Historical Setting and Genre

Abstract

Abstract In part 3 I shall discuss in detail aspects of the local situation in and to which John writes the Book of Revelation. Here we need only some basic orientation to the origins of the book so that it will not appear as a floating specter from the past. As a way of beginning to orient to the book, I shall consider briefly those hoary questions—Where? When? Who? In what situation? The writer of the Book of Revelation identifies precisely where both he and his audience reside. He writes from the small island of Patmos, one of the Sporades Islands in the Aegean Sea about thirty-seven miles south and west of Miletus, on the western coast of Asia Minor (roughly, present-day Turkey). He writes to churches in seven major cities in Asia, a Roman province situated along the western coast of Asia Minor. Asia Minor, specifically the western part of Asia Minor where John and his audience were located, was one of the most significant geographical areas in the development of early Christianity. In the fifties of the first century the apostle Paul carried on missionary work in this area (see 1 Cor. 16:19). Letters and tracts such as Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and the Pastoral Epistles indicate the continued influence of Paul in this geographical area. The author of 1 Peter writes to the churches of Asia and other provinces in Asia Minor. New Testament writings associated with John — the Gospel and the three letters as well as the Book of Revelation — also, according to tradition, originated in Asia at the city of Ephesus. At the beginning of the second century Ignatius of Antioch writes letters to five churches in Asia as he travels to die in Rome. Through these writings we know of Christian groups in at least eleven cities of the Asian province by the beginning of the second century ce. Moreover, these churches are associated with major apostolic figures such as Paul, Peter, and John.