The Lost Scriptures – books that did not make it into the New Testament.

The Canon of the Third Synod of Carthage

“It was also determined that besides the Canonical Scriptures nothing be read in the Church under the title of divine Scriptures. The Canonical Scriptures are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, ³ two books of Paraleipomena, ⁴ Job, the Psalter, five books of Solomon, ⁵ the books of the twelve prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras, ⁶ two books of the Maccabees. Of the New Testament: four books of the Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, one epistle of the same [writer] to the Hebrews, two Epistles of the Apostle Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, one book of the Apocalypse of John. Let this be made known also to our brother and fellow-priest Boniface, or to other bishops of those parts, for the purpose of confirming that Canon. because we have received from our fathers that those books must be read in the Church. Let it also be allowed that the Passions of Martyrs be read when their festivals are kept.”

The New Testament canon was never ratified by an “ecumenical” council. An “Ecumenical Council” is a meeting of bishops from around the Christian World – a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. But there were several smaller councils who judged which books should be accepted as canonical Scripture. As I said in an earlier devotion, it took almost 400 years and the influence of St. Augustine of Hippo, at the Synod of Hippo for the list of 27 books of the New Testament to be widely accepted. However, no records of the proceedings of this Synod exist. But the proceedings of the Third Synod of Carthage, held four years later, summarize what had happened at the earlier meeting. And yet even these decisions were not held universally binding – and there are still disagreements on what books should be included in the bible. The Catholic canon includes books they call “Apocryphal” – the Lutheran canon does not include those books. Should, or should they not be included in the New Testament canon? I don’t think it really matters – if we all read those books as part of our yearly “scripture” reading – we will all be better for it.

Pastor Dave