Introduction
Toward the end of John's ministry, he was exiled to the prison colony on the island of Patmos which was off the coast of Ephesus in the Aegean Sea (among the modern day Greek Islands). I mention Ephesus because at the time of John's exile, the Ephesian church tended to his needs. One of the central tenets of John's first epistle and gospel account is the command of Jesus to sacrificially love the brotherhood of believers as He has loved us and gave Himself up for us. In the message Jesus gave to John for Ephesus in Revelation 2, He commended them for despising the works of the Nicolaitans, but exhorted them for losing their first love.
The Nicolaitans were thought to have originated with Nicolaus of Antioch, one of the original deacons listed in Acts 6. There was a famous Hellenistic Jewish philosopher called Philo of Alexandria who died around AD 50 and was known for combining the Jewish faith with Greek philosophy. As a Hellenist, it is possible that Nicolaus was influenced by him, for he seemed to merge Platonism, Hedonism, and Jewish mysticism with the teachings of Christ. The Nicolaitans denied Christ coming in the flesh because they considered flesh to be corrupt. Because the flesh is corrupt, they believed that sin done in the body only served to add more grace to the spirit so they made a practice of indulging the flesh. Paul wrote against this idea in his letter to the Romans, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:1-4)
Many scholars argue for a later date for John's works because of Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon. He wrote that John was exiled by emperor Domitian toward the end of his reign (Domitian reigned from AD 81 to 96). I argue for an earlier date (around AD 68) during the reign of emperor Nero. Domitian was a general at this time and could therefore still have been the one to banish John, but I don't consider Irenaeus' works to be inspired so I don't put a lot of trust in them. If John's works were written in the 90's, Jesus' warning would have been against the Gnostics (probably the Cerinthians) instead of the Nicolaitans. I also have a hard time believing that John would write about the Jerusalem temple without any mention of its fall.
Christ's prophecy concerning the temple was one of the most astounding and clearly stated in all of scripture. I believe John would have leapt at the opportunity to validate this prophecy, for John wrote his gospel account to prove that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31). This is the lens through which I will present this study of John's gospel account. For more information on this subject, I recommend my study of John's epistles.
