Lost Books of the Bible, PT. 1

[Guest guest]

James Bean

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Spiritual Awakening Quotes:

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THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, PART ONE

 

By James Bean

 

copywrite March, 1997 Maine Well-Being Press

 

(Spoken recently by James Bean on his radio program called 'Spiritual

Awakening,' which features spiritual book reviews and readings from the

writings of many mystics, saints and world scriptures of the East and

West.)

 

Voicing the suspicions of many,

a teacher once said, " Transmigration

is another word for

reincarnation. It is a very

Eastern term. You don't hear it

that often in the Bible, because

the Bible is not complete, as all

of you know. It has

" transmigrated " for 2,000 years or

some time, so some things may be

missing there. The true Bible is

locked up somewhere and we are

never allowed to see it. But

some of the newly-dug books from

ancient sites -- the Bible in

some part has come out, and some

of it mentions reincarnation. "

 

Based on my exploration of the

lost books of the Bible, I find

those sentiments to be fairly

accurate. During the last 200

years many ancient Jewish and

Christian documents have been

rediscovered in the Middle East.

And, I should mention that some

Christians have been curious

about apocryphal scriptures and

have preserved some of these

" other books " for

2,000 years. Many other

interesting collections of

psalms, letters (epistles),

gospels and revelations have

survived the centuries, even

though only a small number of

open-minded seekers have valued

their spiritual wisdom.

 

I want to share with you my

encounter with the books of the

other Bible. I want to impart to

you information about books of

mystical poetry, discourses on

gaining enlightenment and other

amazing documents which might be

very helpful to you on your

spiritual journey. It's time

that this knowledge is revealed

so anyone can know how to find

the lost or hidden books of the

Bible, the 'other bible!'

 

PROTESTANTS REMOVED THE APOCRYPHA

 

A long time ago when I was

involved in making a major study

of the Bible (the Hebrew

Scriptures and the Greek New

Testament), I noticed that

Catholic Bibles contain several

additional books that aren't in

the Protestant Bible. These

books are called " the Apocrypha "

in the Protestant tradition.

Although the original King James

Version of 1611 AD did contain

these books, it seems that

Protestant Bible societies took

them out of the Bible a couple

hundred years ago to make

smaller, cheaper Bibles

available to the masses. Today

most Protestants think of these

disputed books as " Catholic "

but, the truth of the matter is

the books of " the Apocrypha " for

millennia have also

traditionally been included in

the old Bibles of the Greek

Orthodox, Syrian, Russian,

Armenian, Egyptian and in the

bibles of the other

ancient churches.

Translations of most of these

books were also found amongst

the Dead Sea Scrolls. The

original Greek translation of

the Old Testament made in

Alexandria around 200 BC also

included these other books --

books that have now vanished

from the Protestant Bibles in

the US!

 

From my perspective, the two

most interesting books of " the

Apocrypha " are The Wisdom of

Solomon and The Wisdom of Sirach

-- two very large collections of

proverbs and wise sayings very

comparable to the Tao Te Ching

by Lao Tzu.

 

Many people think that the Bible

as we know it was put together

by Jesus and the apostles during

the 1st century AD but, that's

definitely not so! For a longer

period of time than the US has

been a country -- for centuries

-- the early Church had no such

concept as a closed canon of

scripture, a collection of books

that they viewed as the " final, "

" complete, " or " only " revelation

concerning spiritual matters. Rather,

Christians during that creative

period felt free to compose new

scriptures, psalms, odes,

proverbs, letters that they felt

were inspired, and other

documents of a spiritual nature.

This was during the early years

when Christianity had living

apostles and saints, and

Christianity was a much more

supernatural religion; a mystery

religion that put a great deal

of emphasis on experiencing the

" Kingdom of God, " or the spiritual

realm.

 

RIGGING THE CURRICULUM

 

Christianity, like other

religions, underwent the process

of " mainstreaming " -- settling

down or crystallizing -- into a

standardized, organized faith.

The mainstream churches were

taught to believe that " the age of

the apostles and prophets was

now past. " So, since masters and

saints (who acted as oracles of

the Divine) were no longer being

recognized by the masses, some

people started to look to past

masters and writings for guidance.

Christianity entered the stage

where the Book became the

master, the Book became the

guru. The state church of the Emperor

Constantine created a fixed list

of books which would serve for

all time as the rule of faith.

They also made lists of books

that were to be weeded out of

circulation, no longer to be

considered as scripture. This

process of canonization and

censorship, for the most part,

happened during the fourth

century. It was during this time

that most of the " other books "

lost their status as scripture,

and the other forms of Christianity

that used them were branded as " heretics. "

Only a small number of books

made it into the this Fourth

Century Orthodox Bible and sadly, many

important mystical books were

left out.

 

THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, PART ONE///

 

Parts Two and Three will feature some

examples of deleted scriptures of

early Christian movements in the

Middle east.

 

" For there is hidden that won't become

exposed, and nothing buried that

won't be raised. "

(Jesus, Greek Gospel of Thomas, Saying 5)

 

James

 

 

 

 

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