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John Was Preaching Against Rome

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John was preaching against Rome in Revelation

In the late first century a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, John of Patmos, received a vision of the end the world. John later wrote this vision down and his writing has come down to modernity as The Book of Revelation also known as The Apocalypse of John. When John wrote Revelation was he using it as a coded message to preach against Rome? In this vision, John saw many images that could be read as Rome or Roman if viewed from a historical context. Subsequent generations have interpreted the imagery within their own historical context. With this paper I will argue that Revelation pertains to the Roman world and culture that John and his followers were living in, the events in Judea that are thought to have occurred within his life time and that John used some of the same imagery to connect his writing to the Hebrew Bible. There are two main competing dates for the writing of Revelation, an early date of 69-70 and a later date of 90-92. This paper will be using the 69-70 date and will be providing evidence to prove why this date works better for the context of this paper. First this paper will establish the time frame in which John wrote Revelation. George H. van Kooten’s article, The Year of the Four Emperors and the Revelation of John: The ‘pro-Neronian’ Emperors Otho and Vitellius, and the Images and Colossus of Nero in Rome, from Journal for the Study of the New Testament points, “In the midst of this war (in 68),

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