TheoRhēma (Dec 2020)
Rolul Apocalipsei lui Ioan în cristalizarea creștinismului timpuriu
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to emphasize the widespread recognition that the Book of Revelation enjoyed throughout the first three centuries of Christianity, the role it played in the Canon of the New Testament. Contrary to the popular opinion that the canonization of the Book of Revelation was long disputed, this present study emphasizes the fulminant nature of the Book since its first appearance. Since then, it has often been used as an argument for setting the number of the Gospels or the Pauline Epistles. Moreover, as demonstrated, the Book of Revelation has the greatest number of biblical references to the OT in comparison to any other New Testament book written throughout the decades of the first century AD. Simultaneously, it inaugurated what can be viewed as the early religious scholasticism through the first Christian commentary written based on the Book of Revelation as a result of an intense study of its content. Based on the above, this paper purposes to highlight the key role the Revelation of John has successfully played in molding early Christianity.
