Contents
- Introduction
- Burning Books 213 B.C.
- Persecuting Philosophers
- Banned Books & Bible
- Books lost forever
- Inquisition Censorship
- Index Librorum Prohibitorium
- Copernicus & Galileo
- Darkness in Enlightenment
- Revolution & Banned Books
- Colonialism & Book Bans
- New Nation Censorship
- Nazi Germany Book Burning
- USSR Banned Books
- McCarthyism Book Banning
- 21st Century Book Bans
- Banned Books Battles
- Digital Age Book Banning
- World Wide Book Banning
- Book Banning is Bad
- The Future of Book Banning
- Looking Back in History
- Discover New Worlds
Banned books and the bible
Which chapters do we vote into the Bible?
Banned books in Christencom was happening long ago, when Christianity was just starting. People wrote a lot of books about Jesus and His teachings. Not all of them were the same, though. Some books had stories similar to what we see in our Bibles today, but others told very different tales.
As Christianity began to spread from place to place, the leaders of the Church realized they needed to make sure everyone believed the same thing. They thought it was important for everyone to stick together, especially when times were tough and people were against them.
So, they had a big job to do. They needed to decide which books were right and should be part of the Bible – they called these “canonical.” And they also had to figure out which books were wrong or “apocryphal.”
This wasn’t an easy job and it took a long time. A big meeting of important church leaders had to come together to make these tough decisions. This came to be known as the Nicean Council. They had to figure out which books told the true story about Jesus and his teachings, and which books didn’t. They thought about things like, “Does this book match up with what we already know?” and “Did someone close to Jesus write this?”
There were chapters that got voted out.
The early church viewed books that didn’t pass the test as wrong, or “heretical.” The Church didn’t want anyone reading these books, and sometimes, they even destroyed them. Some of these prohibited books included ones like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
But guess what? These rejected books are really interesting! They offer different views about Jesus and His teachings. For example, the Gospel of Thomas has sayings of Jesus that aren’t found in our Bible. And the Gospel of Mary Magdalene talks about Mary as an important follower of Jesus (disciple), which is a different way of looking at things.
The story of these forbidden books helps us understand how the early Church wanted to keep its beliefs safe and avoid any confusion. It also shows us that the early Church was a big mix of different ideas. But most importantly, it’s through the power of books that we learn how people in power sometimes try to control what we read.
Even though some people think these banned books are wrong, they give us a peek into what life was like back when the Church was just starting. Because of them, we learn more about one of the world’s most common religions, which is pretty interesting.
