Lost Scriptures

Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: James Clement

Length: 18 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

While most people think that the 27 books of the New Testament are the only sacred writings of the early Christians, this is not at all the case. A companion volume to Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities, this book offers an anthology of up-to-date and easy-listening translations of many noncanonical writings from the first centuries after Christ - texts that have been for the most part lost or neglected for almost two millennia.

Here is an array of remarkably varied writings from early Christian groups whose visions of Jesus differ dramatically from our contemporary understanding. Listeners will find Gospels supposedly authored by the apostle Philip, James the brother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen, and others. There are Acts originally ascribed to John and to Thecla, Paul's female companion; there are Epistles allegedly written by Paul to the Roman philosopher Seneca. And there is an apocalypse by Simon Peter that offers a guided tour of the afterlife, both the glorious ecstasies of the saints and the horrendous torments of the damned, and an Epistle by Titus, a companion of Paul, which argues against sexual love, even within marriage, on the grounds that physical intimacy leads to damnation.

In all, the anthology includes 15 Gospels, five non-canonical Acts of the Apostles, 13 Epistles, a number of Apocalypses and Secret Books, and several Canon lists. Ehrman has included a general introduction, plus brief introductions to each piece. This important anthology gives listeners a vivid picture of the range of beliefs that battled each other in the first centuries of the Christian era.

©2003 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2021 Upfront Books

This is a weird one

I really like Professor Ehrman and thought I would like this book. There were a couple of problems. One is I don’t think it’s really suited to be an audiobook. It’s really more of a reference vehicle for these unusual scriptures. Second was that it wasn’t narrated by Professor Ehrman And I really enjoyed the great courses narrated by him

Great courses are great

I learn from all the great courses books, they are all so far, well written and easy to listen to, I am currently working on a couple different books and will finish the series

Thank you Bart!

Wow, what amazing information, crazy to think that 1700 years ago one bishop decided what would go in the new testament. Eliminating any gospels or other written books that didn’t follow the narrative they wanted to put forward.

Great book destroyed by horrific narration.

This book is typical of Ehrman’s output. It reads more like a text book and covers a lot of ground fairly quickly. It isn’t a devotional book. This book does a lot of quoting and comparing of extra biblical texts.

The narrator, for some reason, feels the need to put on a weirdly breathy, high pitched, pious-sounding voice every time he’s quoting a passage. And there are a LOT of passages quoted. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on what’s being said. It’s as if Mr. Clement is reading Bible stories to a Sunday School class.

I have almost every Ehrman book available on Audible and not one of those narrators felt the need to add pious sounding drama to the book. It’s a damn shame this book couldn’t get the same treatment. I will end up buying this book and reading it for myself, without Mr. Clements dramatic help.

Good listen

a great addition to any scripture and bible library. these books really she be in the modern bibles. some information compliments the bibles very well.recommended listening .

Narration is terrible

I was looking forward to listening to this audio book, as I find anything by Bart Ehrman informative and interesting. But I finally gave up, because the narration was so bad. I could not follow anything that the narrator was saying, because the way he spoke say very distracting. It was like trying to read a book with the font size and color constantly changing at random, with no relevance to the material. Even a computer-generated voice would have been an improvement.

Chapters are not named

The book consists of 55 unnamed chapters. It's impossible to find what you're looking for if you want to listen to a specific text.