As an example of the dispute over certain books of the bible, and as further evidence that the canon of scripture was absolutely not always accepted, look at what Dionysius of Alexandria wrote regarding the dispute over the Book of Revelation:
“Then, a little further on, he speaks of the Revelation of John as follows: – Now some before our time have set aside this book, and repudiated it entirely, criticising it chapter by chapter, and endeavouring to show it to be without either sense or reason. They have alleged also that its title is false; for they deny that John is the author. Nay, further, they hold that it can be no sort of revelation, because it is covered with so gross and dense a veil of ignorance. They affirm, therefore, that none of the apostles, nor indeed any of the saints, nor any person belonging to the Church, could be its author; but that Cerinthus, and the heretical sect founded by him, and named after him the Cerinthian sect, being desirous of attaching the authority of a great name to the fiction propounded by him, prefixed that title to the book.”[1]
Dionysius is clearly documenting here that there was an open dispute over the validity of the Revelation of John as valid work.
[1] From Extant Fragments “Part I. – Containing Various Sections of the Works.” Thanks to the E-Sword program
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