Forged by Bart Ehrman

It is often said, even by critical scholars who should know better, that “writing in the name of another” was widely accepted in antiquity. But New York Times bestselling author Bart D. Ehrman dares to call it what it was: literary forgery, a practice that was as scandalous then as it is today. In Forged, Ehrman’s fresh and original research takes readers back to the ancient world, where forgeries were used as weapons by unknown authors to fend off attacks to their faith and establish their church. So, if many of the books in the Bible were not in fact written by Jesus’s inner circle—but by writers living decades later, with differing agendas in rival communities—what does that do to the authority of Scripture?

Ehrman investigates ancient sources to:

Reveal which New Testament books were outright forgeries.
Explain how widely forgery was practiced by early Christian writers—and how strongly it was condemned in the ancient world as fraudulent and illicit.
Expose the deception in the history of the Christian religion.
Ehrman’s fascinating story of fraud and deceit is essential reading for anyone interested in the truth about the Bible and the dubious origins of Christianity’s sacred texts.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The evocative title tells it all and hints at the tone of sensationalism that pervades this book. Those familiar with the earlier work of Ehrman, a distinguished professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of more than 20 books including Misquoting Jesus, will not be surprised at the content of this one. Written in a manner accessible to nonspecialists, Ehrman argues that many books of the New Testament are not simply written by people other than the ones to whom they are attributed, but that they are deliberate forgeries. The word itself connotes scandal and crime, and it appears on nearly every page. Indeed, this book takes on an idea widely accepted by biblical scholars: that writing in someone else's name was common practice and perfectly okay in ancient times. Ehrman argues that it was not even then considered acceptable—hence, a forgery. While many readers may wish for more evidence of the charge, Ehrman's introduction to the arguments and debates among different religious communities during the first few centuries and among the early Christians themselves, though not the book's main point, is especially valuable. (Apr.)
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From the Back Cover
The Untold Story of Forgery in the Bible

In Forged, leading Bible authority Bart D. Ehrman exposes one of the most unsettling ironies of the early Christian tradition: the use of deception to establish the truth. With the scholarly expertise and provocative claims for which he's known, Ehrman reveals which texts were forged in the name of Jesus's disciples and considers how the deceptions of an unnamed few have prevailed for centuries. The untold story of widespread forgery in the ancient world sheds new light on how documents of scandalous origin became part of the Bible we have today.
This text refers to the Paperback edition.


The Fantastic Forged!
By Zachary A. Kroger on March 25th 2011

I don't often write reviews, but seeing how basically everyone who has reviewed it so far hasn't even read it, I thought I would help out people who were actually interested in purchasing it.

As usual, Ehrman takes a topic that could potentially bore one to tears and makes it accessible and fascinating. Like all of his popular works, this book was engaging, enlightening and very easy to read. After reading for awhile, I was always surprised how much progress I had made.

As for the content of the book, it is just what you would expect. While he does touch on forgeries a bit in other books (Jesus Interrupted, for example), he really goes into a lot of depth on what went on in the early Christian church, and how people would go about trying to get their views heard, the tricks they used, and how modern scholars work to see through the lies.

It truly is fascinating to learn about how many different viewpoints were being thrown around at that time. Apparently, forgery was so rampant, that some authors would develop little tricks to catch and dissuade forgers. But then forgers would turn around and condemn forging texts, just so people wouldn't get suspicious of their own forgeries!!

One thing that I always appreciated with Ehrman's work, is that he touches on early Christian texts that most people have never heard of. He discusses Gnostic forgeries, anti-Gnostic forgeries, as well as gospels I have never heard of. I was very amused to learn that there exists a "Gospel of Pilate" (forged of course). And it is always amusing to hear that scholars agree that some books of the Bible are forgeries, such as first and second Timothy.

Anyway, the book is filled with fascinating bits, such as ones I just mentioned, and it really helps to see just how fascinating Biblical history really is. I learned a lot, and I am very happy that Ehrman continues to write for non experts like myself. Lastly, I thank Ehrman for including an index. Jesus, Interrupted didn't have one, and it drove me nuts.


Most Helpful Customer Review

Erhman does it again, bringing decades-old scholarship to public.
By Greg VINE VOICE on March 23, 2011
Format: Hardcover

If Ehrman's previous books, especially Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (Plus) and Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them), are any guide, "Forged" will be dismissed in one of two ways. The more progressive Christians will say that Ehrman is not saying anything new, that they have known forever that several of the books in the New Testament were not written by who they claim to be written by. The more conservative Christian will simply dismiss the scholarship as the desperate attempt of a person who hates Christianity and God to find some way of dismissing his message. This second group will also have a mountain of shop-worn workarounds that they think plausibly answer academic scholarship.

"Forged" was not written for scholarly progressive Christians or obscurantist conservative Christians. It was written for the large number of people who more or less accept Christianity as true, or at least a pleasant and socially useful belief system, but who have some questions, perhaps some doubts, and are curious to learn more about their scriptures. Secondarily it is written for people like Erhman himself (and incidentally, me) who were evangelical Christians with a religiously inspired commitment to truth, who find that our dedication to the truth is leading us away from the religion itself. This is how Erhman starts "Forged," with another brief take on his "testimony"--a move from devout evangelical at Moody, to a skeptic at Wheaton, to a critic at Princeton. I think it's an effective reminder that sometimes, contrary to what some Christians think, it is virtue (in the form of truth-loving) rather than some vice that brings us to the point of rejecting Christianity.

Because of his history (not in spite of it), Ehrman writes with understanding and sympathy about what believers take as true about the New Testament, while pulling no punches in taking on the nature of ancient forgery, how it was viewed by scholars and the public during the ancient period, the motivations and intents that might lead to forgery, and so forth. He sets the stage with an historical perspective, then launches into punchy, popularly oriented chapters on why it is widely held that several of the books claimed to be written by an apostolic figure almost certainly were not. Selecting the most interesting and compelling bits of information for such likely forgeries as 1 and 2 Peter, the pastorals of Paul, and others, he makes a breezy but forceful case that the view of many conservative Christians is too simplistic to reflect reality.

And of course he is well-aware of how evangelical scholars have responded to the kind of case he's making (the progressives who say this is old hat are not entirely wrong--the argument has been around in one form or another for many years, but what has been largely missing is lay accessibility), and gently picks apart their apologia. He ends the book with a section that is not on forgery per se, but on the way scribal interpolations amount to sort of further dishonesty within the New Testament pages. This is followed by a reiteration of the theme that begins "Forged"--the importance and virtue of truth. It's hard not to read between Ehrman's lines the disappointment and pique of someone who for many years had been hoodwinked by pious fraud. I attended a Bible college not dissimilar to Ehrman's Moody Bible Institute, and in the course of learning about the Bible were made only dimly aware of critical scholarship--that it existed, not what it said. We were taught that criticism could only be for one reason: people were uncomfortable with the rigors and demands of submitting to Jesus and scriptural authority, and were seeking loopholes. How shocking to discover that people who should have known better, who had an avowed and radical allegiance to truth, would work so hard to distract us from a thorough search for truth and hide from us the works of those seekers who came before us. We can be grateful that Ehrman is putting this digested, reader-friendly scholarship into the hands of so many people who care enough about what's true that they're willing to challenge their own comfortable assumptions.


More About the Author
Bart D. Ehrman

Biography

Bart D. Ehrman is the author of more than twenty books, including the New York Times bestselling Misquoting Jesus and God's Problem. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a leading authority on the Bible and the life of Jesus. He has been featured in Time and has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, the History Channel, major NPR shows, and other top media outlets. He lives in Durham, N.C.


Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (March 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062012614
ASIN: B006QS02F8