Forged

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.