The Councils

The Council of Laodicea

The Council of Laodicea in A.D. 363 was really more properly a Synod. It apparently was not a full assembly of all the churches, but chiefly represented the region of Phrygia. Nonetheless, it was the first formal discussion of the canon by church delegates assembled in an official council. The 59th Canon of this "council" decreed that only the canonized books of the Old and New Testament were to be read in church services. The 60th Canon gave a definitive list of twenty-seven recognized books, all except the Apocalypse. However, this canon is probably not genuine, having been omitted in various manuscripts, and cannot be cited as the actual ruling of the council.




The Third Council of Carthage

The Third Council of Carthage in A.D. 397 yielded the first counciliar decision on the Canon. It issued a decree similar to that of the Synod of Laodicea, demanding that only the canonical books be read in the Church under the title of Scripture. It submitted a list of writings embracing the exact same twenty-seven books of the present New Testament. Interestingly, when Hebrews is introduced in the Canon after the "thirteen Epistles of Paul," it is referred to as "one Epistle of the same writer to the Hebrews." This was, perhaps, to emphasize the Pauline authorship of Hebrews as the ground on which it was being recognized.  




The Council of Hippo

In A.D. 419, the Council of Hippo reiterated the same decision of the Third Council of Carthage and presented the same list of the twenty-seven canonical books. However, in the Council of Hippo, the book of Hebrews is directly named one of the "fourteen Epistles of Paul," instead of the curious way in which it was addressed in the list of Carthage.