The date of John’s return from Patmos is capable of more exact proof
than any other point in the chronology of his later years. The death
of Domitian, who fell at last under the daggers of his own previous
friends, now driven to this measure by their danger from his murderous
tyranny, happened in the sixteenth of his own reign, (A. D. 96.) On
the happy ♦consummation of this desirable revolution, Cocceius Nerva,
who had himself suffered banishment under the suspicious tyranny
of Domitian, was now recalled from his exile, to the throne of the
Caesars; and mindful of his own late calamity, he commenced his just
and blameless reign by an auspicious act of clemency, restoring to
their country and home all who had been banished by the late emperor.
Among these, John was doubtless included; for the decree was so
comprehensive that he could hardly have been excluded from the benefit
of its provisions; and to give this view the strongest confirmation,
it is specified by the heathen historians of Rome, that this senatorial
decree of general recall did not except even those who had been found
guilty of religious offenses. Christian writers also, of a respectable
antiquity, state distinctly that the apostle John was recalled from
Patmos by this decree of Nerva. Some of the early ecclesiastical
historians, indeed, have pretended that this persecution against
the Christians was suspended by Domitian himself, on some occasion
of repentance; but critical examination and a comparison of higher
authorities, both sacred and profane, have disproved the notion.
The data above-mentioned, therefore, fix the return of John from
banishment, in the first year of Nerva, which, according to the most
approved chronology, corresponds with A. D. 96. This date is useful
also, in affording ground for a reasonable conjecture respecting the
comparative age of John. He could not have been near as old as Jesus
Christ, since the attainment of the age of ninety-six must imply an
extreme of infirmity necessarily accompanying it, unless a miracle
of most unparalleled character is supposed; and no one can venture to
require belief in a pretended miracle, of which no sacred record bears
testimony. If he was, on his return from Patmos, as well as during his
residence there, able to produce writings of such power and such clear
expression, as those which are generally attributed to these periods,
it seems reasonable to suppose that he was many years younger than
Jesus Christ. The common Christian era, also, fixing the birth of
Christ some years too late, this circumstance will require a still
larger subtraction from this number, for the age of John.
♦ “consummamation” replaced with “consummation”