Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 1016 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Paul's Lost Letters - Wisdom Wednesday


Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge.  Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy.  Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1016 of our Trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday.  Creating a Biblical Worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events.  To establish a Biblical Worldview, it is required that you also have a proper understanding of God’s Word.  Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors.  In order to help us all have a better understanding of some of the more obscure passages in God’s Word, we are investing Wisdom Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser.  He has compiled these essays into a book titled  ’I Dare You Not to Bore Me With the Bible.’

Were all of the books written by the apostles included in the Bible?  If not, why not?  Today’s essay will explore:
Paul’s Lost Letters
Throughout modern history, there has been a discussion about how particular books were included in the New Testament. Dan Brown's blockbuster novel and subsequent movie The Da Vinci Code based its conspiratorial plot in part on the notion that other gospels had been eradicated by spiteful church authorities and an emperor openly partial to orthodoxy. The success of the novel and movie prompted many churchgoers to ask whether or not all the books that should be included in the New Testament actually were.

To be sure. Dan Brown took a lot of liberties with facts in his story’. But what if we're not dealing with fiction? The New Testament itself tells us that there were books written by apostles that didn’t make it into in the Bible. Surprised? Let's take a look.
·       1 Corinthians 5:9
In l Corinthians. Paul himself mentions an earlier letter he wrote to this same church in 1 Corinthians 5:9: When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. While some interpreters have argued that Paul was referring to the letter he was currently writing (1 Corinthians), most acknowledge that this explanation is weak. Taken at face value, 1 Corinthians 5:9 tells us that Paul had written to this church before, but that letter has not survived and thus is not part of the New Testament.
·       Colossians 4:16
In Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae in Colossians 4:16, he says, After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. What was this letter from Laodicea? What happened to it?

The phrase “letter from Laodicea” is a literal translation of the Greek and suggests that the letter came from Laodicea. This is a bit misleading though. The phrase does not necessarily mean that this letter was written by someone in Laodicea to Paul or to the Colossians. Colossians 4:16 tells us that letters to churches were circulated, and so it may be that this Laodicea letter was written by Paul and sent to the Christians at Colossae—like the Colossian letter was to be sent to the believers in Laodicea.

Some scholars have speculated that this letter isn’t actually missing. The region of Laodicea was also identified with the city of Ephesus, indicating that the letter from Laodicea may actually be the epistle to the Ephesians.