Skip to content
Home » How Many Years Lapsed from the Writing of Job to the Writing of the Book of Revelation?

How Many Years Lapsed from the Writing of Job to the Writing of the Book of Revelation?

An Old Testament scholar by the name of A. Michael Royson has argued that the Book of Revelation was probably written over a period of about 70 years, beginning with the ninth chapter of the book and concluding with the last chapter. He bases his argument on an examination of the Greek text of the Book of Revelation and provides a detailed analysis of the narrative framework of the book. What is more, he argues that it was probably written in Koiné Greek, the common trade language of the day.

There are several problems with Royson’s argument. First, the Greek text of the Book of Revelation is fragmentary; we do not have a complete, undamaged version of the book. More importantly, the structural analysis that Royson provides is seriously flawed. Royson compares the Book of Revelation with the Book of Job and focuses on the similarities between the two. But he fails to spot the significant differences between these two Hebrew books, differences that are, in fact, crucial for determining the length of time that lapsed between the two books.

The Overall Narrative Framework of Revelation

Royson begins by noting the close connection that exists between the Books of Job and Revelation. He points out that ‘both books share a general structure, a common framework’, and that’many scholars agree that the literary dependence upon the book of Job is enormous’. While he is correct in stating that there are profound similarities between the two books, he fails to note that they are in fact, quite distinct. As he proceeds with his analysis of the Book of Revelation, he often uses phrases such as ‘most scholars agree’ or ‘almost all scholars agree’, but he fails to provide any specifics as to what those scholars say. In fact, when he does provide specific references, they are often ambiguous, unclear, or just plain wrong.

Take, for example, Royson’s claim that ‘the apocalyptic literature of the ancient Near East’ was influential in the composition of the Book of Revelation. He gives the example of Isaiah 12:1, which he takes to mean that the Book of Revelation was strongly influenced by the writings of the prophet Isaiah. But this is not correct. The sentence in Isaiah 12:1 that Royson refers to actually reads ‘And One will shepherd them, / and One will arise to judge them’. This is ambiguous at best. It could easily be translated as ‘And one will be a shepherd for them’, which, quite frankly, makes more sense. In any case, the Book of Revelation was almost certainly not influenced (if, in fact, it was influenced at all) by the writings of Isaiah. It is a distinct, separate text, which evolved independently.

The Lapse of Time Between the Two Books

There is more than one problem with Royson’s estimate of the length of time that lapsed between the two books. The first and most serious problem is that he offers no reliable way of determining how much time actually elapsed. To quote Royson again:

“[R]ecent scholarship has suggested that the best estimates for the date and place of writing for the Book of Revelation are probably October 62–December 64, A.D. If these suggestions are correct, then roughly 70 years passed between the death of Jesus and the Apocalypse.’ However, there are serious problems with this calculation. In order to determine the date and place of writing for the Book of Revelation, Royson examines a number of factors, such as:

  • The use of the words ‘echoed in my ears’ (1:2)
  • The reference to the ‘earth going into upheaval’ (1:3)
  • The appearance of four horsemen (1:16)
  • The description of heavenly creatures ‘climbing on the back’ of a golden eagle (4: bird of prey)
  • The use of the phrase ‘signature track’ (6:3)
  • The allusion to famine (7:9)

The problem with this approach is that there are many details in the Book of Revelation that did not appear in the Book of Job. For example, the reference to ‘earth going into upheaval’ refers to the period shortly after the flood, not to the time that elapsed between the two books. It is quite possible that the narrator of the Book of Revelation experienced something quite different from what the prophet Job describes. Even if one were to take the reference to be a literal description of the time that passed between the two books, 70 years is an absurdly short amount of time, especially when one considers that the entire lifetime of an individual at the time was closer to three score years. And why should we assume that the words and phrases in the Book of Revelation were used in exactly the same way as they are described in the text? We have no way of knowing.

Moreover, even if we accept that the words and phrases in the Book of Revelation were used in the same way as they are described in the text, we cannot know what ‘echoed in my ears’ meant at the time the Book of Revelation was written. In fact, we cannot know if the phrase was even used in the same way in Job or in other parts of the Old Testament. We have absolutely no idea how these two books (or any other books for that matter) were received and interpreted by the original audience.

In short, what we call the ‘70 year gap’ is, in reality, an uncertain amount of time that does not correspond with the commonly held belief that the Book of Revelation was written a few years after the Book of Job. It could be that these two books were written at approximately the same time, but there is absolutely no way of knowing for sure.

The Chronology of the Biblical Books

The second problem with Royson’s estimate of the length of time that lapsed between the two books is that he provides no way of establishing an exact date for the composition of the Book of Revelation. Rather, he provides a number of possible dates, ranging from 63 years to 79 years (a 30-year span) and then, at the end of the article, simply states that ‘most scholars agree’ that the best guess for the date and place of writing for the Book of Revelation is somewhere in the region of 64–66 AD. This is a very, very wide range of possible dates, especially since we have no way of knowing if or when this dating scheme will ever be accurate.

In any case, it is absolutely essential when dealing with textual criticism to be able to establish an exact date for the composition of any given biblical book. Without knowing the date and place of writing for a given book, it is impossible to know when certain words, stories, or even whole passages were added to the text. In the absence of any objective criteria, all we have are the subjective opinions of scholars, which, as we have seen, are often wrong. In fact, if these dates do turn out to be accurate, than it will mean that many, if not all, of the ‘mysteries’ of the Bible were solved—a discovery that would revolutionize future biblical scholarship.

The third problem with Royson’s estimate of the length of time that lapsed between the two books is that, once again, he offers no reliable way of knowing how long a time really elapsed. To begin with, he provides no way of knowing what date was used for the beginning of the 70 year period he identifies. Moreover, he provides no way of knowing whether or not there were any years ‘intercalated’ between the actual years of the 70 year period. In other words, was there an entire year that was not represented in the numbers he provides or was the entire number of years rounded up? Once more, without reliable information regarding the method used for computing the number, we are back to square one.

This is not to say that there are no parallels between the two books. There are indeed many parallels, but they are not exact parallels. For example, there is a brief allusion to the exodus in the Book of Revelation (‘blessed are those who are being redeemed’) and a similar statement can be found in the Book of Job (‘the happy few whose grace I continue to enjoy’). But even here the parallel ends, for the Book of Revelation uses the word ‘scapegoat’ in place of ‘exodus’ and the book makes no other allusion to the exodus. In fact, we could make the case that the Book of Revelation owes more to its sources (especially the Book of Psalms) than it does to the Book of Job.