I was having a informal conversation with a friend of mine about the bible having missing "chapters/books".

Question

If this is true why would God allow this? Why would he allow man to dictate his vision? Where are these books/chapters? Please...dont give me the whole "god gave man free will" speech, that does me no good and basically show's you have no business answering these questions. Just really interested in this and would like some detailed answers. Thanks in advance for taking time to help me out! P.S. I'll save you "scholar christians" out there the time by being the first to tell you I am a novice when it comes to the bible, so if your posting a answer just to tell me that...no thanks!

Answer 1

There is much talk these days about lost books of the Bible. Sometimes people claim that the Bible was edited to take out reincarnation, or the teaching of higher planes of existence, or different gods, or ancestor worship, or "at-one-ment" with nature, anything that disagreed with what the people in power didn't like. But, none of this is true. The "lost books" were never lost. These so called lost books were already known by the Jews and the Christians and were not considered inspired. They weren't lost nor were they removed from the Bible because they were never in the Bible to begin with.
These so called lost books were not included in the Bible for several reasons. They lacked apostolic or prophetic authorship; they did not claim to be the Word of God; they contain unbiblical concepts such as prayer for the dead in 2 Macc. 12:45-46; or have some serious historical inaccuracies. These books were never authoritative, inspired, or authentically written by either the Jewish Prophets or the Christian Apostles.
Nevertheless, in spite of these problems the Roman Catholic church has added certain books to the canon of scripture. In 1546, largely due in response to the Reformation, the Roman Catholic church authorized several more books as scripture known as the apocrypha. The word apocrypha means hidden. It is used in a general sense to describe a list of books written by Jews between 300 and 100 B.C. More specifically, it is used of the 7 additional books accepted by the Catholic church as being inspired. The entire list of books of the apocrypha are: 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, (also titled Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Additions to Daniel, The Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The books accepted as inspired and included in the Catholic Bible are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees Wisdom of Solomon Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch
The Pseudepigraphal books are "false writings." They are a collection of early Jewish and "Christian" writings composed between 200 BC and AD 200. However, they too were known and were never considered scripture. A list of these would be the Epistle of Barnabas, the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the The letter of the Smyrnaeans or the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the The Shepherd of Hermas, the The Book of Enoch, the Gospel of Thomas (140-170 AD), the The Psalms of Solomon, the The Odes of Solomon, the The Testaments of the twelve Patriarchs, the Second Baruch, the Third Baruch, the The Books of Adam and Eve.
The Deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books are those books that were included in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) but not included in the Hebrew Bible. The recognized deuterocanonical books are 1 Esdras (150-100 BC), 2 Esdras (100 AD), Tobit (200 BC), Judith (150 BC), the Additions to Esther (140-130 BC), the Wisdom of Solomon (30 BC), Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) (132 BC), Barach (150-50 BC), the Letter of Jeremiah (300-100 BC), the Susanna (200-0 BC), Bel and the Dragon (100 BC), the Additions to Daniel (Prayer of Azariah (200-0 BC), the Prayer of Manassesh (100-0 BC), 1 Maccabees (110 BC), and 2 Maccabees (110-170 BC).1
These pseudepigraphal and deuterocanonical books were never considered scripture by the Christian church because they were not authoritative, inspired, written by either Prophets or Apostles, nor do they have the power of the word of the books of the existing Bible. Therefore, since the books are not lost and were never part of the Bible to begin with, they have no bearing on the validity of the Bible.

Answer 2

The Apocrypha is a series of writings that are not considered biblical and the authors are not clearly identified and established. These are not considered to be part of the bible by faith groups today, yet by others and religious leaders of the past they've been referred to as the "inter-testamental books." The bible you see and read now is the version that is considered the most clear, acceptable version that has evolved over the last few hundred years.

Another gospel that was omitted, was the Gospel of Thomas. It was omitted by the catholic church because it was a much different, more mystical perspective on Jesus than all the other Gospels, but it also contained a passage from Jesus that said "The Kingdom of God is within you and around you...cut a piece of wood and I am there, break a stone and I am there." Well, to the catholic doctrine this underminds the importance of their institution, yet it also is an affirmation of God's omnipresence...that He isn't just in a church or some other building.

The most important thing you can do though is do your own reading and research. Any one person (including myself) can tell you anything concerning religion, but that is all based upon their own research, perspective, and beliefs. Don't let yourself become a follower of another man, but a follower of God / Religion (religion relating to your reading of the bible, other works, etc). No one person is wholly correct on this matter and never will be because there isn't a way to prove what is right on a matter that is purely subjective. If you are a bible-novice, just spend time reading the bible, looking at history, and giving the opportunity for all arguments. Most importantly DO NOT become critical in nature like many become. Don't ever forget you're an imperfect human, always will be, and look on everything around you with grace and awe, not pride and analysis. Keep all this in mind and you'll be on the right track.

If you want some more information, see the websites below. Order the Gospel of Thomas if you're curious (and it's definitely interesting) and the wikipedia entry is very informative.

Answer 3

Well, Christians for centuries accepted and recognized the fact that the Bible is a collection of books, letters, stories, documents, passed around and collected and not made into canon-meaning standard, until the 500's. It was a group of people at that time who decided what should be in and what shouldn't be included. The Bible is a human document, with authority and a lasting history, but we cannot make it be some miracle hand written by God.

Answer 4

I don't know if you are a believer or not but I believe the question you should be asking yourself is not if Bible has some missing books but if Bible is from God. Did really God send the Gospels? This simply means that he has discriminated some of his creatures by not sending them one. The bible is supposed to be 2000 years old. But at that time why god forsake all the other nations and people and send Bible to one group of his creatures? what about Chinese or native americans or people in Australia ? did not they have the right to hear the almighty's message ? or simply Almighty never sent a message in the first place !

Answer 5

There are some books that were found and never put into the Bible. I believe the authenticity of most was questioned. One book was proved to have been written 200-300 years after the supposed author had died. Thats the only reason I know why some of the books are missing.

Answer 6

Ah, I'm not a scholar Christian, but I do love reading his word.

There are two categories of "missing books" that people often talk about: The Gnostic Gospels and the Apocryphal/Deutorononical books.

The Gnostic Gospels were written very late after the Canonical Gospels (the ones in the Bible) and really don't connect with them at all. That is because they serve a different doctrine where Jesus is not divine and salvation is gained through knowledge.

The Apocryphal were ommited for these reasons because they were thought not to have anything to do with Christ. My bible actually has the Apocryphal/Deutorononical. I confess, I haven't read through them yet. It says it comes from the Eastern Orthodox translations of the bible (those of you who are EO, please confirm this). It really doesn't seem to have much to do with Jesus.

Answer 7

A lot went missing when the Bible was being introduced to the world... including the burning of 1 million books in the great library of Alexandria at the hands of a religious mob... 2,000 or so years ago.

Answer 8

There were literally hundreds of "books" considered for inclusion in the bible when MAN decided what would go in waaaay back in the Middle Ages .. More have come to light since as well ...... I would suggest starting out with The Gnostic Gospels .. look 'em up.

Answer 9

You can find a large collection of them at the link below. There are several books referred to in the Bible that are not part of the Bible itself. The non-Biblical books most responsible for modern Christianity are the Books of Enoch, which heavily influenced early Christianity, and Dante's Inferno, which inspired legions of hell-fire and brimstone preachers.

Answer 10

it is true..and god had nothing to do with it,many christens were being killed at the time when the bible was being edited..there were originally over three hundred books,the scribe,being afraid for his life felt like he could not include all that was written and choose the ones he did thinking it would be safer.yet we are getting to look at some of those books now,they are very interesting indeed.