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Are
these lost
books of the Bible?
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There is much talk these days
about lost books of the Bible. From cults to the New Age, people
make all sorts of claims about how the Bible is missing books, books
that help justify what they hope to believe. Sometimes people claim
that the Bible was edited to take out reincarnation, or the teaching
of higher planes of existence, or different gods, or ancestor
worship, or "at-one-ment" with nature.
The "lost books" were never lost. They were known by the Jews
in Old Testament times and the Christians of the New Testament times
and were never considered scripture. They weren't lost nor were
they removed. They were never in the Bible in the first place.
The additional books were not included in the Bible for several
reasons. They lacked apostolic or prophetic authorship, they did
not claim to be the Word of God; they contain unbiblical concepts
such as prayer for the dead in 2 Macc. 12:45-46; or have some
serious historical inaccuracies.
Nevertheless, the
Roman Catholic church has added certain books
to the canon of scripture. In 1546, largely due in response to the
Reformation, the Roman Catholic church authorized several more books
as scripture known as the apocrypha. The word apocrypha means
hidden. It is used in a general sense to describe a list of books
written by Jews between 300 and 100 B.C. More specifically, it is
used of the 7 additional books accepted by the Catholic church as
being inspired. The entire list of books of the apocrypha are: 1 and
2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon,
Sirach, (also titled Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, The Letter of
Jeremiah, Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon,
The Additions to Daniel, The Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2
Maccabees. The books accepted as inspired and included in the
Catholic Bible are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees Wisdom of
Solomon Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch
The Pseudepigraphal books are "false writings." They are a
collection of early Jewish and "Christian" writings composed between
200 BC and AD 200. However, they too were known and were never
considered scripture.
The deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books are those books that
were included in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) but not included in the
Hebrew Bible. The recognized deuterocanonical books are "Tobit,
Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach or Ben
Sira), Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah), 1 and 2 Maccabees,
and additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. The canon of the
Greek Orthodox community also includes 1 Esdras, the Prayer of
Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees, with 4 Maccabees as an
appendix."1
Pseudepigraphal Books
Deuterocanonical (Apocryphal) Books
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