Changes

===When did Christians officially have a Bible?===

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. 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.

===Conclusions===

Ultimately, what Christians now call the New Testament was compiled by various authors who were either contemporaries of Christ or one generation removed from Christ. These texts were carefully deliberated by the church authorities according to their ability to meet the inclusion criteria discussed above. The Bible, as it is known today, was a product of serious deliberation among learned church authorities. Today, Christians debate on the exact medium of divine inspiration, but most Christians do believe that both the authors of each book and the process through which the books were chosen for inclusion in the canon were inspired by the Holy Spirit.