Readings:
Nehemiah 11-13
Revelation 1:1-8

Nehemiah 11-13

The final three chapters contain a lot of numbering, record keeping and appointments of people to different roles in the temple and it’s functions. Also included here is an account of the dedication of the walls of the city, with two groups walking along the tops of the walls and meeting in the middle so that the entire wall was walked over while they all prayed and sang praises to God.

The final chapter sees Nehemiah go back to Persia for a while, and when he returns he finds multiple violations of the covenant that the people just rededicated themselves to. He sets about chastising the violators and enforcing the regulations that were prescribed by Moses.

Revelation 1:1-8

The book of Revelation, also known by the name The Apocalypse of John, was written some time in the first century by a person who identified themselves as John. Who this John was can be a little complicated to figure out.

Many ancient Christian writers said it was the Apostle John, son of Zebedee. But this wasn’t a unanimous opinion, there were some who identified him as an early Christian named John the elder. There were even a couple that identified him as the author of the Gospel of Mark, because he went by both John Mark and just Mark.

I personally lean towards the opinion of the majority of church fathers who identify the “Disciple that Jesus loved” in the Gospel of John as both the author of that gospel and of the Book of Revelation.

Then the question of when it was written is also contentious. The modern scholarship says it was written late into the first century, some time in the 90s AD. This late dating also included some early fathers such as Saint Jerome.

The less popular, but by no means obscure, opinion is that it was written towards the end of, or just after, the reign of Caesar. Part of this is because of a footnote in an early Syriac manuscript of the book that says it was written on Patmos where John was sent by Nero. Those who hold this earlier dating see the destruction of the harlot city in chapters 17-18 as a prophecy of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem.

I think that the earlier dating makes sense and is a good lens through which to interpret many of the things that take place and prophecies contained in the book. Some dispensationalists insist on the late dating because it helps further their beliefs that a third temple will be built before the end of days, but if the early date is correct then the things involving the temple that are in this book could have happened at the second temple while it was still standing.

The text of the book opens with an introduction that says these things were revealed to John about what must soon take place, and the third verse even says that the time is near. In my mind this is an indication that the majority of the text is about the Neronian persecutions that broke out after the great fire in Rome.

Jesus is called the first born, and this was misinterpreted by the early heretics known as the Arians who believed Jesus was a created being and not of the same essence as the Father. This was repudiated at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

Christ is called the first-born of the dead, not because he died before we did, but because he suffered death for us and was the first to rise again. Since he has risen, we too shall rise again through him.

Saint Athanasius

John says that he is coming and the ones who pierced him will see him coming. This can be read as a double prophecy, first fulfilled when judgment fell on the city of Jerusalem in 70AD and in the future when Jesus returns a second time to judge the living and the dead.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
1 Maccabees 1-2
Revelation 1:9-20