what happened to the books ; that didn't get put in to the bible?

Question

why?
and what is in them?

Answer 1

For starters: Wich bible? Catholic churches consider seven books canonical old testament that are considered apocryphal by protestants; Revelations is only semi-accepted in some Eastern churches; some Orthodox churches do consider fairly obscure texts canonical.

From what we know, Christian canon developed laregly in the 2nd century (though it didn't get cemented until the late 4th century).
Common reasons for exclusion were, aparrently:
* questionable authenticity, such as a book then assumed to be written in the early 2nd century, but claiming to be written by one of the twelve apostles (who should be long dead at that time).
* being considered heretical by the power players in early church, such as anything that smacked of Gnosticism
* simply being unknown to the power players, which apparently was the case with Revelations among the founders of some Eastern churches

What is in the apocryphal books? Most likely, we don't even know for most of them - odds are they faded into obscurity by the 5th century AD and no copies survive.
Some have been preserved or recovered. As examples, there is an Apocalypse of Peter that afaik contains visions of what rewards in heaven and punishments in hell are like and was considered canon by Clement of Alexandria (around 200 AD).
There is a Gospel of Thomas that was rediscovered in the 20th century and may simply not have been widely enough known to make canon - or maybe it's because it offers a slightly different perspective on Jesus despite relating pretty much the same stories as the canonical gospels?
There is a Gospel of Judas Iscariot which is clearly Gnostic and basically maintains that Judas's "betrayal" was really a necessary part of the plan for Jesus's sacrifice, which the Gospel of John actually sort of alludes to.

There's too many that are preserved to go into detail on what is in them all; hope the samples help.

Answer 2

Maybe edit your question and tell us which book(s) you mean?

The decisions about the biblical canon (which books were in and which were out) were not uniform, it varied depending where you lived and when you lived. In the eastern churches for example;
John 8v1~11
2 Peter
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation (i.e the Apocalypse),
Were not accepted as biblical texts before Medieval times.

Also, the easterners accept, or accepted in the past Tobit, Qohaleth, 1~4 Maccabees, extra Psalms and a number of other OT books and Tatian's 'Diatessaron' gospel harmony and 3 Corinthians as canonical NT books whereas the western churches do not.

Many ancient non-canonical books are still available and they contain all sorts of materials, history, letters, narrative, astronomy, mythology, songs, poems, proverbs etc. Email me if you want specific references and I will do my best. Regards, Steven.

Answer 3

What most people recognise as the Biblical canon was originally established by the Council of Nicea in 325AD, although there were later changes, especially at the Synod of Hippo in 393AD, and then the Council of Carthage in 397AD.

You can find a lot of the cast-offs, with some explanation as to why they were rejected [though not by all branches of Christianity], at:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/index.htm

Some of these rejected early Christian texts make very interesting reading, especially if you are not overly impressed by some of what WAS chosen.



EDIT:
And the down thumb is because of ... ?
.

Answer 4

Some of them are available, some aren't, and others were destroyed. The Gnostic Gospels are the most popular extracurricular books, but most Christians reject them (as many were supposedly written after the canonical gospels).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic_Gospels

Answer 5

Go to amazon, type in "Appocyphal new testament" and with any luck you will be able to read some of the books the Church burned centuries ago (along witheir authors).

Presumably they had to dig the authors up first, and then burn them if their bodies hadn't already decomposed.

Answer 6

what happened to the books ; that didn't get put in to the bible?

Burned, and many of thier owners killed/tortured by the church

why?

The truth is in there.

and what is in them?

things that contradict the 'official' decided upon (by men) bible story (ie christ having a wife, family, and bloodline (to name one)

Answer 7

They probably burned them or have put them in a museum somewhere. God knows what is in them....lol

Answer 8

They puttem in the conspiracy vault!!

Answer 9

Believe me, they aren't worth a carrot.
.

Answer 10

Biblical scholars can know what was intended and they werent intended to be part of it.. God knows what He is doing.