Banned from the Bible
This article deals with the ancient books that have been prohibited from becoming part of Bible canon. The scholarly term for this is 'Apocrypha'.
By 150 AC (After Christ), there were hundreds of texts in existence, some of which were in contradiction with each other. By the 4th Century, Constantine I, in an attempt to re-establish one empire with a unifying religion to back it up, felt that there should be a consensus as to what books should be the basis for this religion.
Was Jesus Considered as God?
At the time, there were two opposing camps of Christian thought, both centered in Alexandria. Arius felt that Jesus was a supreme human, but no God. Opposing him was Athanasius, who felt that Jesus was both man and God. In 325, Constantine I convened the First Council of Nicaea and decreed that only one creed should emerge from the council. Once settled, the Nicene Creed banned Arias and his fellow Arians as heretics and the need for a common scripture became more pronounced.
The Early Christian History
Bishop Eusebius, a scholar of early Christian writings found at Caesarea and Jerusalem, an attendee of the First Council of Nicaea, published a comprehensive history of the Christian Church. In this history, he also critiqued many books and writings circulating in the Christian communities at the time in an attempt to form some sort of common library. The books he reviewed were broken down into three categories:
By 150 AC (After Christ), there were hundreds of texts in existence, some of which were in contradiction with each other. By the 4th Century, Constantine I, in an attempt to re-establish one empire with a unifying religion to back it up, felt that there should be a consensus as to what books should be the basis for this religion.
Was Jesus Considered as God?
At the time, there were two opposing camps of Christian thought, both centered in Alexandria. Arius felt that Jesus was a supreme human, but no God. Opposing him was Athanasius, who felt that Jesus was both man and God. In 325, Constantine I convened the First Council of Nicaea and decreed that only one creed should emerge from the council. Once settled, the Nicene Creed banned Arias and his fellow Arians as heretics and the need for a common scripture became more pronounced.
The Early Christian History
Bishop Eusebius, a scholar of early Christian writings found at Caesarea and Jerusalem, an attendee of the First Council of Nicaea, published a comprehensive history of the Christian Church. In this history, he also critiqued many books and writings circulating in the Christian communities at the time in an attempt to form some sort of common library. The books he reviewed were broken down into three categories:
a) accepted (the four gospels, the Book of Acts, and the Pauline epistles),
b) highly likely (First John, First Peter), and
c) questionable (Second John, Third John, Second Peter, Gospel of James, Epistle of Jude, the Book of Revelations, and others).
He was all too aware of other church leaders views concerning Revelations with its imagery of war being at variance with Christ’s message of love and peace. He finally came down to 18 books that he believed should become official Christian scripture.
Six years after Nicaea (331 AC), Constantine commissioned Eusebius to create an official Christian Bible. 50 copies were made at state expense to be put in churches Constantine had planned to build throughout his capital at Constantinople. Eusebius included all 18 books he had referred to in his earlier work. As opposed to Marcion, he felt that the Jewish writings should also be included and lumped them together into the Old Testament. Unfortunately, none of those 50 copies are in existence today. The closest we have are two 4th century codices: Codex Vaticanus (found in the Vatican Library) and Codex Sinaiticus (taken from St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai and placed in the British Museum). Both codices differ from what is on Eusebius’s list (i.e. Sinaiticus has included the The Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas).
Forty years later, a final list of 27 New Testament books was canonized by the Christian Church. This official list excluded many popular books either because they were written too late or they weren’t felt to have been orthodox. The following are some of them.
The Book of Adam and Eve
This book is a background story of Genesis 3 (Adam and Eve). In this book, Satan in human form accompanies the serpent when tempting Eve. Not only that, but Eve is tempted twice in this book. The first is the familiar one found in Genesis. The other takes place much later after the banishment from Eden when Adam feels that the two must do penance for their sin by standing in separate rivers (Jordan for Adam, Tigris for Eve) for 40 days. After 18 days, Satan approaches Eve in the deceptive form of a divine angel, tells her she is forgiven, and successfully tempts her for a second time to disobey a command by leaving the river.
Six years after Nicaea (331 AC), Constantine commissioned Eusebius to create an official Christian Bible. 50 copies were made at state expense to be put in churches Constantine had planned to build throughout his capital at Constantinople. Eusebius included all 18 books he had referred to in his earlier work. As opposed to Marcion, he felt that the Jewish writings should also be included and lumped them together into the Old Testament. Unfortunately, none of those 50 copies are in existence today. The closest we have are two 4th century codices: Codex Vaticanus (found in the Vatican Library) and Codex Sinaiticus (taken from St. Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai and placed in the British Museum). Both codices differ from what is on Eusebius’s list (i.e. Sinaiticus has included the The Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas).
Forty years later, a final list of 27 New Testament books was canonized by the Christian Church. This official list excluded many popular books either because they were written too late or they weren’t felt to have been orthodox. The following are some of them.
The Book of Adam and Eve
This book is a background story of Genesis 3 (Adam and Eve). In this book, Satan in human form accompanies the serpent when tempting Eve. Not only that, but Eve is tempted twice in this book. The first is the familiar one found in Genesis. The other takes place much later after the banishment from Eden when Adam feels that the two must do penance for their sin by standing in separate rivers (Jordan for Adam, Tigris for Eve) for 40 days. After 18 days, Satan approaches Eve in the deceptive form of a divine angel, tells her she is forgiven, and successfully tempts her for a second time to disobey a command by leaving the river.
The book also alleges that God made all his angels bow down to his greatest creation, Adam. Satan refused to bow to someone who is inferior to him and made later. He rebelled and built an altar in Heaven higher than God's. Enraged, God had him banished to Hell.
That last story is similar to that in Qur'an. In it, Adam was made of clay and Jinn are made from smokeless fire. As above, all the angels were ordered by God to bow down before Adam, His greatest creation. All the angels obeyed, and all the Jinns except Satan obeyed. Jinns or genies are supposed to have free will and so they can disobey God.
Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees (or Little Genesis), was written c. 150 BC. In this book, Adam and Eve have 9 sons and daughters. Awan, their third child, ends up being Cain’s wife. This particular book was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and it is also official canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Book of Enoch
This book fleshes out the story of Enoch, ancestor of Noah. According to this book, not only did these angels lust after earthly women, they also taught mankind certain dark arts including that of weapon making. Ultimately, the head angel Azazel (or Azael) and all his followers are bound in Hell for their misdeeds.
Azazel approaches Enoch in a dream and pleads that he intercede for him and his followers with God for clemency. While in Heaven, Enoch is given a grand tour by the angel Uriel and is given extensive knowledge about the positions of stars and planets in the sky -- astrology.
James Bruce discovered it in the late 18th century at Axum, Ethiopia to be amongst Ethiopian Orthodox Christian scripture. The hypothesis is that this book made its way there with the Queen of Sheba as the book contains a story about her visit with Solomon and the fact that she bore one of his children, Menelik I the first Ethiopian king. Like Jubilees, this book was also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Thomas, deals extensively with Jesus’ youth. One of the stories in this book tells of Jesus making some clay birds and then bringing them to life on the Sabbath. The book also shows that Jesus had a malevolent side. In one story, he pushed a playmate off a roof then brought him back to life; in another, he blinded one of his father Joseph’s customers for being critical of his work.
As the story progresses, Jesus slowly evolves from a five year old “divine brat” who used his wisdom to put down people to a more loving 8-year-old who used his powers to help others. In another story, he helped his father Joseph out after he had cut some wood to the wrong length by miraculously lengthening a number of boards to the correct dimension.
It has some sections which have similar stories to those into the Quran.
Proto-Gospel of James
Protoevangelian of James delves into the life of Mary, mother of Jesus. The book begins with Mary’s parents, Joachin and Anna. After having given up on having a child due to Anna being barren, Anna suddenly conceives.
The Gnostic Scriptures of Nag Hammadi
Found in a jar in a cave by a peasant while searching the hills near Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945, the Nag Hammadi library contains 52 texts written by a group of early Christians that were considered heretics by the early church fathers. The Gnostics believed that the physical world was a cosmic mistake created by an evil or lesser god. Salvation comes from an inner knowledge (gnosis) not of the evil creator god but of the transcendent realm of light and truth. People had to wake up the god within.
The Gospel of Mary
One of the texts found at Nag Hammadi, Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a full apostle in this book where she is given special teachings from Jesus.
The Gospel of Nicodemus
Believed to have been written in the 3rd or 4th century due to the testimonies of the early church fathers, this is a story of Jesus’s trial, execution and brief descent into Hell. Hell in this book is a place where everyone is destined to go and Jesus ventures there to free many of the early church patriarchs and martyrs.
The Apocalypse of Peter
This book gives a gruesome detailed account of what Hell is like. It also suggests a way out of Hell for evildoers. If a consensus of heavenly angels decide to beseech the Lord to forgive their sins, they can escape.
The Second Apocalypse of Peter
A Gnostic work that is considered heretical, it describes Jesus’ death where his human body is suffering while his spirit is off to one side observing and laughing.
The Testament of Solomon
The "Testament of Solomon" is an Old Testament pseudepigraphical work, purportedly written by King Solomon, in which Solomon mostly describes particular demons whom he enslaved to help build the temple, the questions he put to them about their deeds and how they could be thwarted, and their answers, which provide a kind of self-help manual against demonic activity. The date of the text is uncertain, perhaps 1st century to 3rd century; regardless, it is certainly the oldest surviving work that is particularly concerned with individual demons.
The Zohar (The Book of Splendor)
The Zohar (Hebrew: זהר "Splendor, radiance") is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. It is a mystical commentary on the 'the five books of Moses', written in medieval Aramaic. It contains a mystical discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, sin, redemption, good and evil, and related topics.
The Zohar is not one book, but a group of book.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira (Alphabetum Siracidis, Othijoth ben Sira) is an anonymous medieval text, attributed to Ben Sira (Sirach), the author of Ecclesiasticus. It is dated to anywhere between AC 700 and 1000. It is a compilation of two lists of proverbs, 22 in Aramaic and 22 in Hebrew, both arranged as alphabetic acrostics.
Joseph and Aseneth
Joseph and Aseneth (alternatively spelled Asaneth) is an ancient apocryphal expansion of the Book of Genesis's account of the patriarch Joseph's marriage to Aseneth. The work is anonymous and its author unknown. The dating is contentious, and it is not even clear whether this is a Jewish or a Christian work (or neither). Most modern scholarship treats it as a Jewish work dating some time from first century BC to the second AC.
The Septuagint
The Septuagint (IPA: /ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt/), or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC in Alexandria. The Septuagint also includes some books not found in the Hebrew Bible.
It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean since Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). Many Protestant Bibles follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional books. Roman Catholics, however, include some of these books in their canon while Eastern Orthodox Churches use all the books of the Septuagint.
Bel and the Dragon
The tale of Bel and the Dragon incorporated as chapter 14 of the extended Book of Daniel was written in Aramaic around the late second century BC and translated into Greek in the Septuagint.
Acts of Peter
One of the earliest of the apocryphal acts of the apostles, the Acts of Peter reports a miracle contest between Simon Magus and the apostle Simon Peter in Rome. The majority of the text has survived only in the Latin translation of the Vercelli manuscript.
Acts of Paul and Thecla
The Acts of Paul and Thecla (Acta Pauli et Theclae) is an apocryphal story of St Paul's influence on a young virgin named Thecla. It is one of the writings of the New Testament Apocrypha. It was probably written in the second century.
Mar Saba letter
The Mar Saba Letter is an epistle attributed to Clement of Alexandria and discovered by Morton Smith in 1958. It contains the only known references to the Secret Gospel of Mark. Scholars Philip Jenkins, Robert M. Price and Scott G. Brown noticed parallels between The Secret Gospel of Mark and a novel by James Hunter published in 1940 entitled The Mystery of Mar Saba.
Secret Gospel of Mark
The Secret Gospel of Mark refers to a non-canonical gospel which is the subject of the Mar Saba letter, a previously unknown letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria which Morton Smith claimed to have found transcribed into the endpapers of a 17th century printed edition of Ignatius. The manuscript and the book where it was found have disappeared; all that remains are photographs made by Professor Smith in 1958 and by other scholars in 1976.
Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel. The document is not claimed to have been written by apostle Judas Iscariot himself, but rather by Gnostic followers of Jesus Christ. It exists in an early fourth century Coptic text, though it has been proposed, but not proven, that the text is a translation of an earlier Greek version. The Gospel of Judas is probably from no earlier than the second century, since it contains theology that is not represented before the second half of the second century, and since its introduction and epilogue assume the reader is familiar with the canonical Gospels. The original Coptic document has been carbon dated to plus or minus 50 years of 280 AC.