John on Patmos Meets Jesus in His Vision. Although NT Wright notes that time in “soaked in scripture” may lead to seeing something in a dream, I believe it isn’t so much that prayer sparks imagination as about learning and sharing our hearts.
One subscriber brought up who John is, saying they thought he wasn't the Apostle. I thought I should note what first-century scholars wrote on that.
N.T. Wright writes in Revelation for Everyone, "John, its author -- sometimes called 'John the Seer' or 'John the Divine', sometimes (probably wrongly) identified with the John who wrote the gospel and espistles..."
The editors of the New Revised Standard Version Study Bible write that it was written by "a person named 'John' an anglicized version of a common ancient Hebrew name often transliterated 'Johanan.' Many early Christian writers assumed that the author of this book had also written the Gospel and Letters of John and identified him with John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles. Both these assumptions seem false. While the author of Revelation regards the twelve apostles as authoritative figures of the past, he identifies himself simply as a servant of God and as a brother who shares the sufferings.... On the basis of both literary style and theological emphases, it is unlikely that he wrote either the Gospel of the Letters of John.
...The frequent allusions to the OT suggest his Jewish origin. The Semitic features of his Greek style indicate that he was a native of Palestine who emigrated to Asia Minor.... [He] clearly implies that he is a prophet...[and] he was probably a well-known itinerant Christian prophet."
One subscriber brought up who John is, saying they thought he wasn't the Apostle. I thought I should note what first-century scholars wrote on that.
N.T. Wright writes in Revelation for Everyone, "John, its author -- sometimes called 'John the Seer' or 'John the Divine', sometimes (probably wrongly) identified with the John who wrote the gospel and espistles..."
The editors of the New Revised Standard Version Study Bible write that it was written by "a person named 'John' an anglicized version of a common ancient Hebrew name often transliterated 'Johanan.' Many early Christian writers assumed that the author of this book had also written the Gospel and Letters of John and identified him with John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles. Both these assumptions seem false. While the author of Revelation regards the twelve apostles as authoritative figures of the past, he identifies himself simply as a servant of God and as a brother who shares the sufferings.... On the basis of both literary style and theological emphases, it is unlikely that he wrote either the Gospel of the Letters of John.
...The frequent allusions to the OT suggest his Jewish origin. The Semitic features of his Greek style indicate that he was a native of Palestine who emigrated to Asia Minor.... [He] clearly implies that he is a prophet...[and] he was probably a well-known itinerant Christian prophet."