Patmos #88

Patmos is a small, rocky island in the Aegean Sea, off the southwestern coast of modern Turkey and part of the Dodecanese group of Greek islands. It appears in the Bible only once, in Revelation 1:9, where the author, who names himself John, says he was on the island “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” It was there that he received the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation.

Biblical Significance

John introduces himself simply as a brother and partner in the tribulation, the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are in Jesus (Revelation 1:9). He says that on the Lord’s Day he was in the Spirit and heard a loud voice behind him, like a trumpet, telling him to write what he saw in a book and send it to seven churches (Revelation 1:10-11). Those churches were in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all cities in the Roman province of Asia, within sight of the sea from Patmos. The visions that follow begin with the risen Christ walking among seven lampstands and continue through letters to the churches, scenes of heavenly worship, judgment, and the final renewal of creation (Revelation 1:12 to 22:5). John is told to write “the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Revelation 1:19).

The text does not say why John was on the island, only that he was there for the sake of the gospel. Early Christian writers, among them Irenaeus, Eusebius, and others, understood it to mean that he had been exiled by the Roman authorities, and many placed this under the emperor Domitian in the mid-90s AD. The Romans did banish offenders to islands in the Aegean. Some scholars have proposed an earlier date, in the time of Nero, and the question is still discussed. The author is identified in Christian tradition as John the apostle, though this too has been debated in the history of interpretation.

Today

Patmos is a quiet, largely Greek Orthodox island. Pilgrims visit the Cave of the Apocalypse, halfway up the hill from the port of Skala, where tradition holds that John received his visions. Above it stands the fortified Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, founded in 1088 by the monk Christodoulos and still in use. In 1999 the historic center of Chora, with the cave and the monastery, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As with many traditional sites, the exact location where John received the visions cannot be verified, but the island itself is firmly established as the place named in the text.