- Every great work leaves
some pages on the cutting room floor.
These books just didn't make the cut for the Good Book.
We're counting down
the ten rejected books of the Bible.
Raising a baby is hard.
Raising baby Jesus would have been a whole other story,
specifically the Infancy Gospel.
The New Testament, as we know it today,
only features one story about Jesus as a child,
which shows him at the age of 12
in the Gospel of Luke.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
worked to fill in Jesus' coming of age gaps
with a loose collection of stories
about his childhood and adolescent years.
The book dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century
and was originally written in Greek.
Unfortunately, it was wrongly attributed
to the disciple Thomas and has never been
considered as official scripture.
Today, scholars are beginning to accept this text,
not as a book of scripture but as a historical source
that provides a glimpse into how early Christians
may have pondered what it might have been like
to raise the son of God.
Ever wondered what Adam and Eve got up to
after they hightailed it out of the Garden of Eden?
The Book of Adam and Eve has all the unofficial answers.
Believed to have been first written in Arabic
by an unknown Egyptian writer
a few hundred years after the birth of Christ,
the book tells the story of Adam and Eve's life
in the Cave of Treasures.
The story follows the couple's trials
and temptations as Satan appears
to them after they get booted
from the Garden of Eden,
as well as the births and early childhood
of Cain and Abel and their twin sisters.
The book is considered the equivalent
of historic biblical fan fiction
known as pseudepigrapha,
which carries a bit of stigma.
While it is not included in the Holy Bible,
parts of the text can also be found
in the Jewish Talmud and the Islamic Quran.
Another historic biblical fanfic,
you know, the pseudepigrapha,
is the Book of Enoch,
written one to two centuries
before the birth of Christ.
This book boasts a whopping 108 chapters
spread across five sections
and covers juicy new material
such as the origins of demons
and angel-human hybrids called Nephilim.
Trilogy alert, there are two other books
in the Enoch series,
Secrets of Enoch, AKA the Second Book of Enoch,
and the third Book of Enoch,
AKA the Third Book of Enoch.
As far as scholars are concerned,
absolutely no one believes
the Book of Enoch was written by the same Enoch
we know from the Book of Genesis
as Noah's grandfather.
The unfortunate truth is, the Book of Enoch
was never referred to as scripture
by Jesus or any of the writers of the New Testament.
Book of Enoch? Never heard of her.
[dark music]
Considered lost until a German librarian
in the 17th century rediscovered it,
the Psalms of Solomon is another pseudepigraphal work
that didn't quite make the cut for the Bible.
Originally written in Hebrew around 70 CE,
Psalms of Solomon is made up of 18 songs
that contain hymns, poems, and songs
expressing admonition, instruction,
thanksgiving, lamentation,
and a belief in resurrection and free will.
The Psalms recount the Jewish communities' persecutions
during the 1st century BCE and tries to explain
why God would allow his devout followers
to suffer such acts.
Not exactly a feel good read.
[person sobs, sniffles]
Found among the same thought-to-be-lost manuscripts
as the Psalms of Solomon is the Odes of Solomon.
Talk about an eye-catching original title.
The Odes are a collection of 42 Syriac hymns,
most likely originally written in Greek or Aramaic.
Unlike the Psalms,
the Odes appeared less clearly Jewish
and more identifiably Christian in origin,
and it's believed that they may have been the songs
of newly baptized Christians from the first century.
The songs reference Jesus and the Holy Trinity,
as well as the ideas of virgin birth
and the harrowing of hell.
You might want to slap a parental advisory sticker
on this album as the Odes also contains
some highly questionable
and potentially offensive passages.
The Odes were at one time
considered part of the Christian canon,
but today scholars believe
it may have actually come from a Jewish Christian sect
or heretical or gnostic group.
The Letter of Aristeas was written
in Alexandria, Egypt, around the 2nd century BCE
at a time when the Jewish community
struggled with internal conflict.
The letter gives a contemporary account
of the Hebrew Pentateuch,
which would later become the first five books
of the Bible.
It was written to portray
Judaism favorably to non-Jews
and to encourage the Hellenistic Jews
to strictly observe the laws of Judaism.
The letter itself claims to be written by Aristeas,
a pagan admirer of Judaism,
who held a high position in the court
of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3rd century BCE.
However, the use of specific Alexandrian language
and concern for Jewish subject matter
indicate that it was most likely written
by an Alexandrian Jew pretending to be Aristeas
in order to promote Judaism among his local community.
Ah, the Maccabees,
tale as old as... roughly 161 BCE.
The first, second, and fourth books of the Maccabees
are not fully accepted as canonical scriptures
of the Bible.
The first two books are part
of canonical scripture in Catholicism,
but are rejected in the Protestant church
and the Jewish Torah.
They cover detailed accounts of Judah Maccabee
and his brother's fight to liberate Judea
from foreign domination
and include some of the earliest known
written references to the story of Hanukkah.
Four Maccabees was most likely written
during the reign of Caligula
around 37 to 41 CE
and contains unreliable, historic information
and is only included in the Maccabees series
because it mentions the beginning
of the persecution of Jews
by Antiochus IV of Epiphanes.
No one knows exactly why this book
was excluded from canonical scripture,
but some suspect that the Jews thought
it was written too late,
or possibly that Martin Luther rejected
its positive portrayal of religious freedom.
The Story of Ahikar is
one of the most ancient sources
of human thought in wisdom,
and it was not included in the Bible,
most likely because it contains
no uniformity and detail.
Looks like we might have another
pseudepigraphal fanfic on our hands.
The text was rescued from "The Arabian Nights"
and restored to the biblical apocrypha,
then lost to time.
It was later rediscovered and edited
to include details found on a series
of papyrus fragments
from the Island of Elephantine
dating back to the 5th century BCE.
Much like the tale of Job,
the Story of Ahikar tells of a wise and moral man
whose righteousness is tested by betrayal
and ultimately rewarded by God.
Numerous translations indicate that the story
was popular in antiquity,
and it influenced the development
of Jewish wisdom in literature.
It just didn't quite make the cut for the Bible.
Largely tossed away because its text contradicts
other text in both Christianity and Judaism,
the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
claims to be documentation of the last words
of the 12 Sons of Jacob,
the founders of the 12 Tribes of Israel
as told to each of their sons.
The Testaments are essentially an imitation
of the blessing of Jacob found in Chapter 49 of Genesis,
which outlines the final words of Jacob
to his sons before his death.
Sound a bit derivative?
Each of the 12 essays contains
an autobiography of the patriarch,
an advisory warning against his specific vice,
such as anger and lying,
as well as a prophecy that predicts
the fate of the patriarch's sons.
The Testaments contain lengthy moral exhortations
and specifically contains references to Jesus,
which are rejected by
both Jewish and Christian doctrines.
While Ezra managed to get a spot in the Bible,
not all of his related work did.
The books of Esdras 1 and 2 are associated with Ezra,
who also authored the Old Testament Book of Ezra,
though it's not known if Ezra wrote Esdras 1 and 2.
The Old Testament Book of Ezra
was at one time known as Esdras 1.
And the two rejected books we are referring to here
were known as Esdras 3 and 4.
But now numbers 3 and 4 are known as 1 and 2
and the original number one is known as the Book of Ezra.
It's confusing. We know. Let's move on.
The Book of Esdras 1 was found in a collection of writings
known as the Apochyra, and the Book of Esdras 2
is a pseudepigraphal apocalyptic work.
Much about these texts are unknown,
including their origin, original language,
and date of writing, which is roughly estimated
to have occurred between the 1st and 2nd century CE.
Most churches have rejected these books
from the biblical canon due to their fixation
on certain moral and religious ideas
more than Jewish historical facts.
Who knew that the Bible sent out
so many rejection letters?
Did we miss any almost holy works
of fact or fiction?
Let us know in the comments below.