Testing the Apocalypse

Leaders of the early Church were divided over Revelation - its uncertain authorship, its unorthodox theology, even its terrible grammar. Then the first Christian emperor saw himself prophesied in its pages. Here is the first comprehensive history of how Revelation came to be included in the New Testament.

Early Christians applied four tests to writings when they were deciding which works merited treatment as Scripture: an origin soon after Christ's time, apostolic authorship, Christian orthodoxy, and acceptance of a work by Christian congregations across the known world. Historian and intelligence analyst David Muller applies those tests anew to Revelation, with the benefit of far more evidence than the Church fathers had available. Using every pertinent ancient source, selected Reformation writings, and more than 150 scholarly works from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, Muller pieces together a history of Revelation that is both surprising and convincing.