On the Social Setting of the Revelation to John

Abstract

Revisionists have argued that no empire-wide persecution of Christians occurred in the late first century and that Domitian was neither a persecutor of Christians nor an evil, incompetent ruler. This essay agrees with those points but also argues that a closer examination of extant Roman and Christian late first/early second century writers demonstrates that Christians were held in low esteem and suffered in Roman society because of their religious convictions. This study argues that Revelation was a Christian response to religio-political pressures by indigenous Asian pagans upon Christians to conform to traditional social practices in Roman Asia.