* * * * *
OBSERVATIONS
UPON THE
APOCALYPSE
OF
St. _JOHN_.
* * * * *
CHAP. I.
_Introduction, concerning the time when the _Apocalypse_ was written_.
_Irenaeus_ introduced an opinion that the _Apocalypse_ was written in the
time of _Domitian_; but then he also postponed the writing of some others
of the sacred books, and was to place the _Apocalypse_ after them: he might
perhaps have heard from his master _Polycarp_ that he had received this
book from _John_ about the time of _Domitian_'s death; or indeed _John_
might himself at that time have made a new publication of it, from whence
_Irenaeus_ might imagine it was then but newly written. _Eusebius_ in his
_Chronicle_ and _Ecclesiastical History_ follows _Irenoeus_; but afterwards
[1] in his _Evangelical Demonstrations_, he conjoins the banishment of
_John_ into _Patmos_, with the deaths of _Peter_ and _Paul_: and so do [2]
_Tertullian_ and _Pseudo-Prochorus_, as well as the first author, whoever
he was, of that very antient fable, that _John_ was put by _Nero_ into a
vessel of hot oil, and coming out unhurt, was banished by him into
_Patmos._ Tho this story be no more than a fiction yet was it founded on a
tradition of the first churches, that _John_ was banished into _Patmos_ in
the days of _Nero_. _Epiphanius_ represents the _Gospel of John_ as written
in the time of _Domitian_, and the _Apocalypse_ even before that of _Nero_.
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