Bart D. Ehrman - Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are

Forged, by Bart D. Ehrman, is an attempt to prove to a wider audience what many biblical scholars have known for a long time, that many of the books in the bible were not written by who we think they were. While I liked portions of the book, and it was certainly informative, in many places I found it to drag and become somewhat boring.

One point that Ehrman made repeatedly that I appreciated was that contrary to what some people claim, forgery did exist in antiquity and was soundly condemned when it was discovered. He goes on to point out that those who claim that forgery didn't really exist, or that the writers didn't mean to deceive anyone, or that it was common practice to sign one's work with the name of one's teacher as a sign of honour and humility, are basing those claims on absolutely no evidence. I remember very clearly being told in a first year new testament class at my bible college that even though many of the books were not written by the people whose names are on them, it wasn't really forgery because that type of attribution was common during those times. I remember thinking that that was a weird practice, but accepting it as the truth. It's nice to see that it in fact was not the truth.

Ehrman has a wealth of evidence that many of the books in the new testament were not written by those who claim to have written them, ranging from differences in writing styles, the coverage of topics that were not relevant until decades after the deaths of the supposed authors, and perhaps most interestingly the fact that those books were written in a highly educated style of Greek (employing Greek rhetorical argument styles) that it is very unlikely that people like Peter or Paul possessed. I also found it very interesting that many of the books, including the gospels, do not claim an author, and what were originally anonymous works had authors imposed on them centuries later when church authorities realized that in order for those books to be authoritative they needed famous authors like the apostles.

Ehrman does however spend a large amount of time examining forgeries that never made into the canon and that everyone acknowledges are forgeries. While that was interesting to a point, it began to drag on considerably. That is merely personal preference, however, as I would have liked Ehrman to have examined more possible forgeries in the bible itself (perhaps in the old testament, which he hardly touches on). I also had a few problems with Ehrman's acceptance of much of the bible as historical fact. He discusses the "genuine" Pauline letters, but does not provide the evidence he uses that they are in fact genuine. In addition, while he does look at historical inaccuracies (like the idea of an empire-wide census at the time of Jesus' birth) he does not look at the inclusion of the supernatural in the gospels and discuss the improbabilities of them (and the reasons why they were included, obvious as they might be).

Overall, Forged was a generally interesting book, although there were definitely some parts that were considerably more interesting than others.