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The Lost Books of the Bible

Various (ed. Rutherford H. Platt Jr.) · tr. William Hone, Jeremiah Jones, William Wake and others · 1926 · 142,513 words

The early Christian apocrypha in the classic Hone edition: the Protevangelion, the infancy gospels, Nicodemus, the letters of Christ and Abgarus, Paul and Seneca, Paul and Thecla, Clement, Barnabas, Ignatius, Polycarp and the Shepherd of Hermas.

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Opening

Introduction to the Lost Books of the Bible

By DR. FRANK CRANE

The great things in this world are growths.

This applies to books as well as to institutions.

The Bible is a growth. Many people do not understand that it is not a book written by a single person, but it is a library of several books which were composed by various people in various countries. It is interesting to know how this library grew and upon what principle some books were accepted and some rejected.

Of course we may take people's word for the reasons why certain books were chosen, but it is always satisfactory to come to our own conclusions by examining our own evidence.

This is what this Lost Books of the Bible enables us to do. We can examine the books of the Scriptures which we have in the authorized version, and then in this book we can read those scriptures which have been eliminated by various councils in order to make up our standard Bible.

It is safe to say that a comparison of the accepted books with those rejected may be relied upon, for those books which were accepted are far superior in value to the others.

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Contents

  1. Introduction to the Lost Books of the Bible
  2. The Order of All the Books · Preface
  3. The Lost Books of the Bible
  4. The Protevangelion; or, An Historical Account of the Birth of Christ, and the Perpetual Virgin Mary, his…
  5. The first Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ
  6. Thomas's Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ
  7. The Epistles of Jesus Christ and Abgarus King of Edessa
  8. The Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate (part 1)
  9. The Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate (part 2)
  10. The Apostles’ Creed
  11. The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Laodiceans
  12. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to Seneca, with Seneca's to Paul
  13. The Acts of Paul and Thecla
  14. The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
  15. The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
  16. The General Epistle of Barnabas
  17. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
  18. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians
  19. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians
  20. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans
  21. The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians
  22. The Epistle of Ignatius to the SMYRNÆANS
  23. The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp
  24. The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
  25. The Shepherd of Hermas
  26. The Second Book of Hermas, called his Commands
  27. The Third Book of Hermas, which is called his Similitudes (part 1)
  28. The Third Book of Hermas, which is called his Similitudes (part 2)
  29. Letters of Herod and Pilate
  30. The Lost Gospel according to Peter
  31. Table I
  32. Table II

About this edition

Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive

Public domain: Public domain in the US (1926 reissue of Hone’s 1820 Apocryphal New Testament).

What’s included: The complete book, all the texts with their introductory notes.

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