More Lost Books Of The Bible

Presented here are two volumes of apocryphal writings reflecting the life and time of the Old and New Testaments. Stories told by contemporary fiction writers of historical Bible times in fascinating and beautiful style.

You're probably missing some of the most interesting books of the Bible. In the Jewish tradition, the five books known as "The Five Scrolls" perform a central liturgical function as the texts associated with each of the major holidays. The Song of Songs is read during Passover, Ruth during Shavuot, Lamentations on Tisha B'av, Ecclesiastes during Sukkot, and Esther during the celebration of Purim. Together with the five books of the Torah, these texts orient Jewish life and provide the language of the faith. In the Christian tradition, by contrast, these books have largely been forgotten. Many churchgoers can't even find them in their pew Bibles. They are rarely preached, come up only occasionally in the lectionary, and are not the subject of Bible studies. Thus, their influence on the lives and theology of many Christians is entirely negligible. But they deserve much more attention. With scholarly wisdom and a quick wit, Williamson insists that these books speak urgently to the pressing issues of the contemporary world. Addressing themes of human sexuality, grief, immigration, suffering and protest, ethnic nationalism, and existential dread, he skillfully guides readers as they rediscover the relevance of the Five Scrolls for today.

This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of more than 5.000 words about the history and evolution of the book we call 'The Bible' This volume contains all the Gospels, Epistles and other pieces that were attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus Christ and his companions. Contents: The History of The Bible The Lost Books of The Bible INTRODUCTION TO THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE PREFACE The GOSPEL OF THE BIRTH OF MARY The PROTEVANGELION The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ Thomas's Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ The Epistles of Jesus Christ and Abgarus, King of Edessa The Gospel of Nicodemus The Apostles' Creed. The Epistle of Paul, The Apostle of the Laodiceans The Epistle of Pau the Apostle to Seneca, with Seneca's to Paul The Acts of Paul and Thecla The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians The General Epistle of Barnabas The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, of the Ephesians to Ignatius The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians The Shepherd of Hermas The Second Book of Hermas, called his Commands. The Third Book of Hermas, which is called his Similitudes. Letters Of Herod And Pilate. Connecting Roman History With The Death Of Christ At Jerusalem. Letter Of Herod To Pilate The Governor. Letter Of Pilate To Herod. The Epistle Of Pontius Pilate, Which He Wrote To The Roman Emperor Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Report Of Pilate The Governor, Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ; Which Was Sent To Augustus Caesar, In Rome. The Report Of Pontius Pilate, Governor Of Judea; The Trial And Condemnation Of Pilate. The Death Of Pilate,Who Condemned Jesus. The Lost Gospel According To Peter

Some differences between Catholicism and Protestantism can be tricky to grasp, but one of them just requires the ability to count: Catholic bibles have seventy-three books, whereas Protestant bibles have sixty-sis - plus an appendix with the strange title Apocrypha. What's the story here? Protestants claim that the medieval Catholic Church added six extra books that had never been considered part of the Old Testament, either by Jews or early Christians. Catholics say that the Protestant Reformers removed those books, long considered part of Sacred Scripture, because they didn't like what they contained. In Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger, Gary Michuta presents a revised and expanded version of his authoritative work on this key issue. Combing the historical record from pre-Christian times to the Patristic era to the Reformation and its aftermath, he traces the canon controversy through the writings and actions of its major players.

One man’s quest to find the oldest Bible scrolls in the world and uncover the story of the brilliant, doomed antiquarian accused of forging them. In the summer of 1883, Moses Wilhelm Shapira—archaeological treasure hunter and inveterate social climber—showed up unannounced in London claiming to have discovered the oldest copy of the Bible in the world. But before the museum could pony up his £1 million asking price for the scrolls—which discovery called into question the divine authorship of the scriptures—Shapira’s nemesis, the French archaeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau, denounced the manuscripts, turning the public against him. Distraught over this humiliating public rebuke, Shapira fled to the Netherlands and committed suicide. Then, in 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Noting the similarities between these and Shapira’s scrolls, scholars made efforts to re-examine Shapira’s case, but it was too late: the primary piece of evidence, the parchment scrolls themselves had mysteriously vanished. Tigay, journalist and son of a renowned Biblical scholar, was galvanized by this peculiar story and this indecipherable man, and became determined to find the scrolls. He sets out on a quest that takes him to Australia, England, Holland, Germany where he meets Shapira’s still aggrieved descendants and Jerusalem where Shapira is still referred to in the present tense as a “Naughty boy”. He wades into museum storerooms, musty English attics, and even the Jordanian gorge where the scrolls were said to have been found all in a tireless effort to uncover the truth about the scrolls and about Shapira, himself. At once historical drama and modern-day mystery, The Lost Book of Moses explores the nineteenth-century disappearance of Shapira’s scrolls and Tigay's globetrotting hunt for the ancient manuscript. As it follows Tigay’s trail to the truth, the book brings to light a flamboyant, romantic, devious, and ultimately tragic personality in a story that vibrates with the suspense of a classic detective tale.

YOU will find between these covers all the ecclesiastical writings of early Christian authorities that are known to exist, and yet were omitted from the authorized New Testament. They are published here as a matter of record. Whether they are canonical or not, at least these writings are of very great antiquity. Origins are noted in paragraphs at the front of each book. This will enable the reader to form his own conclusions as to the genuineness of the writings. These writings are a vivid picture of the minds of men in the post-Apostolic period of the Church. Discount the statements from the historical viewpoint as you will-there remains in these gospels and epistles an earnestness of purpose, and zeal to express a message, similar to that of our authorized Bible. An interesting question naturally arises as to why these writings were cast out in the selection of the material that has come down to us in the authorized version. The compilation of the Bible was not an act of any definite occurrence. It was a matter complicated and abstruse. It was an evolution at the hands of Churchmen of various beliefs and purposes. In the formulation of early church doctrines there was dissension, personal jealousy, intolerance, persecution, bigotry. That out of this welter should have arisen the Bible, with its fine inspiration, would seem to present a plausible basis for belief in its Divine origin. But who can deny that under such vicious and human circumstances much writing of as pure purpose and as profound sincerity as other that is included in the authorized Bible, must have been omitted? The story of the first council of Nice, when Arius was commanded by the Bishop of Alexandria to quit his beliefs or be declared a heretic, and his writings were ordered destroyed, is eloquent of many things that happened. Good men were engaged on both sides of the ecclesiastical controversies.

Although the 19 books contained within this text were included in the Holy Bible for thousands of years, they were removed a little over 200 years ago. Its now time to reclaim these treasured scriptures and get further insight into God's word. This book contains: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Susanna, Additions to Esther, The Book of Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, The Epistle of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Mary. It also includes the ancient Hebrew alphabet with common Hebrew words as a study source.

Ancient scriptures, hidden from the world for centuries, have recently attracted unprecedented popular attention. Some were found among the ancient library of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Others include assorted mystical writings known as Kabbalah, and a host of books that never made it into the Bible, called Apocrypha (which means "hidden") and the Pseudepigrapha (called "false writings" by those who suppressed them). Additionally, there are the Gnostic texts of Nag Hammadi -- a location in Egypt where a treasure trove of lost books was discovered in the middle of the twentieth century. Collectively, they comprise the "Lost Bible." For centuries, these manuscripts were systematically suppressed because their liberating messages of individual power and worth challenged the authority and pet philosophies of political and religious leaders.

*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts *Includes a bibliography and online resources for further reading The Bible is the most famous book in the world, read by a countless number of Christians and others over the centuries. Even those who aren't Christian or remotely religious can rattle off Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the first four gospels of the New Testament, and books like Genesis and Exodus include some of the most famous stories in human history. The study of the apocryphal gospels, documents about the life or sayings of Jesus that did not become part of the New Testament, is a popular discipline among scholars that now fills several shelves of any respectable library. Despite the growing secularization of society, there seems to be an appetite for the historical figure of Jesus. However, fewer readers consider the question of whether the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, is "complete," and whether in antiquity there were other books besides Genesis, the Exodus or Judges, with different histories and unknown characters, that were excluded from the canon and got lost in the sands of time. Most readers assume that the great saga of Israel, beginning with the pastoral stories of the patriarchs, the epic of the Exodus, and the conquest of the Promised Land, until the court of King David, is a compact, complete and unique story. In its current form, it seems to start from the beginning, and as such it was accepted by all in antiquity, but did someone in ancient Israel write other renditions? Recent archaeological and textual discoveries have revealed that literary production among the people of Israel before the life of Jesus was much more extensive and varied than previously supposed. The earliest Christian and Jewish exegetes were aware of some texts whose status was imprecise. Did the books of Tobit, Maccabees and Judith belong to Israel's sacred scriptures or not? What happened to certain books that are mentioned in the Bible but have not been found, such as stories about the court of King David, the Annals of Solomon, a Book of Jasher, and prominently the Book of Wars of the Lord? There is another group of books that arouses special interest, including an extensive collection of Jewish and Jewish-Hellenistic writings that are available (some in fragmentary state) but for some reason were excluded from the Old Testament. Some have been recovered or unearthed over the last 2,000 years, while others remained under the custody of secret or heretical libraries. Among them are the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees the Apocalypse of Moses, and many others. In spite of not having been admitted into the canon, many of their doctrines permeated in the popular culture even in antiquity, including among the first Christians. The rebellion of the evil angels led by Satan, the punishment for sinners in the valley of the dead, the concept of a Messiah who would die for his people, and the belief in the resurrection of the martyrs with the literal restitution of their mutilated bodies are ideas that arose in apocryphal books of the Old Testament. These beliefs are not found in the Hebrew Bible. That the Old Testament was not a finished product at the time of the Second Temple (500 BCE-70 CE) and that there were more books in circulation can be established considering that Jewish apocryphal literature is quoted in the New Testament. The Epistle of Jude mentions a fight between the devil and an archangel for the soul of Moses, an episode not found in the Pentateuch. The author of that epistle is quoting from Enoch, an apocryphal Book of the Old Testament, or possibly from the Ascension of Moses, which the author of Judas considered as authoritative. The apostle Paul quotes twice from the apocryphal book known as the Life of Adam and Eve in his second letter to the Corinthians, and the Gospel of Matthew quotes a written prophecy that is undiscovered to this day.