Esoteric Secrets of The Evil Christians

(For those who have no idea, Nicea is in modern day Turkey, and the first Nicean council was a major gathering of christian leaders in 325 CE with the support of the Roman emperor Constantine – a nice change as many past emperors were as likely to have christians killed in gruesome ways.)

One of the things that was presented as a short story at Magick Earth (in an informal context, but with academic authority) went something like: “Here is how the list of what books should be in the Bible got created. Constantine called a council at Nicea, and they decided what books should go in the Bible, and got rid of all the ones they didn't like”. Along with various, sometimes true and sometimes plain wrong facts about Constantine himself, who I couldn't care less about so will say no more.

That “story” didn't accord with my reading of history but I said nothing as my memory was vague and I wanted to check my facts. I read the appropriate chapters of a couple of history books on my shelf, and surfed the net a bit.

Cutting it short, deciding the canon (list) of books which belong in the bible was never on the agenda at Nicea, and never happened there. Furthermore, the only book burning that was commanded were those of Arius. None of what are now called non-canonical books (such as the Shepherd of Hermas or Gospel of Thomas) were burned or prohibited there.

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While I'm here, apparently some people believe the idea of reincarnation was in the bible, but was removed at this first council in Nicea. Again, this was never discussed, and never happened at this council. Or any other one, for that matter.

I've decided to quote Roger Pearce's footnote in full

This idea [about reincarnation being removed at Nicea] may derive from some confused statements in Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb, Elm Tree Books, London (1983), ISBN p-241-11106-6. Unfortunately the book seems to be a fictionalised autobiography, so all the personae are more or less fictional, as a note on the frontispiece makes clear. (MacLaine is apparently a New Age propagandist). The book is without any footnotes, index or bibliography. Quotations are typed from the original.

"So, are you religious, Kevin?" I asked.
He choked involuntarily on his tea. "Are you kidding? What church would have me? I'm treading on their territory. I say folks have God inside them. The Church says it has God inside of it. There's a phrase in the Bible which states that one should never countenance spiritual entities other than God. Most Christians go by that. But then the Bible says nothing about reincarnation either and it's quite well known that the Council of Nicea voted to strike the teaching of reincarnation from the Bible."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Well, most serious metaphysical students of the Bible know that. The Council of Nicea altered many of the interpretations of the Bible. The man Jesus studied for eighteen years in India before he returned to Jerusalem. He was studying the teaching of Buddha and became an adept yogi himself. He obviously had complete control over his body and understood that the body was only the house for a soul. Each soul has many mansions. Christ taught that a person's behavior would determine future events--as karma, as the Hindus say. What one sows, so shall he reap."
I didn't question these rather sweeping assumptions. I offered Kevin a cookie. He seemed to like sugar. He ate it in two bites.
(p.182. 'I' is MacLaine's persona - 'Kevin' is a medium).

And another later on:

"... He said that when Christ returned to Israel he taught what he had learned from the Indian masters, that is, the theory of reincarnation.
"But David," I said, "why aren't these teachings recorded in the Bible?"
"They are," he said. "The theory of reincarnation is recorded in the Bible. But the proper interpretations were struck from it during an Ecumenical Council meeting of the Catholic Church in Constantinople sometime around 553 A.D., called the Council of Nicea. The Council members voted to strike those teachings from the Bible in order to solidify Church control.
"The Church needed to be the sole authority where the destiny of man was concerned, but Christ taught that every human being was responsible for his or her own destiny -- now and future. Christ said there was only one judge--God--and he was very opposed to the formation of a church of any kind, or any other kind of ceremonial religion that might enslave man's free will or his struggle for truth."
This confirmed what Kevin had said, but it seemed logical that anyone heavily into reincarnation would have read about that famous Council.
The sun began to set behind the waves now, sweeping a pink-purple slash across the clouds above the Pacific. (pp.236-7.
'David' is another persona, identified earlier only as 'a painter and a poet').

The occasion referred to here is clearly not the First Ecumenical Council - the First Council of Nicaea - but the Fifth Ecumenical Council (the Second Council of Constantinople). This council condemned the propositions known as Origenism, and with them the pagan idea of the transmigration of souls (not reincarnation), which some writers had picked up as a technical idea from Greek philosophy without realising all the implications. The idea that the bible was edited to remove the idea in 553 is not consistent with the extensive manuscript evidence for the text (including complete codices) from the 3rd century onwards.

It would seem reasonable to propose that a hazy recollection of these passages lies at the root of this legend.

In conclusion,

From [all of these collected documents] there appears almost no evidence that the council of Nicaea made any pronouncements on which books go in the Bible, with the ambivalent exception of Jerome, or about the destruction of heretical writings, or reincarnation. However it did condemn Arius and his teachings, and the Emperor Constantine did take the usual Late Roman steps to ensure conformity afterwards.

from http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/nicaea.htm

but you could also look at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/sbrandt/nicea.htm or even (shudder) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea#Agenda_and_procedure


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