John of Patmos

John of Patmos is the name scholars give the author of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. He calls himself John and says he was on the island of Patmos 'for the word of God,' which is usually taken to mean banishment for his Christian activity. Most scholars date the book to around 95 CE, late in the reign of the emperor Domitian.

Christian tradition identified him with John the Apostle. Doubts are old: in the third century Dionysius of Alexandria noted differences of language and style from the Gospel of John. Most modern scholars think the author was a different early Christian prophet, sometimes linked to a figure called John the Elder.

Revelation is a vision text full of symbolic beasts and cosmic war. Passages the site uses include the great red dragon whose tail drags a third of the stars to earth (12:3–9), locusts with crowns and iron breastplates (9:7–9), Gog and Magog gathered for a last battle (20:8), and the cube-shaped New Jerusalem descending from heaven (21:2, 16).