The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (1926) is a collection of 17th Century and 18th Century English translations of some Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and New Testament Apocrypha

New Testament apocrypha

The New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings by early Christians that claim to be accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. These writings often have links with books regarded as "canonical"...

 which were assembled in the 1820s, and then republished with the current title in 1926.

History of the translations

Rutherford Hayes Platt, in the preface to his 1963 reprint of The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden states:

"First issued in 1926, this is the most popular collection of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature ever published."

The translations were first published, under this title, by an unknown editor in The Lost Books of the Bible Cleveland 1926, but the translations had previously been published many times.

Although some of the recent reprint editions claim translations by Lightfoot

Lightfoot

Lightfoot may refer to the following people:* Chris Lightfoot , a former English footballer* Claude Lightfoot, an African-American activist* David Lightfoot, an Australian film producer* Edwin N...

 and R. H. Charles, much of the content of the 1926 edition derives from the London bookseller and satirist William Hone

William Hone

William Hone was an English writer, satirist and bookseller. His victorious court battle against government censorship in 1817 marked a turning point in the fight for British press freedom.-Biography:...

 (1780-1742) who made an edition of translations by the Welsh non-conformist minister Jeremiah Jones (biblical scholar) (1693–1724) and William Wake

William Wake

William Wake was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737.-Life:...

 (1657–1737), later Archbishop of Canterbury. The translations of Wake and Jones are now only of academic curiosity, having been replaced by translations based on more complete manuscript evidences.

For more modern translations see the standard modern editions:

• J. H. Charlesworth, ed. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2 Vols.
• W. Schneemelcher, ed. New Testament Apocrypha
  New Testament apocrypha
  The New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings by early Christians that claim to be accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. These writings often have links with books regarded as "canonical"...
  
   2 Vols.

Reprint editions

• The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden (A & B Book Dist Inc, March 1994, ISBN 1-881316-63-7)
• The Lost Books of the Bible (Testament, 1998, ISBN 0-517-27795-6)
• The Forgotten Books of Eden (Alpha House, 1927, ISBN 0-517-30886-X, ISBN 1-56459-636-2, ISBN 0-529-03385-2).

Contents of The Lost Books of the Bible

• The Gospel of the Birth of Mary
  Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
  The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is a part of the New Testament apocrypha, and sometimes goes by the name of The Infancy Gospel of Matthew, but the actual name of the text in antiquity was The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior...
  
  
• The Protevangelion
  Gospel of James
  The Gospel of James, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about AD 145, which expands backward in time the infancy stories contained the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and presents a narrative concerning the birth and...
  
  
• The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ
  Arabic Infancy Gospel
  The Syriac Infancy Gospel is one of the texts found in the New Testament apocrypha concerning the infancy of Jesus. It may have been compiled as early as the sixth century, and was based on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and Protevangelium of James.-Contents:...
  
  
• The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
  Infancy Gospel of Thomas
  The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a pseudepigraphical gospel about the childhood of Jesus that dates to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was part of a popular genre of biblical work, written to satisfy a hunger among early Christians for more miraculous and anecdotal stories of the childhood of Jesus...
  
  
• The Epistles of Jesus Christ and Abgarus King of Edessa
• The Gospel of Nicodemus (Acts of Pilate
  Acts of Pilate
  The Acts of Pilate , also called the Gospel of Pilate, is a book of New Testament apocrypha. The dates of its accreted sections are uncertain, but scholars agree in assigning the resulting work to the middle of the fourth century...
  
  )
• The Apostles' Creed
  Apostles' Creed
  The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol"...
  
   (throughout history)
• The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Laodiceans
  Epistle to the Laodiceans
  An Epistle to the Laodiceans, purportedly written by Paul of Tarsus to the Laodicean Church, is mentioned in the canonical Epistle to the Colossians...
  
  
• The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to Seneca, with Seneca's to Paul
  Epistle to Seneca the Younger
  The Epistle to Seneca the Younger is a collection of correspondence claiming to be from Paul of Tarsus to Seneca the Younger. There are 8 epistles allegedly from Seneca, and 6 replies allegedly from Paul...
  
  
• The Acts of Paul and Thecla
  Acts of Paul and Thecla
  The Acts of Paul and Thecla is an apocryphal story— Goodspeed called it a "religious romance"— of St Paul's influence on a young virgin named Thecla. It is one of the writings of the New Testament Apocrypha.- The text :...
  
  
• The Epistles of Clement
  Epistles of Clement
  The Epistles of Clement are two letters ascribed to Clement of Rome :* First Epistle of Clement;* Second Epistle of Clement, not by the same author;...
  
   (The First and Second Epistles of Clement to the Corinthians)
• The Epistle of Barnabas
  Epistle of Barnabas
  The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek epistle containing twenty-one chapters, preserved complete in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament...
  
  
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philidelphians
• The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrneans
• The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp
• The Shepherd of Hermas
  The Shepherd of Hermas
  The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work of the 1st or 2nd century, considered a valuable book by many Christians, and considered canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. The Shepherd had great authority in the 2nd and 3rd centuries...
  
   (Visions, Commands, and Similitudes)
• Letter of Herod To Pilate the Governor
• Letter of Pilate to Herod
• The Lost Gospel of Peter
  Gospel of Peter
  The Gospel According to Peter , commonly called the Gospel of Peter, is one of the non-Canonical gospels which were rejected by the Church Fathers and the Catholic Church's synods of Carthage and Rome, which established the New Testament canon, as apocryphal...
  
  
• The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians

Contents of The Forgotten Books of Eden

• The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
  Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan
  The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan is a Christian pseudepigraphical work found in Ge'ez, translated from an Arabic original and thought to date from the 5th or 6th century AD....
  
   (The First and Second Book of Adam and Eve)
• The Secrets of Enoch
  Second Book of Enoch
  The Second Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraphic of the Old Testament. It is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. Late 1st century CE is the dating often preferred...
  
  
• The Psalms of Solomon
  Psalms of Solomon
  One of the Pseudepigrapha, the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen psalms that are not part of any scriptural canon...
  
  
• The Odes of Solomon
  Odes of Solomon
  The Odes of Solomon is a collection of 42 odes attributed to Solomon. Various scholars have dated the composition of these religious poems to anywhere in the range of the first three centuries AD...
  
  
• The Letter of Aristeas
  Letter of Aristeas
  The so-called Letter of Aristeas or Letter to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the 2nd century BCE, one of the Pseudepigrapha. Josephus who paraphrases about two-fifths of the letter, ascribes it to Aristeas and written to Philocrates, describing the Greek translation of the Hebrew Law by...
  
  
• The Fourth Book of Maccabees
  4 Maccabees
  The book of 4 Maccabees is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It is not in the Bible for most churches, but is an appendix to the Greek Bible, and in the canon of the Georgian Bible...
  
  
• The Story of Ahikar
• Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
  Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
  The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a constituent of the apocryphal scriptures connected with the Bible. It is a pseudepigraphical work comprising the dying commands of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is part of the Oscan Armenian Orthodox Bible of 1666. Fragments of similar writings were...