People of the Book – John of Patmos
Christ claimed that he was in fact “the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Rev 22:13). Because of this assertion, the A and the horseshoe-shaped Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, are often displayed in Christian art, buildings, and pulpits. This series of articles investigating scriptural figures that share our theological DNA began many months ago with our first parents Adam and Eve and now closes with our own bookending omega-figure, the author of the last book of the Bible, called Revelation or the Apocalypse. This text has been ascribed to John of Patmos and is unique among biblical writings for a number of reasons.
There are many Johns connected to the New Testament: the Baptist, the beloved disciple, the evangelist, the presbyter, the “seer.” Sometimes even biblical scholars disagree about which of these figures are in fact distinct individuals and which share common traits and writings.
The official narrative is that John the evangelist was in fact the youngest of the disciples, so intimately close to Jesus that the former rested his head on Christ’s chest during the Last Supper. After Jesus’ death sentence, when the disciples scattered like sheep without a shepherd, John remained at the foot of the Cross and took Mary into his home in an act of spiritual adoption whereby she became the mother of all Christians (“Woman, behold your son…Son, behold your mother”). He then supposedly wrote the fourth Gospel and a few epistles, was eventually exiled to Patmos and after visions of the end times, wrote the Book of Revelation, peacefully dying in old age, the only apostle not to suffer martyrdom.
In actual fact, historical reality may (as usual) not be quite so tidy.
It is undeniable that the Gospel of John and Revelation are not stylistically similar in any discernable way, although this proves nothing, as for example Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and his “De Vulgari Eloquentia” are radically different works when it comes to style, goal and format. Authors can obviously employ various genres for a multitude of purposes and intended audiences, and this would presumably apply a fortiori to those figures given the special charism of divine inspiration. (For a wonderful theological and historical exploration of what it means for an informed and critically astute person to accept that God “breathed himself into” [in-spirare] the biblical texts, see Rick Gaillardetz’s book “By What Authority?”).
However, the 4th century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea claims that the John recording his apocalyptic vision on Patmos in the last book of the Bible is not the same person that personally saw the crucifixion. Eusebius pointed to a passage which seems to imply that this John received the apostolic tradition and was not an original witness to the passion. The church father St. Jerome supported him in this opinion, while many historical and current theologians dispute the distinction, arguing that both came from the same pen.
Either way, the Book of Revelation is one of the most mysterious and powerful texts of Christianity. Read through a literal and fundamentalist lens, it describes with terrifying detail the trials and tribulations surrounding Christ’s return, the end of the world, and the gory punishments extended to those who have become drowsy through the centuries with the intoxicating spirits of perceived independence from God. However, Catholics are not encouraged to read the text along these lines. Rather, Pope Benedict has pointed out that the images of triumphant lambs and women battling dragons portray not frightening snapshots of the destruction to come, but the “luminous side of history.”
Christians believe the end of our individual and collective stories does not remain as pain or meaninglessness, but that the foundation of the universe is love, for as one of my favorite Pauline passages puts it, “he who called you is faithful” (1 Thess 5:24). As difficult as it is to accept when one is undergoing struggles, the pope reminds us that in Revelation we realize suffering “is never perceived as the last word, but is seen as one point in the passage to happiness and, in fact, is itself already mysteriously infused with the joy that flows from hope.”
Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is an administrator at Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life and is on the faculty for the Department of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University.
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