Did the Council of Nicaea Choose the Books of the Bible? Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones

The books of the Bible were selected in the year 325 at the Council of Nicaea, right?

That's what a lot of Christians seem to think.

But is this story true? 

If it isn't true, how did the tale of a council that created the canon begin in the first place?

Those are the questions that your intrepid cohosts Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones explore in this episode.

As with almost every explanation that Garrick and Timothy give, the answer turns out to be far weirder than you ever imagined. It involves a prayer, a table, and books that fall miraculously onto the floor. Also, it entails Timothy speaking these words to Garrick, which also could have appeared in a fortune cookie if Garrick and Timothy were writing the fortunes in the cookies: "The canon of Scripture and the Council of Nicaea are like Elvis Presley and 'American Pie,' dude."

The only way to comprehend Timothy's cryptic proclamation is to listen to this podcast episode in its entirety.

Also in this episode, the dynamic duo throws the bones of Edward the Confessor into battle against a creature that you probably thought existed only in Dumbledore's office, even though it's described in an early Christian sermon.  Without revealing the outcome, let's just say that Edward the Confessor stays dead and that early Christians believed in some zoological phenomena that you probably don't.

Also, why hasn't anyone ever named their band "Phöënïx"?

ABOUT HOSTS

Timothy Paul Jones, Ph.D., is C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He teaches in the areas of family ministry and applied apologetics. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including Why Should I Trust the Bible?, The God Who Goes Before You, Perspectives on Family Ministry, and Christian History Made Easy. Follow Dr. Jones at @DrTimothyPJones.

Garrick Bailey is a Ph.D. student in systematic theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, studying Herman Bavinck and Roman Catholicism under the supervision of Gregg Allison.

LINKS TO CLICK

How We Got the Bible (book by Timothy Paul Jones)

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theapologeticspodcast.com

Urban Ministry Podcast

CLOSING CREDITS

Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Cunningham Manor. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).