John on the Island of Patmos, Revelation 1:9-11

John was a prisoner on Patmos because he was preaching about Jesus and that He, Jesus, had been raised from the dead. John had the visions described in Revelation about AD95.

The Island of Patmos is a volcanic, treeless, rocky island about 9km by 50km or 6 by 30 miles. It is about 30km or 20 miles off the western coast of modern Turkey.
From here John writes to the seven churches. It was where the Romans put the criminals they did not want to escape. It was a lonely, isolated place. However, far from dying (as probably expected) of loneliness, John had the company of millions of angels and other beings!

John was one of the few apostles who died a natural death at a great age and that was about AD98.

Background Reading:

John on the Island of Patmos

9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
11
which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
Revelation 1:9–11

More Information:

John was banished to the Island of Patmos by Emperor Domitian in AD95, and possibly released 18 months later under Emperor Marcus Cocceius Nerva.


Other modules in this unit: