What Are the Missing Books of the Bible Called?

When people say the "missing books of the Bible," they are generally referring to a very specific collection of books. However, they are using a misnomer to an extent. The books are missing in the sense that they do not belong to the text of the traditional Catholic Bible. They are not missing in the sense that they were at some point lost, however. The location of the Dead Sea Scrolls was not known until the middle of the 20th century, but that is not the collection that people mean when they say the "missing books."

Once again, these books are not "missing" in the sense that they have been lost. They are missing in the sense that they were not included in the Bible. The reasons that they were not part of the work include the following:

• They did not claim to be the inspired Word of God.
• Their author was not a Jewish prophet or a Christian apostle.
• They contain concepts that do not match with the rest of the Bible.
• They have serious historical inaccuracies.

Therefore, these books did not fit into the framework of the Bible, because they did not fulfill the necessary conditions to be included into the work.

What Are the Missing Books of the Bible Called?

Apocrypha

There are different names for different missing books. In 1546, as a result of the Reformation, the Catholic Church allowed several of these books into the Bible. They are referred to as the apocrypha, although there are other volumes of apocrypha that were not permitted into the text. The texts that were allowed in were reviewed and considered to fulfill the requirement of being divinely inspired by God. This process is not random. Theological scholars dissect the texts to make these decisions.The books of the apocrypha that were added to the Catholic Bible are named:

• Tobit
• Judith
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees
• Wisdom of Solomon
• Sirach
• Baruch

Deuterocanonical

Other books are also regarded as part of the apocrypha; however, many of them were only included in the Greek Septuagint, and not the Hebrew Bible or the Catholic Bible. These books are:

• First Esdras
• Second Esdras
• Tobit
• Judith
• Additions to Esther
• Wisdom of Solomon
• Sirach
• Baruch
• The Letter of Jeremiah
• Susanna
• Bel and the Dragon
• Additions to Daniel, also known as the Prayer of Azariah
• Prayer of Manassesh
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees

Pseudepigraphal

These books are considered to be false writings. They were written by Jews and Christians between the years of 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. They are not considered to contain the inspired word of God, and therefore do not fulfill the requirements of Biblical writings. People who believe in the validity of some of these works are often referred to as Gnostics. This group includes:

• Epistle of Barnabas
• The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
• The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
• The letter of the Smyrnaeans or the Martyrdom of Polycarp
• The Shepherd of Hermas
• The Book of Enoch
• The Gospel of Thomas
• The Psalms of Solomon
• The Odes of Solomon
• The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
• Second Baruch
• Third Baruch
• The Books of Adam and Eve