Quote:Even your christard buddies don't know who John was and it's highly suspected that he likely borrowed a common name from the Bible - or even better, someone borrowed it for him.
The man was out of his mind - stranded and isolated on an island and very likely starving and hallucinating while he wrote the most ridiculous book in the entire bible.
Revelations dates itself to late 68/very early 69 AD.
Quote:10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. --Revelations 17
The five fallen "kings" are Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The one who "is" is Galba, who picked up the crown after Nero's suicide. The one who is to come is the elder Vespasian.
Clearly this shit was written as jewish apocalyptic literature....Vespasian was even then gathering his armies to crush the revolt of 66 and Josephus had famously declared that Vespasian would be emperor. Josephus also used that as an excuse to defect to the Romans saving his own life and earning the contempt of his countrymen ever since. The writer of Revelations ( or whatever it was originally called ) could not have known about the short-lived rules of Otho and Vitellius as these originated in other parts of the empire.
So, it seems that this shit is merely re-worked jewish nonsense that some xtian thought would be useful. As you say, it very nearly did not make the cut because it was too bizarre for a group that managed to believe that a dead carpenter came back to life....and that takes some doing.
