Are scriptures missing from the Bible?

tika

I have heard that the Bible as we know it today is not in it's entirety. I feel that this is deceptive and had people argue that the present day Bible is how God intended us to read it because that is all we need/ it is presented how he wants us to have it. I don't buy that and feel that God wouldn't "hide" any of the holy scriptures as men have done. To me it seems that some man decided what he wanted in the Bible as we know it today. I don't think God had anything to do with it. Any thoughts?

WTWizard

Scriptures? Try whole books! I can think of a few that are missing, and I can Google up even more. I know for a fact that the book of St Thomas is missing. This is because the early Catholic church, once a cult, hand picked the books that would fit its nefarious purpose of controlling all mankind (which it almost did at one time), and discarding everything else. Even the King James version is comprised only of those 66 books, though it might be possible to find the others. Notice that the Book of Mormons is not part of the original Bible.

Even compared to the King James version, the New World Translation has additional intentional alterations to fit nefarious purposes. That version has missing scriptures (notice the dashes) and altered scriptures. Often they change a single letter or punctuation mark to make it mean something totally different and thus fit their agenda. For sure, I would not want to rely solely on a Bible translation that was made by a cult.

Nathan Natas

Missing scriptures include Malachi 5:1,

"Tha-tha-tha-that's all folks!"

and Revelation 22:22,

"And after eight times I awoke. Never again will I partake of gruel made from strangely fermented rye, even if it is the only food served in prison. I mean, WOW, dude! You're not going to believe the dream I had!"

BurnTheShips

Scriptures? Try whole books ! I can think of a few that are missing, and I can Google up even more. I know for a fact that the book of St Thomas is missing. This is because the early Catholic church, once a cult, hand picked the books that would fit its nefarious purpose of controlling all mankind (which it almost did at one time), and discarding everything else. Even the King James version is comprised only of those 66 books, though it might be possible to find the others. Notice that the Book of Mormons is not part of the original Bible.

The Gospel of Thomas is "missing" based on what criterion? There was no universally accepted canon until councils decided what belonged and what didn't at the end of the Fourth Century. Many books circulated among the early churches that are not part of the canon. On my shelf I have the Nag Hammadi collection and there are also the writings of the first leaders after the apostles. Some of these writings are older than some of the canonical NT writings, such as Clement's epistles, the Didache and the aforementioned Gospel of Thomas.

The KJV is composed of 66 books, as are most Protestant Bibles going back to Martin Luther's translations. Martin Luther cut out books on his own authority and theological understanding and it stuck. James got cut in early versions of Luther's translation because it did not accord with Luther's sola fide theology and Revelation was cut too. Both were restored in later Bibles. Catholic and Orthodox canons (these are the ancient ones) contain more books than 66. As I mentioned before, there was no universally accepted list of books comprising holy writ until a general council convened and made the decision about what books made the list and which ones didn't. Maccabees 1 & 2, Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit and other books were among the ones that got cut by ML.

Burn

Burger Time

I believe Leolia and Narkosis (spelling ?) would be the best to comment on this, although I am sure a simple search would show the topic has been covered already.

BurnTheShips

Hi Tika.

Bible is how God intended us to read it because that is all we need/ it is presented how he wants us to have it

Does the Bible, anywhere, say "it is all we need"? Think about it.

Burn

BurnTheShips

Narkosis is sleeping I think.

Frère Jacques, dormez-vous?

erynw

Let's see...

Genesis

Exodus

Hallucinations

Constipations

Leviticus

etc

Yep, all accounted for.

Abandoned

Yeah, there is one:

"The names, places, and ideas contained in this book are fictitious, any similarity between real people, living or dead is purely coincidental." Disclaimeronomy 1:1

Inkie

Unlike many here, I have taken your questions rather seriously; thus, I will answer seriously.

Put simply, the Bible is merely a “collection” of books that were put together by man at various points in time. You can read the history of that in many books and on the internet. In other words, there was never at some point in the distance past a whole and complete book that once existed containing all of the books belonging to it. Men just collected and compiled into one book what we now have and call the Bible. Thus, the Bible has never been an “entirety.”

While many people today do feel that the ‘present-day Bible is how God intended us to read it,’ that is not the case. No where in the Bible have we been directed to read the Bible. In the last chapter of the book of Luke, Christ states quite clearly what scripture is. He states the scripture is: the writings of Moses, the writings of the Prophets, and the Psalms. That being the case, then nothing else in the Bible is scripture. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?

While I tend to agree with you in that God wouldn’t hide any of the holy scriptures from us, after all, he was the one that provided them in the first place, it is men who hide from us what God has given to us. No only have men hidden from us what God has provided to us, but men also have “added” what God has not given to us. So the difficulty is determining what has been removed by man and what has been added by man.

God is described as the ‘giver of every good gift.’ And he is described as one who cannot do wickedness. Knowing these two things just might direct you to the truth of things and know (within yourself) what God has or has not done, even though men say otherwise.

Now, take the writings of Moses, for example. What is contained in the Bible is often said to be the “Books of Moses.” Most people mean that these first five books of the Bible were written “by” Moses. However, after reading them carefully, you might discern that these first five books of the Bible are written “about” Moses. So the expression, the ”Books of Moses,” really means the Books about Moses, not books written by Moses. To the extent that the Books of Moses quote what Moses actually wrote, to that extent those quotations are scripture, but the book quoting him is not. Do you discern the difference? Read carefully starting at the book of Exodus and you tell me whether Moses wrote it or whether someone else wrote it about Moses.

Are scriptures missing from the Bible?

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