Changes

Choosing the actual texts that now make up the New Testament was not a short or simple process. The deliberation spanned across several decades beginning with the council of Nicaea in 325, C.E. and ending with the Council of Carthage in 419 C.E., where a full list of the Old and New Testament canon was ratified. <ref> See: Canon 24, Council of Carthage, trans. Henry Percival. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 14. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3816.htm newadvent.org]</ref> Interestingly, although the canon was ratified in the third council of Carthage, it was not officially closed at this time, meaning that modifications could have been made had subsequent councils deemed it fit. However, during the Protestant Reformation the Catholic Church officially closed the canon of Scripture during the Council of Trent for fear that the book of Hebrews (an epistle of Paul’s) and the book of James may removed due to their seeming incompatibility with Luther’s doctrine of Sola Fide.