Is the Bible complete or is it not?
I wonder what people usually mean that when they claim the Bible is missing some books. I guess it maybe comes from the view point whether the Christian Bible is divinely or humanly inspired. I always found it logically inconsistent on both accounts.
Divinely-inspired
Few critics who say this would also claim that the Bible is God-breathed. Let's for argument's sake assume that the Bible is divinely-inspired (which I believe).
By extension of the argument, then the Bible has a supernatural flavour to it, and thus God has the overall responsibility to protect His word. God does not forget, change his mind or gets confused over right and wrong. Why would God lose His own book if it is under His protection?
Humanly-inspired
However, most who present the 'Lost Books' argument often assume that the Bible is humanly inspired. Fine, let's again for argument's sake assume this is true. In other words, the Bible would be a collection of statements of spiritual beliefs determined by the early church leaders. By that definitation, then don't they have a right to determine what goes in and out of those statements? The fact that the early church leaders suppressed the Gnostic Gospels (such as the Gospel of Thomas) does not diminished Christianity, in fact it strengthens the historical accuracy of the Bible as a reflection of the early Christian beliefs.
In fact the people of Jesus Seminar have not decided rearrange the Bible because of 'Lost Books', but rather, because they believe that the Bible is not divinely-inspired, and that they should choose books based on what they believe to be spiritual truth.
Conclusion
Whether you accept that the Bible is divinely-inspired or not, it makes little sense to speak of the 'Lost Books' of the Bible.
2 comments:
i think that thers no lost book in the bible.
Edina MN Realty
A friend if mine has a bible from the 1800's. It contains entire chapters that no longer appear in more modern printings. I would call that an omission no matter how you look at it just based on the fact that recent bibles all lack what was in older ones.
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