It is a fact that there is not now nor has there ever been a single list of the books of the Bible for all Christians. For example, the list of books in the Protestant Bible is not the same as the lists of biblical books in use in any of the most ancient communions of the Church. Most Protestants assume it is true that the Bible contains a total of 66 books. The fact is all the ancient communions of the church have a longer list of books considered to be scripture.

It is the premise of this website that this ancient witness of the Church should not be discounted. The most ancient communions of faith have preserved an ancient legacy of the Bible the value of which should be reconsidered for the whole Church in the 21st century. In this light, it is the case that "The Bible" in its totality consists of the books which have been considered scripture by all the ancient communions of the Church. It is the testimony of the ancient communions of Orthodoxy to the rest of the Church that these books have stood the test of time and have served as a resource for instruction and edification for the innumerable people of God over the long roll of the centuries.

Since these books are typically missing from Protestant Bibles, it is a fact their value and use in our churches today is virtually unknown. It is the contention of this website that this is an unfortunate state of affairs; in fact, the rediscovery of these books will be found to be a rich treasure trove of teaching, information and blessing to all God's people throughout the world. If we discover these books are indeed God's gift to His people, we will realize we have been cheated and impoverished by their neglect.

Therefore, it is the purpose of this website to promote all the books which are considered to be scripture by all the Church. This website is dedicated to reviving the reading, study, exposition, and devotional usage of these neglected books among all God's people.

Even though Christians regard the sixty-six books found in most personal Bibles as the bedrock of scripture, it would be an oversimplification for us to assume these sixty-six books have enjoyed universal acceptance as scripture. If you categorize these sixty-six books by their degree of acceptance you find there are three classes of books: those whose acceptance was universal, those whose acceptance was initially doubted by some but their acceptance eventually became universal, and those which were doubted and whose acceptance became almost universal.

Of the sixty-six books contained in most Protestant Bibles, fifty-four did not present any obstacles for their universal acceptance. In other words, there is no historical record of debate whether these fifty-four books were to be considered inspired by God.

For the rest of the sixty-six books, twelve in number, there was initially some doubt as to whether they should be included. As we shall see there were a number of ways in which this question was answered.

Of the 12 books of the biblical corpus for which there was debate, seven were subsequently accepted universally. These books are, Esther, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Ezekiel, Hebrews and James. Objection was raised to Esther because the Hebrew text contains no mention of the God. Proverbs was doubted because it seemed to contain self-contradictory statements. Ecclesiastes seemed to be too pessimistic about life. The Song of Songs seemed to be to occupied with things carnal. Whether the Book of Ezekiel was actually penned by the prophet Ezekiel was doubted. Hebrews was doubted, it is said, because it was thought not to have been written by Paul. James was slow to be accepted as well.

There are an additional five books which today are still not accepted universally. They are 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and The Revelation to John. In the Syrian Orthodox Church these books are referred to as "the five" due to their not having been received by them from early times in the Aramaic language. The fact these epistles can only be found in Greek from ancient times caused the Syrian Orthodox Church to reject them for nearly 2,000 years. Despite this, it is safe to say, the acceptance of "the five" as inspired scripture has been nearly universal in the Church worldwide.

There is another group of books which had nearly universal acceptance for centuries. The titles of those books are 1 Esdras, Judith, Tobit, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Manasseh, Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Psalms 151, and additional chapters to the books of Esther and Daniel. For more than 1,000 years, these books were accepted by all Christians, though doubts about them were raised and continued to resurface from time to time. This group of Old Testament-era books are different from the rest of the Old Testament in that complete copies of them have survived in Greek rather than Hebrew. From early times, the Church used the Old Testament in Greek called the Septuagint, so little notice was paid to the fact that certain books did not exist in Hebrew. As the need for translations of the Old Testament came about, translators began to seek out the Hebrew texts taking note that certain texts did not exist in Hebrew. Doubts concerning the authenticity of those books that were only available in Greek surfaced from time to time during the history of the Church, but no practical changes occured to the ways in which those books were used in practice in the churches.

In the 16th century, when the split between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism came about in the West this topic became more important in a big way. Without removing these books from the Bible, Protestants diminished their importance, relegating them to an appendix to the Old Testament calling it "The Apocrypha". From that time, gradually, Bible publishers in Europe began to drop The Apocrypha section from printed Bibles until today most printed Bibles in the West do not include these books.

The Eastern Orthodox churches, unaffected by the rift in the West, continued uninterrupted in their acceptance and practical use of these books throughout this time.

Another group of Biblical books obtained acceptance in one or more of the ancient communions. These books are 2 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jubilees, Psalms 152-155, Paraleipomena Jeremiou, The Apocalypse of Baruch, 3 Corinthians, and The Shepherd of Hermas. These are books which are currently recognized as scripture in certain churches.

Additionally, there are books which were accepted in historic times, but were subsequently dropped from the Bible either through changes to canonical lists of books or through the books' having fallen into disuse. Among these books are, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Joseph and Asenath, Lives of the Prophets, Psalms of Solomon, 1 Clement, 2 Clement, Epistle of Barnabas and The Didache.

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A. Homolougomena (Scriptures Received with Unqualified Acceptance)
     Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, I Peter and I John
     =54 books

B. Antilegomena (Scriptures Received with Qualified Acceptance)
     1. Books which came to have universal acceptance.
     Esther, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Ezekiel, Hebrews and James
     =7 books

     2. Books which came to have nearly universal acceptance.
     2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and The Revelation to John
     =5 books

     3. Books which came to have pervasive acceptance.
     Judith, Tobit, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 1 Esdras, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Manasseh, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Psalm 151 and additions to Esther and Daniel
     =13 books

     4. Books which have been accepted by some.
     2 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Psalms 152-155, Paraleipomena Jeremiou, Apocalypse of Baruch, 3 Corinthians, and Shepherd of Hermas
     =10 books

     5. Books which had acceptance in historic times.
     Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Joseph and Asenath, Lives of the Prophets, Psalms of Solomon, 1 Clement, 2 Clement, Epistle of Barnabas and The Teaching of the Twelve
     =8 books

     6. Books of regional composition and/or acceptance
       Armenian
               Repose of John, Elegy of Euthalius
     =2 books

       Ethiopian
               1 Maqabeyan, 2 Maqabeyan, 3 Maqabeyan, YosꤠW㫤⟋oryon,(Josephus, the son of Koryon) Sinodos: Ser`at⟓eyon (The Book of Order), Te'ezaz(The Book of Herald), Gessew, Abtelis, 1 Dominos, 2 Dominos, Book of Clement, Didesqelya(Didascalia) and M㲨af⟋idan(Book of the Covenant)
     =12 books

       Greek
               The Odes
     =1 book

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