Book of Revelation in the context of "John of Patmos"

The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events relating to first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, has the name of Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as Sacred Scripture by Christians.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 Christian texts written in Koine Greek by various authors, forming the second major division of the Christian Bible. It includes four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, epistles attributed to Paul and other authors, and the Book of Revelation. The New Testament canon developed gradually over the first few centuries of Christianity through a complex process of debate, rejection of heretical texts, and recognition of writings deemed apostolic, culminating in the formalization of the 27-book canon by the late 4th century. It has been widely accepted across Christian traditions since Late Antiquity.

Patmos (Greek: Πάτμος, pronounced [ˈpatmos]) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the place where, according to Christian belief, John of Patmos received the vision found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written.

One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, Patmos has a population of 3,283 (2021) and an area of 34.05 km (13.15 sq mi). The highest point is Profitis Ilias, 269 metres (883 ft) above sea level. The municipality of Patmos, which includes the offshore islands of Arkoi (pop. 44), Marathos (pop. 5), and several uninhabited islets, has a population of 3,047 (2011 census) and a combined land area of 45.039 square kilometres (17.390 sq mi). It is part of the Kalymnos regional unit.

Eschatology (/ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/ ; from Ancient Greek ἔσχατος (éskhatos) 'last' and -logy) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and Dharmic), which teach that negative world events will reach a climax. Belief that the end of the world is imminent is known as apocalypticism, and over time has been held both by members of mainstream religions and by doomsday cults. In the context of mysticism, the term refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and to reunion with the divine. Many religions treat eschatology as a future event prophesied in sacred texts or in folklore, while other religions may have concepts of renewal or transformation after significant events.

The Abrahamic religions maintain a linear cosmology, with end-time scenarios containing themes of transformation and redemption. In Judaism, the term "end of days" makes reference to the Messianic Age and includes an in-gathering of the exiled Jewish diaspora, the coming of the Messiah, the resurrection of the righteous, and the world to come. Christianity depicts the end time as a period of tribulation that precedes the second coming of Christ, who will face the rise of the Antichrist along with his power structure and false prophets, and usher in the Kingdom of God. The explicit description of a new earth is primarily found in Christian teachings (this description can be found in Chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation). In later traditions of Islam, separate hadiths detail the Day of Judgment as preceded by the appearance of the Masīḥ ad-Dajjāl, and followed by the descending of ʿĪsā (Jesus), which shall triumph over the false Messiah or Antichrist; his defeat will lead to a sequence of events that will end with the sun rising from the west and the beginning of the Qiyāmah (Judgment Day).

The canon of the New Testament is the set of books many modern Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For most churches, the canon is an agreed-upon list of 27 books that includes the canonical Gospels, Acts, letters attributed to various apostles, and Revelation.

Initially the canon was a list of the books suited to be read out in church liturgies and used to justify doctrine. The lists initially differed among the geographically-separated churches in antiquity, according to ancient church historian Eusebius. There is a consensus that the 27 books constituting the canon today are the same 27 books generally recognized in the first centuries.

The Gospel of John is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus) and seven "I am" discourses culminating in Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God". The penultimate chapter's concluding verse set out its purpose, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."

John was written between AD 90–100. The gospel is anonymous, although it identifies a "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions and perhaps author. Twentieth-century scholarship interpreted the gospel within the paradigm of a "Johannine community", but this has been increasingly challenged in the 21st century, and there is currently considerable debate over the gospel's historical context. As it is closely related in style and content to the Johannine epistles, most scholars treat the four books, along with the Book of Revelation, as a single corpus of Johannine literature, albeit not by the same author.

Pergamon or Pergamum (/ˈpɜːrɡəmən/ or /ˈpɜːrɡəmɒn/; Ancient Greek: Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (Πέργαμος), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern-day Bakırçay) and northwest of the modern city of Bergama, Turkey.

During the Hellenistic period, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281–133 BC under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centres of the Greek world. The remains of many of its monuments are still visible today, most notably the masterpiece of the Pergamon Altar. Pergamon was the northernmost of the seven churches of Asia cited in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature attributed to John of Patmos, and generally regarded as dating from about AD 95. Similar allusions are contained in the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Zechariah, written centuries prior. Though the text only provides a name for the fourth horseman, subsequent commentary often identifies them as personifications of Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.

Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God/Lion of Judah opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. All of the horsemen save for Death are portrayed as being human in appearance.