The New Testament of the Christian Bible is one
of the most influential works of the last two
millennia. As the key work of the largest religion
in the western world, it has shaped our world in
many subtle ways. But the list of 27 books we
know today as the New Testament came
together gradually through a series of councils
and general usage until the books became the
standard for most of Christianity. This list is
about 10 of the most interesting books not
included in the New Testament. Some were
excluded for obvious reasons, some likely never
had wide readership until found in an obscure
library thousands of years later and some just
barely missed the cut to being included. One
probably never even existed. We know so little
about the creation of the New Testament that I
cannot tell you why each book was not
included, only what makes them interesting.
This list is not aimed to validate or discredit the
value of any particular book but to provide
some context to the creation of the New
Testament.
*Because the New Testament is a result of the
Orthodox opinion of the time I have chosen to
exclude Gnostic texts from this list.

10 Apocalypse of Peter
The most well-known Apocalypse (book
describing visions of the end times) is of course
the Book of Apocalypse (Revelation), but it was
far from the only Apocalypse being widely read
by the early Christians. One of the most popular
and widely quoted is the Apocalypse of Peter.
This book was written as a conversation
between Jesus and his followers. It basically
describes all the horrible things that happen in
hell and all the awesome things that happen in
heaven. It is very detailed about what
punishment fits which crime for those in hell.
Those who are blasphemous to God are hung
by their tongue, adulterous men and women
are hung by their hair and feet respectively over
boiling goop, and murderers are cast into a pit
of horrible creeping things. Meanwhile those
who go to heaven sing beautiful music, have
beautiful bodies with great skin, wear shiny
clothes and smell nice.

9 The Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is a book written
between 70 and 130 AD. We know from the
contents that it was written after the
destruction of the Jewish temple but before the
Jewish Rebellion in 132. It was often attributed
to Barnabas the companion of Paul, but it may
have referenced a different Barnabas. This
book places itself squarely in the debates of the
time about Christianity’s relationship with
Judaism. It rejects the value of previous
teachings in Judaism and rejects all ceremonial
aspects of Judaism. The Epistle establishes
completely different interpretations of the
Torah that it claims point to the validity of
Christianity. The Epistle of Barnabas quotes a
lot of the Old Testament including Enoch, one
of the most fascinating books not included in
the Old Testament, but that is for another list.

8 Infancy Gospel of James
We know from several early references that the
four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
were settled on early in Christian history, much
earlier than the other 23 books. Nevertheless,
this didn’t prevent the creation and even
widespread dissemination of other gospels. The
interest in the life of Jesus was understandably
intense in the early Christian world. A whole
genre of gospel was created specifically dealing
with the Infancy of Jesus, called appropriately
the infancy gospels. One of the most famous is
the Infancy Gospel of James. This book attests
to the importance of Mary to early Christians. It
describes her unique birth, her adolescence
and of course, the early years of Jesus life. It
makes claims about Mary’s perpetual virginity
and God’s involvement in choosing Joseph. The
book describes in detail Herod’s killing of
children in Bethlehem, Jesus’ early exile in Egypt
and the extent of the parallel nature of Jesus
and John the Baptist’s lives. The book is also the
source of the image of the nativity taking place
in a cave.

7 Shepherd of Hermas
Probably one of the more obscure books to
modern readers, this book had great influence
in the first couple of centuries of Christianity. It
would have been a very well-known book to the
early Christians. It appears to have been very
popular in the 2nd and 3rd centuries but its
popularity had almost entirely died out by the
4th. The Shepard was referenced by many early
church fathers such as Origen, Tertullian,
Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. The
Shepard was also very controversial at the time.
It was used as scripture by some early churches
and despised by others. Origen quotes it as
scripture but Tertullian and Clement of
Alexandria regard it as heretical. Nevertheless it
was influential to many and thus should be
noted. The Shepard of Hermas is an allegorical
book written mostly in the first person
describing the visions of Hermas, a former
slave. It also includes 12 commandments and
10 parables mostly dealing with Christian Ethics
and the importance of being faithful.

6 1 Clement
1st Clement is one of two letters (yet again to
the church in Corinth) attributed to Pope
Clement of Rome. The first one is actually
believed by many scholars to be one of the rare
non-canonical early Christian works to have
been written by the attributed author. This
alone makes it a rarity among early Christian
texts. It was well-regarded at the time and
made it into several late lists of important
Christian texts. Along with the Didache, it is one
of the earliest written books that eventually
failed to make it into the New Testament, being
dated to around 95 AD. The book itself is mostly
focused on a dispute in the Church at Corinth
about the removal of several church leaders, a
removal that Clement objects to.

5 Gospel of Thomas
One of the most famous books not included in
the New Testament is the so called Gospel of
Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas is not a book
that was passed down through the ages but was
rediscovered as part of the Nag Hammadi
Library in 1945. We have no evidence it was
widely read by the early Christians and the few
references we do have refer to it as heretical.
The Gospel of Thomas is interesting because it
is different in structure from the four
traditional gospels; it is a collection of sayings
attributed to Jesus rather than a narrative of
Jesus’ life that includes some of his teachings.
The Gospel of Thomas has been one of the
most widely studied books not included in the
New Testament because of how it was
rediscovered and the interesting nature of its
contents. Unlike the other narrative gospels this
book does not mention the death and
resurrection of Jesus but focuses instead on his
teachings and how they lead to eternal life,
when properly understood.

4 The Didache
The Didache or “The Lord’s teaching of the
twelve apostles” is one of my personal
favorites. The Didache is basically a set of step-
by-step instructions for a Christian life. The first
section is on how Christians should apply the
commandments of God. The second section
deals with the sacraments (Baptism, the
Eucharist and Fasting). The third section is
about Church structure. The Didache was
considered for inclusion in the New Testament
by some in the early days of the Christian
Church. It is fascinating to wonder how this
book would have affected the divisions in the
church that arose over the next 2000 years.
Arguments about Baptism and the Eucharist
that were major points of division would have
been drastically altered if this text had been
included. To have rules for these major rites
included within the canon may have prevented
some of the more drastic splits, or made other
worse ones.

3 Lost Epistle to the Corinthians
1st and 2nd Corinthians are of course major
cornerstones of the Epistles of Paul in the New
Testament. These letters are the basis of a lot of
Christian Ethics and the importance of Paul, but
there were other letters between Paul and the
Church in Corinth. The first was apparently
written before 1 Corinthians and is referenced
by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:9 “I wrote to you in
my (previous) letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people.” We have no evidence
of this letter outside of this reference. It would
be fascinating to see what other
correspondence Paul had with the Corinthians
but this is one that is likely lost forever. That
leads us to…

2 Third Letter to the Corinthians
The second is the Third Epistle to the
Corinthians. This letter has survived and was
included in some early lists of sacred
documents but by the 4th Century was not
considered valid. Unlike the 1st and 2nd
Epistles, it is considered by most to be written
by someone other than Paul. 3rd Corinthians
mostly deals with correcting the interpretation
of the first two books and is likely to have been
written to admonish those considered heretics.

1 Q
Spot number one goes to a book we have no
evidence even exists. The supposed Q
document is a hypothetical sayings gospel that
would account for the striking similarities
between the three synoptic gospels: Matthew,
Mark and Luke. Its existence was first
postulated in 1900 by scholars trying to
understand the similarity between the three
books. All three gospels share stories, phrases
and even direct quotes with each other. Some
are between two books and some between all
three but no book contains all the similarities.
Mark has the most in common with both
Matthew and Luke but there are parts of
Matthew and Luke that are not in Mark. In
addition each book contains parts that are in
neither of the other books. This makes for a
difficult time figuring out which one came first
and is therefore referenced by the others.
Unlike today there was no tradition of giving
strict source references when writing. The Q
hypothesis asserts that there could have been a
fourth gospel that included all (or at least the
parts missing from Mark) of the similar material
used the three gospels. This document would
have been widely spread throughout the
Christian Church and provided the source
material for the synoptic gospels. Where this
hypothesis falls apart is not only that we don’t
have a copy (partial or complete) of this book
but we have no reference at all to this
mysterious gospel in any early Christian
writings. The Q hypothesis debate is intense in
scholarship to this very day, with scholars
building careers both in support and in
opposition to its existence.