Of the three kinds of evidence which are used in ascertaining the text of the New Testament – namely, evidence supplied by Greek manuscripts, by early versions, and by scriptural quotations preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers - it is the last which involves the greatest diffculties and the most problems. There are difficulties, first of all, in obtaining the evidence, not only because of the labour of combing through the very extensive literary remains of the Fathers in search of quotations from the New Testament, but also because satisfactory editions of the works of many of the Fathers have not yet been produced. More than once in earlier centuries an otherwise well-meaning editor accommodated the biblical quotations contained in a given patristic document to the current text of the New Testament against the authority of the manuscripts of the document.1 Part of the problem, more-over, is that exactly the same thing took place prior to the invention of printing. As Hort pointed out, ‘Whenever a transcriber of a patristic treatise was copying a quotation differing from the text to which he was accustomed, he had virtually two originals before him, one present to his eyes, the other to his mind; and if the difference struck him, he was not unlikely to treat the written examplar as having blundered.’2.

The purpose of this paper is to consider four topics which are raised in or by the book of the Revelation and which have received varying degrees of attention in recent scholarly discussion. They are: (i) those features which are prophetic rather than apocalyptic, and their importance in assessing the character of the book; (ii) the identity of the prophets referred to in the book and (if they are Christian prophets) their place in the order of the church; (iii) the relation of prophets and prophecy to the ‘testimony of Jesus’ (ή μαρτυρία l'ησο⋯); and (iv) the evidence which the Revelation provides concerning the activity and contents of Christian prophecy. It is obvious that these topics are all closely interrelated, but for the sake of clarity we shall attempt to treat them separately and in order.

Les difficultés de ce texte sont connues. La principale portant sur le verset central: exousia à cause des anges (xi, 10). Ce verset ne peut être éclairé q'en étant replacé dans son contexte littéraire immédiat et dans son contexte culturel. Notre ambition serait, par l'analyse de ces contextes, de mettre en question certaines interprétations courantes, et de proposer au moins quelques orientations. La tâche est malaisée devant le caractère conjectural de beaucoup de données.