Apocryphal / Non-Canonical Books Of The Bible (General; Miscellaneous)

[ramonmercado]

Scott Wolter, Lost Book of the Bible, Aliens and Knights Templar.

Scott Wolter Claims to Have a Lost Book of the Bible with Aliens Inside​

12/18/2021

In a recent podcast interview, former television personality Scott Wolter made a bizarre assertion about prehistoric space aliens, a part of his ongoing conversion to full ancient astronaut theorist. Wolter discussed the documents he has asserted to be medieval records from the Knights Templar for the past several years, and in “new” Templar documents conveniently mirroring his own conversion to ancient alien enthusiast, he claims to have discovered evidence that space aliens intervened in human history.

The claim revolves around The Book of the Wars of the Lord, a lost ancient text mentioned once in the Bible, in Numbers 21:14-15, where the only single surviving sentence of the text is preserved. Some believe an unnamed book mentioned in Exodus 17:14 also refers to this text, and a medieval reference in the Book of Jasher (the much later text, not the lost ancient original) refers to it as the work of Moses and Joshua. Some scholars have argued that the Book of the Wars of the Lord is the same as the Book of Jasher mentioned a handful of times in the Hebrew Bible.

Wolter claims that he now possesses part of the Book of the Wars of the Lord, found inside the dubious modern documents he asserts to be copies of lost medieval originals:

There is a copy of the Book of the Wars of the Lord, and without going into the details of it, there is something very interesting that is mentioned in one of the passages. And it’s certainly biblical, and it says something to the effect of, “And then a silver beast descended from the cloud with wings like a bird that sent out lightning bolts that struck the water that caused the men to—the enemy to—get palsy, fall into the fall into the water dead. The horses were electrocuted, and so on and so forth.” […] I personally think that that—I can’t think of anything else—other than possibly an unidentified aerial craft.

https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/...e-a-lost-book-of-the-bible-with-aliens-inside

 

[EnolaGaia]

This thread is being established to contain miscellaneous postings about non-canonical texts and books associated with the Bible.

 

[EnolaGaia]

There are debates as to whether the Book of the Wars of the Lord is a separate lost text or an alternate title for the Book of Jasher. To further complicate matters, there's another text entitled Book of Jasher or Pseudo-Jasher which is generally considered to be a medieval forgery.

See Also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_the_Wars_of_the_Lord

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jasher_(biblical_references)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Jasher_(Pseudo-Jasher)

 

[GNC]

Coincidence - I've just been reading a compilation of Chester Brown comic strips and one detailed a story of Jesus not in the Bible, but a gnostic text. It was about Mary seeing a teenage Jesus in her house and realising it was actually someone else. When the real Jesus gets home with Joseph, he demands to meet the impostor, and goes inside. After appraising each other the two lookalikes start snogging, get naked and "merge" into one.

According to Brown's notes at the back of the book, this impostor was the Holy Spirit. Can't think why they didn't include that one in their Bible. Anyone heard of it here? Was there some artistic licence involved?

 

[Victory]

For Jews, Apocrypha seem to fall into different categories.

Books which exist but were not part of the traditional Jewish canon, but nonetheless are studied - i.e. Book of Jubilees, (which is part of the Tanach (Bible) of most Ethiopian Jews.)

Books which are alluded to and not much is known about them, or might be titles alluding to existing books by a different name i.e Book of Jashar.

Books which we are told existed but were "lost" to humans for spiritual reasons i.e. The Book of Remedies", hidden by King Hezkiyahu.

 

[marhawkman]

Coincidence - I've just been reading a compilation of Chester Brown comic strips and one detailed a story of Jesus not in the Bible, but a gnostic text. It was about Mary seeing a teenage Jesus in her house and realising it was actually someone else. When the real Jesus gets home with Joseph, he demands to meet the impostor, and goes inside. After appraising each other the two lookalikes start snogging, get naked and "merge" into one.

According to Brown's notes at the back of the book, this impostor was the Holy Spirit. Can't think why they didn't include that one in their Bible. Anyone heard of it here? Was there some artistic licence involved?

Which Gnostic text? I didn't try memorizing most of them because the majority are not "controversial" because they're obvious heresy. So yeah, this sounds like one of the "obvious heresy" books.

For Jews, Apocrypha seem to fall into different categories.

Books which exist but were not part of the traditional Jewish canon, but nonetheless are studied - i.e. Book of Jubilees, (which is part of the Tanach (Bible) of most Ethiopian Jews.)

Books which are alluded to and not much is known about them, or might be titles alluding to existing books by a different name i.e Book of Jashar.

Books which we are told existed but were "lost" to humans for spiritual reasons i.e. The Book of Remedies", hidden by King Hezkiyahu.

Yeah, the general concept of apocrypha is simple: text not generally considered official that some do consider official.

There's a variety of reasons for this.

Some are merely "lost" books. The example of "Book of the Wars of the Lord" we know it existed because it was mentioned, but what was it? It can't be officially recognized since we don't have a copy. One thing notable about the "Book of Jasher" is that... a translation of the name is actually "Book of the just man". But we don't have a copy of it either. One reference to Jasher suggests that maybe it wasn't a historical text in the sense that the Book of Kings is. It may have been a song book that had songs about historical events. If Wars of the Lord IS Jasher, then that might be why it was lost... it wasn't as important as the actual word of God.

And before you say that sounds crazy.... ALL of Psalms was originally set to music. Yeah in the copy I have here it starts on page 608 and goes all the way to... 685. ALL of that was set to music... that's why it's called Psalms.

There's also things that are obvious fakes that only heretics consider "official". Like the "Book of Thomas the Contender", it's... well.. it basically calls the Bible a lie... that's the simple way to describe it.

Then you have stuff that's more interesting. Like the "Gospel of Thomas" which is very similar to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and could be seen as simply a fifth book to add to the set. It's not in narrative form, but in many other ways matches them. 80% of its text can be matched to sections of the other four. This is one where you could make an argument that it was obscure and rarely distributed because it was not considered important by those who read it when it was new. To my knowledge only two proper copies of it exist today, One of which isn't even in book form, and the other was in the Nag Hammadi collection.

Yes, there are historical accounts of early church leaders dismissing a document called the "Gospel of Thomas" as heresy... but we don't actually know which book they're talking about. There's almost a dozen books that have been connected to a "Thomas" in some way, and some are definitely heresy.

But I digress, the real question with the "Gospel of Thomas" is: "is it actually a true Gospel at all?" There are only two copies after all and one of them is in pieces... apparently because it was NEVER whole to begin with. Yeah.... What? Why? I'll never know in this life. But it raises the question of whether that was ever meant to be a true gospel or whether it was something else.

 

[GNC]

Which Gnostic text? I didn't try memorizing most of them because the majority are not "controversial" because they're obvious heresy. So yeah, this sounds like one of the "obvious heresy" books.

According to the notes at the back, Brown adapted it from an M.R. James book about the Apocrypha, which in turn was taken from a 3rd century book called Pistis Sophia.

 

[marhawkman]

According to the notes at the back, Brown adapted it from an M.R. James book about the Apocrypha, which in turn was taken from a 3rd century book called Pistis Sophia.

hmmm looked it up and found this summary: https://marymagdaleneslegacy.com/2021/08/03/pistis-sophia/
Here's a shorter summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistis_Sophia

Um yeah, Pistis Sophia is one of those things that's obvious heresy. It's a Gnostic text, and the general focus of all Gnostic texts is that... the teachings of Jesus as written in the Bible are... not his real ministry, but a public show he put on while looking for disciples. Also... in this book Jesus's real ministry didn't start until after his death and resurrection.. and even then it's another 11 years before he gets to the actual heart of his teachings?

Yeah, I never actually read it. So I can't really say if that comic strip was a direct adaptation... but it feels like the sort of thing a Gnostic text might have in it.

 

[GNC]

Brown is a much-respected cartoonist, and I trust him when he says he got it from this source. He seems on the level, but his interpretation may be over the top. Look at Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis! These underground cartoonists do love their Bible.

 

[marhawkman]

Brown is a much-respected cartoonist, and I trust him when he says he got it from this source. He seems on the level, but his interpretation may be over the top. Look at Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis! These underground cartoonists do love their Bible.

Well, he read a book about an ancient text, so he wrote about whatever was in the book he read I guess?

 

[ramonmercado]

Scott Wolter, Lost Book of the Bible, Aliens and Knights Templar.

Scott Wolter Claims to Have a Lost Book of the Bible with Aliens Inside​

12/18/2021

In a recent podcast interview, former television personality Scott Wolter made a bizarre assertion about prehistoric space aliens, a part of his ongoing conversion to full ancient astronaut theorist. Wolter discussed the documents he has asserted to be medieval records from the Knights Templar for the past several years, and in “new” Templar documents conveniently mirroring his own conversion to ancient alien enthusiast, he claims to have discovered evidence that space aliens intervened in human history.

The claim revolves around The Book of the Wars of the Lord, a lost ancient text mentioned once in the Bible, in Numbers 21:14-15, where the only single surviving sentence of the text is preserved. Some believe an unnamed book mentioned in Exodus 17:14 also refers to this text, and a medieval reference in the Book of Jasher (the much later text, not the lost ancient original) refers to it as the work of Moses and Joshua. Some scholars have argued that the Book of the Wars of the Lord is the same as the Book of Jasher mentioned a handful of times in the Hebrew Bible.

Wolter claims that he now possesses part of the Book of the Wars of the Lord, found inside the dubious modern documents he asserts to be copies of lost medieval originals:


https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/...e-a-lost-book-of-the-bible-with-aliens-inside

From Jason Colavito's eNewsletter • Vol. 23 • Issue 9 • August 27, 2023 •

On Coast to Coast AM this week, erstwhile television personality Scott F. Wolter brought out some new claims to add to his growing repertoire of outré ideas. Wolter asserted that “hidden” books of the Bible are being covered up, that Native Americans recall interacting with ancient Egyptians when they emerged from an underground world beneath the Grand Canyon, and that the Founding Fathers weren’t just inspired by the Knights Templar but were secretly their biological descendants. Much of this is merely variations on old misunderstandings and hoaxes, though the notion of biological transmission of Wolter’s secret knowledge from Jesus to the Templars to the Freemasons along genetic lines of quasi-royal descent is rapidly growing into a bizarre obsession with pure holy bloodlines. This is all the weirder when Wolter alleges that he has “no choice” but to conclude that the government and the Vatican are hiding proof of ancient aliens.

 

[AnonyJ]

For Jews, Apocrypha seem to fall into different categories.

Books which exist but were not part of the traditional Jewish canon, but nonetheless are studied - i.e. Book of Jubilees, (which is part of the Tanach (Bible) of most Ethiopian Jews.)

Books which are alluded to and not much is known about them, or might be titles alluding to existing books by a different name i.e Book of Jashar.

Books which we are told existed but were "lost" to humans for spiritual reasons i.e. The Book of Remedies", hidden by King Hezkiyahu.

For people not of a Judaic background (like myself), but wanting to know more about the history of the Torah, Mishnah and Talmud I can highly recommend Simon Schama's The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000BCE – 1492CE (2014)