Revelation is assumed by most scholars, including very conservative scholars, to have been written during a period of persecution under Caesar Domitian in 95 A.D. Supporting this date under Domitian are the early church fathers Tertullian, Victorious, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, and Jerome. This should be considered as serious evidence.
John is the author, Rev 1:1-2, “…John, who bore record of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw“, could be read as saying that the author of this book previously wrote the Gospel of John as well.
Revelation looks to have been written before there was a clear break between Jewish Christians and Jews. Rev 2:9 and Rev 3:9 refer to those “who say they are Jews but are not“.
So, if Revelation is prior to A.D. 70, what date is most likely? The epistle fits best in the late A.D. 60’s. James, Peter and Paul had been martyred and the church in Rome was undergoing substantial persecution. Rome had been burned, and Nero has died, setting in motion a bitter and deadly power struggle that saw three different Caesars come and go within a year. And finally, Rome was locked in a death struggle with the Jews in the land of Israel. Since Nero died in June of A.D. 68, the year A.D. 69-70 seems most likely as a date of writing for Revelation, with the caveat that if it was written in A.D. 69-70 it was before July when Jerusalem was destroyed.
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