Bible Gem 2186 – Who Wrote Revelation? John! Ah But Which One?

We will begin by addressing the key question. Who wrote this book?

“Why are you asking that question Ian? Surely it is obvious. Didn’t he tell us himself?”  

This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John,

Revelation 1:1

This letter is from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia.

Revelation 1:4

I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus.  

Revelation 1:9

I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

Revelation 22:8

Surely these four verses make it clear. I would have thought so but I did know Revelation was going to be a challenge and I was warned by several of you. But it’s ok; I am up for the challenge. Despite having suffered a stroke two weeks ago due to a blood clot at my temple on the right side. However once again, the LORD has graced me with no damage but I am heeding the warning signs to ease off the pedal. Given the nature of Revelation and the time needed to prepare, these Gems will be intermittent. They will not necessarily appear each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All my ducks are in a row; well three rows really and we are ready to begin.

I trust you have had time to at least read Revelation through one time and have not experienced a stroke or any other medical emergency since we last met.

John was a popular name in Jewish culture and history. There are 15 people named Johanan mentioned in the books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah and five more Johanans in the books of the Maccabees. Josephus, the Jewish historian refers to seventeen Johns. In the New Testament there are at least five Yōhannēs  – the son of Zacharias, the son of Zebedee, the father of Peter, John whose surname was Mark and a John who was a relative of the High Priest. From this fine bunch of Johns, John, the son of Zebedee, the disciple of Jesus, John of Ephesus was the one identified from an early time as the author of the Apocalypse. However, this overload of Johns has sent the commentators and scholars into a frenzy. According to the experts, these are the following contenders as the author of Revelation.

1. John the disciple of Jesus, the son of Zebedee
2. John the Presbyter, a second John who wrote the Book of Revelation
3. Cerinthus
4. John Mark
5. The name John is pseudonymous

Yes, I am sure like me your initial reaction is, “Ian, you can’t be serious.” As I have done my research I want to be thorough to address any issue that arises with this book of Revelation. The difficulty stems from the way John has introduced his work. Why didn’t he spell it out clearly which John he was? After all we use the term ‘John Doe’ in English for an unidentified deceased male. With a large number of Johns mentioned in the Bible it would have been helpful if John had clarified which John wrote this book. Instead he told us:

1. He was Jesus Christ’s servant John (1:1)
2. This letter is from John (1:4) adding a complication – is this a letter or a book?
3. I am John, your brother and partner in suffering, exiled to the island of Patmos (1:9)
4. I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things. (22:8)

These qualifications or additions don’t add much to clarify the persona of just which John wrote the book. I have always thought that John clearly identified himself with the comment in verse 9 of Chapter 1 that he was the John who was exiled to Patmos. According to tradition, John was the only disciple to escape martyrdom and was exiled on the island of Patmos. When released he moved to Ephesus and died there. However, I found there are conflicting claims which cloud the issue.

I will give you a summary of the evidence and let you grapple with the issues.

John ben Zebedee, the disciple, the John of Ephesus is the one who wrote a Gospel, three small letters and the book of Revelation. From my point of view the clear identification of the John who wrote Revelation, as having been exiled on the island of Patmos, clarified which John we are talking about as the author of this last book of the Bible. This John was also known as John of Ephesus (a bishop). He starts I, John . . .   The first letter in Revelation was written to the church in Ephesus, they didn’t need him to spell out which John was writing to them. They knew him only too well. This conclusion became the tradition of the early church from the middle of the second century and was attested to in writing by Irenaus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus and Eusebius.

John the Elder (Presbyter) was an obscure figure of the early Church who is either distinguished from or identified with the Apostle John. He appears in fragments from the church father Papias of Hierapolis as one of the author’s sources and was first distinguished as being another persona different from the Apostle John by Eusebius of Caeserea. He is frequently proposed by some as an alternative author of some or all of the Johannine books in the New Testament (John’s Gospel, 1, 2, 3 John and Revelation).

What Eusebius actually wrote was:

If, then, anyone who had attended on the elders came, I asked minutely after their sayings – what Andrew or Peter said, or what was said by Philip, or by Thomas, or by James, or by John, or by Matthew, or by any other of the Lord’s disciples, [and] which things Aristion and the presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say. For I imagined that what was to be got from books was not so profitable to me as what came from the living and abiding voice.

Eusebius (Church Fathers Book 3, Chapter 39)

There are two possible interpretations of this statement. The one distinguishing John the apostle from John the elder; the second initially proposed by Guericke in 1831 that only one John is identified in this statement.

Dionysius of Alexandria claims to have heard support concerning another otherwise unknown John who visited Asia from a story he heard that there were two monuments in Ephesus which were [both] marked as the tomb of John. It is not at odds with tradition that there should be a tomb in Ephesus for John of Ephesus. What is odd is that Dionysius claimed there were two tombs there, adding weight to the claim that there were two Johns.

Cerinthus was supposedly connected with the Alogoi who were heretics who lived in Asia Minor in the second half of the second century – who denied the divinity of Christ as expressed in the Johannine collection. They rejected the authority and authenticity of the writing attributed to John.  The Alogoi attributed Revelation to Cerinthus. Gaius, a Roman elder, is  supposed to have written a dialogue in support of alogoi claims against the Montanists. Just a few fragments remain in quotes from Eusebius. Gaius claims Revelation was written by Cerinthus. Nothing is known about Gaius who lived in the late second century to early third century and was most certainly not the Gaius referred to in 3 John 1:1. Nothing is known of his relationship to the Alogoi, if there was one. This claim is a mere arbitrary hypothesis based on the belief by some that Revelation contained false theology. Cerinthus was designated as a Gnostic and a millenarian – which made him a good candidate for the author of Revelation by those who wished to discredit the work. 

John Mark is of course that same John Mark found in Acts 12:25 when he left Paul and Barnabas and at the end of Acts 15. This is likely the same Mark as who gave us the Gospel of Mark.

The connection of John to John Mark is due to another recorded note from Eusebius to say that Dionysius of Alexandria suggested that John Mark was the second John of Ephesus and proposed John Mark as being the one who wrote the Book of Revelation. However when this theory was put forward it was quickly discarded. What fascinates me is how such ancient theories can quickly gain acceptance among modern critics. Enough said about this one.

John was pseudonymous – There are a number of scholars who feel John was like many other authors of Scripture who wanted to keep their names anonymous. The suggestion here is that the author used the name Johanan or Jōhannēs as a pseudonym so his name was not given prominence. Commendable but it does not solve the question as to who it was who authored the last book of the Bible.

One other alternative I might as well mention is that John the Baptist, Johanan ben Zacharias, wrote the Revelation after extensive research by J M Ford. Ford’s suggestion that John the Baptist was a likely candidate for the authorship of Revelation has gained no support among the scholars. There is a major difficulty with the time the book was written as Johanan ben Zacharias was beheaded in the time of Jesus. Ford claims that the Baptist’s disciples would have been the ones to bring the work to completion. I have not bothered to get a hold of her book as I don’t consider it worth the time, cost or effort. I mention it only to indicate I am aware of this theory but have rejected it without hesitation.

In the next Gem I will weigh up these contenders briefly. I have given these alternative contenders to you to consider before I make more comment. Perhaps the most serious piece of internal evidence we have to wrestle with is the fact that the Greek of John’s Gospel is so very different from that of Revelation. This has led many to conclude the writer of Revelation cannot be the same person who wrote the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is written in flawless idiomatic Greek whereas the Revelation is written in Hebraic Greek and at times the grammar and syntax don’t follow the rules for Koinē Greek. It has been necessary for textual scholars to develop a special grammar in order to grapple with the unique Greek usage of Revelation. Dionysius of Alexander called the Greek of Revelation ‘utterly different’ and coined a term for the Greek of Revelation – idiotisms.

There are grammatical peculiarities which reoccur like:

• Different tenses and mood joined by a copula without any clear reason for the change.
• Adjectives and verbs are made to govern cases other than those required by usage.
• Other unusual constructions abound

This feature has led many scholars to conclude the author of John’s Gospel and Revelation cannot be one and the same person. Hence all of the above conjecture. What do you think? Well I can’t say I wasn’t warned that gemming Revelation would be a challenge. I’m ready; are you?

Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best.

Donald McKay

Which zone do you live in? The challenge zone: ‘I attempt to do what I haven’t done before.’ The comfort zone: ‘I only do what I already know I can do.’ The coasting zone: ‘I don’t even do what I’ve done before.’

Bob Gass

Any Thought That Goes Left Unchallenged Is Established As Fact.

Robb Thompson

If the challenge you’re facing doesn’t place a demand on your faith, it neither pleases God nor involves Him.

Bob Gass

If it doesn’t CHALLENGE you, it won’t CHANGE you!

Rick Godwin

What do you think about the challenges I have laid before you to your preconceptions about the book of Revelation? Are you ready to consider what you think in the light of this new information? Ian