How did Revelation make it into the cannon?
I’m presuming Revelation:
Was near universally accepted as being canonical by the end of the 5th Century. Please, correct me if I am wrong.
Fifth Century Christian Romans would have been aware of what “seven hills” meant as much as a John of Patmos would have. Right? By “Greco-Roman Christian” I mean Christians living within the Roman Empire.
Fifth Century Greco-Roman Christian would have known 616 and 666 meant Nero as much of John of Patmos would have. Right?
It also seems to me a learned Fifth Century Greco-Roman should have known the prophecies in Revelation did not come to be…. Maybe I answered my own question. Maybe Revelation became canonical after the fall of Rome?
I was just getting at the fact that it is an ambiguous date. Rome was sacked a number of times. And each conqueror assumed the positions of emperor and kept the empire going (under new management) over several centuries.
Which is to say, the Roman empire didn’t end with a bang so much as a whimper. It struggled on and on and on until there just was no empire left (in the west . . . then it struggled on in the east for a few more centuries . . . meanwhile a bunch of random powers claimed–with about as much warrant as half the historical emperors–to be the successors to the Roman emperors).
So dating things by the fall of Rome isn’t very precise.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert