Subject: So when did "evil" start? |
Bible Note: Clarification ................................... Dear LisaMarie, I recommended that you do a search on this topic. Obviously, you did not do that. If you had, you would have found the following posts (among many others) which are clearly speaking about the exact same books that you are talking about. For your convienence, I'll just quote several of my distinguished colleagues on this subject. 1. "Fortunately, there aren't any lost books of the Bible. There are apocryphal and pseudepigraphal which were excluded from the Old and New Testament canons. There are also gnostic writings found at Qumran. However, there isn't any historical evidence that any of these three classes of writings belonged in the Bible. Now, there are some that think some of these belong, but it is pure speculation. For instance, many liberal scholars love the Gospel of Thomas because of its New Age style theology. If you want to read some of these various kinds of texts, you can go to: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/(tilde)humm/Resources/Texts/index.html Note: put a 'tilde' where you see the (tilde) in the adress above. These are interesting historical texts to read, but please remember that they are not Scripture. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran" 2. "There are several "lost" books; the "Gospel of Thomas" is probably the most infamous. There is also a "Gospel of Peter", a "Gospel of Mary [Magdalen]", "Pistis Sophia", and a few others. There is also a hypothetical Gospel named "Q" which is not known to exist in any form. Copies of many of these were found in Egypt at Nag Hammadi in 1945. Liberal theologians are making a lot of noise about the "discovery" of these "lost" books despite that fact that most of them have been known and their authenticity and claims refuted for more than 100 years. The reason these books were "lost", of course, is that they espoused heretical views - mostly gnosticism - that the early church firmly rejected. They are now presented as equivalent or even superior to the NT, revealing "alternate Christianities". The appeal is obvious: if you don't want to be accountable to a Jesus who sits in judgment, just hang out with one who learned his stuff in India. If you are prepared to believe that Jesus was a Buddha (please say you're not!), you may enjoy them. I recommend "Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way" by Philip Jenkins (Oxford University Press, 2001). Hope you find this helpful. stjones" 3. "Hi and Welcome to the forum! From time to time there are have been those that pop up and say they have found a lost book of the Bible. However God in His faithfulness has completed and preserved the Bible through centuries without fail. Or in other words there is no lost book of the Bible. Those that have claimed to be are the Gospel of Thomas, Book of Enoch, Book of Jasher, Book of Isaiah II, and at one time or another most of the books of the apocrypha. However after close examination all have been found to fail to meet the requirements of the Cannon of the Bible. And many have been declared actual frauds. As I said the Bible is complete. Hope this helps. EdB" |