When I read the Bible I feel like parts are missing?

Question

Are there parts of the Bible Missing. Does the Apocrypha hold the key to some of the mysteries of scripture?

Answer 1

try reading it with the assistance of the one who wrote it (the Holy Spirit, aka God)

Answer 2

This is a good question to ask. And the answer is yes and no, depending on which part is confusing you.

Many people disagree on which books were included in the canon. Some were allowed in that many people were against, like Jude and Revelation, to name a few. So were being widely used, like Clement, but when the canon was finally closed, these books were left out.

So there are a lot of books out there not in the Bible that were used as Scripture at one time. You can find these on-line in many places on the Internet.

But sometimes the Bible is confusing because it uses a form of literature that we are not used to using -- that is, the ancients read and wrote literature in different ways. As well, in some places translators do not have a good understanding of what the original words or idioms were--so, everything you need may actually be contained in the passage, but we just don't know what it meant.

Also, we have lost much of the symbolism that was apparent to ancient readers. When we read Genesis, most of us don't have a clue about tree symbology from the ancient near east, so we miss some of what is going on in this story.

Also, we are not conversant sometimes with the form of what is in the bible--whether the passage is allegory, poem, hymn, history, rhetorical, legal --etc. So, you would not want to read what was written as a hymn or an allegory with the same approach as you would a section of law.

There really is a lot that you question takes into account, the subjects of many books! I have given here only a few responses that I hope will point to some of the difficulties you (and all Bible readers, in fact) do encounter!

Answer 3

The Apocrypha are a set of books that one group of translators decided not to include in the Bible going forward. These guys didn't think the Apocrypha books were divinely inspired like the other ones.

If you believe the Apocrypha is divinely inspired, then maybe there will be additional revelations of God for you in them.

Answer 4

I don't know what the Apocrypha is, but I am LDS (or Mormon) and we believe that some parts of the bible have been mistranslated or left out. But Joseph Smith, the first prophet in the Latter days, was given inspiration from God, and was able to fill in those empty spaces. We call the additions the Joseph Smith translation, even though, technically, it was God's translation THROUGH Joseph Smith. :) I know that's a lot to swallow, and I don't expect you to believe the same as I do, I just thought I'd let you know that you aren't the only one who believes the bible is incomplete.

Answer 5

I don't think so. The Bible isn't a book to be read as any common book, every part of it is connected with another part, it isn't a direct sequence, many of its writers have written about a same episode or a same age, so to understand that topic you have to put all the information together, join everything which is separated. For example, to understand the Revelation, the last part you have to join all the information you got in the first and in the middle parts.

Answer 6

I believe the Bible itself refers to books that we don't have anymore. The Bible contains many important teachings of Jesus Christ, and many principles that we need to be saved. However, of course there is more truth out there to be had. You can learn these truths in many ways. First of all, the Holy Ghost can give you information directly. Second, there are living prophets which continue to reveal the words of God. Third, there are other books of scripture, made available after the Bible, which we can use along with the Bible to help us understand the gospel better.

Answer 7

The Bible is a collection of SOME of the writings of the time. Not ALL. Decisions were made several hundred years back by the church as to which would be included and which not. The Bible is, in fact, a collection of writings. It's not one entity.

Answer 8

Are ther parts missing? Gee lets see, if you have 1000 people who all saw the same thing, and only 500 of them could write, and only 10 percent of them actually wrote the event down, and then the church and government came along and threw a few of those chapters out because they felt threatened by them - gee I wonder if anything is missing? OF COURSE IT IS That's why you have to searh within yourself for answers, because if we are all a PART of God, and together we all make up God, then the answers are in there somewhere.

Answer 9

It's not so much that parts are missing, but religion interprets it all wrong. Take the story of original sin. It's not the first humans who sin against their creator, but the creator who sins against them. He denys them knowledge of good and bad, which prevents them from appreciating right or wrong, and then punishes them for going against him. How can they know whether they're doing the right thing if they're kept in ignorance? Likewise, his brutal treatment of humans only set a bad example, that lots of people follow. If you'd like to read something really interesting on this, check out a new book called "The Project." It starts off sounding like science-fiction but it's actually a profound comentary on the Bible and religion in general. You can read the first chapter for free if you go to iuniverse.com and type in the author's name, James Joseph.

Answer 10

OFCOARSE! there are parts missing....i once heard that this man found a paper that could have been a missing part of the bible and the paper provided proof that Jesus did in fact have a family and a wife...I'm not sure if that is true....but I guess we'll all find it out once Jesus comes to save us again

Answer 11

Well, I don't want to sound pushy or to be ignorant to other people faith but al-Quran is suppose to be the complete version of Bible and the God Himself had said that its content are protected till the end of the world. So, I don't know. Maybe you'll find your pieces here? But I haven't really study it yet myself, this is just an opinion based on what I learned in my Islam Education class.

But yea, shouldn't God showed us simpler way of life so all people can understand it and no excuse if they didn't go to heaven?