Bible Question: When was the book of Revelation officialy accepted into the canon of the New Testament? |
Bible Answer: Greetings Wist Ye Not! The history of the acceptance of the Canoncity of Revelation is an interesting story. There was almost complete acceptance of it by the Early Church Fathers and the Western Church. However, in the Eastern Church, in the 3rd century there was a rising oposition to the belief in a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ, so the Eastern Church was slow to accept Revelation as canonical. It was not included in the Peshitta Syriac Version. Caius of Rome attributed the book to Cerinthus the Gnositc. The Council of Laodicea (about 360 a.d.) omitted it from their canonical list. However, the third Council of Carthage (397 a.d.) included it. Consider the following quote: "Those accepting John the Apostle as the author universally recognize the divine inspiration of Revelation and its rightful place in the Bible. Because its style differs from that of other New Testament books, acceptance of Revelation by early Christians was delayed by a rising opposition to premillennialism. The doctrine of the literal 1,000-year reign of Christ was rejected by some church leaders in the third and fourth centuries. The evidence, however, shows that orthodox theologians readily accepted the book as genuinely inspired. Early fathers who recognized the book as Scripture include Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Apollonius, and Theophilus, the bishop of Antioch. By the beginning of the third century the book was widely quoted as Scripture. The fact that the Book of Revelation complements other inspired Scripture such as the Book of Daniel has confirmed its divine inspiration." - The Bible Knowledge Commentary. So, the answer to your question is that most accepted the canoncity of Revelation right from the beginning. However, it was not until 397 a.d. that the Eastern Church accepted it. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |