Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

by Michael J. Gorman

Another epithet for the author of Revelation has been John the Seer. This is appropriate for someone Peterson calls a poet. He writes: A poet uses words not to explain something, and not to describe something, but to make something. Poet (poētēs) means “maker.” Poetry is not the language of objective explanation but the language of imagination. It makes an image of reality in such a way as to invite our participation in it.35 As for the date of Revelation, most scholars situate it toward the end of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (ruled 81–96). A few would place it a little later, early in the reign of Trajan (ruled 98–117). Some have argued, however, that either the entire book or a briefer, earlier version of it originates in, or shortly after, the time of the Emperor Nero (ruled 54–68). The best guess, in my view, is the traditional dating to the time of Domitian, as stated by the church father Irenaeus of Lyon in the late second century. One chief reason many scholars hold to this date (rather than a date during or just after Nero’s reign) is that it appears that Jews, and thereafter Christians, began calling Rome “Babylon” only after the fall of Jerusalem in 70. Furthermore,