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Here I Stood: Patmos

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The book of Revelation indicates that John, the writer, was in exile on the island of Patmos at the time of the reception of these visions. Some scholars believe that this writer was not the same as the author of the gospel and the three letters that bear his name. In Patmos I recall seeing a sign distinguishing John the apostle from John “the revelator”. On the other hand, many Bible scholars believe that John the apostle, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is the author of the gospel and three letters that bear his name as well as the book of Revelation. I am convinced that the author of Revelation and the gospel/letters is the same person, even though uncharacteristically it contains his name.



Only once did we visit Patmos, and that was on a four-day cruise to the Greek islands in 1982. I remember not only the sign mentioned above, but the bishops chair in the cave where supposedly the visions took place and a crack in the rock above the entrance where, it is said, a miracle occurred during the time of the revelations.



One of the reasons for believing that John was the one receiving the revelation is the fact that there is evidence of John being in Ephesus in his later life, and there he cared for Mary, the Lord’s mother as Christ directed him from the cross. Early Christian fathers and historians record John’s being there, even reporting his consternation in seeing the heretic Cerinthus in the bathhouse in Ephesus. Patmos is an island located just off the coast of Ephesus.


Patmos is maintained today by the Greek Orthodox Church, and one encounters black robed priests during the visit. There once I stood and thought of John’s ecstatic experience.


bishops chair in the cave -->



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