<P> The obscure and extravagant imagery has led to a wide variety of Christian interpretations: historicist interpretations see in Revelation a broad view of history; preterist interpretations treat Revelation as mostly referring to the events of the apostolic era (1st century), or, at the latest, the fall of the Roman Empire; futurists believe that Revelation describes future events; and idealist or symbolic interpretations consider that Revelation does not refer to actual people or events, but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil . </P> <P> The title is taken from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokalypsis, which means "unveiling" or "revelation". The author names himself as "John", but it is currently considered unlikely that the author of Revelation was also the author of the Gospel of John . Some of the evidence for this was set out as early as the second half of the 3rd century by Pope Dionysius of Alexandria, who noted that the gospel and the epistles attributed to John, unlike Revelation, do not name their author, and that the Greek of the gospel is correct and elegant while that of Revelation is neither; some later scholars believe that the two books also have radical differences in theological perspective . </P> <P> Tradition links him to John the Apostle, but it is unlikely that the apostle could have lived into the most likely time for the book's composition, the reign of Domitian, and the author never states that he knew Jesus . All that is known is that this John was a Jewish Christian prophet, probably belonging to a group of such prophets, and was accepted as such by the congregations to whom he addresses his letter . His precise identity remains unknown, and modern scholarship commonly refers to him as John of Patmos . </P> <P> Early Church tradition dates the book to end of the emperor Domitian (reigned AD 81--96), and most modern scholars agree, although the author may have written a first version after Nero's Great Fire in Rome (AD 64) under Vespasian (AD 69--79) and updated it under Domitian . The beast with seven heads and the number 666 seem to allude directly to the emperor Nero (reigned AD 54--68), but this does not require that Revelation was written in the 60s, as there was a widespread belief in later decades that Nero would return . </P>

Who is speaking in the book of revelation