Forged (book)

Forged: Writing in the Name of God – Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are is a book written by the noted biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman. Although it has long been recognised that numerous Epistles of the New Testament bear names of authors who are unlikely to have written them, traditional Christian teaching has been that it was an accepted practice in antiquity for a writer to attribute his work to a well-known figure from the past, or a teacher who has greatly influenced him. Forged demonstrates that this is incorrect and the practice would have been condemned as dishonest by all authorities in antiquity. Falsely attributed writings are often referred to as "pseudepigraphs" but Ehrman maintains that the more honest term is "forgery". The book posits that 11 or more books out of the 27 books of the Christian New Testament canon were written as forgeries. In his book, Ehrman points out numerous inconsistencies which he finds within the New Testament which appear to support many of his claims, such as the fact that in Acts 4:13 the statement is made that both Peter and John were illiterate, yet in later years entire books of the Bible were then alleged to have been written by them.

Contents

• Books of the New Testament identified as forgeries by Ehrman
• False attributions
• References