So. Just who decided what would go into the Bible and what would not? Many people believe this book was written by their God Almighty. But men wrote this book. In many different pieces. So. Who decided what made the cut?
Many people believe that the Bible was assembled during the famous Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. That is when Emperor Constantine and church authorities purportedly banned problematic books that didn’t conform to their secret agenda.
This account has been cited by many people. Voltaire, writing in the 18th century, repeated this myth.
But the Council of Nicea story is not how it really went.
So, who really chose the books of the Bible?
It seems there was no single church authority or council that convened to rubber-stamp the biblical canon.
There is no evidence that any group of Christians got together and said, “Let’s hash this out once and for all.”
Scholars have some evidence concerning this. The comes in the form of theological treatises, letters, and church histories that have survived for thousands of years. And these things point to a much longer process of canonization.
From the first through the fourth centuries and even beyond, different church leaders and theologians made arguments about which books belonged in the Bible. And in the process, they would often cast their opponents as heretics. We know this all too well.
The bottom line is this. Various people wrote the books that make up the Bible over a period of more than 1,000 years. All of this occurred between 1200 B.C.E. and the first century C.E.
The bulk of that editing work ended in the late 300s. But the debate went on and on over which books were “theologically legit.”
Why did some books make the cut and not others? There are basically three criteria that early church leaders used.
The first was authorship. Was it written by an apostle? Then it went in.
The second criterion was the age of the text. The older texts took priority over the newer ones.
The third was how well these writings conformed with current Christian teaching. Very subjective, I’d say.
So there it is. The inclusion of the words in the Bible. The explanations I found offered no great details.
But I want names, dates, and places. Yep, kicking butt and taking names, I am.
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“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank
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“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama
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“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” — Mother Teresa
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