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Originally Posted by aron
I have been entertaining the concept for some time now that John the "beloved" disciple was the other, unnamed disciple of John the Baptist (ch 1, vv. 35-36). I have seen it written that "tradition holds" that it is John the disciple there with John the B... [I am] strongly predisposed to believe this [second person] was none other than John the "beloved" disciple.
Why is this relevant? Because John the Baptist came from a priestly family. ...Secondly, the Baptizer (naturally) speaks in the OT vernacular. "A voice crying out in the wilderness..." His ostensible disciple, John, reverts to this mode in his apocalyptic opus, the "Revelation". Look at all the OT references in the final book of the Bible. The entire book is almost lifted verbatim from the OT prophets. Just as Saul/Paul was "trained at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3), so I think it likely that John the disciple was trained in OT exegesis by John the B. This comes to the fore in "The Revelation".
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I'd like to give an example for consideration. Look at the following 2 verses.
Ezekiel 47:12
"And on the banks on both sides of the river will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail; but they will bring forth new fruit every month, because the water for them flows out of the sanctuary. And their fruit shall be for food, and their leaves for healing."
Revelation 22:2
"And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
You have tree(s) growing on both banks of the river, you have new fruits each month, you have healing leaves from the tree(s). If this was college, I'd call it plagiarism. John has lifted his "vision" from the OT. Why?
Consider what was circulating among the assemblies at this time. You had the gospel records, obviously. John is aware of this, and acknowledges it in the end of his, the fourth, gospel(chap. 20, vv. 30,31 and chap. 21, v. 25).
You had epistles getting passed around, prominently among them Paul's. Paul was even promoting the practice. Colossians 4:16 has Paul telling them to send this epistle along to the Laodiceans, and likewise to read his Laodican epistle. I'm not sure if John was deliberately referencing this practice in his "seven epistles to the seven churches" in the second and third chapters of his Revelation, but I don't doubt it. He seems to be a very deliberate writer.
But mostly what you had being read in the assemblies of disciples was the "sacred scriptures", our current "Old Testament". You clearly had saints poring over these writings, looking for clues to the Messiah's life and works, especially "what comes next", as we humans are always wont to do (the famous "Berean" text of Acts 17:11 would do nicely here; "examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so").
My point is that the OT was largely the "currency of the realm", and John was playing to this in his Revelation. John was as well-versed in the scriptures as anyone, and he was playing from his strength. He was using the apocalyptic visions from Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets, and weaving them into a tapestry and sending it to the assemblies, saying to each of them, "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear..." just as the Master, Jesus had done, in speaking parables before the crowds (see Rev. chap. 2 vv.7,11,17,29 and chap. 3, vv. 6,13,22; for Jesus, see Matt. 11:15 etc).
This is because John is writing to an at-least-partly hostile crowd. The "shoe" of his Jezebel/Satan's throne/Nicolaitans/Balaam barbs probably fit quite uncomfortably on some of the readers, and not a few of them were "in charge" of the gatherings. So John sent them all a parable, a riddle, wrapped in OT vernacular, much of which would have been instantly recognizeable to the readers.
The solution to the "riddle", like all great truths, is quite simple. Behind the hundred pound burning hailstones and rivers of blood up to the knees are simple spiritual principles. "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the thngs written in it, for the time is near" (1:3). The spiritual principles in John's "Revelation" are simple, and therefore we can keep them.