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The Problem of the Domitianic Date of Revelation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

J. Christian Wilson
J. Christian Wilson
Affiliation:
(Elon College, Campus Box 2209, Elon College, North Carolina 27244, USA)
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Extract

In the latter half of the nineteenth century no New Testament scholar in the English speaking world was more respected than J. B. Lightfoot. His New Testament commentaries and his magisterial five volume work on the Apostolic Fathers were models of the scholarly thoroughness of British erudition coupled with the humility of Anglican piety. Their influence would reach well into the twentieth century.

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 587 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 Lightfoot, J. B., The Apostolic Fathers: Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp: Revised Texts with Introduction, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations (London: Macmillan, 1890; reprinted by Baker Book House, 1981).Google Scholar

2 The following is a partial list: Neander, , DeWette, , Credner, , Reuss, , Baur, , Zeller, , Häse, , Gueriche, , Volkman, , Scholten, , Aube, , Renan, , Maier, , Hilgenfeld, , Hausrath, , Krekel, , Thiersch, , Ewald, , Wiesler, , Beyschlag, , Gebhardt, , Immer, , Görres, , Haweis, , Allioli, . This list is derived from Holtzmann, H. J., Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Freiburg: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1892) 416.Google Scholar

3 Charles, R. H., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St John (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920).Google Scholar

4 Swete, H. B., The Apocalypse ofSt John (London: Macmillan, 1917).Google Scholar

5 Beckwith, I. T., The Apocalypse ofSt John: Studies in Introduction with a Critical and Exegetical Commentary (New York: Macmillan, 1919).Google Scholar

6 Charles, 1: xcv, n. 1.

7 Swete, lxxxv.

8 Beckwith, 204.

9 See n. 2.

10 It should be noted that the study of Revelation has not been a major interest of twentieth-century German New Testament scholarship. German scholars have written relatively few commentaries on Revelation. Perhaps the three most significant twentieth-century German commentaries are those of W. Bousset, E. Lohmeyer, and H. Kraft. All readily accept the Domitianic date with scarcely any investigation. See Bousset, W., Die Offen-barung Johannes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1906) 43;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLohmeyer, E., Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Handbuch zum Neuen Testament; 2nd ed.; T¨bingen: J. C. B. Mohr. [Paul Siebeck], 1953) 143;Google ScholarKraft, H., Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1974) 221–3.Google Scholar More recent German commentaries and introductions accept with little question the idea of a persecution of Christians under Domitian. H. Kraft writes simply, ‘Domitian ist nach Nero der erste Kaiser, den wir als Christenverfolger kennen’ (Kraft, 222). See also Vielhauer, P., Geschichte der urchristlichen Literatur. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1975) 503;Google ScholarKümmel, W. G., Introduction to the New Testament (trans. Kee, H. C.; rev. English ed.; Nashville: Abingdon, 1975) 467.Google Scholar

11 My own survey of about thirty German commentaries on Revelation and German introductions to the NT turned up no references to Lightfoot in text, footnotes or bibliographies.

12 Irenaeus Adv. Haer. 5.30.3.

13 Tacitus Annals 15.44. All references to Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius, and Eusebius, and 1 Clement use the standard chapter and verse divisions as found in the editions of the Loeb Classical Library.

14 Eusebius H.E. 2.25.

15 Eusebius H.E. 2.17.

16 Dio Cassius says Pandateria; Eusebius says Pontia.

17 Suetonius The Twelve Caesars: Domitian 10.

18 Suetonius Domitian 15.

19 Dio Cassius History 67.14.

20 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.34.

21 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.37.

22 de Rossi, J. B., ‘Roma sotteranea’, Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana (1865) 34–40.Google Scholar

23 Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (arden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967) 161.Google Scholar

24 Bell, Albert T., ‘The Date of John's Apocalypse: The Evidence of Some Roman Historians Reconsidered’, NTS 25 (1979) 94.Google Scholar

25 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.61.

26 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.62.

27 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.62.

28 1 Clem. 5.

29 1 Clem. 5.

30 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.69.

31 See Brown, R. E. and Meier, J. P., Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (New York: Paulist, 1983) 63.Google Scholar

32 Lightfoot, pt. 1,1.104–15.

33 Eusebius H.E. 3.26.7.

34 This is only one example from Lightfoot's catena. In my intended monograph on this subject I will go through every one of the 24 notices in detail.

35 Scott, E. F., The Book of Revelation (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940) 29.Google Scholar

36 Beasley-Murray, G. R., Revelation (NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdman's, 1974) 38.Google Scholar

37 Frend, , Martyrdom and Persecution, 159–62.Google Scholar

38 Robinson, John A. T., Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976) 221–53.Google Scholar

39 Collins, Adela Yarbro, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984) 70.Google Scholar

40 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 84–110.Google Scholar

41 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 84.Google Scholar

42 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 101.Google Scholar

43 Suetonius Domitian 10.

44 Thompson has suggested this to me in private correspondence.

45 Leonard, Thompson, The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire (New York, Oxford: Oxford University, 1990) 95–167.Google Scholar

46 Thompson, , The Book of Revelation, 116.Google Scholar

47 Thompson, , The Book of Revelation, 164.Google Scholar

48 Thompson, , The Book of Revelation, 165.Google Scholar

49 Thompson, The Book of Revelation, 174–85. Although in his book Thompson does not really question the Domitianic dating of Revelation, he has on another occasion shown himself open to the possibility of an earlier date. During the questioning period after a panel discussion of Thompson's book at the 1990 Society of Biblical Literature meeting, George Wesley Buchanan asked Thompson if there were any internal evidence in Revelation that precluded the possibility of an earlier date. Thompson replied that there was not. In my own further conversation with Thompson after the SBL session Thompson displayed genuine openness to the possibility of a pre-70 date. Thompson has since that time echoed his openness in personal correspondence with me. From my own point of view all of the evidence which Thompson has produced points in the earlier direction.

50 Irenaeus Adv.Haer. 5.30.3.

51 See Charles, ICC, xcii.

52 Tacitus Histories 3.1.

53 In private correspondence.

54 While not the primary meaning of ε;ς, ‘first’ is certainly a plausible translation. See Baur, , Arndt, , Gingrich, , Danker, , A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (2nd ed.; Chicago, University of Chicago, 1977) 271.Google Scholar

55 Beasley-Murray, G. R., Revelation (NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974) 256–7.Google Scholar

56 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 64.Google Scholar

57 For this illustration I am indebted to Albert Bell, ‘The Date of the Apocalypse’, 99.

58 Charles, 274.

59 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 67.Google Scholar

60 Yarbro, Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 68.Google Scholar

61 Most eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German and French scholars favour the date during the reign of Galba. See note 2 for a partial list.