Antilegomena (Disputed Christian Writings)

Antilegomena is a transliterated Greek term that refers to writings that some Christians doubted should be included in the Bible.

In AD 303, the Roman emperor Diocletian began a severe persecution of Christians. Imperial officials were ordered to find and burn Christian writings. Church leaders therefore had to decide which books were most important to preserve.

Early Christians generally considered two main questions when evaluating a writing:

Was it connected to the apostles or the early apostolic community?

Did churches value and use it for worship and teaching?

Christians did not agree about every book. Around AD 325, Eusebius of Caesarea described three groups of Christian writings in his Ecclesiastical History:

the homologoumena, books accepted by all;

the antilegomena, books that were disputed; and

the notha, writings considered false or unreliable.

Eusebius divided the disputed books into two groups. The first group included writings that many Christians respected, although some still questioned them. These were James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. Christians later accepted all these books as part of the New Testament canon.

The second group included writings that many church leaders considered doubtful or false. Eusebius listed the Acts of Paul, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, and the Gospel of the Hebrews. He also mentioned the Apocalypse of John, now called Revelation.

Eusebius placed Revelation among both the accepted and disputed writings. This shows that early Christians strongly disagreed about the book before it became widely accepted as part of the New Testament canon.

See New Testament Canon.