David Chilton’s Days of Vengeance argues in his introduction that Revelation was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. This is nothing extraordinary. Many have made the argument throughout the centuries, but Chilton adds to the countless arguments for a pre-AD 70 dating. According to Chilton, Revelation is a liturgical book, and because it contains many minute liturgical points, the book could only have been written by a priest who had been in an actual service in the Temple itself, and thus felt comfortable conversing about the temple liturgy and imagery. Thus, he argues, “John’s intimate acquaintance with the minute details of Temple worship suggests that the Book of Revelation and the Fourth Gospel must have been written before the Temple services had actually ceased.” Could John have remembered these minute details almost thirty years later towards the end of the century? It is possible, but highly unlikely. Revelation 11 indicates that John is in the process of measuring the current temple, which would mean the temple is still in existence at the time of writing.
