John of Patmos

"John the Divine" and "John the Revelator" redirect here. For other uses of John the Divine, see John the Divine (disambiguation). For other uses of John the Revelator, see John the Revelator (disambiguation). For other people called Saint John, see Saint John (disambiguation).
Saint

John of Patmos
Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos by Hieronymus Bosch, 1505
Venerated in
Major worksBook of Revelation
Part of a series of articles on
John in the Bible
"St John the Evangelist" by Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), 1620s
Saint John the Evangelist, Domenichino
Johannine literature
Authorship
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John of Patmos (also called John the Revelator, John the Divine, John the Theologian; Ancient Greek: Ἰωάννης ὁ Θεολόγος, romanized: Iōannēs ho Theologos) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Book of Revelation. Revelation 1:9 states that John was on Patmos,[1] an Aegean island off the coast of Roman Asia, where according to most biblical historians, he was exiled as a result of anti-Christian persecution under the Roman emperor Domitian.[2][3]

Nicolas Poussin's Landscape with Saint John on Patmos (1640)

Christian tradition has considered the Book of Revelation's writer to be the same person as John the Apostle. A minority of ancient clerics and scholars, such as Eusebius (d. 339/340), recognize at least one further John as a companion of Jesus, John the Presbyter. Some Christian scholars since medieval times separate the disciple from the writer of Revelation.[4][5]

  1. ^ Revelation 1:9
  2. ^ Souvay, Charles. "Patmos." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 12 Jan. 2009
  3. ^ Phillips, J. B. "Book 27 - Book of Revelation". 12 January 1962. People, Places, Customs, Concepts, Journeys - the New Testament with integrated notes and maps, 1962.
  4. ^ Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible, (Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985), 355.
  5. ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (2004). The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford. p. 468. ISBN 0-19-515462-2.