CHAPTER XVIII

OF JOHN THE APOSTLE, AND THE REVELATION

IN this persecution, it is handed down by tradition, that the apostle and evangelist John, who was yet living, in consequence of his testimony to the divine word, 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) openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the revelation, for it is not long since it was seen, but almost in our own times, at the close of Domitian’s reign.” To such a degree, indeed, did the doctrine which we profess, flourish, that even historians that are very far from befriending our religion, have not hesitated to record the persecution and martyrdoms in their histories. These, also, have accurately noted the time, for it happened, according to them, in the fifteenth year of Domitian. At the same time, for professing Christ, Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls of Rome at that time, was transported with many others, as a punishment, to the island of Pontia.