Why are there no new books of the Bible?

(This is a serious question.)

It's been a really long time since we had any new books of the Bible, and as far as I am aware, there is no particular reason for this. Does anyone know why God has stopped giving people new gospels to write? Is there a Biblical or theological reason for it? If not, why do you think it is?

Secondly, is there any reason why God does not touch up the old books of the Bible so that they make more sense to a modern reader? It seems like a great deal of sin is facilitated by imprecise or poorly translated language, and

I cannot understand why, if God could tell people what to write 2000 years ago, he would be so silent now.

 

The book of mormon first appeared in the 1830's, which is less than 200 years ago.

Keep in mind that most of these "new books" are initially given little creedance by the majority of Christians/rest of society. Just like the bible, the promoters are often viewed as cult leaders/heretics/imposters. So, it takes a long time for thesre writings to be widely accepted as a new part of the faith.

I'm sure there are some wild-eyed people babbling wildley about the word of god that was conveyed to them who will eventually become accepted as true religious leaders, but we still see them as crazy.

 

Possibly truly religious people don't compile books for people to worship. As the song goes, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.

 

I see what you mean about the book of Mormon, although I don't know whether I can imagine that being accepted into the Bible - it doesn't seem particularly welcomed or particularly resented and reviled, people seem to just accept it as a separate religion. I know that it's highly unlikely that anyone writing a new book of the Bible would be accepted now, but I was mainly thinking about those from, say, the past 1000 years. There doesn't seem to have been much activity since then and you'd think if there WERE books waiting in the wings for acceptance, we would know about them by now. Considering how many old books of the Bible that AREN'T widely accepted that we know about, I mean.

 

Because people don't read anymore.

There has been a record number of religious television shows though.

 

have you ever heard of or read the gospel of Mary or the book of Judas? Most christians dont like them or talk about them cause they dont like them...they're seen as the 'black sheep books' but they're quite interesting. Especially Judas'...their's information in it that contradicts some other christian information, plus some cool information about Jesus' and Judas' relationship....worth reading, if you can find them in hard copy. They are on the net though

 

i remember looking at a book called the aquarian gospel.i think it was written in the 20th century.it was written like a bible.it seemed to be new stories about jesus.i don't remember too much....also in the 70's i remember bibles called good news for modern man.it was the bible translated into 20 th century language.

 

If you're talking about the book of Mary Magdalene, I'm vaguely aware of it via The X-Files. In both cases I can't help but feel that there's if anything more reason for someone to fake a controversial or heretical text than any other kind, really.

Not to be pedantic, but book sales are pretty much the only medium apart from video games that are still in a growth period.

 

Harry Potter doesn't count.

Plus, those sales are in comparison with the population.

Also, America is full of idiots and isn't the best place to derive such statistics from.

I wonder if there's a study that shows the percentage of the population
(maybe by ethnicity, since minorities will completely fuck up the statistics, especially those of a 100 years ago) that reads daily for recreation today as compared to lets say... 100 years ago by decades.

 

I derived my statistics from England. Of course Harry Potter counts, and of course Dan Brown and all those shitty chic lit books count too, and the only reason not to include them is out of misplaced elitism. I guess sales doesn't equal reading, but it's a common misconception largely perpetuated by 50s sci-fi authors that reading has markedly declined. I think if anything the myth is that tons of people used to be reading en masse every day.

 

I speak mostly out of personal experience, especially here in Gringolandia. People simply don't read. My generation seems to be literary retarded.

But yes, sales do not equal reading...

50s sci-fi authors were extremely successful though. Hell, I'm sure that Starwars books make more money than James Joyce classics these days.

But all in all... I don't think that Christians read that much.

But, to actually answer the original question more seriously...

Adding to the Bible at this modern day would completely destroy its mystic nature. It would no longer be "the word of God". It wouldn't hold the same magic for people. Adding to the Bible would be a terrible move by any church. Even the Mormons aren't that popular.

 

See, that's what I don't get: it was added to back then, compiled from other books and so forth. If that fact doesn't detract from it, I don't know why this would.

 

It was added in the past, before today's believers were even close to existing... so it still seems like something ancient and wise to them. I don't know if I'm using the right words, but I think that you know what I mean.

Adding to it right now would kill, or at least neutralize that feeling. This would weaken the church, and this day of raising atheism and individualism isn't a good time for religion to loose ground.

They could theoretically add some ancient texts to the Bible, and make up some back-story that proves that the texts are holy in some way, shape, or form... but that still would simply confuse people.

Religion is rather simple for the average religious person, it's not something that they'd want to over-complicate.

Theoretically, this could work for the benefit of the church in a couple of hundred years... but I'm pretty sure that the ground they will loose right now will not be worth it.

 

I was going to say that they're being more weakened by stupid schisms over different interpretations of the Bible... but I'm not sure that that's actually true.

 

I don't think that they're arguing that much over the schisms anymore. The different denominations have seemed to simply settle at their own corner. There isn't really that much competition for people or converts anymore. It's more of a family thing now, a sort of a social club more than anything.

There seems to be struggle between Christianity and other religions, but not that much within Christianity itself.

It doesn't have the internal fighting that Islam, per example, demonstrates.

 

Have they agreed to disagree over AIDS and homosexual bishops then?

 

They agreed to ignore both issues until they go away.

 

Believers think God said everything he had to say.
The Christian canon of the familiar 27 books of the New Testament was pretty much worked out by the 3rd century and finalized in the 4th century. Other books, suppressed by the church, were discovered since 1945, but had been around since the early Christian era. These included the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, Mary, and Judas. The so called Aquarian Gospel, dealing with Jesus' life between childhood and his ministry, is the result of visions by Levi Dowling in 1908. I think the main reason there are no new books is because the religious establishment worked out the canons earlier, and weren't receptive to new ones. Jesus was supposed to be the fulfillment of the promises of Scripture, and the more recent ones, including the Book of Mormon and the Aquarian Gospel, have to do with testimony about his life and teachings. New ones would have to be in the form of visions filling in details about Jesus. Of course there is Islam, which incorporates the Hebrew and Christian traditions and goes one step beyond. But Muhammed was supposed to be the last word: the Seal of Prophets.

 

See, part of my problem is, I've never really understood why anyone took ANY of it seriously. I mean, regardless of what you think of the sentiment, it's kind of weird to think that someone could just say "yeah, God told me this stuff, publish it please" and be taken seriously.

 

You overestimate humanity.