Contemporary Discussion
Contemporary Discussion
Internal Evidence
Revelation claims to be written by "John” (Rev. 1:1, 4, 9; 22:8). Addressing himself to his readers, he calls himself "your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (1:9). The author, however, never makes any other claims about himself, and this suggests that he was someone well known to his readers. What John would have been better known to the churches of Asia Minor in the late first century than John the apostle, whom reliable early church tradition places in Ephesus at the end of his life (see below)? The author’s claim to be mediating prophetic words that are authoritative for the readers (e.g., 22:9, 18-19) has also been seen to be indicative of apostolic authorship. 9 While there is something to this argument, it must be admitted that people other than apostles were gifted with prophecy in the early church, that authority, even scriptural authority, does not depend on apostolic status (e.g., Mark, Luke, the author to the Hebrews), and that the authority of Revelation comes more from the One who revealed the visions to the author than from the author himself. Nevertheless, the author’s assumption that what he relates will be accepted by the readers simply on the basis of his name alone points more naturally to an apostle than to someone else.