Apocalypse of James: Lost original Greek text of banned Bible book found at Oxford University

News.com AU ^ | December 2, 2017 | Jamie Seidel

[Dogbert41]

Jesus often described Himself as The Son of Man. Those who read the Book of Enoch where familiar with the term and looked.

[Just mythoughts]

Christ declared, before one jot or tittle of the ‘so called’ New Testament was ever placed on plant fibers or animal skins, Mark 13:23 But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

Anything Written called the New Testament would by necessity have already been ‘foretold’... Some call it the Old Testament.

Moses and John both warn about those who would add to or take away from the WORD ...

Deuteronomy 4:2King James Version (KJV)

2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

[Don W]

In 1827 the Church of England dropped the following books from the KJV. American publishers shortly followed suit.

Esdras I
Esdras II
Tobit
Judith
The rest of the Book of Esther
The Wisdom of Solomon
The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach
Baruch
Jeremy
Azariah
The History of Susanna
The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon
The Prayer of Manasses
Maccabees I
Maccabees II

[sparklite2]

I did not know that. Thanks.

[TBP]

It would be interesting to compile these in one place.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

Oh yeah... it’s that time of the year again.

[sparklite2]

The 2006 translation of the Gospel of Judas was interesting.

“However, it is argued that a closer reading of the existent text, as presented in October 2006, shows Christianity in a new light. According to Elaine Pagels, for instance, Judas is portrayed as having a mission to hand Jesus over to the soldiers. She says that Bible translators have mistranslated the Greek word for “handing over” to “betrayal”.”

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Read them and see why. Most are redundant, irrelevant or ridiculous.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“It is said that in A.D. 325 the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, along with his mother, Helena, edited out sections of the Biblical texts, including the New Testament.

Proof?

[longfellowsmuse]

I wish I knew the passwords...

[aMorePerfectUnion]

In 1827 the Church of England dropped the following books from the KJV. American publishers shortly followed suit.

Good call.

[circlecity]

These Coptic or "Gnostic" gospels are a collection of writings from Egypt found primarily in Nag Hammadi in the 1940's. Although many purport to be from Apostles this sort of pseudonymous authorship was pretty common at the time. They could never have been seriously considered as part of the canon. There is virtually no reference of them or manuscripts prior to the late second or early third century. None of the early church fathers cite them (Although Irenaeus did warn against what he called a forgery going around that purported to be the gospel of Judas.) They are way to late and no have attestation to authorship to be taken seriously.

If any other works had an argument to be part of the canon it would have to be "The epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians" or "The Didache". Both date in the late first century (probably within the lifetime of John) and were widely read in early christian churches. Both are widely attested in the works the early church fathers from at least the early second century. But even these were never accepted as canonical, again, due to uncertainty of authorship and whether the author had a first person relationship with Jesus or an Apostle; which was generally considered an absolute necessity to be considered as scripture. (Paul is considered an apostle in this regard.)

If even these works were never taken seriously as part of the bible then the Gnostic gospels aren't even in the same universe as to be considered. The cannon of the bible was dictated by the holy spirit and sealed by the church. You can trust your bible as inerrant and sufficient.

[Bobalu]

Just do a web search. There has to be info re this out on the web.

[circlecity]

“She says that Bible translators have mistranslated the Greek word for “handing over” to “betrayal”.”
Oh, well that changes everything....right?....doesn’t it?...maybe?....just a little?....nah, never mind.

[bitt]

ping

[circlecity]

"It is said that in A.D. 325 the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, along with his mother, Helena, edited out sections of the Biblical texts, including the New Testament."

Well, then they did a bad job. If they tried they were not successful. We have over 6000 full or partial manuscripts of the NT dating from the late first century and throughout the middle ages. They are quite consistent. God has blessed us with a vast amount of manuscript evidence spanning the ages, from all over the world, and it doesn't change. This is a greater witness to authenticity than a single "original" manuscript because you'd never know if it was for real. The consistent variety of evidence we have confirms that it must have come from a single original. You can trust your bible.

[Lurker]

“They are not in the cannon because they were not inspired and never pretended to be.”

According to whom?

L

[circlecity]

"According to whom?"

The Holy Spirit.

[metmom]

He gives James the passwords necessary to guarantee his entry.

Which shows why it was not considered Scripture.

That is not supported ANYWHERE else in Scripture.

[sparklite2]

Okay. But if it’s not in scripture because it’s not in scripture, that’s pretty circular. As to not being supported by other scripture...

Are the weird things Matthew described at the death of Christ supported by others?

At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. 52The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After Jesus’ resurrection, when they had come out of the tombs, they entered the holy city and appeared to many people.…