Re: 666 Day

In her Anchor Bible commentary on Revelation, Josephine Ford argues that
chapters 4-11 where handed down in an oral version by members of the circle
of John the Baptist from his own time; 12-22 by followers of the Baptist in
the mid-sixties, predicting the fall of Jerusalem; and that the rest was
added by a Jewish Christian apocalypticist, who also redacted portions of
the earlier versions. This is not a position that has gained much currency
among scholars of Revelation. I follow the view that some of the material
may be post-70 but pre-90s, and that John the Revelator may have been a
Jewish Christian who had been a Temple priest or Levite (the liturgical
descriptions of worship in heaven, chapters 4-11 may have been inspired by
Temple liturgy); but that the final form of the Revelation was completed
around the mid-nineties.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: <drsyme@cablespeed.com>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:26 AM
Subject: Re: 666 Day

>A quote from Irenaus has been given as evidence of the date of Revelation:
>"The external evidence centers around Irenaeus (130-202). He was commenting
>on the number 666 when he wrote: "We will not, however, incur the risk of
>pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were
>necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time,
>it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For
>that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the
>end of Domitian's reign.""
>
> This would place what "was seen" at 96AD. But this evidence is ambiguous,
> and there are book length arguments using internal evidence that
> Revelation was written prior to 70AD, see Gentry:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915815435/104-5865972-3955926?v=glance&n=283155
> On Tue, 6 Jun 2006 05:51:45 -0700 (PDT)
> Bill Hamilton <williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> My understanding is that someone (was it Origen) wrote that Revelation
>> "appeared" ~95 AD. I'm curious how preterists deal with that. I knoe
>> David
>> Chilton makes much of the word "appeared", but are there other
>> explanations? I
>> have thought for some time that Revelation could have been written after
>> 70 AD
>> and rather than prophecy of coming events (wrt to destruction of the
>> Temple) it
>> is an interpretation of the event, much like Peter's "This is that which
>> Joel
>> prophesied..." in Acts.
>>
>> I am pretty much persuaded by the preterist view.
>>
>> --- jack syme <drsyme@cablespeed.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Wow, what an admission this is!
>>>
>>> As a preterist, I am not even convinced that 666 refers to Nero
>>> (although it
>>> is an interesting theory and I have no other better suggestion.)
>>>
>>> But to even admit this is a possibility means that you guys believe that
>>> Revelation was written prior to 70AD (prior to 68 AD even since that is
>>> the
>>> date of Nero's death,) and that John (if not other NT authors)
>>> anticipated
>>> that the Last Days was going to be a first century event.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: George Murphy To: Dick Fischer ; ASA Sent: Tuesday, June 06,
>>> 2006 6:24 AM
>>> Subject: Re: 666 Day
>>>
>>>
>>> Nero is the most likely suspect but in any case the text says "it is
>>> the
>>> number of a human" (arithmos gar anthropon estin) so anyone who tries to
>>> connect it with the number of a month hasn't even read the text with any
>>> care. & in the 1st century June wouldn't have even been the 6th month!
>>>
>>> Shalom
>>> George http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Dick Fischer To: ASA Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 11:38 PM
>>> Subject: 666 Day
>>>
>>>
>>> At last a day we can celebrate(?) on the same day on both sides of
>>> the
>>> Atlantic Pond. Before anyone crawls under the bed to escape the
>>> antichrist
>>> this is just a brief reminder that those numbers likely referred to
>>> Nero. Okay, say a prayer or two just in case.
>>>
>>> Dick Fischer
>>>
>>> Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association
>>>
>>> Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
>>>
>>> www.genesisproclaimed.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> Bill Hamilton
>> William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
>> 248.652.4148 (home) 248.821.8156 (mobile)
>> "...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31
>>
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>
>
Received on Tue Jun 6 13:38:22 2006