The Johannine Epistles are probably from the same hand as the Fourth Gospel, and belong to the period 90–110 A.D. Their author insists ([1 John iv, 2]), as against the Docetes, that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.”
The Epistle of Jude, about the same date, exhorts those to whom it was addressed to “remember the words which have been spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Book of Revelation Lastly, the Revelation of John can be definitely dated about A.D. 93. It testifies to the existence of several churches in Asia Minor in that age, and, in spite of the fanciful and oriental character of its imagery, it is from beginning to end irreconcilable with the supposition that its author did not believe in a Jesus who had lived, died, and was coming again to establish the new Jerusalem on earth. In ch. xxii, 16, Jesus is made to testify that he is the root and offspring of David. That does not look as if its author regarded Jesus as a solar or any other sort of myth.
[1] The difficulties largely vanish on the assumption that Galatians is the earliest of the Epistles, and that in [ Gal. ii, 1], dia d “after four” was misread in an early copy as dia id “after fourteen.” This is Professor Lake’s conjecture. Such misreadings of the Greek numerals are common in ancient MSS. [↑]
[2] Christianity and Mythology, p. 354. [↑]
[3] Why did they not do so in their “teaching,” if it was intended (see p. 344) for the Jews of the Dispersion, instead of confining themselves to precepts “simply ethical, non-priestly, and non-Rabbinical”? [↑]
[5] Note in Matthew the phrase ([xxiii, 8]): “But be ye not called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.” [↑]