Question: What Books were Excluded from the Canon?
Answer:
We have already noted in other questions the many references in the O.T. to other ‘books’ or ‘annals’ that refer to records that were not considered on a par with those included in the canon.
Looking at the books that were rejected from the Old Testament canon helps us see more clearly how the ones that were included were so different.
Some of the well known rejected books are:
a) Ecclesiasticus
- which makes no claim that its author was a prophet or that the Lord spoke by him.
b) The Book of Baruch
- supposedly Jeremiah’s secretary,
- supposedly in Babylon though Jer 43:6 says he went with Jeremiah to Egypt,
- in generally inaccurate and contradicts other known details and dates.
c) The Books of Maccabees
- make no claim to prophetic authorship
- records simply secular wars etc.
d) The Books of Tobit & Judith
- full of clear geographical, chronological and historical mistakes
- neither claim to be the works of the prophets
It should be noted that these and other rejected books were not quoted by, or accepted by, Jesus or the apostles.
