Thinking about expanding my knowledge base, but don't want to compromise my faith in any way.

Thanks

There are no lost books.  There is a good chance the ones you are talking about do contradiCT the Bible.  One of the reasons  they were rejected.

Book of Enoch is some tasty apocryphal.

I think you mean tasty apocalyptic.

It's also pseudepigrapha. And heterodox.

I would recommend reading a survey of the Second Temple period first.

I have this one and enjoyed it.

If you think reading a book might compromise your faith, it probably will.

But, you might want to do some soul searching about why you believe what you do, if you fear your faith is that weak.

While I would agree with much of what some have stated, you have to wonder why or who decided what authors and books to include in the Bible.

I always remind myself that Man decided what to include, and the fact that we now see organized religion taking liberties with the interpret, like how the Catholics, aka the Pope, seem to change the rules as time goes along.

OP ask a legit question. I have listened to Coast to Coast on some of those lost books, like the ones about Jesus during his teen years and leading up to his preaching. Some things were things that made you wonder, but I always found myself not buying into it. Mainly I feel those producing these documents possibly have ulterior motives.

The books you know could be verified by one means or another.
The "lost" books can't be verified to their source.

What about the Epistle to the Hebrews? Anonymous works are okay.

The bigger problem with these other works is the claim to be written by someone else, hence the term pseudepigrapha.

They are ok to read, but don't believe them as absolute truth. They are not the true Word of God.

I get what you're saying; I'm referring more to skewing what I've learned and thought of my whole life.

For example, I've just read that Joseph, Mary's husband, was much older than Mary and even a widow with children.  This can be found in The Protevangilion.

Thats the the type of stuff I'm talking about... 

You must be referring to a different Protovangilion that with which I'm familiar - I assume you aren't talking about Genesis?

Joseph has long been understood as much older than Mary, with their relationship more akin to father and daughter, indicated by his marrying her to protect her from disgrace due to her pregnancy - hence her perpetual virginity. I guess nowadays the cool thing would be to assume he must have been gay. But, much older and protective is the old school portrayal.





So, it's reasonable to assume a straight older male would have been married once beforehand. After all, there isn't anything in Church tradition about the "ever-virgin" Joseph.

There are significant variations of the 'Garden of Eden' story and other events.  It can be good to study the history of how the Bible came to be what it is.

I thought you were refering to the lost gospels, like the Gospel of Thomas, etc. Eithercway, they are interesting, if not quite metaphysical, and clearly why they were rejected.

The broad answer is that there were 6 criteria used to determine what was legit scripture and what wasn't.  They were:1. Written by a recognized prophet or apostle, 2. Written by those associated with recognized prophet or apostle, 3. Truthfulness, 4. Faithfulness to previously accepted canonical writings, 5. Confirmed by Christ, prophet, apostle, 6. Church Usage and Recognition

Bruce Ware, who is a solid guy, has an article that fleshes this out Here

The Council of Carthage in 397 is where the church recognized the Scriptures - but that was kind of like Columbus "discovering" the americas.  He just found something that has been around forever.  Lists of writing used in church services and considered authoritative Scriptures go back to mid first century and are, in most cases, identical to what is in your Bible today.


The books that usually get discussed on Coast to Coast and the History channel are commonly referred to the Gnostic Gospels.  They were a cult that tried to co-opt Christianity.  They wrote books like the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, the Acts of Paul and Thekla, and things like that.  They were written in the 3rd century and attributed to Biblical writers to try to legitimize them.  But they are all patently false.  They are like the Davinci Code of their day.

Writings like that tend to come from a relatively late period of history, and their authorship tends to be disputed for very legit reasons.  That makes their historicity very suspect.  Read them if you want, just don't forget what you're reading.

there are no lost books, the bible says -God reveals what he will to man and that he doesn't wish to reveal stays hidden.. God can not make mistake.

The Bible leaves the possibilities. St John last chapter last verse, look it up

"There are no lost  books"


Book of the Covenant  Ex 24:7
Book of the wars of the Lord Num21:14
Book of Jasher Joshua 10:13
Book of the acts of Soloman 1 Kings 11:41

There are several more listed in 2 Chron.

So are you wrong or the Bible??

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