Revelation, written on Patmos after Nero?

[gbausc]

Shlama all,

I give you the following from my introduction to The Apocalypse -"Gilyana" , written by Isaac Newton- yes , The Isaac Newton, the guy that invented Calculus and formulated the laws of Physics, gravity, light, etc., etc.:
The Revelation
which came to John The Evangelist from God
in Patmos the island to which he was exiled by
Nero Caesar
Introduction
The Date of Authorship
Sir Isaac Newton wrote the following concerning the date of the writing of Revelation. Isaac Newton, one of the greatest
scientists of all time, wrote voluminously on the subject of Bible prophecy, especially of the books of Daniel and Revelation:

???Irenaeus introduced an opinion that the Apocalypse was written in the time of Domitian; but then he also postponed the writing
of some others of the sacred books, and was to place the Apocalypse after them: he might perhaps have heard from his master
Polycarp that he had received this book from John about the time of Domitian???s death; or indeed John might himself at that time
have made a new publication of it, from whence Irenaeus might imagine it was then but newly written. Eusebius in his
Chronicle and Ecclesiastical History follows Irenaeus; but afterwards [a] in his Evangelical Demonstrations, he conjoins the
banishment of John into Patmos, with the deaths of Peter and Paul: and so do [b] Tertullian and Pseudo-Prochorus, as well as the
first author, whoever he was, of that very antient fable, that John was put by Nero into a vessel of hot oil, and coming out
unhurt, was banished by him into Patmos. Tho this story be no more than a fiction, yet was it founded on a tradition of the first
churches, that John was banished by him into Patmos in the days of Nero. Epiphanius represents the Gospel of John as written
in the same time of Domitian, and the Apocalypse even before that of Nero. [c] Arethas in the beginning of his Commentary
quotes the opinion of Irenaeus from Eusebius, but follows it not: for he afterwards affirms the Apocalypse was written before
the destruction of Jerusalem, and that former commentators had expounded the sixth seal of that destruction.
With the opinion of the first Commentators agrees the tradition of the Churches of Syria, preserved to this day in the title of the
Syriac Version of the Apocalypse, which title is this: The Revelation which was made to John the Evangelist by God in the
Island Patmos, into which he was banished by 0ero the Caesar. The same is confirmed by a story told by [d] Eusebius out of
Clemens Alexandrinus, and other antient authors, concerning a youth whom John some time after his return from Patmos
committed to the care of the Bishop of a certain city. The Bishop educated, instructed, and at length baptized him; but then
remitting of his care, the young man thereupon got into ill company, and began by degrees first to revel and grow vitious, then
to abuse and spoil those he met in the night; and at last grew so desperate, that his companions turning a band of high-way men,
made him their Captain: and, saith [e] Chrysostom, he continued their Captain a long time. At length John returning to that city,
and hearing what was done, rode to the thief; and, when he out of reverence to his old master fled, John rode after him, recalled
him, and restored him to the Church. This is a story of many years, and requires that John should have returned from Patmos
rather at the death of Nero than at that of Domitian; because between the death of Domitian and that of John there were but two
years and an half; and John in his old age was [f] so infirm as to be carried to Church, dying above 90 years old, and therefore
could not be then suppos???d able to ride after the thief.
This opinion is further supported by the allusions in the Apocalypse to the Temple and Altar, and
holy City, as then standing; and to the Gentiles, who were soon after to tread under foot the holy
City and outward court. ???Tis confirmed also by the style of the Apocalypse itself, which is fuller
of Hebraisms than his Gospel. For thence it may be gathered, that it was written when John was
newly come out of Judea, where he had been used to the Syriac tongue; and that he did not write
his Gospel, till by long converse with the Asiatick Greeks he had left off most of the Hebraisms. It
is confirmed also by the many false Apocalypses, as those of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Stephen, Elias
and Cerinthus, written in imitation of the true one. For as the many false Gospels, false Acts, and
false Epistles were occasioned by true ones; and the writing many false Apocalypses, and
ascribing them to Apostles and Prophets, argues that there was a true Apostolic one in great
request with the first Christians: so this true one may well be suppos???d to have been written early,
that there may be room in the Apostolic age for the writing of so many false ones afterwards, and
fathering them upon Peter, Paul, Thomas and others, who were dead before John. Caius, who was
contemporary with Tertullian, [g] tells us that Cerinthus wrote his Revelations as a great Apostle,
and pretended the visions were shewn him by angels, asserting a millennium of carnal pleasures at
Jerusalem after the resurrection; so that his Apocalypse was plainly written in imitation of John???s:
and yet he lived so early, that [h] he resisted the Apostles at Jerusalem in or before the first year of
Claudius, that is, 26 years before the death of Nero, and [i] died before John.???

- Sir Isaac Newton

Another very interesting date marker for the epistle is this: The city of Laodicea and its environs was completely destroyed by an earthquake in AD 66. It was not rebuilt
until the early second century, so in AD 95, there would have been no such prosperous community and church there as John described in Revelation 3. AD 95 is about 30 years too late for the book to have been written!
Nero reigned from AD 54 to AD 67. It was certainly written before the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70.

Blessings,

Dave