There really aren't any reasons to suspect it. really...
the reasons are in the opening post
did you read it?
There really aren't any reasons to suspect it. really...
here we have Irenaeus in the second century talking about "ancient copies" of Revelation
and
here we have Victorinus in the third century commenting on Revelation without mentioning any of the seven churches
and
we also have Eusebius in the fourth century mentioning some of the seven churches and Revelation
but
never associating them
so
what can we conclude from all this?
there must have been an earlier version of Revelation that did not include the seven churches
and
there are other reasons to suspect this
Actually, you would need to be a first century Jew. Almost all of the imagery is pulled from either the Old Testament, or other Jewish literature.You would have to know the world view of a 1st century christian, as I am sure all the imagery and symbolism in Revelation would be plain as day to them.
My personal opinion is that the book is about the end of Judaism and not about the end of the world.
In history, it is usual to find that someone has written an apocryphon (gr: hidden) first, and then later either the same author or a student of his versed in the meaning of the apocryphon annotates the former work with notes illuminating the meaning, which is called an apocalypse (gr: revealed).
If that is so...
Who wrote the apocryphon that came before the apocalypse?
That's an interesting answer.That's an interesting question.
Daniel is its answer.
But this even as he was opening up Jeremiah's.
Itself based on Deuteronomy.
Which went back to...
In history, it is usual to find that someone has written an apocryphon (gr: hidden) first, and then later either the same author or a student of his versed in the meaning of the apocryphon annotates the former work with notes illuminating the meaning, which is called an apocalypse (gr: revealed).
If that is so...
Who wrote the apocryphon that came before the apocalypse?
here we have Irenaeus in the second century talking about "ancient copies" of Revelation
and
here we have Victorinus in the third century commenting on Revelation without mentioning any of the seven churches
and
we also have Eusebius in the fourth century mentioning some of the seven churches and Revelation
but
never associating them
so
what can we conclude from all this?
there must have been an earlier version of Revelation that did not include the seven churches
and
there are other reasons to suspect this
There was little need to bring up Revelation, except perhaps to point out that the Catholic Church resembles an incredible amount of what John details as the Whore of Babylon.