The show I've watched made it out a bit different, but I meant by pick and choose, he picked from all the existing texts what to include, not that he wrote the whole thing, which is what I think your getting at![]()
Well no, that's not what I'm getting at. Constantine had no involvement in the composition of the New Testament. None whatsoever.
Various people living in Constantine's era made up their own minds about which books should be included in the New Testament, and drew up canonical lists accordingly. They arrived at these lists by their own methods, employing standard exegetical and critical techniques. One of these was Bishop Athanasius, whose list disagreed with other lists composed around the same era.
Later, Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin and drew up his own list of New Testament books (which agreed with the list composed by Athanasius). Some books took a long time to be accepted by the church; most notably the 2nd and 3rd Epistles of John, and the Apocalypse.
Jerome himself wrote that he had doubted the authenticity of these books, but ultimately concluded that they were indeed inpired by God.