Lost Books

Books Mentioned in the Bible That Don't Exist Anymore

Apocryphal Excluded from Canon

About this text Excluded from the biblical canon — preserved in fragments, oral tradition, and the margins of history.

The Bible itself references books that we have never found. These are not “hidden” or “suppressed” texts — they are books that the biblical authors knew, cited, and expected their readers to know. They have simply been lost to history. If any of them were discovered, it would be the archaeological find of the millennium.

Book	Referenced In	What It Supposedly Contained	Status
Book of the Wars of the LORD	Numbers 21:14	Military campaigns and victories attributed to God. The only quote preserved is a fragment about the boundaries of Moab: “Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon”	Completely lost. No fragments have ever been found. Likely a very early Israelite war hymnal or military chronicle
Book of Jashar (Book of the Upright)	Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18	Poetry and songs celebrating Israelite heroes. Joshua cites it for the sun standing still at Gibeon. David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan (“The Song of the Bow”) is attributed to it	Completely lost. Medieval forgeries exist but are not authentic. The two surviving quotations suggest it was an epic poem cycle — an Israelite Iliad
Book of the Acts of Solomon	1 Kings 11:41	A comprehensive record of Solomon’s reign — “his wisdom, and all that he did”	Completely lost. Would have been the definitive source on Solomon’s kingdom, the Temple construction, and the historical (as opposed to legendary) Solomon
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel	1 Kings 14:19 (and 17 more references in Kings)	Official court records of the northern kingdom of Israel, from Jeroboam I through the Assyrian conquest	Completely lost. Referenced repeatedly by the author of Kings as a source: “Are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?” This was a state archive, not a religious text
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah	1 Kings 14:29 (and 15 more references in Kings)	Official court records of the southern kingdom of Judah, from Rehoboam through the Babylonian exile	Completely lost. Same formula as above. Together, the Chronicles of Israel and Judah were the primary historical sources behind 1-2 Kings
Book of Nathan the Prophet	1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29	Prophetic history written by Nathan, the prophet who confronted David about Bathsheba	Completely lost. Nathan was one of the most important prophets in the Davidic narrative. His written work would have been an eyewitness prophetic account of David’s reign
Book of Gad the Seer	1 Chronicles 29:29	Prophetic history written by Gad, David’s personal seer and advisor	Completely lost. Listed alongside Nathan’s book as a source for David’s reign
Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite	2 Chronicles 9:29	Prophetic oracles by Ahijah, who prophesied the division of the kingdom (1 Kings 11:29-39)	Completely lost
Visions of Iddo the Seer	2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22	Prophetic visions and genealogies. Also called the “Story of the Prophet Iddo”	Completely lost. Referenced three times, suggesting it was a substantial work
Sayings of the Seers (or “Sayings of Hozai”)	2 Chronicles 33:19	A record of King Manasseh’s prayer and repentance, along with his sins and the “places on which he built high places”	Completely lost. This book allegedly contained one of the most dramatic repentance narratives in Israelite history — the worst king turning back to God
Book of Shemaiah the Prophet	2 Chronicles 12:15	Prophetic history covering the reign of Rehoboam	Completely lost. Listed alongside Iddo’s visions
Book of Jehu son of Hanani	2 Chronicles 20:34	History of Jehoshaphat’s reign, said to be “recorded in the book of the kings of Israel”	May be a section within the larger Chronicles of the Kings, or a separate prophetic work
Lament for Josiah by Jeremiah	2 Chronicles 35:25	A formal lament composed by Jeremiah for King Josiah, killed at Megiddo. “All the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their laments to this day”	Not the biblical Book of Lamentations (which mourns Jerusalem, not Josiah). A separate work, completely lost
The Manner of the Kingdom	1 Samuel 10:25	Written by Samuel — the rights and duties of kingship, deposited “before the LORD” after Saul’s coronation	Completely lost. Would have been the constitutional document of the Israelite monarchy

flowchart TB
    BIBLE["<b>THE BIBLE</b><br/>References at least<br/>14+ external books"] --> WARS["Book of the Wars<br/>of the LORD"]
    BIBLE --> JASHAR["Book of Jashar"]
    BIBLE --> SOLOMON["Acts of Solomon"]
    BIBLE --> KINGS_I["Chronicles of the<br/>Kings of Israel"]
    BIBLE --> KINGS_J["Chronicles of the<br/>Kings of Judah"]
    BIBLE --> PROPHETS["7+ Prophetic Books<br/>Nathan, Gad, Ahijah,<br/>Iddo, Shemaiah,<br/>Jehu, Hozai"]
    BIBLE --> SAMUEL["Manner of the<br/>Kingdom (Samuel)"]
    BIBLE --> JEREMIAH["Lament for<br/>Josiah (Jeremiah)"]

    WARS --> LOST["<b>ALL LOST</b><br/>No copies survive<br/>No fragments found<br/>Not even at Qumran"]

    JASHAR --> LOST
    SOLOMON --> LOST
    KINGS_I --> LOST
    KINGS_J --> LOST
    PROPHETS --> LOST
    SAMUEL --> LOST
    JEREMIAH --> LOST

    style BIBLE fill:#c9a227,color:#000,stroke-width:3px
    style LOST fill:#8b0000,color:#fff

The Bible treats these books as authoritative sources. The author of Kings says “go read the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel” the way a modern historian says “see footnote 47.” These were real books in real archives. Their loss means that:

We are reading secondary sources. 1-2 Kings and 1-2 Chronicles are themselves compilations drawn from these lost works. The biblical history we have is an edited digest of a much larger historical record.
The “complete Bible” is incomplete by its own admission. The Bible itself tells us there are books we should be reading that we do not have. This complicates any claim that the Bible is a self-contained library.
If any of these were found, it would rewrite history. The Book of Jashar alone — an epic poem cycle about Israelite heroes, containing the full Song of the Bow and the account of the sun standing still — would be one of the most important literary discoveries in human history. The Chronicles of the Kings would give us an independent, non-theological history of Israel and Judah.
They may yet exist. The Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden for 2,000 years. The Nag Hammadi library sat in a jar since the 4th century. Ancient libraries in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia may still hold surprises.

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