Bible’s Forgotten Books They Don’t Want You to Read
How entire texts were left out of your Bible — and why most churches don’t want you asking questions about them
When most Christians pick up a Bible, they think they’re holding the complete word of God. That’s what churches have told them all their lives — this book is the book, nothing missing, nothing extra. But the truth is, the Bible is a carefully curated selection of writings chosen by human committees centuries ago. Many other texts — some wildly different, some surprisingly familiar — were left out. These are the Bible’s forgotten books, and asking why they’re missing often gets you blank stares, awkward silence, or a quick subject change.
This isn’t conspiracy theory territory. Historians, archaeologists, and even many Christian scholars openly acknowledge that dozens of early Jewish and Christian writings didn’t make the cut. Bruce Metzger, one of the most respected New Testament scholars, described the canon as “the result of a process of gradual accumulation, selection, and rejection.” The decision wasn’t about space in the book or God personally striking them down with lightning. It was politics, theology, and sometimes fear.
What Counts as “Forgotten”?
The most famous examples are the so-called “apocryphal” or “deuterocanonical” books — texts like Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Catholics include them in their Bible. Most Protestants don’t. That’s already your first red flag: if the Bible is the unchanging word of God, why does the table of contents change depending on which church you walk into?
Then there are books you’ll never see in any mainstream Bible today, like the Book of Enoch, the Gospel of Thomas, the Shepherd of Hermas, or the Infancy Gospel of James. These weren’t small throwaway pamphlets. They were widely read by early Christians and Jews, copied by hand, and sometimes quoted by the very authors whose works did end up in the Bible. Scholar Elaine Pagels points out that “the early Christian movement was far more diverse than the later orthodoxy would admit,” and these excluded texts reflect that diversity.
How the Cuts Were Made
The process wasn’t neat or quick. It took centuries for Jewish and Christian leaders to settle on which books were “scripture” and which were not. In Christianity, the list we now call the New Testament wasn’t finalized until the late 4th century, at councils like Hippo (393 CE) and Carthage (397 CE). Even then, debates continued for centuries about certain books. Eusebius of Caesarea, a church historian writing in the 4th century, classified some books as “recognized,” some as “disputed,” and others as outright “spurious.”
The reasons for rejection varied. Some books were considered too strange or mystical, like the Book of Enoch, which describes fallen angels, giants, and cosmic visions that sound closer to fantasy literature than Sunday school lessons. Others, like the Gospel of Thomas, challenged the growing church hierarchy by teaching that divine knowledge comes from within, not from church leaders. And some were simply inconvenient — they painted a different picture of Jesus, his teachings, or early Christian life that didn’t fit the theological direction church authorities wanted.
In the Jewish tradition, the Hebrew Bible was largely set by the 2nd century CE, but some writings popular among Jewish communities, like the Book of Jubilees or 1 Enoch, were dropped. Ironically, early Christians sometimes preserved these books even after Jewish leaders moved away from them.
The Book of Enoch: Too Wild for the Canon
Enoch is one of the most glaring omissions. It was considered scripture by some Jewish groups, quoted in the New Testament letter of Jude, and preserved in full only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which still includes it in its Bible today. The scholar James H. Charlesworth notes that Enoch “had more influence on the New Testament than any other non-canonical book.”
The book reads like an epic cosmic drama. It tells of angels (“Watchers”) who descended to earth, had children with human women, and taught humans forbidden knowledge. God sends the flood to wipe out their offspring — the giants — and punish the angels. There’s also vivid imagery of heaven, hell, and the final judgment.
Why leave it out? Likely because it gave too much space to supernatural beings other than God, and because its detailed end-times visions could be interpreted in ways church leaders couldn’t control.
The Gospel of Thomas: Jesus Without the Miracles
Discovered in 1945 in Egypt, the Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. There are no miracles, no crucifixion, no resurrection — just teachings, many of which sound like the ones in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but with a mystical twist. One saying has Jesus declare, “The kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.” That kind of direct spirituality undermines the idea that you need a priest, a church, or a formal ritual to reach God. Scholar Marvin Meyer calls it “a radically different gospel — a gospel of self-discovery.”
The Shepherd of Hermas: A Best-Seller That Vanished
In the 2nd century, The Shepherd of Hermas was one of the most popular Christian writings in Rome. It’s full of parables, visions, and moral instructions. Early church leaders like Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria considered it valuable reading. It even shows up in the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest complete Christian Bibles, right after the Book of Revelation. But it was eventually pushed aside — too long, too strange, and not linked to an apostle.
Why Churches Avoid the Topic
Many pastors avoid preaching about these missing books because it opens a can of worms. If people start asking, “Why isn’t this in my Bible?” they might also ask, “Who decided what goes in? And why should I trust them?” That threatens the idea of a single, perfect, God-delivered text. For traditions that claim biblical inerrancy, the messy reality of how the canon was formed is especially awkward.
It’s also a control issue. The more books people read, the more interpretations they can form for themselves. A Christian who reads the Gospel of Thomas might conclude they don’t need a church to connect with God. Someone reading Enoch might start questioning the official version of angels and demons. Historian Bart Ehrman argues that “controlling the books is a way of controlling the message,” and early church leaders understood that.
What This Means for Believers
Learning about the Bible’s forgotten books doesn’t have to destroy faith. For some, it actually deepens it. You start to see the Bible not as a dropped-from-heaven monolith, but as a living library — one that grew, shifted, and was shaped by the needs, fears, and politics of real communities. You realize faith has always been interpreted, argued over, and reimagined.
But it does force you to be honest. If God wanted one fixed, perfect book, why allow centuries of disagreement over its contents? Why let key texts disappear, only to be rediscovered in desert caves two thousand years later? And if the Bible we have now is the result of human decision-making, what else about your faith is shaped by human choices?
Before You Go
Should You Read Them? Absolutely. These books give you a broader, more complicated picture of ancient faith. They show you that early Judaism and Christianity weren’t uniform — they were diverse, messy, and sometimes contradictory. Reading them won’t make you a heretic; it will make you informed. And if your faith can’t survive reading the same books your spiritual ancestors read, maybe it’s worth asking why.
The Bible you know is only part of the story. The rest is scattered in old monasteries, buried in ancient libraries, or sitting in museums, waiting for curious minds. You don’t have to take anyone’s word for what belongs in your spiritual life. You can read it yourself — the parts they kept, and the parts they left out.
💬︎ Read the whole thing? Good. Now tell me: if these books were never really “forgotten,” why were they hidden from you? Drop a comment and let’s talk.
Sources and Further Reading
Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (1987)
Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (2003)
Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003)
James H. Charlesworth (editor), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (1983–1985)
Lee Martin McDonald, The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon (1995)
Michael E. Stone, Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (1984)
The Canon of the New Testament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_the_New_TestamentBiblical Apocrypha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_apocryphaBook of Enoch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_EnochGospel of Thomas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_ThomasShepherd of Hermas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_Hermas