Author
The Revelation of John, per this common title for the book, identifies its author as a man named John. No more information about him is provided in the book. This John was traditionally claimed to be John son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles and a major figure in early Christian history. As such, he was also claimed to be the author of four other books now in the New Testament: the Gospel of John, and the three Letters of John. This is widely doubted now, and was even among some ancient theologians. The quality and style of Greek, themes, literary influences, and theological concepts are far too different between the Revelation and other four books to have come from the same person.
Time
The Revelation of John was most likely written sometime in the last third of the first century CE. Most scholars favor a time frame of 90–96 CE, while a sizable minority places it around 66–70 CE instead. Others see a multi-stage composition, with some of the book’s text or traditions originating in the late 60s, but having been completed in the early or mid 90s. These time periods are based on a combination of details within the book which are thought to refer to specific historical people or events, and how the book was used by Christians in the second century CE.
Genre
The Revelation of John is an apocalypse. The Jewish form of this genre emerged probably in the late fourth century BCE, near the middle of the Second Temple period, and continued well after the period ended in 70 CE. Apocalypses differ from traditional prophecy based on the tropes commonly found between the two genres. Prophecy was typically presented as the written form of an oral message. They were highly poetic, and—while rich with analogies and parables—were straight-forward in their messaging. Not every Jewish apocalypse used every trope associated with the genre, but pseudonymity was the most common feature: the book presents itself as a long-lost document, written by a respected person from the ancient past, who had learned about a major social upheaval which would happen far in the future (usually the ‘end times’). In reality, the pseudonymous author wrote his book during the time period of the very event he pretended to predict. Frequently, the book’s message was revealed to the author through an angel, and was conveyed in allegory or symbolic code. The author, probably aware of the difficulty in decoding the symbolism, would often decipher a small amount of the symbolism for his readers by writing a scene in which the angel explains it to the author himself. It is still debated whether ‘John’ is one of the utterly rare exceptions to this rule of pseudonymity, but the book otherwise features many of the tropes found in the genre.