This one hour special deals with a raft of extra-canonical texts that did not make it into the orthodox bible.  Gnostic, heretical, the products of forgery or ancient midrash – these stories circulated for centuries, were lost, rediscovered, or survived in fragmentary forms.

Though they feature characters and events we know from today’s bible, each was deemed unfit for inclusion in canon. We ask what made these texts so problematic. Some of today’s best-known scholars and authors examine some of these tales, explaining the myriad reasons behind their exclusion from the bible.

We look at the secrets of the Apostles, revealing lost texts that feature Jesus and his followers. Found in forgotten libraries, buried in caves or in the sands of the holy land, these texts shed new light on the many competing Christian sects that sprang up in the first centuries after the crucifixion. In the Acts of Peter, uncovered in a library in Vercelli, Italy, the apostle Peter fights heretics in the heart of Rome – using powers which seem like something from ‘Lord of the Rings’.

The suppressed story of the female apostle Thecla, a heroine to early feminist Christians, is also revealed, and placed in context by respected author and scholar John Dominic Crossan. Other lost texts, sacred to the Ascetic, or celibate Christian cults and the early Christians known as Gnostics, are placed under the microscope. Theses include the mysterious saga of Peter’s death and upside down crucifixion.

We also revealed the controversial ‘Lost Gospel of Mark’, banned due to its homoerotic undertones and its suggestion that the early Christian church kept secret gospels. Next, we look at the newly-discovered ‘Gospel of Judas’, which turns the well known story of the betrayal on its head, portraying Judas as Jesus’ most trusted apostle.

These ancient texts fall outside the New Testament, preserved as sacred legends or condemned as heresies. Yet they all shed new light on the centuries when Christianity was in its formative years, raising provocative questions about what was ultimately included in today’s bible – and why.