I was walking through the library where I work tonight and I saw our copy of "Lost Books of the Bible." This title always makes me laugh, because, number one, the contents of the book were never "lost," and they weren't ever in the Bible. The reason the books are not considered lost is because the Church has always known about them. In fact, they have been available in English for most of the 20th century. Most of them are considered to be "apocryphal," or of spurious authorship. They are also not considered to be scripture by the Church, but some of the books, like the Protevangelium of James, have inspired many of the Church's teachings. Let's get back to the fact that the Church knew about the books. There is a reason that these books are not in the Bible, and therefore considered "lost." They did not agree with the other books that were being considered for the New Testament canon, or they did not agree with the teachings of the Church at the time. Therefore, copies were destroyed of those books that did not match the teachings of the Church, such as the Gospel of Judas, and other such books. Hence, the idea that they have been lost, when, in actuality, they were deliberately "lost."
