A Study of The Social Backgrounds of The Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is among the apocalyptic texts (in the Jewish-Christian traditions) whose major theme is the events of the end time. One of the subjects of interest to researchers is the commonality among all these texts in pointing to the social situation in their era referred to as “crisis situation”. Along the same lines, The Book of Revelation ‘s author refers in the first chapter, “letters to seven churches of Asia”, to the social situation of Christians of his time in late first century AD, who inhabited seven cities of Asia Minor. Some of author’s direct and indirect references signify that socially and in terms of adherence to their religious beliefs the Christians in those areas were in an undesirable state. Using the letters and some historical evidence, this article tries to examine the reasons for that.