Forged: Writing in the Name of God--why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are - Softcover

Bart D. Ehrman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062012622 ISBN 13: 9780062012623

Publisher: Bravo Ltd, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bravo Ltd
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062012622
• ISBN 13: 9780062012623
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320