Which books didn't make it into the Bible and why not?

N

No God

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There was a counsel set up (I think in the 2nd Century) to determine which books would be included in the Bible and which would be discarded. So all of those discarded scriptures and gospels...what happened to them? Because I'm sure there was a lot more stuff that was discarded rather than included.

Wouldn't it be important to read those scriptures if I want to know God?
 
The Book of Enoch was popular in Christ's day. It was left out because the Catholic church didn't believe that angels mated with men.
I don't know why the Gospel of Phillip or the Gospel of Thomas were left out. There were several books that were rejected.
There are of course many different Bibles, with various included books. In each case, someone determines what is valuable and what is not.
 
Yeah i think the catholic church have them, not quite sure about that though. There was a panel of priests and such and they chose which books of the Bible matched others, so didnt contradict. i wouldnt mind reading some of the stuff left out, but then i trust that God wouldnt allow anything to important to be left out, if it mattered to our enternal life he would make sure its in there, his God, he can do these things.
 
There are solid reasons for trusting in today's list of New Testament books. The church accepted the New Testament books almost as soon as they were written. Their authors were associates of Jesus or his immediate followers, men to whom Jesus had entrusted the leadership of the early church.

The Gospel writers Matthew and John were some of Jesus' closest followers. Mark and Luke were companions of the apostles, having access to the apostles' account of Jesus' life.

The other New Testament authors had immediate access to Jesus as well: James and Jude were half-brothers of Jesus who initially did not believe in him. Peter was one of the 12 apostles. Paul started out as a hater of Christianity, but he became an apostle after he had a vision of Christ. He was also in communication with the other apostles.

The content of the New Testament books lined up with what thousands of eyewitnesses had seen for themselves.

When other books were written many years later (e.g. the Gospel of Judas, written by the Gnostic sect around 130-170 A.D., long after the real Judas' death), it wasn't difficult for the church to spot them as forgeries.


The Gospel of Thomas, written around 140 A.D., is another example of a counterfeit writing erroneously bearing an apostles' name. These and other Gnostic gospels conflicted with the known teachings of Jesus and the Old Testament, and often contained numerous historical and geographical errors.

In A.D. 367, Athanasius formally listed the 27 New Testament books (the same list that we have today). Soon after, Jerome and Augustine circulated this same list.

These lists, however, were not necessary for the majority of Christians because by and large the majority of leaders and congregations had recognized and used the same list of books from the time they were first written and circulated.

For example:

Clement (30-100 A.D.) wrote an epistle to the Corinthian Church around 97 A.D. He reminded them to heed the epistle that Paul had written to them years before. Clement had labored with Paul (Philippians 4:3). He quoted from the following New Testament books: Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Titus, 1 and 2 Peter, Hebrews, and James.

The apostolic fathers Ignatius (30-107 A.D.), Polycarp (65-155 A.D.), and Papias (70-155 A.D.) cite verses from every New Testament book except 2 and 3 John. They thereby authenticated nearly the entire New Testament. Both Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of the apostle John.

Justin Martyr, (110-165 A.D.), cited verses from the following 13 books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, 2 Thessalonians, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and Revelation.

Irenaeus, (120-202 A.D.), wrote a five volume work Against Heresies in which, He quoted from every book of the New Testament but 3 John. He quoted from the New Testament books over 1,200 times.


As the church grew beyond the Greek-speaking lands and needed to translate the Scriptures into foreign languages, and as splinter sects continued to pop up with their own competing unofficial holy books (often written by themselves) , it became more important to provide them with a definitive list of what the correct books were which is why Athanasias in 367 AD confirmed which books had historicaly always been accepted by Christians as scripture.
 
The Gospel According To Dick Lipschitz.
It wasn't that cannon was contrary or obscure, it's just that they figured the priests would have a hard time with it.
 
Those books were called the apocrypha meaning "hidden teachings"
Here is why they are not included..
Here is a breakdown of the apocrypha's teachings.


Not one of the apocryphal books is written in the Hebrew language, which was alone used by the inspired historians and poets of the Old Testament. All Apocryphal books are in Greek, except one which is extant only in Latin.

None of the apocryphal writers laid claim to inspiration.

The apocryphal books were never acknowledged as sacred scriptures by the Jews, custodians of the Hebrew scriptures (the apocrypha was written prior to the New Testament). In fact, the Jewish people rejected and destroyed the apocrypha after the overthow of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

The apocryphal books were NOT permitted among the sacred books during the first four centuries of the real Christian church
The Apocrypha contains statements which not only contradict the "canonical" scriptures but themselves. For example, in the two Books of Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes is made to die three different deaths in three different places.

The Apocrypha includes doctrines in variance with the Bible, such as prayers for the dead and sinless perfection. The following verses are taken from the Apocrypha translation by Ronald Knox dated 1954:
Basis for the doctrine of purgatory:

2 Maccabees 12:43-45, 2.000 pieces of silver were sent to Jerusalem for a sin-offering...Whereupon he made reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.

Salvation by works:

Ecclesiasticus 3:30, Water will quench a flaming fire, and alms maketh atonement for sin.

Tobit 12:8-9, 17, It is better to give alms than to lay up gold; for alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin.

Magic:

Tobit 6:5-8, If the Devil, or an evil spirit troubles anyone, they can be driven away by making a smoke of the heart, liver, and gall of a fish...and the Devil will smell it, and flee away, and never come again anymore.

Mary was born sinless (immaculate conception): this verse also states the preexistence of souls. But the Bibles states that God breathed into Adam, and man BECAME a living soul. (Genesis 2:7) Without God's breath, man is NOT a living soul, man is dust.

Wisdom 8:19-20, And I was a witty child and had received a good soul. And whereas I was more good, I came to a body undefiled.

It teaches immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assasination and magical incantation.

No apocryphal book is referred to in the New Testament whereas the Old Testament is referred to hundreds of times.

Because of these and other reasons, the apocryphal books are only valuable as ancient documents illustrative of the manners, language, opinions and history of the East.
 
It is believed there were up to 600 books which comprised the work we now know as the Bible. Through a series of decisions made by the early church leadership, all but 80 of those books, known as the King James Translation of 1611, were purged from the work, with a further reduction by the Protestant Reformation bringing the number to 66 in the "Authorized" King James Bible. Any book that was deemed to not fit the church doctrine, that was contradictory to the books chosen for inclusion or was viewed as heretical was removed.

Some of these lost (or forbidden) books are accessible on the internet but others will be forever hidden, mostly by the catholic church.

The Bible as we know it is a carefully chosen selection of books, chosen to push an agenda and keep control of the uneducated masses. When the vast majority of available text is left out you've got to wonder what they're trying to hide...
 
Many books, like the Apocrapha, boook of Mary and of Thomas. It is a good idea to read many religious documnets and texts as there are also gnostic gospels. They did not make it into the bible because the council of /Nicene did not think they had enough supporting documentation or did not fit into the bible.
 
The Church picked those books that fit them. There are a lot of books and facts that didn't make it into the Bible. Don't know which though...
 
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