How many books did not make it to the cannon version of the bible?

Question

I know the catholic bible has 73 books and the version the protestant use has 6. But supposedly there were way many more books than that at the time of the nicea council that decided what would be kept!

is an honest question about your faith why do yo guys get so upset?

Answer 1

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers


There are a lot of book aren't there. Don't forget the catholic books and The Book of Enoch.

Answer 2

That is a myth.
First of all, the Nicene Council did not decide the canon of Scripture in the first place. All they did was order 50 books. The first canon was actually set several decades later, at Carthage (397).

Second, when the 50 copies of the Bible were produced after the Nicene Council, they included all of the books that were universally accepted as Scripture, all the books that were only accepted in a few Churches, all the books that were disputed, and several books that had never been accepted as Scripture. Then they added several Apocryphal books that were flat out rejected as Scripture, and several more books that were not accepted as Scripture then or now.

When scholars talk about the books that were rejected, they are talking about books like Clement of Rome, Matthetes, the letters of Ignatius, and the Shepherd of Hermas. But most of those were actually stitched into the back of the 50 Bibles.

These days, people assume that there were dozens of Gnostic Gospels and Jewish Apocryphal works that did not make the cut. In fact, none of the Gnostic Gospels were ever accepted as Scripture, even by the Gnostics. Some Gnostic groups had their own special writings in the 2nd century, but the movement was actually short-lived, and none of its writings were ever considered Scripture or read publicly in the Churches.

Answer 3

I read the King James Version, he picked the best scholars of his time and they translated the Bible into a language we english speaking people could read, The King James Version help build this country and help right the constitution. I think we have all we need, There may be some different books that are inspired writings but we would have to be very careful. Remember just one verse that doesnot match up with the rest of the bible would bring that whole book into question, I think we have enough to get us to heaven if we believe.

Answer 4

There were probably literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different books extant at the time of the council of Hippo. This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon#Christian_canons gives a quite reasonable overview of the initial inclusion of books into the Christian canon. Note that the council of Nicea is not mentioned either in this, or in the longer article linked at the beginning of this one.

I have read many of these so-called "pseudepigrapha", and they are for the most part very interesting and very disturbing. Nearly all have obvious historical errors or obvious contradictions to the well-accepted New Testament books of our present bible. Some (like the Gospel of Thomas) are more subtle, and must be studied diligently to discover why they were not included in the canon.

Readily available online are (Jewish apocrypha) the Book of Enoch (significant errors in the area of natural science), 3 and 4 Maccabees (historical errors) and (Christian Apocrypha) the Gospel of Thomas (doctrinal incompatibilities with other gospels). The so-called "child gospels of Jesus" are the most disturbing. In most, a brat-like child Jesus pulls deadly and debilitating miraculous pranks on his playmates and, sometimes, on their parents as well. Two "Gospels of Mary" that I have read supply wholly different nativity scenes, in addition to other obvious disagreements with accepted scripture (such as the lack of a virgin birth). When most of these books are compared with what earlier "church fathers" had already accepted as authoritative scripture, it is easy to understand why the first ecumenical councils rejected most of these clearly deviant (i.e. forged) scriptures.

There are quite a few collections of pseudepigrapha available from libraries or bookstores. There are also *several* books that we know of from references by ancient writers but no longer have any copies of (since they were not copied by scribes of any Christian sect). Of course, among these are the gnostic books found among the Nag Hammadi library http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library , which prior to this discovery had been supposed lost. Likewise the books of Jubilees and Enoch, previously only available in Greek, have been discovered *whole* in both Hebrew and Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls (leading scholars to believe that both of these books were very popular at the time of Jesus, though not after the Jews established their canon and excluded these books).

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 5

No one knows. We know there were 4 letters to the church at Corinth and only 2 are in the canon. Many, many more were not added because they could not be substantiated or were duplicate teachings to the ones that were added. God only has to say something once, and it is true for the period for which it was spoken. Things do not have to continue to be repeated to be correct. Some of the books could not be added because the authors were unknown or things in them did not agree with the other ones that could be proven who wrote them and that they did not contradict what others said. (The Bible does not contradict itself as some say it does.)

Answer 6

The books that were put in the Bible were not selected arbitrarily. What they did was look at the churches. What books were considered to be inspired by the churches that existed at that time. The books that were considered inspired by the majority were accepted and put into the Book known as the Bible.

Answer 7

You mean 66 right?

There are books that were considered but did not stand up to the strict standards and have enough witnesses to prove them.

There were also many books written deliberately by enemies of Christianity on purpose to confuse people at that time. Like the book of Judas for instance was obviously named for an anti-hero as a prod toward the Christians.

Answer 8

dillions list and the book of enoch did not make it either. The fou extra books in the catholic bible did not make it into the KJV bible because they were not sure about the validity of them and the "lost books of the bible" are the same way. The infancy of jesus is in the lost books and supposidly Jesus meets the theif and Judas when he is youn before he grows up. There are other books like the ones written one hundred years after Jesus and found in egypt. The gospel of Thomas and the gospel of Judas and Mary for examples.

Answer 9

(We know you meant to say 66 books in the protestant version.)

But anyway... Here's where I get to use one of my favorite quotes:

It is reported in the supplement of the council of Nicaea that the fathers, being very perplexed to know which were the cryphal or apocryphal books of the Old and New Testaments, put them all pell-mell on an altar, and the books to be rejected fell to the ground. It is a pity that this eloquent procedure has not survived.
-- Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique, quoted from Jim Herrick, "Écrasez l'Infâme," in Against the Faith

(But there were many discussions and disagreements about what belonged and what didn't... See second link below)

Answer 10

There were quite a few books that did not make it.

The book of Revelation came very close to not making it into the Bible.