The reading list
Where to start with the lost books, in the order we would read them. Most of it is free, and you can begin tonight.
Genesis 6:1-4 and Jude 14-15
5 minutes
Two short passages in the Bible you already own. They are the doors into everything else on this list, and most people have never noticed them.
1 Enoch, chapters 1-16
1 hour
The Watchers, the giants, the reason given for the flood. This is the story Genesis barely tells.
The Gospel of Thomas
30 minutes
Read it straight through and mark ten sayings. You will come back to them. Do not skip Saying 114.
The Gospel of Mary
15 minutes
What survives is short and unforgettable. Notice where the pages run out.
Lost Scriptures, by Bart Ehrman
Keep it by the bed
This is the first book to buy. Now that you have read a few, you want a guide and everything else in one binding.
The canon log
15 minutes
Now you know the texts. See how the line was drawn, and how long it took.
The Shepherd of Hermas, first four visions
45 minutes
The book that almost made it. It will change your idea of what kept books out.
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
A few evenings
Start with the Gospel of Truth and The Thunder, Perfect Mind. By now the rest will make sense.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
10 minutes, then as long as you like
Zoom into the Great Isaiah Scroll online, then read the Community Rule and the Book of Giants in Vermes.
2 Esdras, chapters 3-5 and 14
1 hour
End here. A grieving scribe argues with an angel, and then you find out about the seventy secret books.
These are plain store links. We earn nothing from them. How this works.
What to skip
- 2 and 3 Enoch, for now
- They are much later, separate works that some editions bundle in.
- Any edition with no named translator
- It is almost always a reprint of a public-domain text with a new cover.
- Anything that promises the book they do not want you to read
- You can read all of it free. Nobody is stopping you. Be suspicious of people selling you the feeling that someone is.
Then, one lost book a week
What it says, why it was cut, and which edition is worth your money.