As it happens, I believe that it is perfectly possible to locate the writing of Revelation in the reign of Vespasian (AD 69–79); and I have argued that the book emerged just before the fall of Jerusalem to Titus, Vespasian’s son, in AD 70. See Smalley, Thunder and Love 40–50, esp. 49–50; cf. also on 13:4; 17:9–11. An early date for the Apocalypse means that it appeared before the Gospel of John (which I place in AD 80; see Smalley, John 90–93) and the Johannine Letters (AD 90; see Smalley, 1, 2,
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