Before Jerusalem Fell

344 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
“Early Christian tradition is almost unanimous in assigning the Apocalypse
to the last years of Domitian.”) Certainly, there are other early
writers whose statements indicate that St. John wrote the Revelation
much earlier, under Nero’s persecution. 16
Chilton was careful to note that not all ancient sources supported a
late date for Revelation. 17 Thus, he is not set against “t/u voice of
church tradition. ” In fact, he specifically mentions “there are other
early writers whose statements indicate” that Revelation was written
under Nero.
I have noted in great detail in the text of this book that there are
a number of significant early date voices that may be heard from the
stream of ancient tradition. Among them I could list Clement of
Alexandria (despite House and Icels – and others), the Muratorian
Canon, Tertullian, Epiphanies, the Syriac versions of Revelation,
and Arethas, and probably Papias and The Shepherd of Herrnas. 19
There simply is no “voice [singular] of church tradition concerning
the date of Revelation. ” It is time for late date advocates to admit
this. Neither is there an “overwhelming voice of the early church” in
this regard. 20
Nor may it be stated that Clement of Alexandria,
Ongen, Victorious, and Eusebius “had no witnesses to the contrary.”21
Nor should it be said that “if there were some validity to the
early date, some trace of this competing tradition should have surfaced.
However, it has not!”2 2
Nor may we believe that there is “clear
and historically accepted witness of the early church to a Domitian
date.”2 3
To quote House and Ice against themselves: their critique
of the early Church tradition seems to be “speculative”2 4
and a
“debater’s technique.”2 5
After carefully reading House and Ice, I seriously suspect that
neither of them has read the original references in context in Clement
16. Chilton, Days of V2ngeame, pp. 3-4.
17. And his f~tnote pointed the interested reader to exhaustive research in works
by Moses Stuart and James M. Macdonald.
18. House and Ice, Dominion Theolo~, p. 253.
19. See chapter 6 above.
20. House and Ice, Dominion T/zolo.., p. 253.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibrd., p. 254.
23. Ibid, p. 258.
24. Ibid., p. 253.
25. Ibid., p. 252.