Before Jerusalem Fell

Concluding Remarks 335
their statements would be wholly irrelevant to the question of Revelation’s
date. Indeed, we showed that there is the strong probability
that they really intended to speak of Nero as the one who banished
John to Patmos. We hope that our research at least demonstrated the
need for a more hesitant employment of such witnesses. Furthermore,
as our research developed we noted that there were ample indications
from tradition beyond Irenaeus, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria
suggesting that John’s banishment to Patmos and his writing of
Revelation were under Nero. We surveyed The Shepherd of Hermas,
Papias, the Muratonan Canon, Tertullian, Epiphanies, the Syrian
tradition, and Arethas. Some of these are not conclusive, to be sure,
but they are at least as suggestive and as significant as are Ongen
and Clement of Alexandria, who are so widely touted by late date
advocacy. Other references were as confident regarding Revelation’s
composition under Nero as they were explicit of it. And such references
demand that we not view Irenaeus’s witness as representative
of all early tradition.
The Internal Witness
On the whole, however, our position is that the matter requires
a consideration of the internal indicators for an assured resolution to
the matter. As we entered into a consideration of the self-witness or
internal evidence, we came upon a wealth of evidences supportive of
the later era of Nero’s reign as that era of John and his original
audience. These internal indicators provide chronological, cultural,
historical, and psychological data, all converging on the tumultuous
mid-A.D. 60s. The multiple statements as to the imminent expectation
of radical upheaval in Revelation are more understandable in
the 60s than in the 90s. These expectations were of the persecution
of the Church, the destruction of the Temple and Israel, and of
upheaval at Rome – chaos unparalleled in the events of the A.D. 90s.
We set forth a variety of rather precise chronological indicators
derived from the kings list in Revelation 17, all pointing to Nero as
the reigning emperor. Revelation’s composition during Nero’s reign
was confirmed in a number of harmonious evidences: the existence
of the Temple at Jerusalem, textual clues identifying Nero as the
Beast, the primitive nature of Christianity, and the looming of the
Jewish War. All of these dove-tailed nicely, providing a solid framework
for a Neronic date for Revelation. Neither were these historical