66 Missing Books

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Currently there are over 3,142 Bible Versions: There are currently over 3,142 versions, in over 2,073 languages, available digitally, of which 1,768 are available audibly. There are also versions in nearly 2,033 languages. A great majority have excluded the “Apocrypha”, which has the canonical 66 books of the Holy Bible.

Why are 66 books missing books from the Bible

How did the Bible come together?

There are three different concerns when this question is asked. From a Roman Catholic perspective, there are seven books which those of a Protestant persuasion do not consider to be inspired, so these books are “missing” from their Bible. From an Latter Day Saints’ perspective, the entire Book of Mormon is “missing.” Others will point to the “lost books of the Bible” as being removed from the canon during the first couple hundred years after The Messiah. So, are there books missing from the 66 books of your Bible?

To answer that question, it is helpful to understand how the Bible came to be. It is common in our day to picture a group of men in the 4^th century with a deeply ingrained political agenda filtering through a large number of possible Scripture books and declaring them Scripture. As if some were saying, “we like the letter to the Hebrews so we will call that Scripture, we like Paul, but we aren’t big fans of the Shepherd of Hermas or the Gospel of Thomas. The Revelation of John fits our agenda but the Apocalypse of Peter does not, so we’ll cancel that one.”

In this narrative reconstruction it’s as if this group of men all voted and landed on the 27 books we now consider the New Testament. But that’s not exactly how it went down. Focusing on the New Testament here because if you can establish these as canon, then the Old Testament should not be difficult. The Messiah and the apostles declared these 39 books to be the Jewish Scriptures, so we affirm the same. We know that The Messiah held these 39 books because of what he said in Luke 24:44; 

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’”

Moses, Prophets, Psalms is the typical threefold Jewish division of the Scriptures (Law, Prophets, and Writings). This being the accepted Jewish canon has not the subject of much debate. The New Testament, however, is a different story.

This list may not be complete.