Protestant apologist Steve Christie, who goes by BornAgainRN on Youtube, claims that the Councils of Hippo and Carthage endorsed the book of Esdras as part of inspired Scripture, which is a book neither Catholics nor Protestants accept as inspired Scripture. Steve makes this claim because he thinks that by doing so it undermines the Catholic appeals to these early Councils since these Councils endorse the "larger canon" of Scripture (i.e., Sirach, Maccabees, Wisdom, Judith, etc). While Steve's argument doesn't automatically refute Catholicism, since the canon of Scripture had to be clarified over time, it is still slightly inconvenient since clear historical testimony is always a good thing to have on your side.
Here is what Steve said in his YouTube video on the matter (slightly edited for readability):
BornAgainNR: My argument is that Hippo and Carthage included Esdras and [combined] Ezra-Nehemiah as the "two books of Esdras" (which is simply the Greek and Latin word for “Ezra”), is based on the fact that Augustine in his work “City of God” entertains the possibility that chapters 3-4 in Esdras are indeed prophesying about Christ. Augustine would not even entertain the possibility this is prophesying about Christ unless he believed these 2 chapters of Esdras are scripture FIRST. Considering Augustine was a member of these two late fourth century church councils of Hippo and Carthage, 25 years earlier, he would know if this book was in these councils or not. Yet, he believes 25 years later this book and these 2 chapters of Esdras are scripture. This demonstrates this book was one of the two books of Esdras in these two councils.In short, Steve claims that when the Councils of Hippo and Carthage gave their canonical list of Biblical Books, when these councils said that there were "two books of Esdras," this specifically meant that the Councils were saying Ezra+Nehemiah were counted as one combined book at that time, and that Esdras (sometimes called 3rd Ezra/Esdras) was the second of the "two books". The Councils often spoke in terms of "two books of Kings" and such, so it was not uncommon for multiple books to be combined. Steve's argument and his proof is that since in Augustine's cites Esdras ch3-4 in his book City of God as likely a prophecy of Jesus that this means Augustine held Esdras to be inspired Scripture, and thus Augustine's Councils must have also held this.
