Simon Peter. See Peter, Apostle
Simon the Magician, 50–52, 62, 88, 89, 155, 160, 190, 191, 217, 233
Smith, Morton, 27, 260–261, 269n16
Socrates, 41, 71, 247
Solomon, 117
Sophocles, 16, 26
Speyer, Wolfgang, 40, 123
Spirit-inspired forgery, 123–125
Spirit of God, 100–101
spiritual battle, 144
Stern (magazine), 13, 14
Stoics, 16
stories, true. See true stories
subjectivity, 3
submissiveness in women, 83, 94, 103–104, 172, 244
suffering, 53–54, 57, 59–60, 66–67
techniques of forgers, 19–20, 33–35
Tertius, 134
Tertullian, 18, 83, 84, 156, 165–166, 169, 212, 213, 221–222, 233, 270n24
Thecla, 81, 82–83, 103, 104, 105, 262
Theopompus, 29
3 Corinthians, 88–90, 216
3 John, 23, 221, 223, 229
Thomas, Judas Didymus, 213, 215
Thucydides, 47, 48
Tiberius, Emperor, 155, 156, 158, 259
Tibetan Issa stories, 252–254
Timothy to the Church (Salvian), 32–33, 262
Tiro, 137
Titus, 49–50, 86, 93, 95, 96, 99, 101, 102, 103, 115, 188, 197
tradition, reactualizing, 125–129
tragic poetry, 45–46, 48
transfiguration scene, 68–69
Trevor-Roper, Hugh, 13, 14
true stories, 43–49; ancient historical writing, 47–49; ancient notions of fiction, 45–48; and falsehood, 45; George Washington illustration, 44–45; nature of, 43–44
truth: apostolic truth, 7–8; Christianity’s truth claims, 5–7; as complex, 43; evangelical Christians’ commitment to, 3–5; objective truth, 3–4; reconciling Christianity with, 4–5; use of falsehoods to promote, 144, 216, 217, 218, 250, 265
truth claims, 5–7, 44–45
Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, The, 252–254
vegetarianism, 259
Venturini, K. H., 256
verisimilitude, 34–35, 102–103
virgin birth story, 235–236
Vitruvius, 246
Washington, George, 44–45
Weems, Mason Locke, 44
women in the church, 82–83, 94, 100, 103–105, 172, 244–245
works, 99, 110, 194–198
writing: ancient literacy and, 70–73; biography, 46, 47; epic poetry, 45–46, 48; fabrication, 232; falsifications, 240–242; historical writing, 44–45, 47–49, 232–234; homonymous writing, 23; literary genre, 46; notions of fiction, 45–48; orthonymous writing, 22–23; plagiarism, 220, 245–249; pseudepigraphal writing, 24–25; pseudonymous writing, 23–24. See also anonymous writing; forgery, literary; scholarly justification of forgery; secretary hypothesis; true stories
Xenophon, 41
Zechariah, 145
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK everyone who helped me in writing this book. Thanks first of all to the National Humanities Center, which provided me a fellowship in 2009–10 that allowed me to do the research. The staff, from the top down, were absolutely marvelous. Special thanks to the amazing library staff, Josiah Drewery, Jean Houston, and Eliza Robertson, who have gone far beyond what anyone could hope for in providing research assistance. May their tribe increase.
Several smart and insightful people graciously read the manuscript in its final stages, and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude: Dale Martin, of the Department of Religion at Yale, who is never afraid to tell me when I’m wrong; Jeff Siker, of the Department of Theology at Loyola Marymount, who occasionally lets me know when I’m right; Joel Marcus, of the Divinity School at Duke, who after all these years continues to wield a mighty red pen; an anonymous reader for the press who provided numerous challenging insights; my daughter, Kelly Ehrman, who is unusually gifted in recognizing literary inelegance; and above all my beloved wife, Sarah Beckwith, professor of medieval and renaissance English at Duke, who is uncannily smart and insightful and is, on top of it all, a walking bibliography.
Thanks as well to my insightful and encouraging editor at HarperOne, Roger Freet, and all the other Harper folk who have always provided extraordinary help and support: Mark Tauber, Claudia Boutote, Mickey Maudlin, and Julie Burton.
Unless otherwise indicated, translations of ancient texts are mine.
I have dedicated the book to granddaughter number two, Sierra, who has seen the light of day for just a year, but is already shining, herself, with an extraordinary brilliance.
About the Author
BART D. EHRMAN is the author of more than twenty books, including the New York Times bestselling Misquoting Jesus, God’s Problem, and Jesus, Interrupted. 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 magazine and has appeared on NBC’s Dateline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, The History Channel, and major NPR programs. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Visit the author online at www.bartdehrman.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
OTHER BOOKS BY BART D. EHRMAN
Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible
(and Why We Don’t Know About Them)
God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: Betrayer and Betrayed Reconsidered
Studies in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament
Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Can Really Know About Jesus, Mary, and Constantine
A Brief Introduction to the New Testament
Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Become the New Testament
The Apostolic Fathers
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity
The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings
The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament
Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels
Credits
Jacket design: LeVan Fisher Design
Jacket and spine painting: St. Matthew and the Angel, by Caravaggio, The Bridgeman Art Library
Copyright
FORGED: Writing in the Name of God—Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. Copyright © 2011 by Bart D. Ehrman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-06-207863-6
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