Within the first 400 years of Christianity there were in existence more than 20 gospels, 15 apocalypses, and nearly 50 other texts about Jesus. In some of these texts Jesus didn't die, he took revenge on his enemies, was not human at all, was not god at all, and was a wise teacher instead of a miracle worker. The Gospel of Thomas, attributed to Doubting Thomas, has been discovered in its entirety and contains what is claimed to be direct quotes from Jesus yet it has been left out of the Bible. The Gospel of Peter, Jesus' favorite disciple, says Jesus was silent on the cross and did not feel any pain for he only appeared to be human yet this Gospel was also left out of the Bible. Only a select few of the written gospels made it into the Bible, only those that told their followers what the early Roman Church wanted their followers to hear.
If you're a Christian why do you worship the scriptures in the Bible and not those that were left out? Do you think the selecting of what books were included and left out from the Bible was divinely guided? Keep in mind that the Bible had a long history of changes before becoming the collection of books that Christians worship today. Entire books have been removed or added during the Bible's history and entire generations of Christians have devoted their faith and lives to earlier versions of the Bible which contained a various different collection of books and teachings. The only became relatively consistent in its current form because of the 15th century invention of the printing press which mass produced copies of the current collection of books.
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The Canonization of the Bible
Canonizing is the process of picking and choosing which scriptures make it into a bible. There are hundreds of scriptures that have claimed to be the inspired word of God or Jesus, all as equally legit as the ones we know today. Many of them told very conflicting messages and various men voted on which ones were to considered "divine" and accepted into the Bible based on personal and political motives. What Christians worship and believe in today was decided by men voting with no holy intervention from a god.
By end of 2nd century signs of efforts in stopping certain texts while promoting others began to emerge. These efforts ranged from letters encouraging others to not read certain texts to bishops charging half way across Europe to stop the circulation of unfavorable texts. The next 300 years would see the emergences and enforcement of an official list of accepted works, a cannon. The Bible we know today did not exist in its current form until 1647 at the Assembly of Westminster, the most recent major Canonizing of the Bible. The most influential canon in the history of Christianity is the one ordered by Constantine during the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. The creeds established during this canonizing of scriptures eventually became the foundation of modern Christian beliefs even though this version of a Christian bible did not lead to the version we have today. With all of the various bibles being canonized and the multiple canonization of our current bible one must wonder what was the selection process of gospels and books based on? Why were Mark, Matthew, and Luke accepted into the cannon but not the writings of Peter, Marry, or Thomas? There were various deciding factors but all of them were based on personal or political motives. Below are a few examples.
Suffering is Needed
In the 3rd and 4th centuries Christians throughout the Roman world including Egypt suffered persecution. Their refusal to worship other gods and their persistence to flaunt their own beliefs created tension and suspicion. Because of this the Romans slaughtered thousands of Christians in brutal and dehumanizing ways so any gospel that didn't speak directly to the suffering of the people wasn't going to catch on. A gospel like Thomas would bring no reinsurance for those facing martyrdom. Writings of a Jesus who simply was a teacher of wise words would not have appealed to the general public unless Jesus suffered like his followers.
Need for Antiquity
The Marcionite scriptures would have done away with all the Old Testament scriptures since they believed Jesus came to do away with Yahweh, the god of the Old Testament. During this time however the people thought antiquity was very important. They thought that religious scriptures had to be ancient in order to be true. Without older scriptures in the Bible the general public would not believe in this new religion.
Non-Elitist
The Gnostic scriptures stated that only a select few insiders could understand the true message of salvation. If any of the main Gnostic texts were selected to be in the Bible then Christianity would have become a closed elitist society and this would not appeal to the general public.
Sexism
Throughout the Roman church the positions of power are filled with men. Women have a role but it is as a mother or wife. The four gospels record that Jesus chose 12 disciples and that they were all men. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John women are barely mentioned but in the suppressed gospels of Philip, Marry, and the acts of Thecla and Paul woman took center stage. Many of the excluded scriptures even suggested that a woman was Jesus' favorite disciple instead of Peter. In a political system where men claim superiority it is obvious why scriptures that place women as equals would not be accepted into a canon.
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Lost Gospels Referred to in the Bible
Some of the scriptural texts that were not chosen to be included in the Bible are still referred to in the Bible Christians worship today. There are at least 18 references in the Bible to scriptural texts that man choses to exclude from the Bible. How can one honestly trust man's decision of what texts are to be deemed "sacred" when those very texts invoke other texts which man discarded as unsacred?
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Book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13, 2 Samuel 1:18)
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Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)
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Book of Samuel the Seer (1 Chronicles 29:29)
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Book of Gad the Seer (1 Chronicles 29:29)
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Book of Nathan the Prophet (1 Chronicles 29:29, 2 Chronicles 9:29)
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Prophecy of Ahijah (2 Chronicles 9:29, 13:22)
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Visions of Iddo the Seer (2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15, 13:22)
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Book of Shemaiah (2 Chronicles 12:15)
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Book of Jehu (2 Chronicles 35:25)
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Sayings of the Seers (2 Chronicles 33:19)
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Lament for Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25)
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Paul's epistle to Corinthians before our "1 Corinthians" (Corinthians 5:9)
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Paul's epistle to Church at Laodicea (Colossians 4:16)
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Once Rejected & Now Accepted
The Bible has been canonized many times throughout history. Here are some books that were once accepted into the Bible then later rejected and vice versa.
Books that were once rejected but are now accepted
Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation
Books that were once accepted but are now rejected
Shepherd of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabas, 1 Clement, 2 Clement, Paul's Epistle to Laodiceans, Apostolic Constitutions
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Changes To Scriptures
Before scriptural texts were declared sacred they were fair game for revision. The texts we know today are not based on original scriptures but rather from copies of copies of copies. All these copies were copied by hand and during the copy process changes were occasionally made. Today we have discovered many copies of the scriptures from different time periods which allows us to literally see when changes were made and exactly how different the scriptures in the Bible are from that of the oldest copies. Familiar stories like
Jesus and the Adulteress and his
ascension to Heaven were both later additions.
The Adulteress
In John 7:53-8:12, one of the best-known biblical stories, the Pharisees present Jesus with an adulteress to see if he will follow the old laws laid out by God and have her stoned or show her mercy. Jesus responds to this test by saying,"Let the one who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her."
As it turns out though, this story was not originally in the Gospel of John or any of the other original Gospels. It is not found in any of the earliest surviving manuscripts, it is not in the two 3rd century papyrus witnesses to John (P66 and P75) nor is it in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus or Codex Vaticanus. The writing style is also very different from what is found in the rest of John and includes a large number of words and phrases that are alien to the gospel. The story was actually added and snuck into the Bible some time during the late 4th century or early 5th century to make Jesus and the Bible appear more appealing.
Ascension to Heaven
The ascension of Jesus up to Heaven does not actually appear in the original forms of any of the gospels. It was not until 200 years after the supposed event took place that the ascension was added to later copies of Mark and Luke. Mark originally ends with the discovery of an empty tomb. Mathew and John remain to have no mention of the ascension into heaven.
Mark 16:9-20 where Jesus ascends bodily to heaven is not in the earlier scriptures but rather was added later. None of the earliest scriptures that we have such as the Alexandrian Unical Mss, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus have versus 9-20, they all just end at 16:8. Also early Christian writers noted that the ascension was not in the earliest manuscripts. Jerome and Eusebius both state that the best manuscripts available to them did not contain the extended ending. Also there are significant linguistic and stylistic differences between 9-20 and the rest of Mark. As noted on page 103 of "An Introduction to the New Testament" by new testament scholar Douglas J. Moo, the longer ending also contains several non-Markan words and expressions.
The only "defense" that Apologists have to offer is claiming that these added passages were probably in the very very original scriptures but early scribes must have forgot to include this (rather important) story during the copy processes. Apologists then go on to claim that much later scribes were reminded by God of the supposed 'missing ending' and that is why it was added in later scriptures. Not only is this claim unsupported and completely made up it also ignores the issue about the linguistic and stylistic differences. Besides, why would God wait so long before "correcting" the copies of scriptures, was he on holiday for a few centuries?
More Verses Not Found In Earlier Scriptures
John 5:4 - "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
John 5:7 - "The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me."
John 8:7 - "So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
John 8:11 - "She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
Luke 24:12 - "Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass."
Luke 22:20 - "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you."
Luke 22:44 - "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Luke 24:51 - "And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven."
Mark 16:9-20 - "When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."
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