What Was the Date of the Book of Revelation?

Where the authorship of The Revelation is under some dispute, at least among modern-day scholars, the approximate date it was received is far less in doubt. Following is another sampling of twentieth century Biblical scholars:

“As regards to the church’s tradition in the matter, the following facts are known: (a) A diversity of dates was suggested for the book by late writers, including the reigns of Claudius (41-54), Nero (54-68), and Trajan (98-117). Certainly it does not commend these dates that they were proposed only by late writers like Epiphanius, Jerome, and others of the fourth and later centuries and on inconclusive evidence or none. . . . (b) The earlier church writers converged on a date in the reign of Domitian (81-96); such appears to be the united testimony of Melito of Sardis, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Victorinus, and Eusebius—church fathers ranging from the second to the fourth century. Jerome, too, knew of this tradition.

“A number of modern scholars, rejecting both sets of early tradition, have attempted to establish a date in the reign of Vespasian (69-79) . . .” (The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 60.)