Apocalypse is the name frequently given to the last book of the New Testament, in the English version called The Revelation of St John the Divine. It is generally believed that the Apocalypse was written by the apostle John in his old age around 95 to 97 A.D. in the Isle of Patnios, whither he had been banished by the Roman Emperor Domitian. Anciently its genuineness was maintained by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and many others; while it was doubted by Dionysius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostorn, and, nearer our own times, by Luther and a majority of the eminent German commentators. The Apocalypse has been explained differently by almost every writer who has ventured to interpret it, and has furnished all sorts of sects and fanatics with quotations to support their creeds or pretensions. The modern interpreters may be divided into three schools - namely, the historical school who hold that the prophecy embraces the whole history of the church and its foes from the time of its writing to the end of the world; the Praeterists, who hold that the whole or nearly the whole of the prophecy has been already fulfilled, and that it refers chiefly to the triumph of Christianity over Paganism and Judaism; and the Futurists, who throw the whole prophecy, except the first three chapters, forward upon a time not yet reached by the church - a period of no very long duration, which is immediately to precede Christ's second coming. Research Apocalypse
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