PART I
DATING THE REVELATION

IRENAEUS

The earliest known witness for the date of the Apocalypse is Irenaeus, who wrote about A.D. 170. He was born and educated in Asia Minor where he was acquainted with those who had been contemporary with the apostle John. Irenaeus went in later years as a missionary to Gaul where he became bishop of Lyon and where he was eventually martyred. He was adamant in upholding the apostolic teachings insofar as he understood them. He insisted upon retaining the millennial teaching of the Revelation, while others were apparently wavering in their acceptance of this truth.

Two major works by Irenaeus survive: Against Heresies (five books written to counteract the Gnostic ideas of his day) and Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, an effort to relate Christian teaching with the Old Testament. 1

"Irenaeus was himself a native of Asia Minor; he was a hearer of Polycarp of Smyrna, who was a personal disciple of John; and he used the treatise of Papias of Hierapolis, another personal disciple of John. Thus he had a peculiarly good means of knowing the truth." 2

The books of Irenaeus entitled Against Heresies include several references to John and the Apocalypse, one of which places the apocalyptic visions on Patmos toward the end of the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96). Taken in its context, the statement of Irenaeus appears in a discussion regarding the identity of the Antichrist. He writes:

"We, you see, do not venture anything as concerning the name of the Antichrist, in the way of positive affirmation. For if it were meet that at this time his name should be expressly proclaimed, it would have been spoken by him who saw the Apocalypse. For at no long time ago was it seen, but almost in our own generation, at the end of Domitian's reign." 3

Thus Irenaeus states the early tradition that the Apocalypse itself was seen by the apostle on Patmos during the last years of the reign of Domitian, thereby dating it to approximately A.D. 95.

It was suggested by a nineteenth century theologian that Irenaeus meant that John himself, rather than the Apocalypse, was seen during the reign of Domitian.4 Henry Alford, commenting on the expression, which he quotes in the Greek, confirms that the Apocalypse is the subject of was seen. "For such is the only legitimate understanding of the construction." 5

1 Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity, "Irenaeus", p. 76.

2 Hort, The Apocalypse of St. John, Intro. pp. xiv-xv.

3 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V, Ch. 30.3.

4 The suggestion was quoted by the Bishop of Ely in the Journal of Theological Studies for April 1907. It originated with a French theologian, M. J. Bevan, Lausanne, 1887. (Swete, Apocalypse of St. John, p. cvi).