Constantine And The Bible

Q

You have written about the origin of the Bible but I cannot find the article on your site. You spoke of the original canon/authority/collaboration of both the Old and New Testaments. My question is: What influence/part, if any, did Constantine have in putting the Bible together? I’ve researched the internet a bit but I am finding quite a bit of conflicting information.

A

Deciding which books were to be included in the Old Testament was done by senior priests based on the general agreement that each book was authentic (written by the person identified as its author) and divinely inspired. This was completed at about 425 BC.

21 books of the New Testament had pretty much come together by 150 AD, well before Constantine was born. But there continued to be a discussion about the other 6 (Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2-3 John, Jude) until about 400 AD. By that time Constantine had been dead for about 60 years.

To learn more about the criteria employed in deciding on which books to include, here’s my Q&A on it.