Book Announcement: The Lost Books of the Bible

Title: The Lost Books of the Bible

Author/translator credited on the cover: R.H. Charles

Author/editor: Joel Fotinos

Date of original publication of most content: 1894

Date of publication of this book: August 18, 2026'

Publisher: St Martin's

Quote: "And Josias held the feast of the passover in Jerusalem..."

Fotinos doesn't add a lot of explanation to this book--or collection of books. It begins with "And Josias held the feast..." What else had come before the feast? You need to know your study Bible, the one with the Apocrypha in it. Most English translations emphasize the difference between the two Hebrew books ascribed to Ezra, and the two apocryphal books written in Greek and ascribed to Esdras, by spelling the names differently; there are 1 and 2 Ezra, and then there are 1 and 2 Esdras. Spanish and some other translations of the Bible emphasize their intended continuity. Ezra and Esdras are the same name. The books may not have been written by the same man, but the author of 1 Esdras wanted people to believe they were. The narrative in 1 Esdras picks up where 2 Ezra leaves off. Before reading The Lost Books of the Bible you need to know the actual Bible well enough to know what a lot of obscure Jewish and Christian writers, between 1500 and 2500 years ago, were adding their words to. 

It looks like fraud to us, and even ancient writers sometimes felt called to condemn anyone who changed their words, but in this period of history it was commonplace for secretaries and students to write in the names of their masters and teachers. Of course beginning writers sometimes selected as masters the books of writers who had been dead for a long time. Their goal was not to produce "original" work but to imitate their masters' work well enough that people would not know which were the master's own works and which were the student's. There is thus no real way of knowing whether the "real" Ezra suddenly switched to writing in Greek, which his Hebrew books don't sound as if he was likely to have done, or whether someone who worked for him felt moved to write the part of his autobiography he never had time to write, or whether--which seems more likely--some random Greek-speaker wrote down some fragments of history as 1 Esdras and the person's own vision as 2 Esdras. 

Historical perspective makes some aspects of these ancient books laugh-out-loud funny today. The author of the outrageous fiction called the Book of Adam and Eve claimed that God had told Adam, repeatedly, that this mortal world would end after 5500 years--500 years after Christ's time, according to the widespread belief that humankind had been created just 4000 years before Abraham's time. A little further along in the history of the early Church, we find Barnabas (was he the same Barnabas who travelled with Paul? Who knows?) explaining that as the world had been made in six days, so it would end in 6000 years. In the tale of Tobit a demon is exorcised, and a woman healed, by a bit of traditional magic involving a dead fish. In the wildly improbable Acts of Peter a talking dog plays a prominent role; we might want to read this "dog" as a priest in a sex cult, so we are specifically told that he is "a dumb animal," though he has a lot to say. 

The Book of the Twelve Patriarchs looks like what some early Christian writers defended as a "pious fiction," in which a Christian writer retells the stories of Jacob and his sons, emphasizing that each of the founders of the tribes of Israel supposedly had a Christian vision just before he died. The Book of Adam and Eve betrays a lack of familiarity with Old Testament history, but may redeem itself by a careful observation of a parent's interactions with a whiny, entitled, manipulative three-year-old, prone to tantrums, and his quiet enabler, his two-year-old sister. Adam and Eve are characterized as that kind of children. The author of this book should only have written a proper novel about an ordinary family...

Nevertheless, each of these books contains enough real religious thought that some people thought it ought to be printed in copies of the Bible. Some of the apocryphal Christian books clearly reflect the beliefs and personalities of real Christians. Barnabas, whoever he was, may have been omitted from the New Testament because he was more anti-Jewish than Paul's colleague could credibly have been. The Bible does not directly oppose abortion, although it existed; some of the apocryphal Christian writers condemn it in harsh and graphic language. The Old Testament never explains why rape seems to have been more severely punished than murder; the apocryphal writer lets Joseph, the son of Jacob who was sexually harassed by his master's wife, explain why sexual violation is not merely a violation of the victim, of the victim's family, or of social order generally, but a sin against Life itself. 

The Gospel of Thomas is particularly interesting to many baby-boomers. According to European and Indian literary tradition, Thomas was the apostle who went to India. He had known Jesus personally; he was the apostle who wanted to examine His scars. Did Jesus say all the things Thomas claims Jesus said, which neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John ever mentioned? Was the author the same Thomas, or was he quoting the same Jesus? We may never know, but we can see clearly that this Thomas has been influenced by much study of both Christian and Buddhist thought. His book appeals to all of us who felt "seduced," to whatever extent, by "New Age" ideas in the 1980s. 

If you feel up to the challenge of spending time in fellowship with these long-ago writers, even though they were imperfect people, some of them bad writers, and some of them probably dishonest people, you may appreciate the work of the late, great Irish scholar R.H. Charles, who was best known for his translations of ancient literature, and his contemporary admirer Joel Fotinos.

This book is recommended only to people who know their Bibles well. To those interested in the history of the early church, however, it may be a real treasure.

Do you already have all of these books? Here is the complete list of the thirty books in this one-volume library:

1. 1 Esdras

2. 2 Esdras

3. Tobit

4. Judith

5. Wisdom of Solomon

6. Sirach

7. Baruch

8. Letter of Jeremy

9. Prayer of Manasseh

10. Additions to Daniel

11. Additions to Esther

12. Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

13. Ascension of Isaiah

14. Apocalypse of Abraham

15. Baruch (Syriac)

16. Book of Adam and Eve

17. Gospel of Tomas

18. Gospel of Peter

19. Infancy Gospel of James

20. Infancy Gospel of Peter

21. Gospel of Nicodemus

22. Gospel of Mary

23. Acts of Paul and Thecla

24. Shepherd of Hermas

25. Didache

26. Epistle of Barnabas

27. Apocalypse of Peter

28. Odes of Solomon

29. Epistle to the Laodiceans

30. Acts of Peter