I said pretty much the same thing in my book The Christ Conspiracy in 1999 – and I was collecting there a scholarly consensus that dates back centuries. Ehrman’s playing catch-up: Some day perhaps he will look more closely at the mythicist position.
One of the chapters in my book, in fact, is called “The Holy Forgery Mill,” and I discuss the same or similar issues. In reality, basically my entire book is designed to show that the New Testament is unreliable as “history.” I do appreciate, however, whenever someone in the hallowed halls of academia essentially verifies what I and these others have been saying all these years.
According to leading biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, many of his contemporaries have it wrong when it comes to the Bible. Instead of calling biblical forgeries what they are – lies – they often fall back on safer scholarly terms, stopping just short of the word “forgery.”
Ehrman, however, is not afraid of breaking rank with his fellow scholars and speaking the truth. In his new book, Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are
(HarperOne; April 2011), the New York Times bestselling author debunks many popular myths about the Bible’s forged books and letters, including the idea that “writing in the name of another” was a common, accepted practice in antiquity. According to Ehrman, forgery was just as disgraceful then as it is today.
In Forged, Ehrman reveals:
* The Apostle Peter was illiterate, and therefore could not have written two letters (1 & 2 Peter) credited to him in the Bible.
* Six of the Pauline letters in the New Testament are forgeries.
* The First Book of Timothy, known to be a forgery, is still used today to oppress women, and provides the Scriptural basis for the Roman Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain female priests….
