The Writing Style and Vocabulary of John Part IV

The Writing Style and Vocabulary of John

It has been said that in the Book of Revelation, John's use of the Greek language is strained; his grammar is poor and his mindset is Hebrew. As one author said, "...while he writes in Greek, he thinks in Hebrew." This is not at all like his gospel, which, although simple in style, is well written in Greek. What explains the difference? The difference can be explained by the fact that John wrote the Revelation in his early years shortly after he removed from Judah to Asia, at a time when his use of Greek was still rather rough. His gospel, however, was written sometime later, after some interaction with the Greek community. By then he had worked off the rough edges of his "foreign accent" and communicated with greater grammatical correctness. This would imply an early date for Revelation.

Another explanation can be suggested concerning the difference of style in John's gospel and the book of Revelation. That would be the possibility that John used a secretary to write the gospel, that is, he would have dictated it to one with better grammatical skills in Greek than his own. However, while on Patmos, he would not have had access to such help, and therefore wrote Greek with some difficulty. "Employing scribes in the writing of letters and documents was a common practice during the first century, for Paul and Peter even mention their amanuenses (secretary) by name: Paul refers to Tertius (Rom. 16:22) and Peter mentions Silas (1 Pet. 5:12). But as an exile, John was alone and had to rely on his own authorial ability and thus wrote Greek unaided by native speakers."

So, this point is subject to various explanations; perhaps John's gospel was written first. But if John's gospel was written first, how do we explain the lack of eschatological references in his gospel? The best explanation is that he had covered that material in his earlier Revelation and therefore saw no need to address it again. It is important to note that all of the other gospel writers do give considerable attention to eschatological issues in their books, only the gospel of John does not. "Of the fact, however, that John wrote the Apocalypse before he wrote his Gospel ... there can now, I think, be no reasonable ground of doubt."

Perhaps the real difference in style between John's Gospel and the Revelation lies in the nature of the writings, that is, when writing like a Hebrew prophet of old, John would naturally have used Hebrew prophetical style, whereas when writing a Gospel, a Greek historical literary style would be mandated. After all, a prophet must write like a prophet.

A comparison of the Apostle John's other writings with the Book of Revelation makes a powerful case for the Apostle's authorship of Revelation. Consider these points : 1) Jesus is called the "Logos" only in John 1:1, I John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13. 2) In the New Testament, Jesus is called "the Lamb" only in John 1:29, 36 and twenty-eight times in Revelation. 3) The "water of life" is promised only in John 7:37 and Revelation 22:17. 4) The "first resurrection" is spoken of only in John 5:24-29 and Revelation 20:5). Satan is "cast out" in John 12:31 and Revelation 9:9, 13. 5) Overcoming the world is addressed six times in I John and ten times in Revelation. 6) Quoting from Zechariah 12:10 (John 19:37), Revelation 1:7 speak of Jesus being "pierced" using the same Greek word, a word that is not used anywhere else in the New Testament or even in the Septuagint in the Zechariah 12:10 passage. 7) A particular form of the Greek word "true" (alethinos), is used eight times in John's Gospel, four times in I John and ten times in the Book of Revelation. However, it is only used five times in the rest of the New Testament. 8) The noun "witness" (marturia) is used fourteen times in the Gospel of John, seven times in John's epistles, and nine times in Revelation. It occurs only seven times in the rest of the New Testament. 9) The Greek word "overcome," "conquer" or "victory" (nikao) occurs twenty-eight times in the New Testament; all but four of them are found in John's Gospel, Epistles and the Revelation. 10) The Greek word for "face" or "countenance" (opsis) occurs three times in the New Testament, all of them in John's Gospel and the Revelation. 11) The verb "to tabernacle" (skenoo) occurs once in John's Gospel and four times in the Revelation.

This common use of vocabulary between John's Gospel and Epistles and the Revelation is a powerful argument for the Apostle John's authorship of this book.

As is pointed out in Back to the Future of the vocabulary similarities, please take note that both the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation are constructed around seven signs.