Having determined the time of writing the Apocalypse, I need not say much about the truth of it, since it was in such request with the first ages, that many endeavored to imitate it, by feigning Apocalypses under the Apostles’ names; and the Apostles themselves, as I have just now showed, studied it, and used its phrases; by which means the style of the epistle to the Hebrews became more mystical than that of Paul’s other Epistles, and the style of John’s Gospel more figurative and majestical than that of the other Gospels. I do not apprehend that Christ was called the word of God in any book of the New Testament written before the Apocalypse; and therefore am of opinion, the language was taken from this Prophecy, as were also many other phrases in this gospel, such as those of Christ’s being the light which enlightens the world, the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, the bridegroom, he that testifieth, he that came down from heaven, the Son of God, &c. Justin Martyr, who within thirty years after John’s death became a Christian, writes expressly that a certain man among the Christians whose name was John, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, in the Revelation which was shewed him, prophesied that those who believed in Christ should live a thousand years at Jerusalem. And a few lines before he saith: But I, and as many as are Christians, in all things right in their opinions, believe both that there shall be a resurrection of the flesh, and a thousand years life at Jerusalem built, adorned and enlarged. Which is as much as to say, that all true Christians in that early age received this Prophecy: for in all ages, as many as believed the thousand years, received the Apocalypse as the foundation of their opinion: and I do not know one instance to the contrary. Papias Bishop of Hierapolis, a man of the Apostolic age, and one of John’s own disciples, did not only teach the doctrine of the thousand years, but also asserted the Apocalypse as written by divine inspiration. Melito, who flourished next after Justin, wrote a commentary upon this Prophecy; and he, being Bishop of Sardis one of the seven Churches, could neither be ignorant of their tradition about it, nor impose upon them. Irenaeus, who was contemporary with Melito, wrote much upon it, and said, that the number 666 was in all the ancient and approved copies; and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen John face to face, meaning no doubt his master Polycarp for one. At the same time Theophilus Bishop of Antioch asserted it, and so did Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Origen soon after; and their contemporary Hippolytus the Martyr, Metropolitan of the Arabians, wrote a commentary upon it. All these were ancient men, flourishing within a hundred and twenty years after John’s death, and of greatest note in the Churches of those times. Soon after did Victorinus Pictavienses write another commentary upon it; and he lived in the time of Dioclesian. This may surely suffice to show how the Apocalypse was received and studied in the first ages: and I do not indeed find any other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early as this. The Prophecy said: Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this Prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein. This animated the first Christians to study it so much, till the difficulty made them remit, and comment more upon the other books of the New Testament. This was the state of the Apocalypse, till the thousand years being misunderstood, brought a prejudice against it: and Dionysius of Alexandria, noting how it abounded with barbarisms, that is with Hebraisms, promoted that prejudice so far, as to cause many Greeks in the fourth century to doubt of the book. But whilst the Latins, and a great part of the Greeks, always retained the Apocalypse, and the rest doubted only out of prejudice, it makes nothing against its authority.
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