How many "books" never made the cut for the present day Bible?

[Postman]

I heard on the Young Turks radio program last night from one of the hosts that there were many books of the Bible that never made the cut.


I find it so weird to be basing your life on what some guy wrote about an event in history that happened years before the person doing the writing was born.

[NC_Nurse]

1. The book of Logic,

for one...

[whalerider55]

2. a lot, i think...

for instance, The Book of Murray the Whiner
The Book of the Rove the Blasphemer
The Book of Fundamentalist Lies
and of course, The Books of The Red Sea, The Red States and Red Green

whalerider55
amateur biblical scholar

[Postman]

5. thanks for the laugh....

n/t

[gmoney]

3. The disclaimer...

...WARNING: allegorical stories included -- not to be taken literally.

[whalerider55]

4. forgot

the book of love, the book of the dead, and Bookies I have Known

whalerider55

[DrWeird]

6. Can't remember the numbers or names.

There's book that tried to explain who Adam and Eve's kids married. Only ended up asking more questions. There's a book about Jesus' childhood where he kills another kid as a prank and then brings him back to life. There's a book about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus that'd probably piss a lot of fundies off.

[TankLV]

10. I believe these are the books that were among those found in the dead sea

scrolls stash near Cumrun (spelling?)?

[DrWeird]

12. Among other places.

I believe there were a few found in an urn in present day Iraq(?).

And some have been known for centuries (millenia?) and just never canonized.

[SaintAnne]

15. no, I think the dead sea scrolls were different

they were of that cumrun (sp?) group that believed Jesus would come back and destroy the world except for them. and they wrote about that sort of stuff. They were a very isolate Christian group, who moved to the deserts because they thought the end of the world was coming.

[GodHelpUsAll2]

37. Read

The Lost Books of the Bible. It's quite interesting and goes into all the books that were left out. Such as the Gospel of Mary, The lost Gospel of Peter and so on and so on.

[Dorian Gray]

51. The Gospel of Thomas...

There are a bunch of them, actually. They were not included because they contradicted what the rest of the Bible stood for.

There are "extra" books currently in the Catholic Bible. Those books were "dumped" by Luther as extraneous. But, they are still held sacred by Catholics. (Examples include Maccabees.)


The Gnostic gospels (Thomas and Gospel of Mary Magdalene, among others) were not accepted by the church for many reasons, but particularly because they contradicted the message that the Catholic Church believed that God wasn't to spread.

[fshrink]

7. How many books of the Iliad didn't make the cut either?

It's been heard, repeated, told, revised, transformed, reorganized, retranslated, rearranged, recreated so many times by so many people, for so many reasons and with so many different agendas, that it's best to take it as a .... story. And not a very good one at that!

[Taxloss]

24. Oh, come on.

How can you say the Iliad isn't a good story? It's THE story. It's the cornerstone of Western literature, for heaven's sake.

Sure, it's been stretched and shuffled, but that's the brilliance of the Iliad. It is the compendium of all the various oral narrative streams of storytelling unto that point in one text. It is a treasurehouse.

EDIT: I mean, when combined with the Odyssey.

[TroglodyteScholar]

8. The Gnostic Gospels

by Elaine Pagels (I think that's right) explains several books which were either lost or eliminated....or just stayed underground until they faded out. I'm not really into religion much, but I thought this stuff was pretty interesting.

[Postman]

11. That's interesting. But isn't it all just (gulp) ....propaganda?

Depending on who is doing the preaching, the message could be 180 degrees from someone else's belief of what some particular passage "means"

[Getchasome]

58. Funny you should bring that up.

I can't remember the verse in Mark, but he admits they are writing propaganda "so you might believe." I'll search for the verse.

[H2O Man]

17. Yes, and she has

a more recent book, well worth reading

[SaintAnne]

9. yep

lots of gospels didn't make the final cut, many of them that said things that were contradicting the "holiness" of Jesus. And many of which that were written hundreds of years after the events took place and completely influenced by later events that had nothing to do with Jesus

[Obviousman]

13. Tons of them

One of the most famous is the Gospel of Thomas. There are actually several different Gospels, but the four that were chosen are the only ones we use now. Aside from that there are different "revelations" and all kinds of good stuff. Some of it down right crazy.

[Postman]

16. I gotta wonder how the "end-of-timers" dealt with the world NOT ending?

Did they ALL become repubs?

[Obviousman]

21. Funny thing about the book of revelation

Revelation really means "unveiling." It is actually a critique on the Roman Empire, and empires as a whole. The basic premise is not so much that God will rapture his fundie followers. The idea is that man-made oppression and tyranny will not withstand the power of God. Eventually, god's kingdom will overcome any man-made kingdom. The funny thing is the religious right is creating an empire to rush in the apocalypse they believe will occur. In reality, they are only going to prove the book of revelation correct by showing how futile empires are.

[alcuno]

34. The Book of Revelations was an excellent example of apocalyptic

literature, popular at the time. NYT writer (Kristof) had an excellent editorial last week about the money being made off of the "Rapture" crowd.

[dogman]

14. Have you seen the movie "The Name of The Rose"?

Interesting background to the story covers the politics of the Bible while being transcribed in the dark ages.

[rockymountaindem]

23. That was a fantastic mystery movie.

I don't think I paid much attention to the biblical stuff because I was trying to figure out who the murderer was! Little did I know at the time he was secretly lurking in the... oh nevermind.

I'll have to watch it again and pay closer attention to what you brought up.

[dogman]

27. They get into the politics of the Church at that time.

The Jesuits are RW. I believe Buchannen, McLaughlin, and Bennet are Jesuit trained. Some of these guys are Opus Dei. The Fransiscans tend to be more liberal, socialist animal lovers and all that. The point about the Bible is how the Librarian controls which books are transcribed so he is able to censor the Books according to his political agenda. When you realise how the Bible was passed on when so many were uneducated and individuals could control what the rest of the world was to believe was the word of God.

[RoyGBiv]

18. Seriously ...

The previous suggestions were good ones, however ... :-) (On Edit: When I originally started writing this, the previous answers were all tongue in cheek. I intended no offense.)

The short answer is that no one knows. Dozens at least, likely hundreds, perhaps more.

A somewhat longer answer starts with the phrasing "left out of the Bible." Technically speaking, no books were "left out" of what we now call The Bible. That tome is what it is, a collection of stories from various sources. There are various revisions that change or confuse meaning or, more properly stated, slant meaning toward a certain desired interpretation. Some of the original passages written in the original languages are very hard to interpret in a modern context. We know what the words are, but we don't always know what the writer meant by using them.

St. Paul essentially put the Bible as we know it together, largely by incorporating traditional Jewish texts and compiling the so-called New Testament. He chose bits and pieces of ancient and more contemporary texts deliberately in order to advance a certain belief system. Accordingly, he left out certain documents and writings that did not advance that belief system, and it is this latter variety of texts to which people usually refer when they say that books were "left out" of the Bible, particularly the so-called "Q" texts. Others refer to older Jewish texts that Jews today and at the time studied and followed, but which did not make Paul's final cut.

For a very basic overview of the process and some known texts that could have been grouped with texts that were included in the New Testament, but which were deliberately not included, find a book called _Who Wrote the Bible_ by Burton Mack.

[DieboldMustDie]

25. How could Paul have "put the Bible as we know it together"

when some New Testament books weren't written until well after his death.   Bart Ehrman in Lost Christianities... writes that the 27 books that comprise the New Testament were first listed as such by Athanasius of Alexandria in A.D. 367.

[RoyGBiv]

30. ACK!!! My Error

Sorry. I didn't mean to write "Paul" in that context, but that's how it came out. My bad.

I was thinking of Paul's influence on the various directions religion and the associated political battles were taking. He started emphasizing certain points of view at the time over others, and this in turn influenced how the Bible came to be when it was actually compiled much later.

I'd edit to reflect my thoughts more clearly, but it is too late. Again, my apologies. I hate making errors like that.

[Obviousman]

31. While Paul put together

many of the epistles, I'm pretty sure he had considerably less involvement in the gospels. John was written around 90-100AD. Paul's writings are the earliest known documents, but I doubt he wrote the gospels.

[lenidog]

19. I have a book

Called the "Other Bible" its basically scripture that never made it into the Bible. If you don't count the Gnostic writings which are at times almost a different religion and just count ones that could have made it their are 39. Also remember that various sects of Chritstianity have books in the Bible that others don't. The Russian, Serbian, Greek, and Armenian Orthodox Bibles all have more books that the standard Bible. Also none of these Orthodox sects have the same number of books. The same goes for the Ethiopian and Eygptian Copitic Churches.

FYI I heard one writer once say that the Ethiopian Coptic church is probably as close as one will get to early Christianity since they were cut off by the Muslim invasions of North Africa and more or less were isolated for several hundred years from the rest of Christianity.

[Sugarbleus]

41. Thanks, I'm going to check these out..

:hi:

[Mike Nelson]

20. Yes, there were several...

...that were seriously considered. I do have them around here somethere...

I don't know about the wild ones posted above... the books were pretty much duplicating stuff already written about up to three times. I do think one was authored by a woman.

One guess on why the woman didn't make the cut.

[DieboldMustDie]

22. Bart Ehrman includes more than forty...

in Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament. I suppose there may be even more. :shrug:

[theblasmo]

26. One Thing To Keep In Mind...

Is that the Bible was assembled by a group of men who, for various reasons, picked what books would go into it. Check out the Council of Nicea for more info. If you want more fun, think about the mindsets of the people that picked the books. St. Augustine abandoned his wife and kids for religion. That might explain some of it. As for the book of Revelations, it is just one of many prophetic books they could have chosen. In the Hebrew code language, 666 = Nero Caesar. The present day kick with the Rapture, etc., comes out of a Fundamentalist Revival from the 1950's. Hal Lindsey and his kind kept it going strong during the 70's and 80's until it became non-fringeworthy in the 90's, with the help of the pop culturification (a word?)of religion. Now we have to worry about these idiots self-fulfilling their own end of the world prophecy. Isn't it great to have a President who thinks the planet's only about 10,000 years old? (Sorry for the rant.)

[cally]

29. The Council of Nicea or the Nicene Council chose the books of

the current Bible. I think they met around 300 AD. That's when some books made it into the Bible and others didn't. As I understand it, the more mystical traditions and the books that were more female centered were tossed. Many others also were tossed. What made it is basically the Bible we know today.

[alcuno]

32. Not all bibles are the same.

I believe that the Catholic bible contains the Book of Judith and at least one other that are not in other bibles.

[SharonAnn]

42. And I don't think the Catholic Bible contains "Revalation"

at least I don't remember ever seeing it.

[DemBones DemBones]

45. Yes, "Revelation" is in the Catholic Bible.

We're the ones with "exra" books, no "missing" books. ;-)

[dogman]

28. Another interesting source is "Who Wrote the New Testament?"

The Making of the Christian Myth by Burton Mack

[shance]

33. Wasnt there a guy named Thomas (as in *doubting* Thomas?)

I heard that from a friend who had recently read a book about the Bible. Sounded pretty interesting.

[abbadon]

56. Yeah, he was the one who questioned the Resurrection

IIRC, he was also crucified upside-down for ... well, just read it and see for yourself. :)

[DoYouEverWonder]

35. The Nag Hamadi Library is the mother lode

for the gospels and early christian teachings that were 'left' out the Bible. Lot's of interesting stuff here. Why read what someone else has to say about the teachings of Jesus, when you can get the info straight from the horses mouth?


http://www.gnosis.org/library.html

http://www.gnosticchristianity.com/frameset_CH9.htm

[GodHelpUsAll2]

39. Yes

Yes it is indeed the mother lode. And those documents, sit today, locked away in the Vatican somewhere but are not "blessed" by the Vatican as authentic. Strangely enough what led me to the Nag Hamadi was the movie Stigmata. But when I found them and read them, well.....what I had been taught all my life I suddenly found myself doubting.

[3rdParty]

36. I believe it was the Council of Carthage...

in the year 397 A.D. that settled on the collection of books we currently use in the New Testament and made 'official' by Rome. Even though there are collections of a books before this time, this is the council that 'certified' the books we know today. (For instance, in 332 A.D. there are notes of a 'Christian Scripture' given to churches in Constantinople. But they are not precisely the same as our New Testament, but very close).

[Walt Starr]

60. Council of Nicea

Giving us the Nicean Creed.

[datasuspect]

38. they probably left out a lot of good stuff

although give me the old testament any day.

love all that smiting, raping, jealousy and shit

[Sugarbleus]

40. There were many...I think some were even burned...

Odd you should bring this up as I have been struggling with Christianity and where it get's it's doctrine. The writings have been tampered with, lost, burned, hidden, manipulated, changed, translated.... How in thee world can I trust what is "written"?

The Old testament is a series of Allegory, customs, Hebraic Laws...FOR ISRAEL/jews. The New Testament's authenticity is anybodies guess.

We know from Secular histories, of that time, that Jesus did walk the earth. But really, what else do we KNOW about his entire life? We know more about Abraham, Mohammed, Buddha and others than we do about Christ.
What if he didn't rise from the dead?? What if he is buried someplace and all of this has been a gigantic hoax (or misrepresentation)?? YIKES the implications. =o[]

[essarhaddon]

43. Here you go

Apocryphal Deuterocanonical Books (that is, included in the Greek Septuagint Bible but not in the traditional Hebrew Bible):

Maccabees I
Maccabees II
Esdras I
Esdras II
Letter of Jeremiah
Sirach Ecclesiasticus
Tobit
Judith
Esther
Wisdom of Salomon
Prayer of Manassesh
Prayer of Azariah
Susanna
Barach
Bel and the Dragon

There are also many Pseudepigraphal Books, which would belong to the Old Testament, like the Book of Enoch or the Book of Jubilees; or to the New Testament, like the Gospel of Thomas or the rather shocking Gospel of Mary (!) Most of them can be easily found on-line.

[DemBones DemBones]

46. All of those books are in the Catholic Bible.

The Apocryphal Deuterocanonicals, that is. Notice that many of them are named after *women*. The book of Wisdom also has a female character named Sophia (Wisdom) who was present with Yahweh at the Creation.

[essarhaddon]

50. You're right

The Deuterocanonical Books are in the Catholic Bible (and also in the Anglican and Orthodox, if I'm not mistaken). Perhaps I wrote the post from a Protestant point of view :)

Anyway, the Books universally rejected by Jews, Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants are those I mentioned as Pseudepigraphal, a simple Google search will produce several lists of them. Some of them are imbued with philosophy (neoplatonism, theosophy) many are preserved in Greek, and they may shock some people.

For instance, Book Of Enoch (6, 1-3): "1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children." (lustful angels, mmmm)

Gospel of Mary (9, 3-4): 3 Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things. He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us? (hey, Peter, jealous, much?)

[Must_B_Free]

44. Many of these forbidden books are in the Koran

the Constantian form of Christianity was edited to emphasize limited introspection and to institutionalize mental slavery. The prophetical or Gnostic elements that worked against the goal of the empire were removed.

In Ethopia, they did not subscribe to the Constinian Christianity; thus Rastafari is a baptist Christian religion, but stands against mental slavery.

I always wondered why the Wailers once declared "Sick and tired of this bullshit game - Can't die and go to heaven in a Jesus name, lord. We know and we overstand, Allmighty God is a living man".

They are intensly Christian, but prophetic, not Constantinian. "God is a living man" was just a way of saying that Haile Selassie was the rightful leader of true Christianity, or the true form of it.

[DemBones DemBones]

48. Muslims regard Jesus as a prophet and also honor

the Virgin Mary, or such is my understanding. . . So is it some of the Apocrypha that are in the Koran, or some of the Gnostic books?

[juliagoolia]

47. good links to the texts

http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/noncanon.stm
http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

[gaia_gardener]

49. We have to remember that the

bible as we know it was compiled by men with an agenda. Christianity (and religion in general) has always been used to keep people in their place. Especially women. I realized early on that I had to find my own place in christianity because St Paul's christianity didn't work for me (he's so damned misogynistic). I realized that St Paul wasn't really a contemporary of christ and "came late to the table" and basically decided to discount most of his epistles. I read them the same way I read essays from my current pastor - as essays on his thoughts and ideas.

I understand that there are/were several books about Jesus' childhood. How he wasn't always perfect and was actually a very normal child (except for being exceptionally intelligent). The current bible only makes one reference to him as a child (after the birth) and then he's an adult. Those 30+ years just melted away.

I also understand that many of the books that "didn't make it" were very pro-woman.

I can handle the bible as we know it because the 4 gospels do a pretty good job of providing synopses of christ's teachings. I don't need his history and can live with just his teachings.

[kineneb]

52. reading suggestions

Reading on this stuff is a hobby of mine. The following works filled in some of the blanks for me:

1. The Nag Hammadi Library, James M. Robinson, ed.
-has translations of all available finds from Nag Hammadi, including the Gospel of Thomas
2. Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels.
-an excellent overview of the early history of Christianity and the choice of books in the cannon
3.The Mythmaker-Paul and the Invention of Christianity, Hyam Maccoby.
-an alternative view of the life of Jesus and Paul, explains a lot of the attitude of the Pauline Church
4. The actual words attributed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels.

I have concluded a working philosophy of what Jesus really meant can be assembled from his words in the Synoptic Gospels with the addition of the Gospel of Thomas, rather than the radical Gospel of John. One can ignore the rest of the NT books as Pauline propaganda.

Seen in this light, the historical Jesus was a radical reformer of Judisim, self-proclaimed King of the Jews and wanted foment a revolt to throw the Romans out of the Holy Land. Unfortunately, he failed, and others turned him into a mythical semi-deity in the mold of the prevailing near-east mystery cults.

My two-cents worth. Have fun.

[newyawker99]

54. Hi kineneb!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[gaia_gardener]

55. Pauline propaganda

I like that. Because it does seem so "wrong" to me on so many levels.

Thanks for the reading ideas and welcome to DU.

[ieoeja]

53. Old or New Testament

Aside from one listing of what I believe is called the Apocryphal books or something along those lines, everyone appears to be talking about the New Testament. Maybe that is what you were asking, but I thought I'd address missing books from the Old Testament.

The Old Testament refers to two books not included in the Old Testament. One of these is the Book of War. I don't recall the other.

Sidebar: can you imagine a fundies approach to warfare had the Book of War been included? "It clearly states in the bible that every soldier will carry three spears and a cutting dagger. I don't have a problem with modern arms as the bible does not explicitly forbid them, but our soldiers should be carrying three spears and a cutting dagger as well."


At the onset of the Diaspora, the Jews tried to save as many books as possible. At a meeting of Jewish leaders it was decided that certain books should take priority. This made the core of what we in the West call the Old Testament today. The Psalms were a particularly controversial choice as their value is purely artistic, not historical.

So the answer to your question is: the books that did not make the final cut would include every book ever written prior to the Diaspora that was not included in the bible.

[ixat]

57. I would seriously love to get my hands on all those

excluded books...

[Walt Starr]

59. Depends upon which bible you're talking about

Some of the Apocryphal texts appear in the Catholic versions. This is a fairly good list of Apocrypha. All Apocrypha listed here are "Old Testament" books:

Wisdom of Solomon 30 B.C. Didactic
Ecclesiasticus 32 B.C. Didactic
Tobit c. 200 B.C. Religious Novel
I Esdras c. 150 B.C. Historic & Legendary
I Maccabees c. 110 B.C. Historic
II Maccabees c. 100 B.C. Historic & Legendary
Judith c. 150 A.D. Romantic Novel
Baruch c. 100 A.D. Prophetic
Letter of Jeremiah c. 200 B.C. Prophetic
II Esdras c. 100 A.D. Prophetic
Additions to Esther c. 130 B.C. Legendary
defaulter of Azariah* c. 100. B.C. Legendary
Suzanna (Daniel 13) c. 100 B.C. Legendary
Bel & the Dragon (Daniel 14) c. 100 B.C. Legendary
defaulter of Manasseh c. 150 B.C. Legendary

The Apocrypha are contained in the following:

a. The Septuagint (LXX) - Except II Esdras.
b. Codex Alexandrinus (A) - Also contains III & IV Maccabees
c. Codex Vaticanus (B) - Except I & II Maccabees and The defaulter of Manassah
d. Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph)
e. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) - Includes Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus
f. Chester Beatty Papyri - Fragments of Ecclesiasticus
g. The Dead Sea Scrolls - Some apocryphal writing was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls - interestingly written in Greek.
h. The Writings of Church Fathers

Here's a list of New Testament Apocrypha:

1. Pseudo-Jesus apocrypha
1.1 The Epistles of Jesus to Abgarus

2. Pseudo-apostolic (general) apocrypha
2.1 Teachings of the Twelve Apostles (Didache)
2.2 Epistle of the Apostles


3. Psuedo-apostolic (specific - by Apostle) apocrypha
3.1 - Andrew -
3.1.1 Acts of Andrew
3.1.2 Acts of Andrew and Matthias*


3.2 - Barnabas -
3.2.1 Acts of Barnabas*
3.2.2 Epistle of Barnabas
3.2.3 Gospel of Barnabas


3.3 - Bartholomew -
3.3.1 Gospel of Bartholomew
3.3.2 Martyrdom of Bartholomew*


3.4 - James -
3.4.1 Apocryphon of James
3.4.2 Book of James (protevangelium)
3.4.3 First Apocalypse of James
3.4.4 Second Apocalypse of James


3.5 - John -
3.5.1 Acts of John
3.5.2 Acts of John the Theologian*
3.5.3 Apocryphon of John (long version)
3.5.4 Book of John the Evangelist
3.5.5 Revelation of John the Theologian*


3.6 - Mark -
3.6.1 Secret Gospel of Mark


3.7 - Matthew -
3.7.1 Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew the Apostle*
3.7.2 The Martyrdom of Matthew


3.8 - Nicodemus -
3.8.1 Gospel (Acts) of Nicodemus (aka The Acts of Pontius Pilate)


3.9 - Peter -
3.9.1 Acts of Peter
3.9.2 Acts of Peter and Andrew
3.9.3 Apocalypse of Peter - version 1
3.9.4 Apocalypse of Peter - version 2
3.9.5 Gospel of Peter
3.9.6 Letter of Peter to Philip


3.10 - Philip -
3.10.1 Acts of Philip
3.10.2 Gospel of Philip


3.11 - Thaddeus -
3.11.1 Acts of Thaddeus (Epistles of Pontius Pilate)*
3.11.2 Teaching of Thaddeus


3.12 - Thomas -
3.12.1 Acts of Thomas
3.12.2 Apocalypse of Thomas
3.12.3 Book of Thomas the Contender
3.12.4 Consumation of Thomas
3.12.5 Gospel of Thomas


4. Pseudo-Pauline apocrypha
4.1 3 Corinthians
4.2 Acts 29
4.3 Acts of Paul
4.4 Acts of Paul and Thecla
4.5 Acts of Peter and Paul*
4.6 Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena
4.7 Apocalypse of Paul
4.8 Apocalypse of Paul - other version
4.9 Epistle to the Laodiceans
4.10 Revelation of Paul*
4.11 Paul and Seneca


5. Infancy Gospels apocrypha
5.1 Arabic Infancy Gospel
5.2 First Infancy Gospel of Jesus Christ
5.3 Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
5.4 Infancy Gospel of Thomas - Greek A
5.5 Infancy Gospel of Thomas - Greek B
5.6 Infancy Gospel of Thomas - Latin


6. Relatives of Jesus apocrypha
6.1 Gospel of Mary
6.2 Gospel of the Nativity of Mary
6.3 Book of John concerning the dormition of Mary (transitus mariæ)*
6.4 History of Joseph the Carpenter*
6.5 Narrative of Joseph of Arimathaea


7. Sub-canonical (disputed canon) apocrypha
7.1 Shepherd of Hermas
7.2 II Clement
7.3 Diatession
7.4 Gospel of the Lord (Marcion)


8. Other significant Epistles and pseudomynous writings and apocrypha
8.1 I Clement
8.2 Avenging of the Saviour
8,3 Epistles of Pontius Pilate
8.4 Letter of Aristeas
8.5 Sentences of the Sextus
8.6 Alexandrians
8.7 Revelations of Stephen
8.8 Muratonian Canon (fragment)


9. Fragments of lost apocryphal books
9.1 Gospel of the Ebionites
9.2 Gospel of the Egyptians
9.3 Egerton Gospel (Egerton Papyrus 2)*
9.4 Gospel of the Hebrews
9.5 Traditions of Mattias
9.6 Gospel of the Nazaraeans
9.7 Preaching of Peter


10. Apostolic Constitutions (Didascalia Apostolorum)
10.1 Book 1
10.2 Book 2
10.3 Book 3
10.4 Book 4
10.5 Book 5
10.6 Book 6
10.7 Book 7
10.8 Book 8


11. Psuedo-Sibylline Oracles **
11.0 Preface
11.1 Chapter I
11.2 Chapter II
11.3 Chapter III
11.4 Chapter IV
11.5 Chapter V
11.6 Chapter VI
11.7 Chapter VII
11.8 Chapter VIII
11.9 Chapter XI
11.10 Chapter XII
11.11 Chapter XIII
11.12 Chapter XIV
11.13 Appendices - Fragments

[Behind the Aegis]

66. One word...

WOW! Thanks for the information! I will bookmark this and explore some on the web!

[Behind the Aegis]

61. here's a related question

We know there were books left out of the New Testament, mostly due to the Council of Nicea. I wonder....how many books were left out or re-edited in the Old Testament? Was there an ancient Jewish version of the Council of Nicea?

[Walt Starr]

62. Oddly enough, the Dead Sea Scrolls offer a wonderful comparison

Isaiah is the one book contained within the Dead Sea Scrolls which is nearly identical to the modern version. Every other book contained within that collection has some differences from minor to significant.

[Behind the Aegis]

63. Dead Sea scrolls

I knew about them. They are VERY interesting, at least what we have found! I can only imagine what was lost. I was wondering if anyone had heard of anything other than the DSC. I guess I should have been more clear. :) Since you answered, have you heard of things such as a "Council of Nicea" for the Old Testament?

BTW...thanks for your reply!

[Walt Starr]

65. See my post #59

;-)

[Hieronymus]

64. Quite a few books I think..........

and they kept changing the Bible according to their own prejudices. The original Bible taught reincarnation, for one thing.