Floyd O. Parker, «‘Our Lord and God’ in Rev 4,11: Evidence for the Late Date of Revelation?», Vol. 82 (2001) 207-231

This article challenges a commonly-held belief that the title ‘our Lord and God’ (Rev 4,11) served as a Christian counter-blast to the claim of the emperor Domitian to be dominus et deus noster. Despite the claims of several scholars that the title ‘our Lord and God’ does not appear in the OT, the data collected favors the view that the title in Rev 4,11 does indeed have its origin in the divine title ‘Lord and God’ found in the LXX and other Jewish sources. Consequently, the title is of no use in helping to determine the date of the book of Revelation.

yet they rarely suggest that a comparison with Domitian was intended⁷⁸. For example, R. Brown writes:

The combination of the titles ‘Lord’ and ‘God’ appears in pagan religious literature and is represented in the ‘Dominus et Deus noster’ affected by the Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81-96; see Suetonius, Domitian, 13), who was probably the reigning emperor when the Gospel was being written and against whose pretensions the Book of Revelation was directed. Nevertheless, there is scholarly agreement that John’s source for the titles is biblical, combining the terms used by LXX to translate YHWH (=kyrios) and Elohim (=theos)⁷⁹.

        Likewise, Lindars writes, ‘Thomas’ confession is not so much a counterblast to the conceit of the Roman emperor as a summary of the Gospel as a whole’⁸⁰. The dismissal of any intentional allusion to the imperial cult by these scholars seems sound for several reasons. From a theological perspective, John begins his work with the statement ‘the word was God’ (John 1,1) and ends with the confession of Jesus as ‘my Lord and my God’ (20,28). From a stylistic perspective, the title ‘my Lord and my God’ has an affinity to other statements in the gospel (i.e. title + kai/ + title), such as ‘teacher and lord’ (13,13), ‘lord and teacher’ (13,14), and ‘my father and your father, and my God and your God’ (20,17). From a contextual perspective, nothing suggests an intentional comparison of Jesus with the emperor. Consequently, many scholars regard the LXX as the source of the title ‘my Lord and my God’ in this passage⁸¹.