Who wrote the book of Revelation? Who was the author of Revelation?

The title of the book as we find it in the King James Version is "The Revelation of St. John the Divine"; the better title would be to take the opening words of the book and call it "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." But the above title tells us that John is the author. This is confirmed by the book itself, for we read twice in the first chapter that the writer says "John to the seven churches," and again, "I, John, who also am your brother" (1:4, 9). Furthermore, at the close of the book he names himself again: "And I, John, saw these things" (22:8). The Church down to the middle of the third century has but one testimony as to the authorship of this book, and that is, the Johannine, that John, the beloved disciple, the son of Zebedee, wrote this book in the isle of Patmos when banished there. The only exceptions were the Alogians, a heretical sect which also rejected the Gospel of John, and a controversialist by name of Caius.

The Revelation is the only book in the NT mentioning John as author. John mentions his name four times in the book (Rev. 1:1.4.9, 22:8). Justin the martyr (around 100 to 165 AC), Irenaeus (around 140 to 220 AC) and the Muratori Canon (end of 2 nd century) confirm that the Apostle John is the author. He is the author of the forth gospel and of three epistles. Irenaeus also mentions that John has written the book of Revelation towards the end of the Roman emperor Domitian's reign. Domitian reigned from 81 to 95 AC. According to Rev. 1:9 John was in the isle called Patmos which is 50 miles off the coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). This is where he wrote the Revelation of Jesus Christ around 95 AC upon God's command.

However, doubts in relation to the authorship of Revelation have been raised from the time of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria and pupil of Origines (2 nd part of 3 rd century) onward. The reasons mentioned are doctrinal distinctions compared with John's other writings as well as the very simple language of the book. There is no convincing reason however why one should doubt the Apostle John's authorship.

All the criticism has not affected in the least the truth that John, the Apostle, the author of the Gospel of John and The Epistles, is the author also of the book of Revelation. The fact is, the Holy Spirit seems to have taken special care to preserve such historical evidences for the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which makes the true authorship and date unimpeachable.

"The apostolic authorship and canonicity of the Apocalypse were generally accepted, and went unchallenged, until toward the third century. Then contrary views began to make their appearance. But when the evidence, direct and indirect, on either side is weighed in respect of its date, its quantity, its quality, its freedom from bias, the external evidence in favor of the Johannine authorship, outweighs the other at every point."

A greater witness still is Irenaeus. We remind the reader of our introduction to the Gospel of John, and call to mind the fact that Irenaeus was in his youth acquainted with Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John. A number of times Irenaeus speaks of "Ioannes Domini disciplus"--John the disciple of the Lord--and that he had written the Apocalypse. Tertullian (about 200 A.D.) refers in his writings four times to the Revelation as being the work of the Apostle John. The so-called Muratorian fragments quote from the Revelation, and it can be shown by the context of the passage that the Apostle John was believed to be author.

Clement of Alexandria (about 200 A.D.) mentions also John, the beloved disciple as the writer of the book. A scholar of Clement was Origen (233 A.D.). He made careful research about the canonicity and genuineness of the books of the New Testament. While he reported carefully any doubts or disputes about different books, he has nothing to say about the Revelation and its author. He quotes from the book frequently, and it proves that in his time no question was raised about John being the author. Hippolytus, Bishop of Ostia (240 A.D.) quotes John's words many times and does not leave us in doubt that he means the son of Zebedee.

The sacred writers did not title their respective books, and all the titles of the sacred books in our Bibles, save one or two, are destitute of divine authority. The title given to the Apocalypse in the Authorised Version and retained in the Revision of 1881 is faulty and misleading. It is not “The Revelation of St. John,” but as in the text, “THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.” Whether the epithet, “the Divine,” was added as an expression of the writer’s supposed superlative sanctity, and to distinguish him from John the Apostle, are matters of unimportant controversy. We are at perfect liberty to reject the title as a whole. The Church tradition that John the Apostle was the writer dates from A.D. 170, or a little earlier. The John of the fourth Gospel, and of the three epistles to which his name is prefixed, is, we doubt not, the inspired writer of this book; there, however, he is described, here he is expressly named.

Rev. 22:8-9. — “And I, John (was), he who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he says to me, See (thou do it) not. I am thy fellow-bondman, and (the fellow-bondman) of thy brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” The name, John, occurs five times (Rev. 1:1, 4, 9; Rev. 21:2; Rev. 22:8), three times at the commencement, and twice near the close of the book. Between these, however, personal pronouns referring to the Seer are of frequent occurrence. It seems foolish to raise any question as to the John of the Apocalypse. There is but one John. Instinctively the Christian heart turns to the beloved apostle, the disciple whom Jesus loved. There was but one such, and without doubt he is the one to whom these visions and communications were vouchsafed. John is the writer of the book.

After citing many more witnesses, including Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Augustine--and others, Dean Alford says: "The apostolic authorship rests on the firmest ground. We have it assured to us by one who had companied men who had known St. John himself; we have it held in continuous succession by Fathers in all parts of the Church. Nowhere, in primitive times, does there appear any counter-tradition on the subject."

This unquestionable historical evidence of the Johannine authorship of the Apocalypse was first attacked by Dionysius, the disciple of Origen and Bishop of Alexandria. In the second half of the third century this scholar raised his voice against the solid traditional view, declaring that not the same man could have written the fourth Gospel, the Epistles of John and Revelation. He also pointed out the contrast between the language, the grammar, and the diction of the Apocalypse and the other writings of the Apostle John. He suggested another man by name of John, a presbyter of Ephesus, as the author of the Revelation. He spoke of two tombs in Ephesus, one in which the body of the apostle was buried and in the other John the presbyter. But Dionysius spoke of this John the presbyter, yet he was entirely unknown to him. It was a new idea he invented to back up his contention, for such a person was wholly unknown to the ecclesiastical tradition in the church of Alexandria in the middle of the third century. Nor does it appear that his opinion on the authorship of the Revelation made any permanent impression on the Alexandrian church. That this "John the presbyter" is a fictitious person, who never existed, is fully demonstrated by the entire, the complete disappearance of John the presbyter from the memory of the Church of the second century.

But modern critics like Bleek, Duesterdieck, Ewald, and others have seized upon this man of straw and followed the invention of Dionysius about the two Johns. Other critics have gone a step further and reject wholly the tradition that the Apostle John lived and died in Ephesus, thus making the other John the sole outstanding bearer of the name in that community, ascribing to him not only the book of Revelation but also the fourth Gospel. Modern critics reject the Johannine authorship of the Revelation. They hold that a work of small compass, by somebody, nobody knows who wrote it, was worked over by somebody else, then expanded by somebody else, passing through three or four redactions till it took on the form of the book we call "The Revelation." They also claim that at best the Revelation is "a Christian redaction of a Jewish apocalypse."

Could we say a brief word about the writer, John, "And I, John, was he who heard and saw these things". Right at the end of his prophecy he mentions his name as he does at the beginning, "John to the seven assemblies which are in Asia" (1:4). He is mentioned in the book less to draw attention to the character of the one who is the writer of this book and also to draw attention to the circumstances in which he was found when he received the revelation (ch.1:9). He is the writer of the gospel by John and of the Revelation, although in neither case does it say so. It does not say John the apostle was the writer either of the gospel or of the Revelation, but I have no doubt myself that this is the case. I mention it because both of these books could have been written by other Johns. In his gospel he brings out Christ in all the glories of His Person as the Son of God, and in the book of the Revelation chiefly we have the Lord presented as the Son of Man. John was the one who leant in the bosom of the Lord on the night of betrayal (John 13:23). He was the one who five times described himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). On the other hand the Lord spoke of him as "Boanerges..... Son of thunder". To emphasise what has been said, that even this great man makes a mistake when he bows and seeks to give worship to an angel. One query, in Mr.Darby's translation it says, "Do homage to God" although he puts a footnote to say that is worship, perhaps a brother can tell me, is there any difference in the New Testament between the word 'worship' and 'homage' and if there is, can I have the answer?

John was one of the apostles at Jerusalem who, when Paul went thither, gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that they should go to the heathen. Gal. 2:9. He was afterwards banished to the Isle of Patmos, probably under the emperor Nero or Domitian; it is not known with certainty which, nor at what date. There he had the visions recorded in the Revelation. He also wrote the Gospel and the three Epistles bearing his name, which are generally judged to have been written after the other Gospels and Epistles.