The Mormon Church claims to have identified a number of books they think missing from the Bible, considering them serious omissions. Listing these books in his seminal work The Articles of Faith, Mormon apostle James Talmage wrote:

“Those who oppose the doctrine of continual revelation between God and His Church, on the ground that the Bible is complete as a collection of sacred scriptures, and that alleged revelation not found therein must therefore be spurious, may profitably take note of the many books not included in the Bible, yet mentioned therein, generally in such a way as to leave no doubt that they were once regarded as authentic.” (Talmage, Articles of Faith, 1960 ed.p.501)

Here is the list from Talmage’s book:

  1. The Book of the Covenant cited in Exodus 24:4-7
  2. The Book of the Wars of the LORD cited in Numbers 21:14
  3. The Book of Jasher cited in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18
  4. The Book of Statutes cited in 1 Samuel 10:25
  5. The Book of the Acts of Solomon cited in 1 Kings 11:41
  6. The Books of Nathan and Gad cited in 1 Chronicles 29:29 and 2 Chronicles 9:29
  7. The prophecy of Ahijah and the visions of Iddo cited in 2 Chronicles 9:29
  8. The Book of Shemaiah cited in 2 Chronicles 12:15
  9. The Book of Jehu cited in 2 Chronicles 20:34
  10. The Acts of Uzziah written by Isaiah cited in 2 Chronicles 26:22
  11. The Saying of the Seers cited in 2 Chronicles 33:19
  12. The missing letters of Paul cited in 1 Cor.5:9; Eph.3:3-4; Col.4:16
  13. The missing letter of Jude cited Jude 3
  14. The Prophecies of Enoch cited in Jude 14
  15. The missing text quoted in Mt.2:23
  16. A declaration of belief cited in Luke 1:1

The unofficial (aren’t they all?) Mormon apologetics site, FAIR, lists 19 books, stating:

‘The so-called lost books of the Bible are those documents that are mentioned in the Bible in such a way that it is evident they were considered authentic and valuable, but that are not found in the Bible today…the Bible, in its present form, is rather incomplete.’

Joseph Smith published his own Bible, “an inspired revision of the Authorized Version.” (Title page, The Holy Scriptures, Inspired Version, Pub. Herald House) He was “commanded” in 1830 to produce a new version of the Scriptures “even as they are in mine [God’s] own bosom, to the salvation of mine elect” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:20 [34:5 in RLDS version], December 1830). There is a distinct contrast between the incomplete, “as far as it is translated correctly” Bible and Mormon Scripture. The marks of this new dispensation are to be comprehensiveness and trustworthiness; fully the word of God as it is in the bosom of God.

The early Mormons were preoccupied with record keeping, from the 26 volume Journal of Discourses recording the sermons of Brigham Young and others to the personal journals diligently kept and still kept by Mormons today. The aim is a comprehensive and authoritative accounts of God’s dealings with Mormons. If the absence of these books is serious enough to cause Mormons to doubt the reliability of the Bible their absence is serious indeed. This makes their absence from the so-called Inspired Translation all the more puzzling.

How went the Wars of the Lord? What were the Acts of Solomon, or Uzziah? What did the Seers say and Ahijah prophesy? What did Iddo see in vision? What were the statutes that ruled the conduct of kings? We are not to know since the books whose absence Mormons insist fatally compromises our Bible are as absent from Mormon Scripture. Indeed, Joseph Smith, far from expanding the biblical record by restoring lost books, is one book short because he deleted the Song of Solomon, reducing our 66 books to 65 where he might have had 86! “Missing” books serve to discredit our Bible while failure to restore them conveniently removes any responsibility to account for them.

Define “Missing”

We were having a dinner party, my wife and I. Six guests were invited. Perhaps you know them: Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice and Dick and Dora. A splendid time was had by all, spoiled only by the absence of Bob, who had man flu and so couldn’t make it. During the evening someone asked where Janet and John were and I explained that they hadn’t been invited because our table seats only eight. But I would be sure to include them on another occasion. You see, Bob was missing in the sense that he was meant to be there but was absent, while Janet and John were missing in the sense that they were absent because they were not meant to be there.

Something is only missing in the way Mormons mean it if it is meant to be there in the first place. Just because something is mentioned in the Bible doesn’t mean it is intended that it should be included in the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were included according to certain sound criteria while, based on those same criteria, other gospels were not. Mormons are are complaining that certain books didn’t get invited to the party. But then neither have they been invited to the Mormon party!

Define Scripture

This idea of ongoing revelation and an exhaustive and comprehensive record raises a very important question; what exactly is Scripture?

Is the Bible intended to be an exhaustive open record to which further revelation is added? Or is it a discrete collection of messages, a closed canon that is nevertheless sufficient for life and godliness? (2 Pet.1:3) Are we spiritually impoverished because we have no record of Jesus’ childhood, or his life from the age of twelve until he was 30 years old? Or does the Bible give us only those things relevant to our salvation and our saved lives? The Bible favours the latter:

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (Jn.21:25 ESV)

The notion of an exhaustive account of God’s dealings with man is problematic since the world would not be able to contain nor humanity be able to make use of such a record.

Paul makes clear in his letter to Timothy that Scripture has the purpose of making people “wise for salvation through faith in Christ…competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim.3:14-16 ESV) The question is not whether we have an open canon but of whether we are wise for salvation and competent, equipped for every good work. It doesn’t take an encyclopaedic knowledge, just knowledge of Christ to be saved and an understanding of what we are to be in Christ to be equipped.

Timothy was wise for salvation because he knew from childhood the sacred writings (Old Testament) that pointed to Christ, and knew the Christ to whom those Scriptures pointed. He was equipped for every good work because he had the example of Paul to follow (2 Tim.3:10). We, too, have those things, in the Bible that has been wonderfully preserved for us.

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Rev.22:18-19 ESV)

Mormons are always quick to point out that this dread warning applies only to the Book of Revelation and not the whole Bible; they miss the point. Whether we consider this or similar warnings in Deut.4:2 and Deut.12:32 the offence is not in multiplying books but in adding to the established, sufficient word. We are not limiting God in having a closed canon but obeying God in recognising his purpose in having a sufficient message.

Does God speak today? Of course he does! We follow prophets who lead us, as they led Timothy, to being wise for salvation and we follow, as did Timothy, the examples of New Testament leaders like Paul, growing in competence, increasingly “equipped for every good work.” The Bible does speak today (Heb.4:12), the Spirit opens our understanding (Jn.16:13) and we, devoting ourselves to the apostle’s teaching (Acts 2:42-44), walk in his grace, living our faith before a watching world and looking forward to that day when he will come for his own (Rev.22:20; 1 Cor.16:22)

Books

The picture conjured in people’s minds by “books” is of sizeable volumes, something the size of one of the Major Prophets or a gospel. When Mormonism produces additional and sizeable “books of scripture” such as the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants the inference that “books” means substantial volumes containing many key lost doctrines is reinforced. When so many such missing “books” are identified it is an alarming revelation. It feeds the popular idea that the Bible is unreliable and incomplete.

But when the Bible talks about “books” it is usually translating a word such as the Hebrew sepher or the Greek biblia which translate “writings” and can mean anything from a letter (Jude is just 1 chapter containing 25 verses), to a legal document (the “book” in 1 Samuel 10:25 is an example) to a lengthy chronicle (Chronicles and Kings). It is important then to not take too literally in the modern sense the word “books.”

We have already said that just because a book is mentioned in the Bible doesn’t mean it was intended that it should be in the Bible. Of the many books listed by Mormons some certainly are mentioned but not included in Scripture while others are, curiously, included in the “missing” list – even though they are found in the Bible, or even don’t exist at all.

Reporting, Recording, and Redacting – Six Source Books

The popular Mormon picture of prophets and of Scripture is Joseph Smith bent over his gold plates dictating to a scribe an “inspired” translation of the Book of Mormon. Of Smith getting messages directly from God, such as are found in the Doctrine and Covenants. Messages meant to read like the “Thus saith the LORD” sections of Isaiah, Jeremiah and others. When Mormons talk about the “fullness of the gospel” they have in mind not just a sufficient for salvation message, an exhaustive record of revelation issued straight from the throne room of the Almighty untouched by profane hands.

God does indeed speak through prophets in the Bible but much of the Bible is historical narrative, wisdom literature, songs and poetry, proverbs, laws and statutes, etc. the stuff of humanity. Scripture is not simply dictated by God who works through men in the familiar process of transmitting oral tradition, making written chronicles – and redaction, or editing. This makes it no less the Word of God but it helps explain that many “books” are not so much lost as used as sources in the editing and transmission of works that are in the Bible.

Six so-called “missing books” fall into this category of sources for the records we do have in the Bible. These six so-called “missing books” Nathan and Gad, Shemaiah, Jehu, Uzziah, and the Seers all relate to the monarchic period in Israel. “The authors of Kings specifically claim to have access to written sources of information about the monarchic period, both for Israel and for Judah.” (Study Note to 1 Kings 14:19, ESV Study Bible, 2008)

This was a period when literacy was widespread in and around Palestine and writing was employed in legal, business, literary and religious texts. In the period from 1200 BC to the fall of Judah in 587-586 writing has been described as pervasive. The picture we have is of writers and Chroniclers drawing on a vast store of royal archives, temple libraries and archives, as well as foreign annals and inscriptions to produce what has been carefully passed down to us. The writings of Nathan and Gad, of Shemaiah and Jehu, Isaiah’s record of Uzziah and the Chronicles of the Seers were all used to supplement existing material in telling the story of Israel and Judah.

The period covered by Nathan and Gad is covered in Samuel. Chronicles covers the same period as Kings and the Chroniclers’ use of Shemaiah and Iddo, cited in 2 Chronicles 12:15, explains how they were able to supplement the material in Kings. The same might be said of Jehu, a source cited in 2 Chronicles 20:34, Uzziah cited in 2 Chronicles 26:22 and the Chronicles of the Seers cited in 2 Chronicles 33:19. This last expands on 2 Kings 21:17-18 in emphasising Manasseh’s prayer and humble repentance as key to his reign.

The “missing books” were available to and drawn on by the Chroniclers whom God led to write as they did, and whose writings cover the same periods and events as contained in those “missing” documents, and therefore we can be confident that nothing is missing in the sense that it should have been there in the first place. Next time we will look at the list book-by-book.