When you read the Old Testament you realize there are some books mentioned that you have probably never heard of before. Well Dr. Mariottini lists all 33 of them for us. I had no idea there were that many. Here are a few highlights:
1. The Book of the Wars of Yahweh (Numbers 21:14).
2. The Book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18).
3. The Book of the Rights and Duties of the King (1 Samuel 10:25).
4. Solomon’s three thousand proverbs (1 Kings 4:32).
5. Solomon’s Thousand and Five Songs (1 Kings 4:32).
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Do Mariottini ends his post with the following: “None of these books survived. If they had, we would know much more about the history of Israel and many of the questions we have about kings, wars, and other events probably would be answered and many doubts about the events of the past would disappear.”
Several of the distinct “books” he mentions may refer to other books or portions of books that are in our Old Testament. For example, “The Book of the Law of the Lord” may refer to a portion of Exodus. Where Chronicles speaks of the Acts or the Book of the Kings of Judah and/or Israel, it may well speak of what we know as 1 & 2 Kings. At least two of the books listed are chronicles of the pagan king Ahasuerus (probably references to the same book or series of books).
Nevertheless, this is an impressive list, which should remind us that the Bible is not a complete history of Israel, much less of the world.