Forgery and Counterforgery
Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics is a scholarly monograph by the American New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman. Using textual criticism, the book advances a comprehensive account of pseudepigraphy and related literary deception in Christian texts from the first to the fourth centuries, and argues that ancient readers and critics across pagan, Jewish, and Christian settings typically regarded false authorial claims as forgeries that aimed to deceive.[1][2] Background and publicationEhrman had previously published on textual change and pseudonymous writing, including The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture and the trade monograph Forged. The new study expands that earlier work, shifting from textual alteration to the rhetoric, motives, and reception of pseudonymous composition in Christian polemics.[3][4] Oxford University Press issued the hardcover in November 2012 in the United States.[5] Library Journal reviewed the book in October 2012, calling it "a comprehensive study" and "a valuable addition to the field of scriptural literary criticism" that would be "very useful to researchers and lay readers in that field". The review praised it as both "an insightful study of the use and usefulness of forgeries in polemics during the first four centuries of Christianity, and a near encyclopedic survey of the forged texts themselves".[6] Ehrman has described the volume as his most rigorous academic work, and has stated that it is not written for a general audience. He wrote on his blog that "of all the books I have written, I am proudest of this one", and that it is "not a book for general audiences".[7][8] MonographThe book is divided into two parts that together run to more than six hundred pages of analysis and reference matter. Part One studies forgery in the broader Greco-Roman world and sets definitions, typologies, and detection criteria. Part Two turns to Christian materials and situates pseudepigraphy within specific controversies, including disputes over eschatology, Pauline authority, relations to Judaism, church order, Christology, apologetic argument, and later doctrinal debates, along with cases of counterforgery where one forged writing answers another.[9][10]
The book concludes with a bibliography and indexes of ancient sources, subjects, and modern scholars.[10][9][10] AnalysisThe analysis treats both canonical and noncanonical writings, and for each text evaluates the explicit authorial claim, internal and external evidence for pseudonymity, linguistic and stylistic profile including vocabulary and syntax, intertextual dependence and source use, manuscript attestation and patristic testimony, proposed date and setting, and the polemical function of the attribution within early Christian disputes.[11][12]
Themes and argumentsEhrman defines forgery as a text produced by an author who falsely claims to be a known figure, and distinguishes it from anonymous writing that later receives a false ascription. The discussion assembles ancient testimonies to authorial deceit, summarizes ancient criteria for detection, and analyzes the motives and literary techniques that forgers used to secure reception. Ehrman argues that surviving discussions by pagan, Jewish, and Christian readers do not treat pseudonymous attribution as a benign convention, and that when detected, such writings were condemned as lies.[13] Within Christian literature, Ehrman classifies forgeries by polemical function and situates them in disputes over eschatological delay, authority and identity in Pauline communities, relations between church and synagogue, structures of office and leadership, debates about Christ's flesh and nature, defensive apologetic writing, and later doctrinal fights where forged texts sometimes answer other forgeries as counterforgery. The treatment includes case studies across this range and sets the New Testament writings in that larger landscape.[14] ReceptionMainstream press reviewed the book positively for scope and argument. In the London Review of Books, Diarmaid MacCulloch called it an "engrossing and learned analysis of early Christian literature", and summarized the core position that "forgery was known as forgery in the ancient world" and designed to deceive.[15] Library Journal judged the treatment "scholarly and thorough" and concluded that the volume is a "valuable addition to the field of scriptural literary criticism", recommending it for researchers and interested lay readers.[6] Specialist reviews have examined definitions, evidence, and scope. David Brakke's extended review in The Journal of Religion surveys about fifty case studies and engages Ehrman's criteria and historical claims.[16] Einar Thomassen in The Journal of Theological Studies discussed the breadth of the corpus and the analytic category of forgery, assessing points of disagreement while recognizing the study's documentation.[17] Armin D. Baum in Novum Testamentum agreed that ancient readers commonly condemned pseudepigraphy as deceit, then questioned Ehrman's insistence that authenticity always required an author's very words, calling that specific claim "one step beyond what the numerous relevant sources reveal".[13] In the Marginalia Review of Books, David Lincicum described the volume as "impressive and wide-ranging", praised its control of sources, and argued that the book sometimes over-reads polemic as an organizing lens while still finding "very little sensationalism" in the presentation.[18] Forgery and Counterforgery has been cited in later debates about ancient forgery and authorship across biblical and classical fields. Discussions of pseudepigraphy and intellectual deceit in antiquity have engaged Ehrman's definitions, motives, and use of ancient testimony.[19] See alsoReferences
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