HowTheBibleBooksWereChoosen

 

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."

Just started reading some of these "additional books", though they are not claimed to be "the word of God", its still pretty cool, here are links to the other books.

 

 

Re: Books around the same time the Bible was written

The funny thing about that. The books of the Bible were actually voted in by The Council of Nicaea and were choosen carefully by relevance. Some of the other books that wern't included in the final "official" Bible I hear still make for good reading. It's not that they were all false or anything, not by any means. But if you read through some, you will see some of the reasons. Some were just worded better than others and got added.

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




 

http://www.panheads.org/boards/showthread.php?t=4192  JWsArticlesOnHowCanonicalBooksWereCompleted.htm

 

More Resources at AmericanBible.org

How the Bible Came to Us

 

Re: Books around the same time the Bible was written http://www.panheads.org/boards/showthread.php?t=4192

Highlights from the above article—are--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. 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.(by The Apostles and their close Disciples )They weren't lost nor were they removed.

SBT-Note--Keep these in mind while Studying the following Articles--–Plus a few Scriptures--Paul warned Christians? What are the facts?— Verses are hyperlinked 2 Tim 3:16- 3:17 Col. 2:8. Rom 15:4 Plus Luke 8:17; and Rev 22:16-21— 22:16 Open In Context| John –The Last writer surely must have been familiar with all the other inspired writings that His fellow Apostles and Close Disciples had written. Enjoy the following articles and make your own conclusion—Open FREEasGOD.htm and PurposeOfReligion.htm

 

Compare Open

JWsArticlesOnHowCanonicalBooksWereCompleted.htm

 

Luke 8:17 Jesus

"For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

ou gar estin (5748) krupton o ou faneron genhsetai, (5695) oude apokrufon o ou mh gnwsqh| (5686) kai eiv faneron elqh|. (5632) 

Jesus –Red Letters (ISV)Luk 8:17 From e-Sword-or

Open  [In Context] For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing secret that

will not become known and come to light.

 

(1) The Development of the Canon of the New Testament http://www.ntcanon.org/  With http://www.ntcanon.org/authorities.shtml

 

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon#Early_Christianity_of_the_first_three_centuries

 

(3) http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/nicaea.html

 

References

(1) Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon

(2) Source http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Books_of_the_Bible

(3) Source  http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Quotations_from_the_Old_Testament_in_the_New_Testament

(4) Source  http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Old_Testament

(5) Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_of_Tarsus

                                                      Apocrypha---

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

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Apocrypha (from the Greek word απόκρυφα meaning "those having been hidden away"[1]) are texts of uncertain authenticity or writings where the authorship is questioned.

In Judeo-Christian theology, the term apocrypha refers to any collection of scriptural texts that falls outside the canon. Given that different denominations have different ideas about what constitutes valid scripture, there are several different versions of the apocrypha. Commonly, among Protestant Christians, the apocrypha includes (but is not limited to) those books in the Old Testament that, early in his life, Jerome described as apocryphal in the 4th Century.

During sixteenth-century controversies over the biblical canon the word "apocrypha" acquired a negative connotation, and it has become a synonym for "spurious" or "false". This usage usually involves fictitious or legendary accounts that are plausible enough to commonly be considered as truth. For example, the Parson Weems account of George Washington and the cherry tree is considered apocryphal.

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Denotation and connotation

The term "apocrypha" has evolved in meaning somewhat, and its associated implications have ranged from positive to pejorative.

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Esoteric writings

The word "apocryphal" (αποκρυφους) was first applied, in a positive sense, to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered too profound or too sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated.

It is used in this sense to describe A Holy and Secret Book of Moses, called Eighth, or Holy (Μωυσεως ἱερα βιβλος αποκρυφος επικαλουμενη ογδοη ἡ ἁγια), a text taken from a Leiden papyrus of the third or fourth century CE, but which may be as old as the first century. In a similar v