“I John, your brother, and partner in the affliction, and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, like that of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven congregations, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”—Rev. 1:9-11. This gives a clue to the date of the Apocalypse. It was written when John was in the Isle of Patmos: “It is the general testimony of ancient authors, that St. John was banished into Patmos in the time of Domitian, in the latter part of his reign, and restored by his successor, Nerva. But the book could not be published till after John’s release, and return to Ephesus, in Asia. Domitian died in 96, and his persecution did not commence till near the close of his reign.”—DR. CLARKE. “DOMITIAN, having exercised his cruelty against many, and unjustly slain no small number of noble and illustrious men at Rome, ... at length established himself as the successor of NERO, in his hatred and hostility to GOD. He was the _second_ that raised a persecution against us. In this persecution, it is handed down by tradition, that the apostle and evangelist, JOHN, ... was condemned to dwell on the island of Patmos. IRENÆUS, indeed, in his fifth book against the heresies, where he speaks of the calculation formed on the epithet of Antichrist, in the above-mentioned Revelation of JOHN, speaks in the following manner respecting him: ‘If, however, it were necessary to proclaim his name (_i.e._ Antichrist’s), openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the Revelation, for it was not long since it was seen, but _almost in our own times_, at the _close_ of DOMITIAN’s reign.’ ”—EUSEBIUS. Prof. Stuart, who dissents from the opinion, admits that “a majority of the older critics have been inclined to adopt the opinion of Irenæus, viz.: that it was written during the reign of Domitian, _i.e._, during the last part of the first century, or in A. D. 95 or 96.”—Com. _Apoc._, V. I., p. 263. John’s adherence to the word and testimony of Christ, had caused his banishment—as others “were slain—for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held,” (6:9); and whose living again and reigning with Christ, was subsequently shown John in a vision, 20:4.