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In our previous episodes on "literary forgery" in early Christianity, we have never yet talked about the elephant in the room: why are there so many in the New Testament? In this episode we will not be going over the old ground of what forgery is (an author falsely claiming to be a famous person) or how it was justified in the ancient world, even among writers who urge high ethical standards (!). We are instead interested in the startling scholarly claim that of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, only eight of them were probably written by the person to whom they are attributed. In some cases the attributions are made by later readers (the author of Mark does not claim to be Mark); but in many cases the authors themselves make the false claim (2 Peter claims to be written by Peter). We might understand how one or two books like this managed to get into the Christian New Testament. But nineteen?

Megan asks Bart:

-Why is forgery in the New Testament an important topic?

-Pseudepigraphy, forgery, and orthonymous: could you just explain exactly what those terms mean?

-The canonical gospel are pseudepigraphic, correct?

-In your book “Forgery and Counterforgery”, you write that only eight of the twenty-seven books in the NT are orthonymous, that is, they were written by the person who claimed to have written them. What are those eight books?

-That leaves 19 books that are either forgeries, or falsely attributed. Why is so much of the NT in this category?

-What about the books that are falsely attributed?

-If we take out all of the books of the NT that academics have determined are forgeries, how does that change the message of the NT as a whole?

-Would the removal of these books impact any major theological or moral debates among Christians?

-What are “counterforgeries”?

-What can the forged books of the NT tell us about the development of Christianity as a religion?

-What insight does the inclusion of some of these forgeries in the NT give about the religion the early church fathers were trying to form, as opposed to what we’d consider to be heretical beliefs?

-Why do books with conflicting views both get included in the NT?