by Christine Miller | Nothing New Press
The LORD opens every letter to the seven churches the same way: “I know your works.”
“Each of the seven epistles in this and the third chapter, commences with, ‘I know thy works.’ Each contains a promise from Christ, ‘To him that overcometh.’ Each ends with, ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’”
Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown’s Commentary, “Revelation chapter 2.”
Symbols are introduced in Revelation 1 and used throughout the book.
“I have also spoken by the prophets,
And have multiplied visions;
I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.”Hos 12:10, NKJV
The KJV translates symbols as similitudes, and the World English Bible, parables. The word in Hebrew is Strong’s H1819, damah, dalet + mem + hey, “to be like, to resemble,” according to Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon. A similitude, according to Webster’s, is a counterpart, a double, a visible likeness, an image, or an imaginative comparison, a simile.
“This verb appears thirty times in Biblical Hebrew and twice in Biblical Aramaic (Dan 3:25, 7:5). … The verb is also an ideal one for the author of the Song of Solomon where the respective lovers search for appropriate figures of speech to convey their depth of love for each other.”
Harris, Archer, and Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, pg. 437 (emphasis added).
“[This method of assuring the church of the final triumph of the gospel provides] a clear demonstration, in the end, of the divine origin and inspiration of the book itself. This latter object, indeed, would have been in fact accomplished by a plain declaration, but it would be best accomplished by such details as would show that the whole course of events was comprehended by the Holy Spirit—the real author of the whole.… The method in which this is mainly done in this book is by pictures or symbols; for, above all the other books in the Bible, the Apocalypse is characterized by this method of representation, that it may eminently be called a book of symbols.”
Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament…: Revelation, pp. li-lii.
“Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter.” Rev. 1:19
This verse is a key to understand the book of Revelation.
Chapter 1:19 is the outline of the book. That is:
Fred Miller, Revelation: A Panorama of the Gospel Age, Ch. 1, “The Plan and Design of Revelation.”
There have been various schemes put forward over the centuries to explain the design of the book of Revelation.
Albert Barnes outlined the book by seven major themes:
Notes on the New Testament, Explanatory and Practical: Revelation, pp. lv-lxii.
Philip Schaff summarized the various schemes for the outline of Revelation throughout the centuries from the church fathers.
History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1, pp. 841-852.
LeRoy Froom saw the prophecy of Jesus in Mat 24 as encompassing the entire scope of world and church history from the destruction of the Temple to His return, only greatly summarized, and John’s vision following the same scope from his own day (as the Temple had already been destroyed prior to his vision), fleshing in many details.
The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 1, pp. 141-144, 155-156.
In Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown’s Commentary, “Introduction to Revelation,” more schemes are introduced.
Domitian became emperor in 81 AD, and the Christian persecution lasted from 95-96 AD. The persecution ended when he was assassinated in 96 AD (Introduction, pg. 2).
So, I assume John was imprisoned in 95 or 96 AD.
“The persecutions under Nero and Domitian were not undertaken by the state as such; they were simply personal matters, and established no precedent as to the conduct of the state toward Christianity. They were rather spasmodic outbursts of personal enmity, but were looked upon with great horror as the first to which the Church was subjected. … Domitian’s cruelty and ferocity were extreme, and many persons of the highest rank fell under his condemnation and suffered banishment and even death, not especially on account of Christianity, though there were Christians among them, but on account of his jealousy, and for political reasons of various sorts. That Domitian’s persecution of the Christians was not of long duration is testified by Tertullian, Apol. 5.”
Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Eusebius’ History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1), fn. 1 to Bk. 3, Ch. 17, “The Persecution Under Domitian,” p. 147.
“Tertullian has also mentioned Domitian in the following words: ‘Domitian also, who possessed a share of Nero’s cruelty, attempted once to do the same thing that the latter did. But because he had, I suppose, some intelligence, he very soon ceased, and even recalled those whom he had banished.’ But after Domitian had reigned fifteen years, and Nerva had succeeded to the empire, the Roman Senate, according to the writers that record the history of those days, voted that Domitian’s honors should be cancelled, and that those who had been unjustly banished should return to their homes and have their property restored to them. It was at this time that the apostle John returned from his banishment in the island and took up his abode at Ephesus, according to an ancient Christian tradition.”
Eusebius, The History, Bk. 3. Ch. 20, “The Relatives of our Saviour,” pp. 151-152.
“A conspiracy among his own freedmen—set on foot, it is said, by his wife Domitia Longina, who knew her own life to be threatened—cut short his career. He was stabbed in his bedroom by a freedman of Clemens named Stephanus on the 18th of September 96.”
“Domitian,” The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 12, p. 405. They fix the dates of his reign from AD 81-96.
