What happened to the other books of the Christian Bible?

Question

I was watching the History Channel the other day and the documentary mentions 'other books' that didn't make the cut for being placed in the Bible. It said that Jesus and God had many more books, one written by Mary herself, that didn't make the cut because the guys putting the books togather didn't like how these books gave women a higher place in society then they preferred. They mentioned other reasons given, but that's the one I was really curious about. So, what happened to these other books? Do you think they even exist/existed? Why?

Answer 1

Let me preface this by noting that I'm not a Christian.

First, the words "The Bible" are misleading as there are many different "Bibles". There is the Protestant Bible, The Catholic Bible, The Egyptian Orthodox Bible, etc.

Differing groups looked at existing scripture, and assembled those that they thought to be of particular interest, decided on the authenticity of each, decided whether they were inspired of God and adopted their specific lists. Each group did this with a great deal of prayer and academic study.

As far as a Gospel of Mary, it is unlikely that Mary wrote her own Gospel. The Gospels that exist in the current Bible have manuscripts dating no nearer than about 150 A.D. There are NO existing manuscripts written by any contemporary of Christ.

The other texts are available to anyone wishing to read them. One text containing many is "TheOther Bible", which contains Ancient esoteric texts from the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the early Kabbalah, the Nag Hammadi Library and other sources. It's a great place to start exploring. The Editor is Willis Barnstone.

Answer 2

the original canon was chosen at the Council of Nicea. This was not some secret meeting, you can do a search on yahoo and get the actual minutes from the meeting. The reason they came together was to dispute some falsehoods about the nature of Christ and they just so happened to agree upon what books were true and inspired by God and what books were blasphemy.

Now, the "lost" books of the Bible are also not secret, you can buy a copy in English of the supposed "lost" books on amazon.com or anywhere else. These texts were not included in the Bible because at the time they could not prove who had written them (the gospel of Mary and gospel of Peter have PROVEN to have NOT been written by Mary or Peter for example), or they were pure blasphemy (they didn't fit with the rest of the Word of God and taught a false gospel).

Nowadays we have only a few copies of these supposed "lost" books. But every year, we find more and more copies of the original canon, and with them we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the texts they had then are same ones we are using now. Hence the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Answer 3

These additional epistles or writings were spurious and hold no validity. Gnostics [those who think they know] were writing and distributing many letters back at the time of John, to undermine the credibility of the teachings of the early day Apostles. Man through the ages has attempted to add and delete writings both, to and from the Bible ... but, overall, the main thrust or crucial information essential for a relationship with Jesus Christ has been preserved. Even, today, there are many anti-biblical writings out there ... but God's elect [those drawn to Him] KNOW which is which because of this relationship with Jesus Christ. Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ and there was no logical reason for her to be writing epistles [letters] throughout Asia minor. Another reason for Mary not authoring letters is because of the culture of the time with heavy Jewish influence, would never allow women of the time to conduct any type of religious practices nor writings. The Apostles on the other hand, had the chief commission of preaching the gospel and organizing the early Christian churches, as they were male, and would not be prejudiced against solely, because of their male sex designation.

Answer 4

First of all God and Jesus did not write the books. They were all written by humans about God and Jesus.

There were thousands I am sure. I believe it was Constantine that decided what would be good for him at the time to have available to the religion. The rest were burned, destroyed.

Why do you think it is so hard to interpret? It is only bits and pieces. Why is half of Jesus life not portrayed?

It is a miracle that bible was put together. And it is a great work. Paul was a man, who wrote letters. The letters are in the book. If you actually read it in context of who he was talking to and what about, it takes on a new meaning than what the church has been teaching. The church shaped by Pharisees and Constantine and politicians ruling the masses.

Answer 5

Huh? There were no set books. They were just a bunch of collections, most were lost during the time. They choose the best gospels they had for the Bible. Some books, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were written too late to be considered for the Bible, along with others stating opposing views.

Answer 6

Watching the 'History' channel was your first mistake. The Bible was not officially codified until the 7th century. The History channel is talking about Constantine's donation of 50 books to the Christian Churches. And rather than leaving certain books out, they actually included EVERY book that was read in any Christian Church throughout the Roman Empire. The books that you are talking about were never read publicly in any Churches; most of them were late gnostic texts that were composed within decades of Constantine's books, and most were simply Platonic philosophy with Christian terminology thrown in here and there.

Why the History channel tries to capitalize on the Gnostic gospels is beyond me. It is only because people are ignorant of Hellenistic philosophy that gnosticism has gained any popularity in recent years. The gnostic Demiurge is pure Platonism - it represents the dominant religious view among the Greco-Roman pagans.

Answer 7

Its a doctrine issue mainly. Those other books are mostly written by gnostics, (hence gnostic gospels), and they ussually give a panthiestic view point that out right contradicts the current books in the Bible. It was a matter of discerning which texts were true to christian doctrine and principles and which ones were not.

Answer 8

After the first Council of Nicea in 325, orthodoxy was voted upon, and all books that didn't fit with the new dogma were hunted down and destroyed, as were the people who wrote and preached them.

That was the birth of the Christian church as we know it today, it was quite different and heterogenous over the previous 3 centuries.

Answer 9

I have never heard of a book written by Mary, that is here say

God Bless You

Answer 10

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