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There were several reasons that these books were excluded from the biblical canon. The first was that they were later writings (after 150 AD). The four canonical gospel date from written between about 60 to 100 AD. Also, the four canonical gospels were complete in having an account of the life of Jesus and the passion narrative and not just a list of sayings like most of the gnostic gospels. The gnostic gospels tended to be used in only certain limited communities (those that were gnostic). The four canonical gospels had wider distribution. The four canonical gospels can be linked to the apostles and to their early companions. Mark is said to be the John Mark who was with Paul and who later became the secretary to Peter while in Rome. Matthew is tied to the Apostle with the same name. Luke is tied to Paul as Luke was a companion of Paul (in Acts we get first person accounts "we set sail" meaning Luke was there). John is link with John the apostle. The gnostic gospels could not claim apostolic origin. Iranaeus of Lyon, an early church writer, also argued that if the gnostic message was really the teaching of Jesus, then why wasn't it passed on to the apostles and to the successors of the apostles. The message that was passed on, he claims, is what was in the four canonical gospels.

2007-01-27 11:02:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Because the Holy Spirit did not inspire the bishops of the Catholic Church to include those texts when they compiled the Canon of Scripture once and for all time at the end of the fourth century. In all, the bishops studied and discerned about 130 different texts, and excluded all but 27. Those 27 New Testament texts combined with the 46 books of the Old Testament comprise the 73 inspired books of the written Word of God. Any other number, whether from adding books or removing them, does violence to the Holy Bible, and results in a collection of writings that is no longer the accurate and complete Christian Bible.
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2007-01-27 11:23:13 · answer #2 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0 0

Problems authenticating authorship,
problems with the story-line matching other areas of scripture,
any number of reasons.

Other book of the Bible can at least be authenticated and verified. The books you mention could not stand up to the same criteria as those included in the Bible.

But tell me, how does Judas write a book 150 years after he is recorded to have died?

2007-01-27 10:48:15 · answer #3 · answered by Bobby Jim 7 · 0 0

The Book of Judas and the Book of Mary are fictional texts that were written in the middle ages in Europe. The 66 books of the Bible were written and codified long before these books came along. They are not inspired works.

2007-01-27 10:47:17 · answer #4 · answered by Blessed 5 · 2 0

Broadly speaking, because the canon was selected to include the most ancient and authentic witnesses to the life of Jesus, and those books were written centuries after his death by Gnostics. The canonical gospels have a demonstrable first-century pedigree. Read Mark, and you can immediately feel the difference between his sober, historical tone and that of the Gnostic wisdom literature.

Edit: the whole Constantine thing has absolutely no basis in history. The canon was largely set by the mid-second century, a hundred years before the Edict of Toleration.

2007-01-27 10:45:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

My personal theory ties into Constantine. There is a record that Constantine had a vote on what parts of the Bible would and would not be kept before he made Christianity the official religion of Rome. They had to appease not only Christians, but a multitude of pagans as well. They voted on what parts of the Bible should be changed to please the most people and prevent an uprising. Missing gospels, such as the gospels of Judas and Mary, seem to indicate that this story has some truth to it.

Someone above me said that these writings occurred hundreds of years after the death of Christ, and the writers didn't know Christ so they can't possibly be accurate. However, some parts of the accepted Bible (KJV or otherwise) were not written until 70 years after he died. Considering that the average life span of that time was between 20 and 30 years, none of those writers of the accepted Bible would have known Jesus either. How could they possibly be accurate? Good question.

2007-01-27 10:45:45 · answer #6 · answered by robtheman 6 · 0 3

A church council interior the Fourth Century made the main suitable decision, even though it truthfully befell over the direction of a number of years. As Christianity grew to alter into larger and larger, further and further Christians interacted and the a number of writings of the recent testomony progressively grew to alter into properly-properly-known. The Gospels of Mary and Judas (the latter of which replaced into surely Gnostic, the different i'm no longer as familiar with yet in all probability is, too) have been only no longer common as canonical scripture. via the time of the council, basically six books have been being debated on as canonical or no longer. Hebrews and Revelations have been put in the Bible; the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, a million Clement, and the Shepherd of Hermas have been rejected. word: the Gospel of Judas is theory via scholars to this factor to the 1st Century interior the comparable time that the different gospels have been written.

2016-12-16 15:04:27 · answer #7 · answered by donenfeld 4 · 0 0

Because the Catholic Church considered those books to be gnostic heresy. They were not inspired by God. Only the books in the Bible were inspired by God.
The Catholic Church put the Bible together in:
Council of Rome 382 AD
Council of Hippo 393 AD
Council of Carthage 397 AD
Pope Innocent closed the Bible in 405 AD

2007-01-27 10:48:02 · answer #8 · answered by enigma21 3 · 2 0

There were a lot of books that didn't make into the Bible. Many were dubbed Gnostic. All of the books that are in the Bible were voted on... all the rest were voted against.

2007-01-27 11:31:41 · answer #9 · answered by Kithy 6 · 0 0

because they weren't written in the "apostolic age" by the apostles or friends of the apostles. the books of judas and mary were written hundreds of years after Jesus, hence the writers never even met Jesus Christ!

2007-01-27 10:44:36 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2 0

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