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History: Patristic Higher Criticism

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Eusebius quotes selections from Dionysius of Alexandria’s response to Nepos’s millennial reading of Revelation. Dionysius notes that some believe that “the author of the book was not even one of the saints, or a member of the church, but Cerinthus, the founder of the sect called Cerinthian after him.” Dionysius does not agree, but neither does he think the John of Revelation is identical to the John of the gospel:

“I am not prepared to admit that he was the apostle, the son of Zebedee and brother of James, who wrote the gospel entitled According to John and the general epistle. On the character of each, on the linguistic style, and on the general tone, as it is called, of Revelation, I base my opinion that the author was not the same.”

Stylistic concerns are important: “By the phraseology also we can measure the difference between the Gospel and Epistle and the Revelation. The first two are written not only without any blunders in the use of Greek, but with remarkable skill as regards diction, logical thought, and orderly expression. It is impossible to find in them one barbarous word or solecism, or any kind of vulgarism.” But Revelation: “I observe that his language and style is not really Greek: he uses barbarous idioms, and is sometimes guilty of solecisms.”

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 4:16 pm

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History: Patristic Higher Criticism

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