[Destro]

That should read: There was no approved New Testament "scripture" till the first Ecumenical Councils of Bishops put them in order and threw out the rest.

[fqued]

That should read: There was no approved New Testament "scripture" till the first Ecumenical Councils of Bishops put them in order and threw out the rest.


Actually, that is rather simplistic and misleading.
From the early church (before 100 a.d.), certain books were considered authoritative.
By the time of Irenaeus, 180 a.d, there was, in essence, a canon of the New Testament, with only a couple minor epistles up in the air.

303 a.d, Diocletian declared that the Christian books were to be destroyed. what but those that were "canonical?"

Athenasius, Jerome, and Augustine all proclaimed the 27-book canon of the New Testament.

What the Ecumenical Councils (all Churches, not the Eastern Orthodox of today), especially the Synod of Hippo in 393 a.d., did was merely approve WHAT WAS ALREADY KNOWN AND ACCEPTED.