Before Jerusalem Fell

The Role ofJ2wish Christianity 231
Conclusion
The matter seems clear enough: When John wrote Revelation
Christianity’s situation was one in which it was still operating within
Jewish circles and institutions to a very large extent. Its grammatical
peculiarities and cultural allusions are evidently of a strongly Jewish
color. Historically we know that this simply was not the case in the
post-temple era beyond A.D. 70. The cleavage between Judaism and
Christianity was too radical. Hence, this factor of the Sitz im Leben is
indicative of a pre-70 date for Revelation.
Gerhard Uhlhom, The Contict OJ Christiarzip with Heathenakrn, ed. and trans. Egbert C.
Smyth and C. J. H. Ropes, 2nd ed. (New York: Scribners, 1912), pp. 238-255. Merrill
C. Tenney, New Tedarnast Tirna (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), pp. 303, 321. G.
Ernest Wright, ed. Great People of the Bible and How Thg Ltved (Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s
Digest, 1974), pp. 390, 418-419. Howard Clark Kee, Urzahstandirsg the New Testarwnt, 4th
ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983), pp. 291ff. J. P. M. Sweet, Revelation.
Westminster Pelican Commentaries (Philadelphia Westminster, 1979), pp. 28ff. Maurice
Gordon Dametz, The Focal Point.r of Chrr.rtian History (New York Carlton, n.d.), p. 26. J.
G. Davies, The Ear~ Church, in E. O. James, cd., Htitoy ofReli~”on Series (New York: Holt,
Rinehart, Winston, n.d.), p. 46.