Church History · AD 692

The Council in Trullo and the Orthodox Bible

In 692 Eastern bishops met in a domed hall of the palace in Constantinople and issued 102 church rules. One of them confirmed older lists of Bible books, and the Orthodox Old Testament still follows the Greek Septuagint.

Read it in the Bible: Hebrews 11:35 Isaiah 40:8 2 Timothy 3:16

The Council in Trullo met in Constantinople in AD 692. It was called by the Byzantine emperor Justinian II and attended by bishops from the Eastern church. It wrote 102 canons, which are church rules, about clergy, worship and daily Christian life. One of those canons, canon 2, confirmed a set of older church rules and Bible book lists. That made the council an important step for the Bible of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whose Old Testament follows the Greek Septuagint and includes more books than most Protestant Bibles.

Why Is It Called the Council in Trullo?

The name comes from the room. The bishops met in a domed hall of the imperial palace, and the Greek word for that dome was troullos. So the Council in Trullo just means the council in the dome room. Church leaders are not always creative with names.

It also goes by the name Quinisext Council, which means fifth and sixth. The Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, in 553 and 681, had settled big questions about Christ but had not written practical rules. This council was meant to finish their work, so it borrowed both numbers.

What Did the Council in Trullo Decide?

Most of its canons dealt with church order. A few examples:

Married priests. Canon 13 said married men could be ordained and keep living with their wives. It openly disagreed with the Roman custom on this point. You can read more in the article on the Lateran Councils and priestly celibacy.
Bishops. Bishops, unlike priests, were to be unmarried, which is still the Orthodox rule.
Images of Christ. Canon 82 asked artists to show Jesus in His human form, not only as a lamb, to honor the fact that the Word became flesh.
Church rank. It repeated that the church of Constantinople should hold honor next to Rome.

What Did Canon 2 Say About the Bible?

Canon 2 did not write a new list of Bible books. Instead, it confirmed a whole library of older church rules. These included the 85 Apostolic Canons, the rules of councils such as Laodicea and Carthage, and the writings of great teachers like Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus and Amphilochius. Several of those sources contain lists of Bible books.

Here is the funny part. Those lists don't fully agree with each other. The Council of Carthage included books like Tobit, Judith, Wisdom and Maccabees. The list from Laodicea and the famous letter of Athanasius left most of them out of the canon, though Athanasius said some were good to read. The council stamped its approval on all of them without sorting out the differences. Historians see this as a sign that the Eastern church was content to live with a bit of flexibility at the edges, as long as the core was clear.

The canon also rejected a book called the Apostolic Constitutions, saying heretics had tampered with it. So the council did draw some lines.

What Books Are in the Orthodox Bible?

The Orthodox Church reads its Old Testament from the Septuagint, the Greek translation made by Jews in the centuries before Christ. You can read about it in the Septuagint article on this site. Along with the books found in every Bible, the Orthodox Old Testament includes books the church calls anagignoskomena, meaning worthy to be read. These include:

Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah
1, 2 and 3 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees often printed as an appendix
1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151
Longer forms of Esther and Daniel

The New Testament is the same 27 books every major church accepts. A later Orthodox council, the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, spoke more directly about these Old Testament books.

How Do Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Bibles Compare?

All three share the same core Old Testament books and the same New Testament. The Protestant Old Testament follows the Hebrew Bible that the Jewish community kept. The Catholic Bible adds seven books plus parts of Esther and Daniel. The Orthodox Bible adds those and a few more. Each church has thoughtful reasons. Protestants point out that these books were not in the Hebrew Bible Jesus read. Catholics and Orthodox point out that the early church read the Septuagint and used these books in worship. The New Testament itself seems to know some of them. For example, Hebrews 11:35 likely remembers the martyrs of 2 Maccabees 7.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Hebrews 11:35

The Owner's Manual on this site contains the 66 books of the Protestant Bible. The Apocryphal Books page explains the other books, and the article on why the Apocrypha left most Bibles tells how that happened.

How Did Rome Respond?

Pope Sergius I refused to sign the council's rules, mainly because some of them criticized Roman customs. Later popes accepted parts of them. To this day the Orthodox count the canons of Trullo as fully binding, while Catholics do not. It was one more crack in the wall between East and West that would split open in 1054. See the article on the Great Schism.

Why It Matters for You Today

It can feel unsettling to learn that Christians have slightly different Bibles. But look at how much they share. Every major church agrees on the books that tell us who Jesus is, how He died and rose again, and how we are saved.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

The Bible's core has never been in doubt. The arguments are about the edges, and you can study those with confidence and charity.

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Questions People Ask

What was the Council in Trullo?

It was a council of Eastern bishops held in Constantinople in AD 692 under Emperor Justinian II. It issued 102 canons on church life and confirmed older church rules, including lists of Bible books. It is also called the Quinisext Council.

Did the Council in Trullo set the Orthodox Bible canon?

Not with a new list. Its second canon confirmed older lists, such as those from Carthage, Laodicea and Athanasius, which do not fully agree. The Orthodox Church has long read its Old Testament from the Septuagint, and a later synod in 1672 spoke more directly about the extra books.

How many books are in the Orthodox Bible?

The number varies a little between Orthodox churches. Besides the 39 Old Testament books in Protestant Bibles, the Orthodox include books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 to 3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151. The New Testament has the same 27 books as every other church.

Why did Rome reject the Council in Trullo?

Pope Sergius I refused to sign because several canons criticized Roman customs, such as requiring married clergy to live apart from their wives. Later popes accepted some of the canons but not all of them.

Sources

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