John of Patmos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Names of John. (Discuss)

For John the apostle of Jesus, see John the Apostle.

For the author of the Gospel, see John the Evangelist.

A series of articles on
"John" in the Bible
Johannine literature Gospel of John First Epistle of John Second Epistle of John Third Epistle of John Revelation Authorship of literature
Names John the Apostle Disciple whom Jesus loved John the Presbyter John the Evangelist John of Patmos
Communities Twelve Apostles The Early Church
Related Literature Homosexual Reading Apocryphon of John Egerton Gospel Signs Gospel Logos This box: view • talk • edit

"Saint John on Patmos" by Hans Baldung Grien, 1511

John of Patmos is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation (or Book of the Apocalypse) in the New Testament. According to the text of Revelation, the author, who gives his name as "John", is living in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. In Revelation, he writes to the seven Christian churches in Asia to relate two apocalytic visions he has had. John of Patmos is often referred to as John the Divine, or John the Theologian, and he received what constitutes Revelation. Indeed, the full title of the Book of Revelation is The apocalypse of Saint John the Divine, with apocalypse simply being a Greek word for revelation, and Divine an old usage meaning theologian. He is also known as the Eagle of Patmos and John the Seer. Several Christian denominations regard him as a prophet and a saint.

John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, was traditionally believed to be the same person as both John, the apostle of Jesus and John the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of John. Justin Martyr, writing in the early 2nd century was the first to equate the author of Revelation with John the apostle.^[1] Most biblical scholars now contend that these were separate individuals.

John the Presbyter, teacher of Papias, bishop of Hieropolis in the early 2nd century, is often conflated with John of Patmos or with the Apostle. The church historian Eusebius of Caesarea and Dionysius of Alexandria both identified the John in Revelation as John the Presbyter. However, since John was a common name among early Christians it cannot be ruled out that John of Patmos was a John distinct from John the evangelist, John the apostle and John the author of the Johannine epistles.

[edit] See also

Saint John of Patmos, by Jean Fouquet

The Authorship of the book of Revelation was never in dispute by the early church, in fact it was widely known and frequently quoted by second and third century Christians as being the apostle John, the same John who wrote the gospel and three epistles. This view remained until the middle of the third century when Dionysius argued against the apostolic authorship of Revelation. He observed a difference in style and therefore concluded that the writer was a different John. However, when the apocalyptic nature of the book and the fact that John was alone without the use of a secretary or scribe to smooth out the Greek style used in his other books, one can understand that a difference in style would be evident. The many other remarkable similarities between the Apocalypse and the other books traditionally associated with the Apostle John gives way to conclude that the writer is in fact the disciple "whom Jesus loved", the Apostle John. The Open Bible, copyright 1985 by Thomas Nelson Inc.