The Lost Books of the Bible

The Lost Books of the Bible is a collection of early Christian apocryphal writings, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr., and published in 1926, with an introduction by Frank Crane. Bringing together ancient gospels, epistles, and religious narratives excluded from the standard New Testament, the volume offers a fascinating perspective on the development of Christianity, biblical traditions, and the formation of the Christian canon.

The collection includes texts such as The Gospel of the Birth of Mary, The Protevangelion, and the Infancy Gospels, which present alternative accounts of the birth and childhood of Jesus Christ, the life of the Virgin Mary, and miraculous events absent from the canonical Gospels. Other writings, including The Gospel of Nicodemus and The Acts of Paul and Thecla, explore Christian legends, the Passion and resurrection of Jesus, and the experiences of early believers.

The volume also contains ancient letters and religious teachings attributed to figures such as Clement, Ignatius, Barnabas, and Polycarp, alongside the correspondence between Paul and Seneca and the symbolic visions of The Shepherd of Hermas. These writings address themes of faith, repentance, salvation, morality, and spiritual revelation, illustrating the diversity of beliefs that circulated among early Christian communities.

Combining religious history, biblical literature, and apocryphal traditions, The Lost Books of the Bible provides insight into writings that developed alongside the texts eventually accepted into the New Testament. Although their origins, dates, and historical reliability vary considerably, these works remain valuable for understanding early Christian thought, the transmission of religious stories, and the evolution of biblical interpretation.

"In the primitive ages there was a Gospel extant bearing this name, attributed to St. Matthew, and received as genuine and authentic by several of the ancient Christian sects. It is to be found in the works of Jerome, a Father of the Church, who flourished in the fourth century, from whence the present translation is made."