If we look historically we see that individual bishops/elders held councils that decided things like canonical books and rules for the "priesthood"... The church held an independence for more than 300 years until Rome decided it had complete authority and wielded the sword to prove it..
If we look historically we see that individual bishops/elders held councils that decided things like canonical books and rules for the “priesthood”... The church held an independence for more than 300 years until Rome decided it had complete authority and wielded the sword to prove it
>>I have news for you. The Church of Rome did not gain complete juridical supremacy over the Western Church until after the year 1000.
The Church was DECENTRALIZED. Yes, Rome was recognized as having a primacy of honor, but most of the debates over the canon took place in the East.
Your theory doesn’t hold any water. Besides the Church was underground for the years leading up to Constantine’s legalization of Christianity, so the sort of communication needed to standardize the canons of scripture just didn’t exist.
Maybe if you doubt what the priests decided, you should start reading the First Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians and the Shepherd of Hermas as scripture.
They were regarded by some local Christian Churches as part of the New Testament. So I guess you can thank Constantine for corrupting the Bible and getting those books tossed from the canon.