Question For Christians ONLY -- Lost Books?

Question

What's your take on the so called lost books of the Bible.
Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, etc.

Some are saying that Mary Magdalene was the 13th disciple.

Opinions please?

Just to clarify -- no I don't believe in the lost books. I thought this would be a great subject for discussion.

Answer 1

Thanks for the question. I answer this from the perspective of a Christian and five year Bible student.

I have no faith in the "lost" books, whatsoever. The Bible itself says it is complete, whole, and all that is needed for peace, and salvation is found within its complete pages.

To believe in a "lost" book would also be believing God can't keep his Word complete and together.

Answer 2

I believe they were written, but that they are not a part of the Canon. These lost books contradicted many of the apostolic teachings, such as The Gospel of Thomas.

It states that Jesus, as a child, repeatedly killed other children for ruining His fun. Now, Jesus was a perfect being, so He could not have killed other children, though He had more than enough power to do so. He could not have even been tempted to, for as God is Holy, He can not be tempted by evil. Its like holding a dollar bill in front of a millionaire. He wont touch it because he sees no reason to.

As for the other Gospels, i haven't read all of them yet, i don't know what they say.

And Mary M. being a disciple of Jesus??? I don't know.......that seems like a lot of rhetoric mixed with a bunch of stupid people.

Answer 3

The Bible has always been in flux.

No Christian Bible existed until the Second Century Catholic saint, St. Iraeneus, declared that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- as well as some other books of the Bible -- were the inspired word of God.

A century later, the Catholic Pope convened the Council of Rome where the Catholic Canon was set. The Catholic Bible has remained unchanged since then.

In the 1500s, Martin Luther decided that certain books of the Bible were not the inspired word of God. He deleted them from the Bible. Most Protestant sects use his version. At that time, the Catholic Church convened another council (at Trent) where they reaffirmed the list from the Council of Rome. Many Protestants mistakenly think that Catholics added books to the Bible at that time. They are mistaken.

Incidently, many Protestants (like the one above) like to quote the passage in Revelations where it says that nothing should be added nor deleted from the writings. They mistakenly think that it applies to the whole Bible (which did not exist when John wrote the letter to the Seven Asian Churches). It they read it closely, they would see that John asked that the letter be read to the congregations. He merely wanted to make sure that the whole letter was read, and that the pastors did not add anything of their own. Revelations is the word of John -- not the word of God.

Since these lost books contradict other books in the Bible, religious leaders have no interest in making them official.

Answer 4

Its important that you read the bible and see that Jesus called all who followed him disciples.

There were twelve Apostles. These twelve were given much the same job as the disciples, go out and spread Gods word.

In Revelation, it seems that the Apostles role continues in another form.

So , yes, Many followed Jesus during his ministry on Earth, including Men and women. They were called disciples, children of God, and other descriptive names.

THe lost books of the bible are interesting reading. Though I do no recommend reading them without having read the bible first.

One of the books that did not make it into the bible itself, is simply a history of Mary, mother of Jesus. How she was raised and some back ground on her and her family. Nothing out of place or drastic.

There are a couple of the books that we can see directly contradict the word of Jesus and the Apostles. The book of Judas is one of those books.

Answer 5

These books from a Biblical standpoint are worthless. They were the writings of a competing religion known as Gnosticism. These Gnostic gospels were penned a century after the events they describe, long after any eyewitnesses were dead. We knew of the existence long before we'd found them, because one of the early church fathers Iraneaus in his 2nd Century book Against Heresies dealt with these books. So we knew the Judas book existed long before we found a copy a few decades ago because it was referenced by Iraneaus. These books were not left out of the Bible, in the conspiratorial sense. These books were never even remotely considered to be included, they're from another religion. To ask why they're not in the Bible is akin to asking why the Koran is not in the Bible.

Answer 6

I think there may have been some intresting information left out of the Bible by the Catholic Church. To those who blame it on the Gnostics and say that none of this could be true I say you are doing just what they want. Yeah they may have had reason to leave it out of the Canon and some may not be true, but maybe some of what was put in the Canon may not be true. As to all the words against the Gnostics that's easy to explain. The Catholics were the majority and therefore winners and "keepers of the faith". Well as the old saying goes, the winners write the history.

Answer 7

The Lost books of the Bible are a collection of books that were written by Gnostics and some over-zealous Christians......with fantastic stories. They were rejected by the church fathers as being of little or no cannonical value and some were deemed worthless. as for Mary Magdalene.....she was a disciple of Jesus but not an Apostle.And with all this nonsense going around as to whether she and Jesus were intimate....its just some idiots' way of making a quick buck.Remember, He called her 'daughter'!

Answer 8

Those lost books are not inspired, but written to promote some peoples ideas.

There are some lost book that still have not been found yet. The Bible mentions the book of Gad and several others that have not been found.

Answer 9

If they were lost we wouldn't know about them now would we. The message of this book doesn't have the same message that all the other books tell. There had to be the same Gospel being taught if another Gospel is preached then the book had to be rejected. That is the test these book you speak of fail that test...Jim

Answer 10

In the early centuries after the death of Jesus some groups were jealous of the way Christianity was spreading throughout the Roman Empire. In order to "get in on the action" they wrote their own gospels and set up their own churches. They were called Gnostics. You can tell them from the original gospels because of their emphasis on secret knowledge which has only been revealed to them and less emphasis on the public teachings of Jesus.