http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html
Above URL is to the DIDACHE, it is one of the oldest Christian writing.
It was not included in the Bible because it says "If a prophet asks for money, he is a false prophet".
It was not included in the Bible because it says "If a prophet asks for money, he is a false prophet".
Actually it says more than that. The Third Part of the Didache speaks first of teachers or doctors (didaskaloi) in general. These are to be received if they teach the above doctrine (Parts 1 and 2); and if they add the justice and knowledge of the Lord they are to be received as the Lord. Every Apostle is to be received as the Lord, and he may stay one day or two, but if he stay three, he is a false prophet. On leaving he shall take nothing with him but bread. If he ask for money, he is a false prophet. Similarly with the order of prophets: to judge them when they speak in the spirit is the unpardonable sin; but they must be known by their morals. If they seek gain, they are to be rejected.
DIDACHE .
That is not the reason for not including these books in the Canon. In his "Epistola Festalis" (A.D. 367) the illustrious Bishop of Alexandria ranks all of Origen's New Testament Antilegomena, which are identical with the deuteros, boldly inside the Canon, without noticing any of the scruples about them. Thenceforward they were formally and firmly fixed in the Alexandrian Canon. And it is significant of the general trend of ecclesiastical authority that not only were works which formerly enjoyed high standing at broad-minded Alexandria--the Apocalypse of Peter and the Acts of Paul--involved by Athanasius with the apocrypha, but even some that Origen had regarded as inspired--Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache--were shut out under the same title.
"If a prophet asks for money, he is a false prophet".
Hey! That's my favorite part!