Constantine’s Vision – “By this sign, you will conquer”
This question deals with the canon and history. Before we can answer the question concerning Constantine “the Great”, we must understand what the canon is and get a little background on what was happening in the time of Emperor Constantine. Let’s start with the canon.
The Canon of Scripture
As it is used today, the canon is the list of 66 books which are included in the Bible. Here is how the word “canon” and its usage came about:
“Etymologically, kanōn is a Semitic loan word that originally had the meaning “reed.” From this came the figurative sense of a “measuring rod” or “ruler” and from this the general idea of a “norm” or “standard.” Finally, the term could adopt the purely formal sense of a “list” or a “table.” [1]
The 66 books of the Bible—39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books—were not wantonly placed in the Bible by kings or bishops. Books were included in the canon because they were recognized to be from God using a process that contained a number of criteria. As the McDowells put it:
The Church did not create the canon; it did not determine which books would be called Scripture, the inspired Word of God. Instead, the church recognized or discovered, which books had been inspired from their inception. Stated another way, ‘a book is not the Word of God because it is accepted by the people of God. Rather, it was accepted by the people of God because it is the Word of God. That is, God gives the book its divine authority, not the people of God. They merely recognize the divine authority which God gives to it.’ (Geisler and Nix GIB, 210) [2] (Emphasis theirs.)
The Old Testament Canon
The Old Testament canon was closed by the time of Jesus or, at latest, shortly thereafter. Either way, that was long before Constantine. Dunbar, in an article on the canon, writes:
“It is evident that at least by the end of the first century A.D. the Jews understood that the biblical canon was closed.[3]
The Old Testament canon consists of the following books:
Books of the Old Testament
Dunbar further explains:
“The canon is fixed at a total of twenty-two books, which almost certainly correspond to the Talmudic canon of twenty-four books.”[4]
Those twenty-four books correspond to the 39 books of our current Bible as follows:
Jewish counting of the Old Testament books
In passing, the Hebrew Bible (i.e. the Jewsh Tanakh) is the Old Testament of the Bible and is divided into three sections—Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings)—as follows:
Divisions of the Tanakh
The Old Testament canon was closed before the birth of Constantine, so he had nothing to do with which books are recognized for the Old Testament. Let’s move on to the New Testament.
The New Testament Canon
The New Testament consists of the following Books:
Books of the New Testament
The New Testament canon was also closed before Constantine became emperor in the fourth century (306-337). We have attestation of the recognition of all the books of the new testament before the reign of Constantine:
Irenaeus (AD 180, author of the treatise “Against Heresies“) in his writings makes it clear that he recognized all of the New Testament books, except 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Hebrews.[5]
Origen (c.249) in his Hamiliae Josuam 7.1 lists all the New Testament books.[6]
The Muratorian Fragment – Another early witness (c. end of second century) lists all the books except 1, 2 Peter, Hebrews, 3 John and James[7]
So, by the end of the third century and before Constantine came into power, the canon of the new Testament was already recognized. So, again, Constantine had nothing to do with what was included in the canon of the New Testament. But why do people think that he did? We need to review a little history to understand this.
Church History immediately preceding Constantine.
The emperor Diocletian came to power in Rome in 284 AD. Shortly thereafter, as church historian Williston Walker records, in 285 he appointed “a second emperor to share his authority and to supervise affairs in the western portion of the empire.”[8] While initially he was tolerant of Christians, later in his reign he turned against them and became hard nosed against them.
“…circumstances conspired to convince him that the existence of Christianity was rupturing the covenant between Rome and her gods. Not only were Christians in the army insulting the gods by refusing to acknowledge them, but Diocletian was informed by his priest that, because of the presence in his court of ‘profane men’ (presumably Christians), the traditional auguries, by which emperors learned the will of the gods, were void of effect: the gods were not answering.”
Diocletian’s response:
“Beginning in February 303, three edicts of persecution came in rapid succession. Churches were to be destroyed, sacred books were to be confiscated, and finally clergy were to be imprisoned and compelled to offer sacrifice. In 304, a fourth edict required all Christians to offer sacrifice.”[9]
So, like Decius and Valerian before him, Diocletian set about persecuting Christians.
Diocletian elected to split his reign with another to have better control over the empire. Later, having already split the ruling authority, it’s not too surprising that after his death there was a struggle for power to determine who would rule all of the Roman empire. There were a number of contenders, but the last two standing were Constantine in the west and Maxentius in the east.
Constantine crossed the Alps to confront Maxentius in Rome at the Mulvian (aka Milvian) bridge. The night before the battle, Constantine had a vision in which he saw the first two letters in Christ—the Chi Rho with the words “By this sign you will conquer.” Constantine, with a smaller army, abandoned his worship of the pagan god “Sol Invictus”, the “unconquered” sun god, and followed the Christian God, having his soldiers paint the Chi Rho symbol on their shields. Against the odds and clearly with divine help, the “unconquered sun” god was conquered by the Christian God, and Constantine was victorious over Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.
You can view an account of his vision and victory below:
With Constantine now in control of the empire, and thankful to the Christian God, he stopped the persecution of the church. As Walker put it, “The emperor had cast his lot with the minority cause of the Christians, and henceforth he regarded the Christian God as the protector of the empire and the sponsor of his own mission of reform and reconstruction.”[10]
But this did not turn Constantine into some kind of clergyman who could dictate what the church believed or what to put in the Bible. Indeed, Walker indicates his help for the Christians was fairly limited:
“At a meeting in Milan in 313, he and Licenius reached an agreement about the treatment of Christians which, while it went beyond mere toleration, fell well short of any kind of establishment of the church.”[11]
What about the Nicene Creed? Didn’t Constantine order the bishops there?
Not at all. The creed we call the “Nicene” creed was approved at the the council at Chalcedon in 451.[12] It dealt with the heresy of Arius who denied the full deity of Jesus, claiming he was a created being, not eternal and not of the same “stuff” as God. The Nicene creed affirmed Jesus is fully God, eternal and of the same stuff (“homoousios“) as the father. As you probably noticed, the council of Chalcedon where the “Nicene” creed was affirmed was long after Constantine, and the item of concern had nothing to do with the canon.
The council that occurred during Constantine’s reign was the first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 AD. At that council, “Eusebius of Caesarea, the historian, suggested the adoption of the creed of his own church.”[13] The creed Eusebius suggested, known as the “Creed of Caesarea” while defining Jesus as God, did not deal explicitly with the error of Arius. So the council of Nicaea put forth a modified version, which is called the “Creed of Nicaea” which is very similar to what we now have as the Nicene creed, but this first, early version ends with an anathema not included in accepted Nicene creed.
By the time of the Second Ecumenical Council, called the first council of Constantinople in AD 381,[14] from which we get the “Nicene creed“, it is long past the reign and reach of Constantine.
Thus, in the one significant council that happened during the reign of Constantine, it is clear he had nothing to do with directing the bishops or deciding anything that had to do with the faith or the canon. By the time of the other councils, Constantine was out of the picture.
When the history is known and the facts are revealed, it is clear Constantine had nothing to do with deciding what is contained in the Bible. What is in the Bible is not due to the dictates of rulers or bishops. The books in the Bible are “accepted by the people of God because it is the Word of God.”
Duane Caldwell | February 25, 2025 | Printer friendly version
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Notes:
1.. David G. Dunbar “The Biblical Canon” in Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon; D.A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, editors, Grand Rapids Michigan:Academie Books – Zondervan Publishing House, 1986, p.300
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2. Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict – Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World, Nashville, TN:Thomas Nelson,2017, p.66 – GIB: Ref. From Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, revised and expanded edition, Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1986, p. 210
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3. David G. Dunbar, “The Biblical Canon” in Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Academie Books-Zondervan Publishing House, 1986, p.304
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4. Dunbar, “The Biblical Canon” p.304
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5. McDowell and McDowell, Evidence, p. 72
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6. McDowell and McDowell, Evidence, p. 73
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7. McDowell and McDowell, Evidence, p. 73
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8. Williston Walker, et. al. A History of the Christian Church, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918-1985, p. 122
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9. Walker et. al. A History, p.123
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10. Walker et. all, A History, p.125
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11. Walker et. all, A History, p.125
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12. Henry Bettenson, ed. Documents of the Christian Church, New York:Oxford University Press, 1963, p. 25
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13. Bettenson, Documents, p. 24
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14. Henry R. Percival, The Seven Ecumenical Councils, Grand Rapids: Wm. b. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013, Kindle Ed., p.245
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Image:
Constantine’s Vision – Painting by G. Romano
(The actual vision was of ChiRho (XP) the first letters of “Christ” in Greek, with the words “By this sign you will conquer“) The words in the artwork were depicted above the statue of Constantine on a horse.
