I've always read from the King James Version and believed better because these other books almost do make it harder to get the real message. I agree with you, there is a lot lost in history of mankind altogether, not just within the Bible. But, that it's been altered and even in the Bible it says not to, and not to add to it or take from it, and yet the Bible itself, even the KJV Bible is known to have lost books in the middle of the book, read the very end of a KJV Bible just beyond Revelations. It tells us about these missing pieces and gives the people a little forethought as to more of a reason why the Bible was written to begin with.