Who Wrote the Book of Revelation?

The authorship of the book of Revelation is vitally important. John 16:12–15 says that the Holy Spirit will teach and reveal to the apostles all that Jesus was unable to tell them while he was on earth. Thus, for the book of Revelation to be trusted and counted as Scripture, the revelation that Jesus gave must have been given to an apostle and the book must have been written down by an apostle or under the oversight of an apostle. This begs the question, ‘who wrote the book of Revelation?’

The book of Revelation was most likely written by John the Apostle. The book itself claims to be written by a Christian prophet named “John.” The early church testifies that the apostle John wrote Revelation. Jesus claims he would give further revelation to the apostles through the Spirit. 

I. The Self-Attested Authorship of Revelation

The author of the book of Revelation states his name is “John” four times throughout the work.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.”

“John to the seven churches that are in Asia.”

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.”

“I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.”

REVELATION 1:1–2, 4, 9; 22:8, emphasis added

Without a doubt, the book of Revelation was written by a man named “John.” The predicament is that Revelation does not give any other clear names or titles, such as ‘apostle’ or who John is the son of. Thus, the next place to discern the identity of “John” is to see what else he says about himself. 

II. The Self-Attested Identity and Situation of John

Other than claiming to receive the revelation from Jesus and sending it to seven churches (Rev 1:1–2, 4, 9–11, 19), John gives his readers three pieces of information that help us further identify him. 

A. John is a Christian

John self-identifies as a Christian. First, he calls himself a “slave” of Jesus (δοῦλος), which is a common way of speaking of a Christian in the New Testament:

“He made it known by sending his angel to his servant [δοῦλος] John.”

REVELATION 1:2

One of the angels also identifies John as a slave of Jesus:

“I [the angel] am a fellow servant [σύνδουλος] with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.”

REVELATION 22:9

Second, John uses inclusive language when he speaks of Christians and what Jesus has done for them. Note the use of “us”:

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

REVELATOIN 1:5b–6, emphasis added

John is a person whom Jesus loves, whom Jesus freed from his sins, and whom Jesus made part of his kingdom. John is a Christian.

B. John is a Prophet

John is identified as a prophet in the vein of Ezekiel, both who were told to eat a scroll (Ezek 2:8–4; Rev 10:8–11):

“Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, ‘Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.’ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’ And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, ‘You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.’”

REVELATION 10:8–11, emphasis added; also see Ezek 2:8–4 and Jer 15:17–18

Being a prophet does not mean that John is an apostle, but it does not eliminate that possibility.

C. John is on Patmos

John claims that he is on an island called Patmos when he received the revelation from Jesus. Patmos is a small rocky island in the Aegean Sea southwest of Ephesus.

He was on the island “on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus,” which could mean one of two things. First, John could be on Patmos for the purpose of receiving the revelation. In this interpretation, Jesus directed John to travel to Patmos to receive the revelation that is now contained in the book of Revelation. 

Second, John could be on Patmos as a result of his preaching and teaching the word of God and testifying about Jesus. Eusebius, the famous fourth-century church historian, claims that John the apostle was exiled on Patmos during the reign of Domitian due to his proclamation of the word of God (Ecclesiastical History, 3.18.1 and 3.20.10–11). Revelation 1:9 also suggests that John was exiled because he claims to be a “partner in the tribulation.” What John did on the island is difficult to discern. One early church father, Victorinus of Pettau, suggested that John worked in the mines under forced labour, but he is the only witness to this idea. 

D. Summary of John’ Self-Attested Identity and Situation

We can confidently conclude that John is a Christian and a prophet of God who was most likely exiled on the island of Patmos undergoing hardships. This information does not tell us conclusively who John is. However, it does not rule out the possibility of John being the apostle. More information will be needed. The next best place to discern the authorship of the book of Revelation is to compare it with the apostle John’s other writings: the Gospel of John and the letters of John. 

III. A Comparison between the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John

A comparison between the book of Revelation and the Gospel of John will always be fraught with difficulties because the two works are not the same (i.e., Revelation is not a copy of the Gospel of John). Both works are different genres, have different purposes, and have different topics and content. Thus, it will be easy to point out differences in content, themes, theology, language, and writing style because these all exist. It is also true, however, that there are quite a few similarities and affinities between Revelation and John’s other writings. For example, note the following similarities between Revelation and the Gospel of John. 

• Jesus is portrayed as a lamb who died a sacrificial death for sin (John 1:29; Rev 1:5; 5:1–14)
• Jesus is called the “Word” (λόγος; John 1:1, 14; Rev 19:13; also see 1 John 1:1)
• Jesus fulfills Zechariah 12:10 (John 19:37; Rev 1:7)
• There is a strong Exodus-Moses motif in both the Gospel of John and Revelation
• Faith is significant throughout both John and Revelation. 

There are definitely similarities between the book of Revelation and John’s other writings. Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence that the author is the apostle John. 

IV. External Evidence

The last remaining evidence regarding the identify of Revelation’s author is the witness of the early church. There is significant explicit evidence from the 2^nd and early 3^rd centuries (the 100s and 200s) that John the apostle wrote the book of Revelation. In AD 135, Justin Martyr writes,

“There was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem.”

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 81.4

Further, Irenaeus, who claims to have known John the apostle, introduces many quotes from the book of Revelation with “John, the Lord’s disciple” (Against Heresies, 4.20.11). 

Others who claim that John the apostle wrote the book of Revelation are: the Muratorian Canon, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen. 

The first significant opposition to John the apostle as the author of Revelation is Dionysius of Alexandria from the middle 3^rd century. Dionysius claimed that another John from Asia was the author of Revelation (in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 7.24.1–2). Eusebius himself agreed with Dionysius. Some have chalked both Dionysius’ and Eusebius’ rejection of apostolic authorship to theological issues, such as attempt to deny the millennium. If true, you can see how important apostolic authorship is to the writing of the New Testament (see my article on this topic HERE). 

V. Summary and Concluding Comments

The book of Revelation is clear that a Christian prophet named John is the one who received the vision from Jesus and wrote it down. The similarities between Revelation and the Gospel of John allow for the possibility that it was written by the apostle John, but the evidence is not conclusive. The external evidence from the early church fathers strongly suggests that John the apostle wrote Revelation, but again the evidence is not conclusive. Based on the internal and external evidence, we can conclude that John the apostle likely wrote the book of Revelation, but we cannot say for certain. 

With the above being said, I personally believe that John the apostle did write the book of Revelation because all New Testament books must have been written by an apostle or under the supervision of an apostle for it to be Scripture, based on John 14:25–26 and 16:12–15. Further, the early church would have included Revelation as part of the canon of Scripture because of its apostolic origins. 

If the book of Revelation was not written by John the apostle, then it is untrustworthy and its readers cannot know what is true and what is false in the book. This is the accusation levelled against Dionysius and Eusebius. It is argued that Dionysius and Eusebius did not like the teaching of the millennium, so they discounted the apostolic authorship in order to discount the reality of the millennium. Let us Christians not do the same thing. Let us Christians not undermine the trustworthiness of the book of Revelation and the New Testament by undermining its apostolic authorship.