‘In 12 BCE, he transferred a special ‘pontifex’ collection to the Temple of Apollo, on the Palatine hill, where it remained until 405 CE.All this demonstrated their legal status, and their immeasurable worth,while misuse of the Sibyl’s oracles was punishable by death.For at least the first four centuries CE, the Sibylline Books were held to be the highest religious authority in the Roman Empire.So highly regarded were the Sibyl’s prophecies that the fourth century church usurped her second book,inserted narratives that dealt with Christian characters,and then said it was a divine revelation given to the apostle Johnby Jesus Christ from Heaven, and added it to their New Testament.
Church records state that Cerinthus ‘rewrote’ the original Sibyl’s prophecies to create a falsified version, that was adjusted again in the fourth century,when it was added to the New Testament.The early church was so concerned that the general populace would learn that its Book of Revelation was a forgery, that in 405 CE the Bishop of Rome ordered the Roman general Flavius Stilicho to burn as many copies of the Sibylline Books as he could find. ‘
