies the sender, it names the addressees, it offers
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a formal greeting, and it includes a doxology.
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And then there's a sign off at the end too.
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Yes, there was a corresponding postscript at the end of Chapter
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22 summarizing the body of the writing and offering a final
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sign off, plus the most critical piece of evidence.
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He is writing directly to seven actual geographical concrete
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churches located in the Roman province of Asia.
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Places like Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, these were bustling
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real world hubs of commerce and politics.
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He is addressing specific local issues in those cities.
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Right, this is direct targeted correspondence.
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That analogy of the specific e-mail captures the structural
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reality perfectly. So the format itself grounds it
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in history, yes. That epistolary framework alone
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sets it totally apart from other apocalyptic materials.
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The combined effect of that prescript, the postscript, and
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the direct, individualized letters to the seven churches is
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to root revelation entirely in the tangible history of its day.
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Pay provides a really striking contrast with another ancient
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text. 1 Enoch, doesn't he? He does one Enoch is one of
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those highly influential pseudonymous apocalyptic books
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we mentioned earlier. The ones that use a fake ancient
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name. Correct.
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In First Enoch chapter one, verse 2, the text explicitly
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states that the vision the author saw was not for this
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generation, but the distant one that is coming.
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Wow, he just flat out says it. He deliberately detaches the
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text from its immediate contemporary audience.
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He basically says this isn't for you guys, it's for people
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centuries from now. Which is, frankly, a very
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convenient way to explain why no one in the current generation
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has ever heard of this supposedly ancient book.
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That is a very astute observation, but Revelation does
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the precise opposite. It demands to be read, heard and
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acted upon by the people of that specific 1st century generation.
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The people living in those specific Roman cities.
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Yes, it is bursting with immediate urgency.
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OK, so since the text itself is practically screaming I am a
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real letter written to real people at a specific time by a
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real man named John, well, the next logical step in our
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investigation seems pretty straightforward.
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Where are we going next? If I send an e-mail, the people
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on my contact list know it is me.
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So what did the ancient contact list have to say?
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Did the people who live closest to that era actually believe the
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Apostle John wrote it? The external evidence, meaning
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the testimony of the early Church Fathers who lived in the
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decades and centuries immediately following the text's
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composition, is overwhelming. It is not really a debate for
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them. Not initially, no.
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Yeah, it is nearly unanimous in favor of the opinion that the
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Apostle John was indeed the author.
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When historians look for corroborating testimony, they
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look for witnesses who are as close to the event as possible.
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Right. You want the people who are
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actually there, or at least knew the people who were there.
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And Pate lists the absolute heavyweights of early Christian
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history validating this claim. Who are we talking about here?
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We are looking at figures like Papias, Justin Martyr, the
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anonymous author of the Meritorian fragment, Irenaeus,
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Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolitus, Origen
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and Methodius. I want to pause on that list
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because, you know, to a casual listener, those might just sound
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like a bunch of dusty ancient names.
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They often do. But in the context of historical
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verification, those names carry massive weight.
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We are not talking about isolated scholars writing from a
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different continent 500 years later.
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No, we're talking about individuals with intense
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geographical and chronological proximity to the original
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recipients of the letter. Take Irenaeus for example.
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Irenaeus is a spectacular example of this proximity.
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He spent his early life in Smyrna, right?
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Yes, he did. And Smyrna is literally one of
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the seven cities directly addressed in the Book of
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Revelation. He grew up in the exact zip code
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where this letter was received. And not only that, he actually
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knew Polycarp. Yes, Polycarp was the Bishop of
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Smyrna, and the historical record strongly indicates that
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Polycarp was personally mentored by the Apostle John himself.
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Let that sink in. The chain of custody is
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incredibly tight. So we are not playing a massive
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centuries long game of telephone here.
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We are looking at a direct, verifiable chain.
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John teaches polycarp. Polycarp teaches Irenaeus.
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And then Irenaeus writes it down.
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So when Irenaeus writes down that the Apostle John authored
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Revelation, he is not guessing. He is drawing on the direct
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institutional memory of his own hometown and his own mentor.
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That geographical and relational proximity is a crucial factor in
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historical authentication. The acceptance of johannian
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authorship. Meaning, authored by John, was
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directly and inextricably tied to the book's canonicity among
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the early Church Fathers. Meaning, because they believed
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John wrote it, they accepted it as official scripture.
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Precisely if they had doubted the author, they would have
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rejected the book. The early Church had a very high
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bar for what they considered canonical.
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And this consensus was widespread.
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The consensus was massive, and it stretched across wildly
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different geographically isolated regions of the Roman
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Empire. You have testimony from Gaul in
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modern day France, from North Africa, from Alexandria in Egypt
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and from Asia Minor. And they all independently
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agreed. They did.
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However, in any rigorous historical investigation, we
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must examine the dissenting voices.
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We cannot just look at the people who agree.
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Right, because history is rarely 100% uniform.
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Somebody always has an objection.
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Always. So who is looking at this
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overwhelming consensus and saying hold on, I don't buy it?
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Paige points out that there were notable, highly influential
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exceptions to this consensus. The primary skeptic was a man
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named Dionysius. Who was he?
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He was the Bishop of Alexandria. He lived from roughly AD 2047 to
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264, and his arguments were so potent that they later heavily
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persuaded Eusebius, who is widely considered the father of
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Church history. Now, Alexandria was a massive
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intellectual hub in the ancient world.
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It had the famous library. It was the center of critical
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scholarship. Yes, it was an incredibly
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academic environment. So Dionysius was not just some
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uneducated contrarian. If the historical consensus from
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people like Irenaeus was so incredibly strong, Dionysus must
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have had some deeply compelling analytical reasons to object.
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He wasn't just being contrary for the sake of it.
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No, he was a very careful reader.
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He looked at the actual Greek text and saw things that
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troubled his scholarly mind. And that naturally moves our
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investigation away from the external voices of history and
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forces us to look under the hood at the internal mechanics of the
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text itself. Here's where it gets really
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interesting, because Dionysius formulated 4 very specific,
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highly analytical internal arguments against the apostle
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John writing Revelation. He was very methodical about it.
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Let's look at his first argument.
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Dionysius's first argument centers on the mechanics of self
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identification. He correctly observed A glaring
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discrepancy. What was the discrepancy?
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Revelation explicitly names its author as John multiple times in
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one point, 11.41.9 and 22.8. However, when you read the
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Gospel of John, or when you read the three smaller epistles of
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John, the other never explicitly names himself.
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That is true. He calls himself the disciple
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whom Jesus loved, or the elder. Right, but he never drops the
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name John. So Dionysius is looking at this
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and thinking, if this is the same guy, why is he suddenly
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using his actual name here when he went out of his way to be
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anonymous in his other four books?
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That was his thought process. Dionysius assumed that if the
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apostle John had written Revelation, he would not have
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felt any sudden compulsion to identify himself by name, since
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he demonstrably avoided doing so in his Gospel and letters.
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So what was his conclusion? Dionysius concluded that
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Revelation must have been written by a different John,
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maybe a guy named John the Elder, or just some other
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prominent Christian leader named John, but not the apostle.
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I understand it's thought process, I really do.
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But that logic feels incredibly fragile.
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It relies entirely on an argument from silence.
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Yes, and that is an exceptionally weak foundation
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for a definitive historical claim.
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It's a classic logical fallacy in historical studies.
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You cannot. Definitively prove a negative
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based on the absence of a behavior in a different context.
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You really can't. Just because I do not sign my
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name on a casual everyday sticky note I leave on the fridge for
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my spouse does not mean I am not going to sign my full legal name
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on a mortgage document. That is a perfect analogy.
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The context changes the behavior.
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Furthermore points out that the social dynamics of how the name
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is actually used in Revelation work entirely against Dionysus.
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How so? Walk me through that.
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Look at what the author actually says.
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He simply says John. He does not say John the supreme
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Apostle, or John the chief elder of Ephesus, or John the guy who
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walked with Jesus. That is a very good point.
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He attaches absolutely no grand titles.
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No defensive credentials, no resume to his name at all.
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To write a sweeping, commanding, authoritative letter correcting
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the behavior of seven major metropolitan cities and to just
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sign it John, while it implies that this person possessed an
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undeniable, universally recognized authority.
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He was already intimately known by the churches in Asia Minor.
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Yes, that level of quiet, unadorned authority actually
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lends heavy credibility to it being the apostle himself.
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A lesser known John would have had to explain who he was to get
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them to listen. That is a brilliant observation
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regarding the social and relational dynamics of the 1st
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century. You only use a single name if
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everyone already knows who you are.
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Like Madonna or Prince? Precisely, Paters also
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highlights that, as we discussed earlier, genre dictates form.
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The apocalyptic nature of the book likely necessitated the
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author identifying himself to ground the fantastic visions in
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a credible, known source. Whereas a historical gospel
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might not require the same authorial intrusion.
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Right, so Dionysus's first argument, while observant, falls
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flat logically. OK, so argument 1 is a bust.
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What was his second argument? His second argument moves from
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naming conventions into theological construction.
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OK. Dionysus argued that revelation
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fundamentally lacks the hallmark theological signatures of the
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apostle John. Specifically, he pointed out
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that Revelation does not begin with the identification of Jesus
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as the Word or the Logos. Like we see in the Gospel of
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John. Yes.
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Nor does it begin with the author's clear, tangible
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eyewitness vantage point. He is comparing the opening of
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Revelation to the opening of the Gospel of John, which famously
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starts with in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
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God. Yes, and he's also comparing it
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to the First Epistle of John. How does that one open?
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That epistle opens by forcefully declaring that the author is
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writing about what they have heard, what we have seen with
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our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.
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Like very physical. Dionysius claimed those massive
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the defining Johannian themes, the logos and the physical
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eyewitness testimony, were completely missing from the
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opening of Revelation. But wait, did Dionysus just read
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the text too quickly? Because when you actually slow
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down and look closely at the first few sentences of
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revelation, that claim completely unravels.
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It does unravel almost immediately.
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Pate refutes Dionysius's claim by pointing directly to
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Revelation chapter one, verse 2. What does that verse say?
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In that single verse, the author explicitly the Word of God with
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the testimony of Jesus Christ. The concept of the Logos is
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absolutely present right there in the opening breath of the
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book. So Dionysius was looking for a
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carbon copy of the Gospel's phrasing, and because he didn't
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find the exact same sentence structure, he assumed the
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theology was missing. That is precisely what happened.
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He confused a variation in expression with an absence of
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theology. That is a big academic mistake.
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Furthermore, Dionysius entirely missed the immense theological
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weight attached to the concept of being a witness in
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Revelation. In the original Greek, this is
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the concept of martyria. Let's translate that for the
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listener, because that sounds an awful lot like where we get the
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English word martyr. It is the exact root of that
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word. In the ancient Greek legal
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context, martyria meant bearing witness to a fact, giving a
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factual testimony, often in a court of law.
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So it wasn't originally about dying.
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No, not at first. Over time, because early
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Christians were killed for giving their testimony about
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Jesus, the word evolved to mean someone who dies for their
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faith. That makes sense.
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But in John's writings, it primarily retains that legal
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factual urgency of bearing witness to what is true.
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Revelation 1.2 and 22.16 heavily featured this specific idea of
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bearing witness to what was seen in the vision.
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Which perfectly mirrors the heavy, relentless focus on
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witnessing found throughout the Gospel of John and the Epistles.
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It really does. The Gospel is constantly talking
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about John the Baptist being a witness, or the miracles being a
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witness, or the author himself bearing witness.
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So the theological construction, upon closer inspection, shares a
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highly distinct specialized conceptual framework with the
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other Johannian literature. Precisely so.
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Dionysius's first two arguments, the self identification and the
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theological construction, fail when we actually analyze the
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mechanics of the text, the social dynamics, and the genre
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conventions. But he had four arguments,
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right? Yes, and his next two arguments
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require a much closer, more forensic look.
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He moved away from broad theological themes and started
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auditing the actual mathematical vocabulary and the grammatical
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syntax of the document. And this is where the detective
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work gets incredibly granular. Dionysus essentially pulls out a
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spreadsheet, or you know, the ancient papyrus equivalent, and
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starts counting words. This brings us to Dionysius
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third argument, which is a detailed, rigorous vocabulary
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audit. What did he find?
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Dionysius maintained that the vocabulary of Revelation differs
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so significantly from the genuine Yahaneen writings that
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it is impossible for them to share an author.
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He actually made a list, didn't he?
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He did. He compiled a list of 19
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specific Greek terms. He argued that these 19 words
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are absolute hallmarks of the Gospel and Epistles, words John
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uses all the time. And he claimed these terms are
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entirely 100% missing from Revelation.
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And for a long time in church history, this was considered a
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devastating critique. It was viewed as a very strong
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point. I mean, it looks like hard
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objective data 19 missing words a lot.
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But let's walk through Paytas systematic dismantling of this
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vocabulary claim, because it is fascinating to see how ancient
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scholarship holds up against modern digital textual analysis.
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The comparison is quite revealing.
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Wait, if Dionysius claimed 19 specific Hallmark words were
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missing, is he just right or did modern scholarship find a
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massive flaw in his math? It found a massive flaw.
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Out of those 19 supposedly missing terms that Dionysius
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confidently listed, Pity points out that 12 of them actually do
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appear in Revelation. 12 out of 19.
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That is a terrible grading curve.
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It really is. And we are not talking about
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obscure, easily overlooked conjunctions or prepositions
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either. No, we are talking about
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crucial, highly significant theological terms, words like
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life, Zoe in Greek blood, hema, judgment, crisis and devil
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diabolosity. Yes, Dionysius claimed these
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were completely missing. Yet anyone who has read
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Revelation knows that the concept of life is everywhere.
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The tree of life, the water of life.
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The imagery of blood is central to the apocalyptic visions, too.
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And judgement is the primary action of the entire book, and
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the devil is the main antagonist.
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Dionysius simply missed them. He.
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Just missed them. How does a brilliant scholar
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sitting in the intellectual capital of the ancient world
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miss the word devil in the Book of Revelation?
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It is a stark reminder of the extreme physical limitations of
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ancient textual study. We have to understand the
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mechanics of how Dionysius was reading.
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He didn't have a searchable PDF. He did not have a digital
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concordance. He could not hit control F on a
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keyboard to run a word search across the entire New Testament.
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Right, he is reading off a physical scroll or an early
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codex. Exactly, and Greek manuscripts
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of that era were often written in what is called
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Scriptiocontinua. What does that mean for the
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reader? It means there were no spaces
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between the words, no punctuation, no lowercase
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letters, just a continuous solid block of uppercase Greek text.
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Oh wow, that sounds awful to read.
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Manually scanning a 22 chapter document in that format to
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verify the absence of a specific word is an incredibly tedious,
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error prone task. So he was relying heavily on his
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own memory and visual standing. Yes, the fact that twelve of his
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19 words are indeed present severely weakens his entire
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methodology. OK, so 12 words are actually
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there, he was just wrong. But what about the remaining 7
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words on his list? It goes further and analyzes
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those remaining. 7 Three of those terms, forgiveness,
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Antichrist, and adoption, do not even occur in the Gospel of John
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either. What?
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Yes, and another term, conviction, is entirely absent
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from the First Epistle of John. Wait, so Dionysius was holding
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Revelation to a vocabulary standard that the Gospel and the
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Epistles themselves do not even meet?
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It appears so. He is saying Revelation can't be
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by John because it doesn't use the word Antichrist.
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But John doesn't even use the word Antichrist in his own
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gospel. That is wildly inconsistent
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criteria. It was a flawed standard.
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That leaves us with just three words from the original list of
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19. Let's hear them.
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Pate notes that while the specific Greek word for truth
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might be missing in Revelation, it's direct recognized synonym
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genuine is used repeatedly to convey the exact same
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theological concept. So that takes care of truth.
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What about the others? The word joy is missing in
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Revelation, but as Pay points out, joy only appears one single
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time in each of the three letters of John anyway.
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It is hardly a ubiquitous mandatory requirement for
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Johannian authorship if he barely uses it in his other
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letters. Spot on.
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So we started with a mountain of 19 missing words. 12 were
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actually there. Four aren't even consistent
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across the other books. 2 are easily explained by synonyms or
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low frequency. What is left when Pate finishes
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auditing Dionysus's list? The entire imposing argument
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collapses down to a single solitary word, Darkness.
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One word. One word that is the only term
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that occurs frequently in the other Johannian writings, but is
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demonstrably absent in Revelation.
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And as Paige concludes, one single missing word is hardly
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enough evidence upon which to base a major sweeping
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distinction in authorship. It is just not enough data.
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The grand vocabulary argument simply does not hold up under
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careful modern scrutiny. OK, so the vocabulary math was
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wrong, but that brings us to Dionysius 4th and final point.
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And honestly, for many people, even modern scholars today, this
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feels like his strongest, most visceral argument.
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It's a very persistent critique. Dionysius claimed that
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Revelation is written in poor Greek, whereas the Gospel and
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the letters use a good Greek style.
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And he is objectively correct about the linguistic data.
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Really. Yes, The grammar and revelation
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is remarkably rough. It breaks conventional rules of
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syntax. It uses jarring grammatical
26:25
constructions. The tenses sometimes clash.
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So the Greek is actually bad. Compared to the smooth flowing,
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elevated Greek of the Gospel of John, Revelation reads like it
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was written by someone who is either uneducated or severely
26:39
distracted. So let me play devil's advocate
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here. If the Greek in Revelation is
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terrible and the Greek in the Gospel of John is beautiful,
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doesn't common sense dictate that it has to be two different
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authors? How can one man write a
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masterpiece of grammar one day and a grammatical disaster the
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next? It is a highly valid question,
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and the linguistic roughness of Revelation cannot be ignored.
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However, Pate provides 3 historical and contextual
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answers that resolve this discrepancy perfectly without
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abandoning the Apostle John as the author.
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I am eager to hear these. First, on a basic human level,
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an author's writing style is not always perfectly consistent
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across their entire lifetime or across different moods.
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True, a diary entry looks different than a published
27:22
essay. Exactly.
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Second, we have to consider the demands of the genre.
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How does the genre affect the grammar?
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Apocalyptic writing, with its vivid, jarring, fast-paced and
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otherworldly visions, might naturally demand different, more
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chaotic stylistic choices than a structured, contemplative
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historical narrative like a gospel or a calm pastoral
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letter. The form matches the content.
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Yes, but the third reason Pate gives is the one I find
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completely fascinating. It revolves around the physical,
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geographical setting of the writing and it paints such a
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vivid historical picture. What is it?
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It is the amanuensis theory. Let's unpack that term.
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In the ancient world, prominent figures, leaders and authors
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almost always used in amanuensis, which is a
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professional secretary or scribe.
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Writing wasn't as easy as grabbing a ballpoint pen.
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Far from it. The materials were expensive.
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The act of writing was physically demanding, so you
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hired a professional. The Apostle Paul used them
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regularly. He explicitly mentions a man
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named Tertius who physically wrote down the letter to the
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Romans for. Him and Peter mentions using
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Silas as a scribe, right? He does so.
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The standard operating procedure for a prominent leader like the
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Apostle John living in the comfortable, established city of
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Ephesus would be to use a highly skilled bilingual emanuensis to
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compose his gospel and his epistles.
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That would be the expectation. John would dictate the sweeping
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theological concepts and the professional secretary would
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ensure the Greek syntax was flawless, the grammar was
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polished and the vocabulary was elevated.
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That was the absolute standard practice for literary production
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in antiquity. The polished Greek of the Gospel
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is likely the combined effort of John's mind and a professional
29:04
scribes pen. But the physical situation for
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the composition of Revelation was drastically, violently
29:10
different. It was a completely different
29:12
scenario. We have to look at the internal
29:14
evidence of where he was. Enter the scene based on
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Revelation 1.9. John is not sitting in a
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comfortable, well lit study in Ephesus surrounded by
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assistants. No, he is far from Ephesus.
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He has been exiled to the island of Patmos.
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And Patmos was not a vacation resort.
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No, it was a rugged, barren, isolated rock in the agency.
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The Romans frequently used it as a penal colony, a place to
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banish political dissidents and religious troublemakers to do
29:40
hard labor. It was a brutal environment.
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John has been ripped away from his community.
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He has been stripped of his resources, his library and,
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critically, his editorial assistants.
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He has no aminuensis. He is an older man isolated on a
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rocky island under state punishment.
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He is experiencing these massive, overwhelming,
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terrifying and urgent visions. And he is likely writing them
30:02
down himself. Perhaps in a rush, perhaps in
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poor lighting without the luxury of revision.
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Without his usual professional scribe there to smooth out the
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syntax, correct the verb tenses and Polish the vocabulary, of
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course the resulting text is going to reflect poor Greek.
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It is raw, unedited dictation from a man surviving in exile.
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What's fascinating here is how the harsh physical constraints
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of history perfectly aligned with and explained the anomalous
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linguistic data. It makes perfect sense when you
30:29
look at the geography. When you weigh the external,
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near unanimous consensus of the early Church Fathers, the shared
30:36
theological concepts of witness and the word, and the entirely
30:39
plausible historical explanations for the vocabulary
30:42
and stylistic differences, specifically the Emanuensis
30:45
theory, the internal and external evidence solidly point
30:49
back to the Apostle John. The evidence is not contradict.
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It converges beautifully. Placing John alone on a rocky
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Roman penal colony naturally begs the next massive question
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for our investigation. Which is.
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When exactly was he trapped on that island?
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Because determining the date of his exile is the final
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historical piece of this puzzle, and it dictates how we read and
31:11
interpret the entire book. Establishing the date and the
31:14
specific historical setting is integral to interpreting the
31:18
text as page shows. Why does the date matter so
31:20
much? The historical context provides
31:22
the necessary lens through which the original 1st century
31:25
audience would have understood the bizarre apples, the
31:28
political critiques, and the urgency of the letter.
31:30
So what are our options for the date?
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Pedi outlines that there are two primary competing candidates for
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the historical setting of Revelation.
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The first candidate is the reign of Emperor Nero.
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That would place the writing specifically between 8054 and
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68, with a particular focus on the aftermath of the Great Fire
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of Rome, which happened in 1864. Correct.
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During Nero's reign, the persecution of Christians was
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intense and incredibly violent, but it was largely localized to
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the city of Rome itself. What sparked it?
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The Roman historian Tacitus tells us that Nero needed a
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scapegoat for the fire that destroyed much of the city, so
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he blamed the small, misunderstood Christian
32:10
community. This led to horrific, gruesome
32:13
executions. It did.
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If the Book of Revelation was written during this window, it
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is a visceral response to that specific sudden, traumatizing
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violence. The symbols would be read as
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direct references to Nero's madness.
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But there is a second candidate for the date which pushes the
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timeline decades later. Yes, the 2nd and arguably more
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widely accepted candidate among many scholars is the time of the
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mission's reign. When was that?
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That ran from 8081 to 96, with a focus particularly on the final
32:42
few years of his increasingly tyrannical rule.
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How was the persecution under de Mission different from the
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madness of Nero? During de Mission's era, the
32:51
nature of the tension shifted from localized scapegoating to
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systemic bureaucratic oppression.
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Less random violence, more legislation.
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Yes, de Mission was known for his aggressive empire wide
33:03
promotion of the Imperial cult. He demanded to be addressed as
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dominus, eduist, Lord and God. He weaponized emperor worship.
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Exactly. The pressure on Christians was
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less about being randomly blamed for a fire in Rome and much more
33:17
about a systemic legal demand to participate in idolatrous
33:20
emperor worship. And this was happening where
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John was. This is particularly intense in
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the province of Asia, precisely where the seven churches
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addressed in Revelation were located.
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So it affected their daily lives.
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To participate in the local economy, to buy and sell in the
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trade guilds, you often had to offer a pinch of incense to the
33:36
image of the emperor. And if you refused, claiming
33:39
that only Jesus is Lord, you were economically ostracized,
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imprisoned, or exiled, just like John on Patmos.
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Yes. So whether the dark shadow
33:48
looming over the text is the sudden mad violence of Nero or
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the cold, systemic, idolatrous legislation of demission
33:56
drastically shifts how a reader understands the immediate
33:59
context of the early church's struggle.
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It changes how we interpret the political and economic tensions
34:05
John is addressing in these seven specific cities.
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So what does this all mean? It means a lot for how we
34:10
approach the text today. It means that to truly
34:12
understand this book, you cannot just treat it as a floating
34:15
piece of abstract mysticism or a generic doomsday prediction.
34:19
The meticulous historical work required to authenticate its
34:22
authorship, to understand the lack of a secretary, and to
34:26
pinpoint its date proves that Revelation is firmly anchored in
34:29
objective history. It is grounded in reality.
34:31
It is tied to real Roman emperors, real rocky islands,
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real economic oppression and real human suffering.
34:37
To synthesize our investigation, today we have seen that
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Revelation is not a pseudonymous fiction, but a carefully
34:43
constructed letter addressed to real churches by a known leader.
34:48
The early church knew who wrote it.
34:49
The early Christian community who lived geographically closest
34:53
to the source overwhelmingly affirmed the apostle John as the
34:56
author. And when we examine the sharp,
34:59
dissenting voice of Dionysius, his internal critiques regarding
35:02
vocabulary and style fell apart once we accurately accounted for
35:06
the apocalyptic genre, the ancient necessity of
35:09
secretaries, and the harsh, unfiltered realities of John's
35:13
physical exile. I want to leave you with a final
35:16
thought to consider something that builds directly on the
35:18
evidence we have investigated today.
35:20
Consider how physical limitations and suffering shape
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human communication. That is a fascinating angle.
35:26
We often prefer our sacred texts to be polished, flawless and
35:29
linguistically perfect. We want the grammar to be
35:32
pristine. But if John's raw, unedited,
35:35
rough Greek from the penal colony of Patmos is indeed the
35:38
result of his isolation, it provides an unfiltered, highly
35:42
vulnerable glimpse into his mind during a time of extreme duress.
35:45
It. Strips away the polished veneer.
35:48
It really does. Perhaps the lack of a
35:50
professional Ephesians secretary actually gives the modern reader
35:54
a more authentic, intimate connection to the author's
35:57
actual voice than the perfectly polished grammar of the Gospel
36:00
of John. It is John without the filter.
36:02
It challenges us to think about how isolation, fear, and
36:05
suffering impact the way human beings document their greatest,
36:09
most urgent convictions. The rough grammar of revelation
36:12
is not a flaw to be explained away.
36:14
It is the forensic fingerprint of a man writing for his life on
36:18
a rock in the agency. Thank you for joining us on this
36:21
deep dive. Thank you for listening.