Forged: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are

The search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don't want to go there.

One of the ironies of modern religion is that the absolute commitment to truth in some forms of evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity and the concomitant view that truth is objective and can be verified by any impartial observer have led many faithful souls to follow the truth wherever it leads—and where it leads is often away from evangelical or fundamentalist Christianity. So if, in theory, you can verify the “objective” truth of religion, and then it turns out that the religion being examined is verifiably wrong, where does that leave you? If you are an evangelical Christian, it leaves you in the wilderness outside the evangelical camp, but with an unrepentant view of truth. Objective truth, to paraphrase a not so Christian song, has been the ruin of many a poor boy, and God, I know, I’m one. Before moving outside into

few religions in the history of the human race have shown a greater penchant for conflict than the religion founded on the teachings of Jesus,

When she was young, Peter learned in a vision from God that if she remained healthy, she would lead many astray; she apparently was beautiful as a child, and as an adult she would entice men to sleep with her. When she was ten, a next-door neighbor attempted to seduce her, but before he could sleep with her, she became paralyzed, by the mercy of God. The neighbor went blind for his troubles, until healed by Peter and converted to faith in Christ. But the girl had to remain paralyzed, lest she lead others astray. Here again the point is perfectly clear: sex is dangerous and to be avoided at all costs, even if it means being an invalid for life.

And no one should deny the amazing good that has been done in the name of Christ, the countless acts of selfless love, the mind-boggling sacrifices made to help those in need. Even so, few religions in the history of the human race have shown a greater penchant for conflict than their religion founded on the teachings of Jesus, who, true to his word, did indeed bring a sword.

Many Christians in the modern age think of their religion as peace loving, as well it often has been and should be. But anyone with any grasp of history at all knows also just how violent Christians have been over the ages, sponsoring oppression, injustice, wars, crusades, pogroms, inquisitions, holocausts—all in the name of the faith.

Whoever wrote 1 Peter, for example, was a highly educated Greek-speaking Christian who understood how to use Greek rethorical devices and could cite the Greek Old Testament with flair and nuance. That does not apply to the uneducated, illiterate, Aramaic-speaking fisherman from rural Galilee, and it does not appear to have been produced by a secretary acting on his behalf.

Just think of the author of the Pastorals, who claimed to be Paul even though he wasn't, and the author of the Acts of Paul, who claimed to be representing Paul's proclamation even though he wasn't. They have just the opposite views of women and their roles in the Church.

And so it goes—at every turn Paul had opponents. We should not write these opponents off as fringe minority groups of no importance. They were everywhere, and Paul saw them as dangerous.

The truth, of course, is that Jews throughout history have been no more illiterate, blind, or stupid than Christians.

As one ancient writer, Heliodorus, put it: "A lie is good when it benefits the one who speaks it without doing harm to the one who hears.

Forgery was so widely condemned in antiquity that even forgers condemned forgery.

if the ends are sufficiently important to require lies instead of the truth.

Jesus’s half brother James, who in this account is the son of Joseph from a previous marriage.

The anonymity of the Gospel writers was respected for decades. When the Gospels of the New Testament are alluded to and quoted by authors of the early second century, they are never entitled, never named.

We knew about Gnostic forgeries for a long time before we actually had any of them.

The end of time will not bring a salvation of the flesh; it will bring a deliverance from the flesh.

This view lost out in the ensuing debates,

If you expect Jesus to come back soon—say, sometime this month—there is no real need for a hierarchical system of organization and leadership. You simply need to get along for the short term.

Marcion then edited his eleven books, eliminating from them portions that seemed too Jewish.

Intentions are not the same as motivations. The “intention” is what you want to accomplish; the “motivation” is the reason you want to accomplish it.

Gospels, Acts, letters, and apocalypses (these are the four literary genres of the New Testament

Religion was all about the proper practices:

drink alcoholic beverages (“Be ye not drunk with wine,

This motivation was at work in both Christian and non-Christian circles. We know this because ancient authors actually tell us so. For example, a commentator on the writings of Aristotle, a pagan scholar named David, indicated: “If someone is uninfluential and unknown, yet wants his writing to be read, he writes in the name of someone who came before him and was influential, so that through his influence he can get his work accepted.

My point is that fiction, even historical fiction, can in some sense convey "truth" even it is something that "didn't happen". Truth is more than simply correct information.

because it intends to lead readers astray. But in another sense plagiarism can be seen as the flip side of forgery. Forgers write their own words and claim they are the words of another; plagiarists take the words of another and claim they are their own.

he was moved by the Spirit to write in the name of an early Christian authority.

apocalypses, in which an author is given a secret revelation about the divine, heavenly mysteries that can make sense of the mundane, earthly realities.