Overview of the Sequence and Dates for John’s Writings

baptism with which I am baptized.” Pap. 6:5 And this is to be expected, for it is impossible for God to lie. Pap. 6:6 [Eusebius said later] Moreover the encyclopedic Origen also affirms in his interpretation of the Gospel according to Matthew that John was martyred, indicating that he had learned this from the successors of the apostles [i.e., possibly referring to Papias].

• Papias claimed that John was killed by the Jews, evidently at a time when they still had the ability and opportunity to do so. This would point to the Neronic persecution (AD 64), until it was cut short by the outbreak of the Jewish revolt (AD 66). It would not have been easy for them to do much against Christians after the war began, and especially not after the war ended. • The Jews had no political or judicial power to kill anyone after 70. It clearly points to a time before 70 when the Jews would have had the authority, opportunity, and means by which to do it. The Neronic persecution fits that description well, since that is when the Jews were in their most powerful position against the Christians. • As we look at the Biblical evidence in Matthew 20, Mark 10, and John 21, we notice that it points unambiguously toward the conclusion that Apostle John must have died before the Parousia. • The death of John before AD 70 would absolutely clinch the pre-70 date of all the Johannine writings. And it would completely negate all the other objections that futurists have raised against the preterist view using John’s supposed longevity beyond AD 70. • It needs to be noted here that my views have changed regarding the reason why John was no longer around after AD 70. In the first edition of my rapture book, I took the position that

John was not around after AD 70 because he was raptured. Those who were raptured did not experience physical death, but were simply CHANGED into their new immortal bodies as they were caught up to be with Christ in the unseen spiritual realm. Thus, if John was still alive at the time of the Parousia, he would not have died (experienced the death of his physical body).

He would simply have been changed and snatched away to be with Christ. However, that is no longer the position I hold in regard to John. • My settled position now is that John was no longer around after AD 70 because he was killed by the Jews before the Parousia, not because he was raptured. John suffered martyrdom before the Parousia and did not live and remain until the Parousia, nor afterwards. Therefore, he was not raptured. It was the words of Papias and other later church fathers which alerted me to the probability that John suffered martyrdom sometime after his exile to Patmos (AD 62) and before the Parousia (AD 66). Papias pointed to Matthew 20 and Mark 10. These two texts are far more convincing than any of the traditions, because they come from infallible inspired

Scripture.

Overview of the Sequence and Dates for John’s Writings:

From comparing the contents of John’s three epistles with each other, and with his gospel and apocalypse, it seems that the sequence of writing must be as follows:

1. Gospel of John (Late 60 or Early 61) 2. First John (Early 61) 3. Second and Third John (Late 61 or Early 62)) 4. The Book of Revelation (Mid-to-Late 62)

Here is the reasoning for this sequence: The gospel of John seems to have been written at a time when Luke was not aware of its contents. If it had been written before Luke and Paul went to Rome in AD 60, then there most likely would have been some subtle allusions to its contents in the gospel of Luke. However, it is John’s gospel which shows some awareness of Luke’s gospel, and

66 not the other way around. Therefore it seems that John’s gospel was written after Luke and Paul went to Rome (Fall of 60). We say more about this below.

The opening verses of John’s first epistle briefly allude to concepts about the Logos, Life, and Light which presuppose the readers are already familiar with his gospel where these themes are fully developed. That alone is very strong evidence that the gospel had already been written, and was already in circulation, before John wrote his first epistle.

John’s first epistle was written to stabilize some churches (probably Paul’s churches in Turkey) who were being troubled by false teachers who had gone out from the Jerusalem church. Since Paul was in prison in Rome, and was not able to visit them, he must have requested the apostles in Jerusalem (Peter, John, and James) to provide some oversight while he was preparing for his trial. John’s first epistle seems to be providing help to Paul’s stressed churches. First John was written from Jerusalem, since John says the false teachers “went out from us” (1 Jn 2:19). This shows that it was not written from Patmos, since he states that he was still a part of the church from which those false teachers had gone out. There was no church on Patmos, nor could the false teachers have gone out from Patmos. If John was in fact writing to Paul’s churches while Paul was in Rome, that would date First John no earlier than late 60 or early 61 right after Paul had been taken to Rome, and no later than John’s exile to Patmos in April of 62. Since there are two more epistles to squeeze in here before John was exiled, it implies that First John was written fairly soon after Paul left for Rome (early 61) and soon after John’s gospel was put in circulation.

The possibility exists that his first epistle may have been written immediately after the gospel was finished, and then sent along with the gospel to those troubled churches. If the false teachers who were disturbing those churches were Gnostic, the sending of the gospel together with first epistle would make a lot of sense. It would deliver a double blow against the Gnostics. The first epistle tells us exactly who his gospel was targeting, since it alludes to those same Logos, Light, and Life ideas that are fully developed in his gospel, which completely demolishes the Gnostic belief system.

Regarding the connection between John’s epistles and the refutation of the Gnostics, R. R. Williams states in his Cambridge commentary on the Letters of John that: “It is clear to those who know the religious history of the first and second centuries A.D. that the situation to which 1 John is addressed corresponds closely to that produced by the school of thought called gnostic or more precisely docetic- gnostic.” [R. R. Williams, The Letters of John and James. Part of The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1965. p. 9]

A further clue as to the kind of Gnosticism John was confronting in his gospel and epistles may be found in 1 Jn 2:19 where he says, “they went out from us.” This particular brand of Gnosticism came from a Jewish base. It was not coming from Greece, Rome, or Alexandria. That is why it was so deceptive and dangerous. It was coming from a Jewish framework which was similar enough to Judaism and Jewish Christianity that the unwary saints were fooled by it.

Second John mentions that the couriers who had visited those churches with his first epistle had brought back word to him that some of those churches were “walking in truth” and had not been deceived by the false teachers he mentioned in his first epistle. John further warns them about those deceivers, and says that he hopes to visit them to set the rest of the matters straight. This implies an interval of at least a few months, if not several months, between the composition of his first epistle and his two later ones (i.e., enough time for the couriers to deliver the first epistle to those churches, and then return to John with a report about their condition).

Second John was evidently written to a specific church (or maybe a group of churches in a certain region), whereas John’s third epistle was written to an individual (Gaius). This is similar to Paul’s two prison epistles (Colossians and Philemon), one of which was written to the church, while the other was a personal letter to one of the leaders in that church. And just like both Colossians and Philemon were sent out at the same time by the same courier, that appears to be the case with John’s second and third epistles. Both of them mention John’s reluctance to write all of his concerns