Paul's letters were already considered Scripture by this time.
The OT was already established.
The Councils didn't pick and choose the books of the NT. They recognized what the Church was using.
383 Pope St. Damasus I commissions St. Jerome's translation of the Greek texts into Latin for the first authoritative translation of the Bible into a vernacular language. (Latin was still vernacular at that time). Several books were disputed --- even by Jerome --- but he finally decided the best course was simply to agree with the already-established practice of what had long been approved to be read in the Churches. i.e. to affirm the books already used in the Liturgy.
The books in question of the OT were not those you claim to have been long approved. They did not include the apocrypha.
393 Council of Hippo Regius, the first council that accepted the present New Testament canon.
Emphasis on accepted...not picked. They recognized what the Church was already using.
You've let out a lot of detail on how the NT canon came into being.
I still find it interesting that at Trent, when the Roman Catholic Church finally officially approved its canon, that it didn't include ANY of the other writings Roman Catholics hold so dear.
Yes, they were. But there was still no official NT canon. They were from a very early date confident, about the Gospels and Paul. There was iffiness about Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John and even the Revelation of John.
Some Christians included other books as well, such as the so-called New Testament Apocrypha: the 'gospels' of the Ebionites, the Hebrews, the Nazarenes, the Infancy Gospels of James, Thomas, and Pseudo-Matthew.
It's only since the fifth century that a widespread consensus emerged limiting the New Testament to the 27 books of the modern canon.
These were the lingering disputes that came up at councils for a definitive judgment., If they had not been controversial there would be no reason for a Council or Synod to take up the question.
"The OT was already established."
Well, yeah... if you want to say the Septuagint canon was established, go right on ahead. That gives you a 46-book OT. Amen? I'll give you an Amen.
You should be aware, though, that the Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon, and that's the text principally relied upon by the 16th and 17th century Reformation. That was adopted by the Jews between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. Yes, AD. The oldest extant manuscripts date from around the 9th century. AD. By then, the Rabbinical Jews had long dropped the Septuagint canon. The LXX were the scrolls Jesus and the Apostles were familiar with, as the Septuagint provides 85% of the OT quotes used in the NT. And of course it includes the Deuterocanonicals.
Amen.
"The Councils didn't pick and choose the books of the NT. They recognized what the Church was using."