The Missing Books of the Bible

[juantoo3]

Originally Posted by Alex P

So the bible isn't saying burn all books that are not christian it is just giving an account of what happened to the people paul met? (help lol)

Yeah, that's pretty close. The writer describes the events surrounding a particular incident. In this case, what happened to the boys caused enough concern and shock in the neighborhood that these people *voluntarily* put their books in a pile and burned them. This was a specific situation, not a command or even suggestion to carry this out elsewhere.

[Aidyl Nurhadi]

Books of the Old Testament that are lost
by Ibn Anwar

It is often claimed by Christian missionaries that the Old Testament is completely preserved with little or no error at all. This is supposedly proven by the discovery of the so called Dead Sea Scrolls. However, within the texts of the old Testament themselves we find mention of books that are now all but lost. Could they have once been considered inspired, but no longer survive?

1. The Book of the Wars of the Lord(Sepher Milkhamot Adonai)
“Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, And the wadis of the Arnon,” (Numbers 21:14)

Timothy R. Ashley says:
“14-15 A citation from a source called the Book of Wars of Yahweh supports the claim made in v. 13. The exact nature of this work is “unknown”, since the only fragment of it is the poetry cited in vv. 14-15, unless the poem in vv. 17-18a is also from it. The title of the work suggests that it contained songs celebrating Yahweh’s victories against his enemies.” [1]
Matthew Henry says:
“we are not particularly told, but are referred to the book of the wars of the Lord, perhaps that book which was begun with the history of the war with the Amalekites, Ex. 17:14. Write it (said God) for a memorial in a book” [2] (emphasis added)
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says:
“book of the wars of the Lord–A fragment or passage is here quoted from a poem or history of the wars of the Israelites, principally with a view to decide the position of Arnon.” [3]
John Gill’s Exposition on the Bible:
“Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord,…. A history of wars in former times” [4]
The author of Izhar Al-Haq quotes the commentators Henry and Scott:
“Presumably this book was written by Moses for the guidance of Joshua and described the demacration of the land of Moab.” [5]

2.The Book of Jasher(Sepher Ha Yashar)
“So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.” (Joshua 10:13)
“and he told them to teach the sons of Judah the song of the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar.”(2 Samuel 1:18)

Gnana Robinson comments on 2 Samuel 1:18,
” “It is written in the Book of Jashar,” literally “the Book of the Upright”. Another poetical piece attributed to the book of this name is Josh. 10:12-14.” Similar literary collections of various sorts seem to have been circulating among the people (e.g. the Book of the Wars of Yahweh, Num. 2:14); this shows that the collection of poems was made well before Samuel was edited and written.” [6]
Rev. Prof. Herbert G. May remarks,
“The Deuteronomist makes the poem the words of Joshua, but the poem itself is non-committal as to the speaker. The Book of Jasher is also quoted in 2 Sam. 1:18, and in the LXX of 1 Kg. 8:53. It was apparently a collection of poems. Compare the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Num. 21:14).” [7]
Concerning Joshua 10:13 Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says:
“The passage, which is parenthetical, contains a poetical description of the victory which was miraculously gained by the help of God, and forms an extract from “the book of Jasher,” that is, “the upright”–an anthology, or collection of national songs, in honor of renowned and eminently pious heroes.” [8]
John Gill’s Exposition on 2nd Samuel 1:18:
“behold, it is written in book of Jasher); which the Targum calls the book of the law; and Jarchi and Ben Gersom restrain it to the book of Genesis, the book of the upright, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and suppose respect is had to the prophecy concerning Judah, Genesis 49:8, but Kimchi, extending it to all the five books of Moses, adds his blessing, in Deuteronomy 33:7. In the Arabic version it is explained of the book of Samuel, interpreted the book of songs, as if it was a collection of songs; which favours the above sense. Jerom {s} interprets it of the same book, the book of the righteous prophets, Samuel, Gad, and Nathan…” [9] (emphasis added)

Lost proverbs of Solomon
“He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.”(1 Kings 4:32)

John Gill’s Exposition:
“And he spake three thousand proverbs,…. Wise sayings, short and pithy sentences, instructive in morality and civil life; these were not written as the book of Proverbs, but spoken only, and were taken from his lips, and spread by those that heard them for the use of others, but in process of time were lost…” [10] (emphasis added)
On the verse the Methodist theologian Adam Clarke explains:
“He spake three thousand proverbs] The book of Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, contain only about nine hundred or nine hundred and twenty-three distinct proverbs; and if we grant with some that the first nine chapters are not the work of Solomon, then all that can be attributed to him is only about six hundred and fifty.

Of all his one thousand and five songs or poems we have only one, the book of Canticles, remaining, unless we include Psalm cxxvii. 1-5, Except the Lord build the house, &c., which in the title is said to be by or for him, though it appears more properly to be a psalm of direction, left him by his father David, relative to the building of the temple. “
He laments in his notes on verse 33:
“O, how must the heart of Tournefort, Ray, Linne, Buffon, Cuvier, Swammerdam, Blosch, and other naturalists, be wrung, to know that these works of Solomon are all and for ever lost! What light should we have thrown on the animal and vegetable kingdoms, had these works been preserved! ” [11] (emphasis added)

The Books of Samuel the Seer, the Prophet Nathan and Gad the Seer
“Now the acts of king David first and last are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer:” (1 Chronicles 29:29)

All of the books mentioned in the verse have all DISAPPEARED.
Adam Clarke says,
” The acts of David-first and last] Those which concerned him in private life, as well as those which grew out of his regal government. All these were written by three eminent men, personally acquainted with him through the principal part of his life; these were Samuel and Gad the seers, and Nathan the prophet. These writings are all lost, except the particulars interspersed in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, none of which are the records mentioned here.” [12]

The Book of Isaiah the Prophet

This is yet another book which is totally LOST. It so happens that it was written by the major Old Testament prophet, Isaiah.

“Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first to last, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, has written.” (2 Chronicles 26:22)

Adam Clark says,
“The rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet-write.] This work, however, is totally lost; for we have not any history of this king in the writings of Isaiah. He is barely mentioned, Isa. i. 1; vi. 1. ” [13] (emphasis added)
John Gill says,
“Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last,…. What were done by him, both in the beginning and latter end of his reign:
did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write: not in his own prophecy, but in the history of his own times, which was usual for every prophet to write, though now lost, see 2 Kings 15:6.” [14] (emphasis added)

**More missing books to come, insha’Allah**

References:
[1] Timothy R. Ashley. The Book of Numbers. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 411
[2] Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible / Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume I (Genesis to Deuteronomy) | Christian Classics Ethereal Library
[3] Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Bible Commentary
[4] John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
[5] Izhar Al- Haq. p. 166
[6] Gnana Robinson. 1 & 2 Samuel, Internationl Theological Commentary(1993). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and The Handsel Press Limited. p. 157
[7] H. G. May. Peake’s Commentary on the Bible. Joshua(1962). Routledge. p. 297
[8] Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Bible Commentary
[9] John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
[10] John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
[11] Adam Clarke's Commentary - 1 Kings 4
[12]http://www.godrules.net/library/clarke/clarke1chr29.htm
[13] Adam Clarke's Commentary - 2 Chronicles 26
[14] John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

[wil]

And there is always Enoch...and it is available?

[shawn]

However, within the texts of the old Testament themselves we find mention of books that are now all but lost. Could they have once been considered inspired, but no longer survive? 1. The Book of the Wars of the Lord(Sepher Milkhamot Adonai)

This one yet survives:
SEFER MILHAMOT HA-SCEM
It can be found here:
Camillo - The war against the Zohar
makes for some interesting reading.

...here existed an extremely important sefer, written by the Yemenite Hacham, Yihyeh ibn Shlomoh ElGafeh, which is the only book of its kind to speak openly and to reveal the truth concerning the completely heretical doctrines contained in the Zohar and taken up by the ‘kabbalists’ and followed by the hassidic movements. The Sefer, called Milhhamot Ha-Shem - The Wars of God, was known exclusively to an inner-circle group of Yemenite Jews, the Darda’in, and a few copies of the original and exclusive publication in 1931 were to be found. It was not until January, 1981, that one of the talmidim, Davide Levi, obtained a copy in Israel from a Yemenite Jew from Sana’ who gave it to him as a present when he heard that Davide was a talmid of a Yemenite Tzadik.

[shawn]

Supplement to the original introduction to Sefer Milhhamot Part 1

5. For our purposes here, in introducing the unfortunately necessary war against the false Kabbalah, let it be said that the Tzadik Haim allowed the revelation of these facts for reason of ‘Et la-assaot la-Adonai Eloheinu, heifiru toratecha’ ( it is a time to act for the sake of the Lord, our God, for they have violated Your Torah). It was an historical necessity that a true and authoritative voice of the true Kabbalah speak out once and for all against that great sea of Kabbalistic literature all based on a common error of an erroneous theology and thus false Torah. The true Tzadik knows the authority of his voice, and his affirmations are, so to speak, immediately ‘sealed’ before the Higher Tribunal. The Tzadik knew as well that he was in a pure state of ‘sacrifice’ before God and that his every word was immediately accepted. Let the identity of the Tzadik be known but the Holy Wars of God against the false Kabbalah must be made known to the people of Israel.
Also the great accomplishment of Yihyeh ElGafeh’s efforts had been redeemed and the truth of his entire exposition had come unto the time of its objective. Previous to the arrival of this book, the Tzadik Haim had explained to me that all Israel was in error concerning the Zohar and that its doctrines were anything but true Kabbalah and that they led to every kind of idolatrous thought. The Tzadik raged fire in redeeming the name of the holy Tanai, Rabbi Shimon ben Yohhai, from being attributed to this work and he cursed Moshe de Leon for the spiritual catastrophe that he caused to Israel in the later days of its history. I had no permission, however, to speak of this, and , as mentioned, it took ten years for the sefer to arrive.
In general the Teacher did not go into details in explaining the error of the Zohar. That was not the Tzadik’s purpose with me. He elongated much more on the money-sin of Moshe de Leon and how he had received for his texts great sums of money from the poor souls of rich merchants who believed them written by Shimon ben Yohhai. For the details of the error, the Tzadik relied on the eventual arrival of Milhhamot Ha-Shem. What the Tzadik did explain was that the basic mistake lay in interpreting the words of the Torah literally, such as the ‘hand of God’, ‘and God descended on Mount Sinai’ and all the other anthropomorphic terminology used in the Torah and by the Prophets.
“They did not heed the Great Eagle’s warnings” the Tzadik Haim would often repeat. “The Rambam, peace be upon him, warned all Israel, especially in Moreh Nevuchim, from taking these terms to the letter. Instead the kabbilists made a ‘shiur qoma’, a cosmic positioning of His stature, God forbid. They forgot to understand that you cannot contain God in any form whatsoever, earthly or cosmic. The terms of the Torah regarding such come, as the Sages, of blessed memory explain, ‘only to let the ear hear what it might for the sake of letting it hear something’. This is so that one have some idea of how the Holy One, Blessed is He, manifested something of His sanctity to the world, but not to be taken to the letter.”
In other discourses on this matter, the Teacher would exclaim, “It’s amazing how profoundly the nation sleeps. If all these kabbalistic books contain the secrets of the Torah and the secrets of the worlds above, how would all these be called secrets, if they are written down for all to read!? But they contain a false metaphysical doctrine based on human understanding and human understanding is totally insufficient for understanding what is above nor can the true secrets above be described in human terminology without coming to error. They did not have the humility to lower their heads in the knowledge of ‘tamim t’hiyeh im ha-Shem Elohecha’ - (Be of a simple heart with the Lord, your God). The human intellect cannot understand what the Creator of the heavens and earth is!”
This theme would come back again and again in the Teacher’s words. The nation had fallen because those who believed themselves the carriers of the tradition had come to relish the thoughts of their own intellect until they forgot the barriers of humalimit. After this they fell into the false lights of Satan’s wisdom, fooling themselves and all who came under their influence. And also the false god Mamon came unto its midst to entice the spreading of the Zohar which teaches the secrets of the Torah to all those who pay good prices for entrance into the hidden doctrines of the Kabbalah.
The Tzadik would often teach me, “All of them together, using all the ‘names’ and ‘kavvanot’ mentioned in their books would not be capable of lifting a glass even one centimetre from the table”. This is an important teaching. I hope to explain something of it further on in this introduction.