The Encyclopedia of Lost and Rejected Scriptures

I'm reviewing the Kindle version of the book. In contrast to a few of the reviews the book does have chapter headings, does have an introduction, does have author's comments and is in a readable font.

The book starts out with a Table of Contents and then an Introduction. The author notes that some of these rejected scriptures may not be a part of the traditional Bible but some of them are actually mentioned by name in the Bible. He gives specific examples of this.

He says that the Pseudoepigrapha are religious books written around 200 BC to 200 AD whose authorship is attributed to another person, usually a saint or a patriarch, but whose real author is unknown.

The Apocrypha are a body of hidden or esoteric work of questionable authorship. Basically, not much difference between the two.

There are some 40 books covered in this text.

I noticed five themes that kept appearing in these books:

1. Books that were based on the "Oh, I'm such a terrible sinner. Woe is me." Writers keep saying this over and over to the point where it gets bothersome. Either the person is faking it or they have an incredibly negative self-image, seeing virtually nothing good about themselves.

2. Writers that are totally obsessed with numbers and names. Over and over you see these long list of names of sons (never daughters!). Also, some of them must think they are reporters, listing (over-inflated, I'm sure) death statistics for battles. In one case the number of enemy killed was over 30 billion according to the writer.

3. Utter boredom. To say something once or twice is all right but when you go on and on and on and basically just repeat yourself (throwing in some different names at times) it makes the reader have a tough time plowing on.

4. Then there's the braggers. 'Gee, we killed x thousands of the enemy. And we killed x thousands more. Look how great we are.' If they were so successful so often then why did Israel basically cease to exist as a country until the 20th century?

5. Some books basically duplicate what is already in the Bible

Out of all of these I found only two that were really neat. One had really good advice written in a plain, simple manner. What spoiled that, though, was the sexist nature of the writer.

The other one is the Gospel of Mary.

The First Book of Adam and Eve

This covers the time period from when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden to shortly after Cain killed Abel. Adam definitely comes across as being rather stupid. And whiny. For example, he's grieving (over and over) and refers to the darkness and how terrible it is and what will happen. Paraphrasing:

Adam: The darkness is terrible. I'm being punished. When will it ever end.

God: Ah, Adam.

Adam: Yes, Lord.

God. That darkness. It's called night time.

Adam and Eve both seem to die over and over (or at least come near dying over and over) only to be brought back to life by God (over and over.) Adam also thinks for a long time that if he has sex with Eve it will be a form of incest.

Oh, yes. Adam sees the sun rise and freaks out (again.)

There are some things that happen in this book that seem to be relating to what will happen to Jesus in the future.

Satan shows up (over and over) and tricks Adam (over and over) with various disguises. Adam never catches on. (He missed the saying fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.)

I can really see what this book didn't make it into the Bible.

The Second Book of Adam and Eve

This one covers the time up to when Enoch was 'taken by God.' Cain at the time is around 17.5 years old and Abel is 15.5 years old when Cain murders him. Eve has another son but before too long Adam and Eve seem to swear off sex and have no more children.

Adam lives for around 930 years. He talks about the coming flood. He is keeping the gold, incense and myrrh in the cave as future presents (the three wise men.) He wants all his children to stay away from the children of Cain.

Satan gives Cain'as people musical instruments and alcohol and it seems all downhill from there. Enoch is writing a book. Various other people die.

First Book of Enoch

This was influenced by the writers of the Bible and was done around the 2nd century B.C.E. It's possible that Eastern oral traditions influenced the writing. The Essenes might have used the book.

There are some specific references to verses in the traditional Bible. One interesting part is a reference to 'watchers' and the 'children of the Earth.' Some people interpret material like this as an inference that aliens somehow interbred with humans in the past. There's also references to 'giants' which is not uncommon in early writings.

There's a portion that references to fiery molten metal, the smell of sulfur and streams of fire throughout the valley which seems to me to describe a volcanic eruption.

The 'Sons of God' came down to Earth and taught about weapons such as the shield and sword. There are references to the movement of the moon and the Earth having a year of 364 days rather than 365. The 364 number is repeated.

The main problem with all three books of Enoch is that large sections are extremely boring. It's like whoever wrote this material did not consider that people should not be bored to death by reading it.

Second Book of Enoch

Enoch lists the various heavens including:

1. Storehouses of dew and snow, etc.
2. Darkness.
3. The Tree of Life, other trees, fruits.
4. The Sun and stars and numerous references to 'gates' through which things move. This is one of hte most boring sections possible.
5. Soldiers.
6. Archangels.
7. Dominions, governments, thrones, etc.
8. The Zodiac
9. Stars (again)
10. God.

Then he talks about Archons and moves on to Genesis. In Genesis these things happened on these days:

Days 1 and 2:. Rock, Earth, sea, 10 troops of angels created.
Day 3: Plants and Paradise created.
Day 4: Stars, sun, moon, Zodiac created.
Day 5: Fish, birds and other animals created.
Day 6. Humans created.
Day 7: Rest.

Reference is made to a coming great flood. The wife of Nir becomes pregnant without having sex with anyone. Noah is nasty to her. She dies giving birth. The child speaks. His name is givn as Melchizdek. Noah makes his ark.

The Third Book of Enoch

There's a major problem with this chapter in this book. Up to this chapter the author has been very careful to put comments in parentheses and italics but, for some reason, in this chapter that wasn't done and at times it makes it somewhat difficult to figure out what is what.

Parts of this are similar to 1 Enoch. Enoch changes to angel Metatron who, for some reason, has 70 names. Or maybe 105. He notes the worst sins which include idolatry, adultry, bloodshed, sorcery and calling God's name in vain.

Then we get into the part of the chapter that goes quite beyond absurd. For some reason the author of 3 Enoch gets into having to number almost everything. X number of this or x times y times z number of that. This goes on and on and on for no practical reason. It's boring as all get out and adds nothing to the book.

Then there's a couple parts which are really, really, really wrong in so many ways. You've got God on his throne and a bunch of angels who are constantly singing Holy, Holy, Holy (or some variation of that.) The writer of Enoch 3 notes twice something to this effect: Whenever the angel servants sing a song at a wrong time or they sing what was not appointed or an angel sings a wrong note then God points a finger at them and blasts them into charred bits. This is actually pointed out twice in this chapter.

THERE IS NO FRICKIN' WAY THAT GOD WOULD DO SOMETHING THAT AWFUL!

What the heck was the author writing this for? It makes God look petty and horrible. That is just wrong on so many levels. Didn't the guy who wrote the chapter bother to read what he had written?

Thank goodness there are only three books of Enoch.

Fragment of the Book of Noah

As you can guess from the title this deals Noah. There is, interestingly enough, another reference to giants. Giants seem to be referred to a lot although the problem is what exactly constituted a giant? Most likely the people of the time were not necessarily really tall (shorter lives, not as much good food, etc.) If someone was, say, six and half to seven feet tall (something not uncommon today, especially in professional basketball) would they have called that person a giant? Or were there giants truly gigantic in size? There's no way to actually know.

The Book of Jubilees aka The Little Genesis aka The Apocalypse of Moses

The book was supposedly written by Moses. The author was probably actually an Essene. The book is also centered on the law. It says Hebrew is the 'heavenly tongue' and that Cain married his sister. The material is told from the viewpoint of an angel.

This book is also very similar to how the Bible reads, much more so than some of the other books of this nature. Genesis is covered and there's mention of sea monsters. Adam, Eve and their sons and daughters are discussed along with what happened between Cain and Abel. A bunch of people being born and getting married is discussed and then it moves on to when Noah was born.

It is also interesting that this is yet another book of this nature that mentions giants.

The Tower of Babel is covered along with the idea that there was to be no marriages to Gentiles. 'This is unclean and abominable to Israel.' Sabbaths and Passover are discussed.

The War Scrolls: The War Betwene the Sons of Darkness and the Sons of Light

There's a short explanation of this work and the author of the book says that the Kittim referred to ancient Rome. This works was written somewhere between 70AD and 135 AD, placing it after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army.

Belial and Assyria are the evil ones. The aim of the Sons of Light is to eliminate every one of the Sons of Darkness. In other words, genocide. The war went on for around 35 years.

It seems that everything used in the war has writings on it including the trumpets, the banners and the shields.

The term 'absolute slaughter' is used in describing the battle. There is a problem with the document in that parts of it are missing.

The Book of Jasher

This is written like a history book starting with the creation of Adam and Eve and going on from there. Cain's death is covered. Adam lives to about 950 years of age. The book takes a lot of space on marriages, births and lots and lots of names of sons. (Notice; names of sons. Not daughters. Sexism is full force.)

The Tower of Babel is discussed including the idea that it was built to attack God.

The destruction of Sodom is covered along with the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son.

One thing that upset me was how many massacres are carried out, the massacres of those who were Gentiles including the killing of women and children. Then there's also the tendency to brag and inflate the numbers of those killed. For example, one war claimed some 400,000 enemy killed in one battle. That's basically around 4 times the number of people killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

What makes it more unbelievable? That no one on the side of the Jewish side died. Not one.

The story of Moses is described. Then it moves on to talk about hte Jews in Egypt, saying they were kept there for 210 years. When they left there was an Egyptian army of one million that went after them.

There's also material on a bunch of people killed because they wanted to eat meat and Jericho being destroyed even though it had not really done anything to deserve that.

It's like the writer thought all the massacres were great things and everyone not on the side of the Jewish slaves was a target.

Apocalyptic Writings

Most of these were written around 80 to 100 A.D.

The Apocalypse of Abraham

This opens with his father making idols of Gods and then Abraham destroying them and asking some very intelligent questions. Then it gets into the discussion of end-times 10 plagues which were:

1. Disease.
2. Destruction of many cities. (How?)
3. Animals become sick.
4. Famine.
5. Earthquakes and swords (wars?).
6. Hail.
7. Animals start killing people.
8. Famine and disease. (Again?)
9. Sword (more warfare.)
10. Thunder and earthquakes. (Again.)

The Apocalypse of Thomas

There are two versions of this one, a long and a short version. They were written around 300 to 500 A.D. It says there will be seven days of 'great signs in heaven.' The sea level will rise and the moon will give no light.

It also talks about the antichrist.

Then the list from this book:

1. A powerful noise in the sky and a cloud of blood.
2. The Earth will be moved out of its plane.
3. A voice in heaven, smoke and brimstone.
4. Earthquakes in the east. All buildings will fall.
5. Total darkness.
6. Good people taken to heaven. More earthquakes.
7. More voices.
8. The Earth is destroyed.

Syria Apocalypse of Baruch

Written around first to second century A.D. God talks about corruption and those who have sinned.

Then this book's list of what will happen:

1. Beginning of commotions.
2. Slayings of the 'great ones.'
3. Many die.
4. Sending of the sword. (War?)
5. Famine, drought.
6. Earthquakes; a lack of food, shelter and clothing.
7. (Not explained.)
8. Attacks of the Shedim.
9. Fire.
10. Rape and oppression.
11. Wickedness and hedonism.
12. Confusion.

Then the Messiah appears along with the behemoth and the leviathan which will be used for food. The dead will come to life.

Then there's another 'brag about this battle' thing. In this war the enemy has 185.000 leaders and each leader has 185,000 soldiers under him. They were all killed.

Now, if you multiply those two numbers then you have some 39.225 billion in the enemies army. The population of the Earth now is maybe According to one article online I saw the estimate for the population of Earth at that time may have been as high as 330 million.

That's million. Not billion. Talk about inflating the numbers. In other words, truth-telling by the writer of this apocalypse writing was virtually non-existent.

Notice also that the descriptions of the end-times in these books do not agree at all.

The 29th Chapter of Acts

Paul goes to Spain. He converts people there and then goes to Britain and does the same thing. He talks about the last days and wars and rumors of wars. He's there three months and then moves on to Gaul.

Pilate commits suicide by jumping during an earthquake.

Gnosticism in General

The roots of Gnosticism can be found in Egypt and Greece. It holds that the Earth is imperfect and cruel. Christianity holds that God created the Earth but Gnosticism holds that a demiurge was the one to create the Earth and basically fouled everything up.

Sophia is the goddess of Wisdom. She created the lesser gods which are called Archons.

Plato is mentioned and the fact that Buddhism seemed to be known in Greece as early as the second century A.D.

The church banned all Gnostic texts around 390 A.D. In 1209 the Pope declared war on the Cathars which ended up an act of genocide.

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

A lot of this already short writing is missing including the first three chapters and chapters 6 and 7.

Matter reduces to its original element (which is true; matter returns to its atomic structure eventually.) There is no such thing as original sin. Each person makes his or her own sin by their actions. Beware people trying to deceive you.

Very important: Jesus said do not add more rules to the ones I have already given you. (This relates to the Tao Te Ching which says the more rules the more criminals.)

The apostles are afraid of trying to teach the Gentiles. Mary says the grace of Jesus will protect them. Then Peter asks Mary to tell them the truths that Jesus had only told her.

Chapter 8 talks about powers and I'm not sure just what those are supposed to be. The 3rd one is ignorance. The 4th power has these forms: darkness, desire, ignorance (again), the 'lust' (?) of death, dominion of the flesh, empty useless wisdom of the flesh and vengeance and wrath.

Andrew and Peter gang up on Mary and accuse her of lying and that Jesus could not have preferred her over them (the men.) Levi defends Mary. "If the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her.?

The Gospel of Philip

To me a lot of this gospel has a strong Zen sense to it.

It notes right and dark, life nad death and right and left are brothers. This is definitely the idea of yin/yang.

It moves on to talk about the bad things the Archons did. It then says Jesus is his secret name and Christ is his revealed name. It makes the charge that God can be considered a cannibal since he demands some human sacrifices.

The three Marys are his mother, his sister and Mary Magdalene. (Mary was a very common name at the time.) Cain was Satan's son. Jesus loved Mary. Four good things to have are faith, hope, love and knowledge.

The Gospel of Judas

The approach of this part is that the whole thing of Judas betraying Jesus was actually something that was prearranged between Jesus and Judas in order, seemingly, to make sure prophecy was fulfilled. Judas is not the author of this gospel.

Three names for bad beings are Yaltabaoth, Saklas and Samael.

The Church hated the Gnostic writings because those hold that people should engage in a personal search for God and they do not need a hierarchy of priests, etc. to do that for them.

The gospel says that Judas was the only one that understood who Jesus really was.

There's a good part of this gospel that, to me at least, doesn't seem to make much sense in general.

History of the Gospel of Thomas

This consists of 114 verses and was written sometime during the first and second century. The Coptic Church was the one that held them. It has an Eastern flavor to it.

It says that the Gnostics believed that the knowledge of God is obtain from a personal encounter and there is no hierarchy between people and God (i.e. no priests, bishops, etc. are needed.)

Jesus came to show that each man or woman is a son or daughter of God just by being.

The Gospel of Thomas

This is a Coptic text. It has a lot of parallels to things in the Bible. The book presents various sections from the Gospel of Thomas and then shows specific sections from the traditional Bible that are worded in a very similar if not almost exact fashion. This includes the vast majority of the 114 verses.

One part discusses circumcision and says if it was really necessary then males would have been born that way.

One version has Peter saying they should get rid of Mary.

The History of Joseph the Carpenter

Jesus is not yet 12. Joseph had been married before and has sons and daughters. Mary has been at the temple and is 12 so it's time to kick her out before she starts her periods. Thus, it's time to find her a husband. (Yes, at 12.)

So the unmarried guys are called in and given a staff each. The order is given that whoever's staff a dove lands on is going to be the lucky husband for a 12-year-old girl. Joseph feels he's too old and doesn't really want to get married again.

Guess who gets the dove? Yep. Joseph.

The Life and Times of Jesus

This starts out with the birth of Mary, talking about her parents and Mary's immaculate conception. This goes into part in another section where Mary lives at the temple, has to leave and ends up being married to Joseph.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Jesus is two and the family goes to Egypt to avoid Herod's massacre of young boys. They live in a widow's house for a bit but get thrown out. They move to Nazareth and then to Bethlehem. Jesus is already doing miracles including making twelve clay birds and then bringing them to life.

Jesus gets mad at another kid and kills him. Then later a kid hits Jesus and he kills him, too. He also blinds some people on purpose.

Note again: In some of these cases it is quite obvious why certain books were not included as part of the 'official' Bible and this most definitely has to be classed with those books. Jesus murdering people? Also note that just because a section is labeled the book of such-and-such a person does not mean at all that it was actually written by that person.

Letters from Pilate

There's a bunch of these and they are fascinating since they cover the events from someone who was there and someone who was on 'the other side.' I'll just summarize some of the things said and not go into the individual letters one at a time.

What happened to Herod after Jesus died.

References to 'supernatural events' after the death of Jesus. (Nothing specific was mentioned, though.)

Discussion about what to do about Jesus.

Pilate complaining about not having many troops or money. He's also expected to provide games for the people (think Roman 'games) and that's another expense. Also, he intends to visit Jerusalem and there's a ton of political minefields he has to navigate in order to do that.

There's also a balance he has to walk: not going so hard on the Jews that they might revolt but yet at the same time being hard enough to make sure they know who is in charge.

Discussion of John the Baptist, how spies were sent to keep an eye on him. Also, the order given for his arrest and execution.

Pilates desire to build new roads to aid shipments of goods (and movement of soldiers) and an aqueduct to carry fresh water to Jerusalem. He wants the Jews to pay for this and they don't want to.

Reports of what Jesus has been saying including urging people to be humble. He's also been curing people. That part is no problem but he's made his opposition to the rather corrupt priests in charge of things and they don't like that one bit.

How Pilate solves the problem of finding money.

The fact that the Jews in Jerusalem really hate the Samitarians.

The arrest and trial of Jesus.

The Life of Saint Issa

There's still a question of what Jesus was doing from when he was about twelve to when he was around 29 and started his ministry. There is no factual information about that time at all. One reasonable idea is that he worked with Joseph to learn the carpentry trade. Then there's also ideas about his having gone to Britain or to the far East.

This is one of those books and it's been determined that it is a fraud. Still, including it in this rather lage compendium I think is justified.

Jesus supposedly went to Tibet and learned from monks there, including the head of a monastery. He ended up leaving there, going to India and on to Persia.

History of the Apocrypha

Different Christian groups have different BIbles. The Ethiopic Church has the most books with 86 in their version of Bible.

Then there's a list of various non-Bible books that deal with the end times. The author also discusses Cyrus the Great, Jerusalem being rebuilt.

1 Esdras

Another book that is heavily into statistics. For one Passover these were killed: 30,000 lambs and kids; 4000 calves and 7600 sheep. To me those numbers seem a little unrealistic.

There's also a long list of men, camels, etc. used to rebuild Jerusalem and yet another long list of various sons.

2 Esdras

One of the things I have trouble dealing with is how many times God gets angry. Really angry. If God is love, as many people seem to believe, then why are there so many references in these books and regular books of the Bible where God gets really mad and destroys most humans (the Flood) or supports the Jewish people raging wars and killing thousands of people.

In this book God says things like he will 'hurl all evil upon them,' 'how long shall I endure them' and 'I will show you no mercy.'

Esdras talks about Noah, Abraham, the Messiah, 7 ways spirits who despised God's love will suffer, the lawkeeper, there will be 3 kings in the last days and how one person wrote 94 books in 40 days.

Babylon, Asia, Egypt and Syria will suffer terribly since they caused Jesus problems.

1 Maccabees

This section talks about Alexander the Great and how some people in Jerusalem adapted Gentile practices. Antiochus conquers Egypt and Jerusalem. Anyone who kept Jewish ways was ordered to be killed. Sometimes women and entire families were also killed.

Then there's a battle where 65,000 enemy and 10,000 Jewish soldiers fight. The Jewish army wiped out the enemy army. An angel killed 185,000 Assyrians. Then there's more wars. Another battle leaves 8000 enemy dead and another one leaves 100,000 enemy dead.

It seems to me that these numbers are rather unrealistic and are given basically as inflated boasts.

2 Maccabees

This part is a historical narrative. It points out some high priesthoods were basically available to anyone who had enough money. It then talks about the defeat of Jerusalem and how the Jews were taken into slavery.

Then there's more battles where the enemy death's run 20,000; 20,000; 21,600; 10,000; 30,000; 25,000 and another 25,000.

3 Maccabees

Ptolemy orders and area turn over their Jews. There's a battle where elephants are used to crush Jews gathered in what seems to be some kind of enclosure. Then Ptolemy changes his mind about killing the Jews.

4 Maccabees

Reason and emotion are discussed. 'Reason is the mind that with some logic prefers the life of wisdom.' Sometimes there are sections in these books that are actually practical things rather then just lists of sons and people killed in battles.

The Epistle of Jeremiah

A letter written to Jewish captives who are being taken to Babylon. It warns them to avoid the false gods of Babylon.

Prayer of Azariah

A very short entry about an angel saving men from a furnace.

Prayer of Maanaasely

Another short entry. Another entry where someone bewails all the sins they have committed. '...the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of the sea.'

1 Baruch

Basically this describes why Israel was defeated and the Jews were scattered among other nations.

Bel and the Dragon

Daniel in the lion's den.

Son of Sirach

This is a rather long section of bits of advice. The only bad things are sexist, noting that 'the birth of a daughter is a loss' along with some rather nasty things said about wives. There's also a little bit about how to raise a son harshly.

Other than that (which doesn't amount to many sections) the whole rest of the thing is definitely good, realistic advice. Probably some of the best advice (other than noted above) in any of these books I have read.

The book moves on to the Apocalypse

There's a chart of Gnostic beings and hierarchy.

The Apocalypse of John

Some one talks to him about who God really is. An individual named Barbelo is mentioned. Sophia created the first Archons and then numbers become important again as there seemed to be 12 archons (12 signs of the Zodiac?), 7 heavens and 7 powers (for the 7 known planets at the time?), and the number 365 (the days of the year) related to Archon creations. Then there's a long section about a bunch of beings and the parts of the body they created. The creation of Adam is discussed.

The Wisdom of Solomon

Very strong attacks on people who too into wine and revelry. Talks about wisdom and says that idols have no real power at all.

Additions to the Book of Esther

Mordeci's Dream. An attempt to save Israel from attack. An evil guy gets hung.

Tobit

Another short entry. Basically bragging about all the good things he has done. He gets married to a girl that had 7 husbands die on her.

Judith

Nebuchadnezzar's wars for revenge. Assyrians are working on attacking a Jewish city. An ultra-brave women (that is also beautiful) basically tricks the enemy king who gets drunk, falls asleep and ends up losing his head (literally.) She goes back to the city that is now safe.

Susanna

A woman in Babylon has two guys that basically want to rape her. She refuses to say who they are so she'll ends up being killed. Have I mentioned how anti-female these writers were?

Psalm 151

About a guy that beheads a Philistine.

First Episode of Clement

Says the Jews he is writing to are doing good. He talks about Cain murdering Abel. Peter and Paul are discussed along with jealousy and repentance. It then talks about famous Jews.

There are four kinds of offerings: daily, free will, sin and trespass.

Hermas

It what may be a vision or a dream a beautiful woman accuses him of sinning against her although he has acted the perfect gentleman and has done absolutely nothing wrong to her. She accuses him of having evil thoughts in his heart towards her.

This gets to be a little ridiculous. Because she thinks he had inappropriate thoughts about her (but again did absolutely nothing untoward towards her) he should be punished?

In another vision he learns about positive traits which include Faith, Constance, Simplicity, Knowledge, Guilesness and Love. Adultery and divorce are named as two bad things. Then there's talk about not getting angry which is interesting because numerous times in the Bible God gets angry. The other thing that's interesting is how many references in this entire book there are about 'Fearing the Lord.'

If we fear something then it's quite unlikely that we are going to really love that which we fear. Fear can even result in a person growing to hate the thing they fear. Wouldn't it be better if the wording was changed to 'Respect the Lord'? The fearing aspect implies that we must constantly fear the Lord. I think Respect and maybe Love the Lord would be much more positive things to say, especially when there is such tremendous repetition of fearing.

In another part it lists good things such as faith, continence, power, purity, truth, concord, long-suffering, simplicity, guileness, cheerfulness, understanding and love.

Bad things: unbelieving, intemperance, disobedience, doubt, sadness, wickedness, wantoness, falsehood, slander, hatred, and folly.

The Didache

Very short. It was a handbook for people new to Christianity. It tells people the right things to do and also attacks abortion. It has a rather interesting thing in it about you 'shall not corrupt boys.' Then it goes into other bad things to avoid and tells how to avoid a false prophet.