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By the year 629 A.D. so diverse and jumbled had become the views as to what was "God breathed" and "inspired" and "what should be in the New Testament and the Bible," and so great was the need of harmony and unity in these fractions sects which all had different documents to vouch for their authority or the authority of each "sect" against the other, that the sixth general council of Constantinople, otherwise know as the Quinisextine or Trullan council, with a desire apparently to please all parties, ratified the catalogues of Laodicea and Carthage, the Apostolic canons, and those of Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Amphilochius of Iconium, Cyril of Alexander, and every other one of which they had any knowledge, seemingly indifferent to the absurdity of indorsing the contradictions between them.
Answer for yourself: Cannot God decide what is or what is not to be included, and would he agree to multiple contradictions and call it "Divine"?
You need to understand that no two of these various "canons" were alike. It must be added that the Clementine Constitutions, though in the Apostolic catalogues, and recognized by the assembly as authoritative, were declared to be no longer canonical, on account of the interpolations which they had received (Westcott, Canon, p. 434).
One would think that after such a majestic gathering of the Church that all would be settled. No way! Men continued to disagree even after such a noble endeavor as the Sixth Council of Constantinople which "ratified and canonized everything even if it did conflict with itself."
Answer for yourself: Is this God's Word?
At the fourth council of Toledo Augustine's list was again ratified (Davidson, The Canon of the Bible, p. 237).
Johannes Damascenus gives as the New Testament all the books now in it as well as the Apostolic Constitutions (De. Fide Orthodoxa, iv. 17).
Nicephorus excluded from the New Testament Revelation, and placed it on a level with the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews (Westcott, Canon, p. 552).
They all rejected Revelation (Ibid.).
He said that the Four Gospels should be included along with the Seven Catholic Epistles, fifteen Epistles of Paul including Hebrews and the Epistle to the Laodiceans, the Acts, and Revelation (Westcott, Canon, p. 452). The Epistle to the Laodiceans here mentioned has a curious history. Paul says in his Epistles to the Colossians (chap. 4:16) that he had written a letter to the the Laodiceans, and an Epistle claiming to be that one was in circulation in the second century (Westcott, Canon, p. 552). The one now under discussion, which is a different book from that one, begins as all the genuine Epistles do, "Paul, an apostle not of men, nor by-men, but by Jesus Christ, to the brethren that be at Laodicea." etc. The earliest trace of it is at the beginning of the sixth century. Gregory the Great, at the close of that period, declare it was written by Paul. Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt, (853 A.D.), did the same. So did John of Salisbury not long after. The opinion of Africa confirmed these, and the Epistle passed into the early translation of the New Testament. It is in the manuscript of the Vulgate Bible at La Cava. It is in the manuscript of the Latin New Testament which is still preserved at Fulda; in very many western manuscripts of the Bible, as in the great Gothic Bible of Toledo (8th century), in the Book of Armagh (807 A.D.), in the so-called Charlemagne's Bible of the British museum (9th century), in the great Bible of the king's library in the British museum, apparently designed for church use, and in many other magnificent Bibles. Fourteen editions of one or more German versions of it are said to have been printed before Luther's time; it is in the first Bohemian Bible (1488), and it is in the Albigensian Bible at Lyons, where it has its usual place after the Epistle to the Collosians (Westcott, Canon, p. 454).
From the sixth to the sixteenth century, a thousand years, this Epistle was in the Bible of a large share of the Christian people; and yet we now never hear of it, much less do we hear it called the "Word of God".
We are not through yet. The New Testament was about settled for good by now however there are yet a couple of things we need to look at. Let us continue this study as we focus upon events of the 16th century.
