Throughout Revelation, the tagging says more than the text states - namely the text says "John" while the tagging says "John (son of Zebedee)". I don't disagree necessarily with the traditional equation but I prefer that the tagging stick strictly to the text which in this case would be "John (author of Revelation)". The reason I feel strongly about this is that when teaching a exploratory course for unchurched individuals, they may know of alternative theory of authorship and have an instinctive mistrust of anything or anyone who begins anywhere other than what the text actually says. Teaching them to judge where to accept tradition as an interpretative tool is a separate issue. Note: I would have the same reaction should the tagging imply that "John (author of Revelation)" were not the same as "John (son of Zebedee)".
