Forged: Writing in the Name of God

Bart Ehrman's new book is due out in April, and here's a blurb from the current issue of Library Journal (2/1/11, p 69):

"Ehrman provides evidence here that the ancient world, in fact, generally condemned forgeries as much as the modern world does. He then goes on to discuss works that were wrongly claimed to have been written by Peter or by Paul as well as other forgeries, including some in the last two centuries. He distinguishes between the use of a pen name to hide the writer's identity and a forgery that claims to be the work of someone else. Most of the forgeries Ehrman discusses served anti-Jewish propaganda, although some were anti-pagan, while the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus was an attempt to correct the very anti-Christian Acts of Pilate. Ehrman uses other forgeries as well to support his conclusion that 'Christians intent on establishing what was right to believe did so by telling lies.'"

Telling lies, indeed, as per my earlier series on lying and deception. It will be interesting to how Ehrman has developed his ideas over the past few years.