Alternatively: How many books were included in early Bible compilations and then later removed?
A book in the bible, to my understanding, is one of the many named divisions in the Old and New Testament. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John would be 4 different books, and each of Paul's letters to the churchs in the different cities would each be a 'book'
There are a certain number of Books in the King James Version, but how many other 'books' or writings did scholars/historians/religious leaders have access to but for one reason or another, were never included in the more modern Bible compilations. (perhaps due to controversy, or translation disputes, or issues in verifying the author)
If we could go back and add all of these books and letters to the Old and New Testament today, how many books would the Bible have?
This questions comes out of curiousity after seeing books in a Catholic printing of the bible that did not exist in the King James version.
I'm assuming the Apostles or whoever compiled the Bible books, didn't have the whole structure and order down in the exact way they printed now.