Councils of Carthage
“For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword…” — Hebrews 4:12
Background: The Canon Required the Whole Church’s Recognition
The Council of Hippo in 393 AD confirmed a list of the biblical canon and explicitly required that this list receive the approval of “the Catholic Church across the sea” — that is, the church at Rome — before it could take effect. The authority of the canon could not rest on a single regional council in North Africa; it had to come from the reception of the whole church.
Four years later, Carthage convened again, bringing the decisions of Hippo before a wider circle of the church.
Event One: 397 AD, the Third Council of Carthage
On August 28, 397 AD, approximately forty-four to forty-eight bishops gathered at Carthage. The council was presided over by Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, with Augustine of Hippo attending as a participating bishop. The council passed around fifty canons, covering the date of Easter, annual synods, clerical discipline, the administration of sacraments, and related matters. (Wikipedia: Councils of Carthage)
Canon 47 carries the greatest historical weight: it explicitly listed the books of the biblical canon and stipulated that any text read publicly in church “under the name of Scripture” must fall within that canonical list. The list was identical to that of the Council of Hippo — the Old Testament including the deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament comprising twenty-seven books. Scholar Charles Joseph Hefele noted that the canonical text from 397 AD was drawn directly from the 393 AD Council of Hippo without modification. (bible-researcher.com: Canon of the Third Council of Carthage)
Event Two: 419 AD, the Great Council of Carthage
On May 25 and 30, 419 AD, two hundred and seventeen bishops gathered at the Basilica of Faustus in Carthage. Aurelius presided, Augustine was present, and the papal legate Faustinus of Rome also attended. The council compiled the canons from sixteen previous North African church councils (including the Council of Hippo and successive Carthaginian councils) into a single collection of one hundred and thirty-eight canons: the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Africanae. (New Advent: Council of Carthage, 419 AD)
Canon 24 reaffirmed the biblical canon from Hippo and the 397 AD Council of Carthage. The council also wrote to Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch seeking verification of the canonical text of the Council of Nicaea — in the eyes of the North African church, canonical authority was “the business of the whole church,” not the exclusive prerogative of any single see. (Wikipedia: Councils of Carthage)
This council also took a clear stand on another matter: it forbade clergy from appealing “overseas” — that is, to Rome — and firmly rejected the supreme judicial jurisdiction of the Roman see over the North African church.
Key Figures
Aurelius of Carthage (?–c. 430 AD) — Bishop of Carthage, he presided over three North African councils (397, 398, and 419 AD) and integrated the decisions of each into a coherent body of church law. (Wikipedia: Councils of Carthage)
Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) — Attended both the 397 AD and 419 AD councils as a bishop. In On Christian Doctrine, Book II, Chapter 8, he articulated his principle for recognizing the canon: in determining which books belong to the canon, one should follow the judgment of the greatest number of catholic churches, especially the testimony of those churches that hold apostolic succession. The consensus of the whole church — not any single authority — is the standard for identifying the canon. (New Advent: Augustine, On Christian Doctrine)
Results and Legacy
These three councils — Hippo 393 AD, Carthage 397 AD, and Carthage 419 AD — together constitute the first formal, systematic agreed confirmation of the biblical canon by the Western church. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament gained an uncontested standing throughout the entire Western church from this point forward.
The debate over the Old Testament never truly settled. Medieval church practice accepted the deuterocanonical books, and the Reformation brought a direct reckoning. Martin Luther redrew the Old Testament boundary based on the Hebrew Bible (the thirty-nine books of the Jewish tradition); in 1546, the Council of Trent responded by defining seventy-three books including the deuterocanonicals as the Catholic canon. The divergence between Catholic and Protestant Old Testaments was formally fixed at that point. (GotQuestions.org: Council of Carthage)
Connection to the Lord’s Recovery
Brother Witness Lee, in The Lesson Book, Level 6, Chapter 4, explicitly affirmed the Protestant canon of sixty-six books and cited the 363 AD Council of Laodicea (which explicitly excluded the deuterocanonical books) as a significant historical moment in the process of canonization — placing it in contrast to the 1546 Council of Trent (which incorporated the deuterocanonicals into the Catholic canon). (bibleread.online: Lesson Book Level 6, Chapter 4)
Though Brother Witness Lee did not directly name the councils of Hippo or Carthage, his overall framework for understanding canonization aligns with this historical process: Scripture is God-breathed, and the church’s function is to recognize and receive it — not to create it or confer authority upon it. The Recovery Version of the Bible (sixty-six books, published 1974–2003) is the practical expression of this conviction. (recoveryversion.bible)
The 419 AD Council of Carthage’s rejection of Rome’s supreme judicial jurisdiction stands as one of the rare instances in the early church where a formal council resolution expressed the principle of local church autonomy — an orientation that resonates deeply with the Lord’s Recovery’s insistence on the principle of local church self-governance.
Significance: The Canon Came from the Witness of the Whole Church
What Carthage left behind was not merely a book list — it was a way of recognizing. The councils did not say, “because we are bishops, our decision constitutes the canon,” nor did they say, “because Rome agrees, this list is valid.” Augustine’s standard was: look at what the greatest number of catholic churches have actually received. The authority of the canon is rooted in the historical practice of the whole body of believers across generations — reading, preaching, enduring persecution, being illuminated by the Holy Spirit.
The authority of Scripture belongs to Scripture itself. The church is not the master of Scripture; the church is the witness to Scripture.
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me.” — John 5:39