Ancient Forged Writing

 

Ancient Forged Writing

Arfad A. Razak

 

Pseudepigrapha or commonly known as “forged writing” is a common phenomenon in the ancient near east. By definition, a pseudepigrapha is a “spurious or pseudonymous writings.”[1] And any book that has been written by someone attributing it to another person is, by definition, a forgery. In the ancient near East, this is a common phenomenon, and over the years, multiple works have been written that shed some light into our understanding of how ancient forgeries work. What was the intend of the person behind this act? And has he or she gained by engaging in such dishonorable activities. It should be noted that many scholars since the past two centuries have noticed the presence of multiple forged writings in the New Testament. For example, the late Catholic scholar Raymond Brown lists down 6 writings attributed to the apostle Paul as forgeries. These epistles were written by someone claiming to be Paul.[2] However, there are other much more conservative scholars that have pushed back this claim.[3]

The question that has always been in discussion, and one that has always been disputed by the conservative and liberal camps is on ethics. Was it ethical for someone to write a book in someone else’s name? In our modern society, majority of us would respond in the negative as we consider this as forgery. But we are not concern with the modern world, instead we want to find out the reaction of those living two to three centuries after Jesus when it comes to this. The late prominent scholar J.D.G Dunn for once thought that in the ancient world there is no concept of ‘ethical notion of literary property.’[4] However, this is completely incorrect. E Earle Ellis puts it bluntly in his book “In fact, the Greco-Roman world recognized and contested forgeries composed for a variety of reasons and thus presupposed the rights of literary property that could be violated.”[5] This is supported by the condemnation of forgers by the church father named Epiphanius. To this Ehrman wrote “Epiphanius would not be the first Christian author to condemn forgeries and then produce a forgery (or at least a fabrication) himself…”[6] [It is unfortunate that in this short article, we would not have the space to provide examples. However, readers may consult the literatures cited below for further reading].

We should also take a factor into consideration just as Brown advised. A distinction should be made between pseudonymous writings and forgeries.[7] Eve-Marie Becker states “The terms pseudepigraphy and pseudonymity should not simply be used synonymously. In the case of pseudonymity, a fictitious author is chosen, in the case of pseudepigraphy, the work is ascribed to a real author.”[8] With that being said, any writings falsely attributed to a particular individual will continue to be perceived in the negative.

Here, we should entertain the question as to whether are they any forgeries in the New Testament? Majority of critical New Testament scholars such as the late Yale professor, Dale Martin, provides a more convincing argument opposing Keener’s later conviction. Martin states “The two main reasons scholars believe Colossians was not written by Paul are its writing style and its theology. The style of writing is very different from Paul’s…Paul is capable of writing long sentences…but he generally does not…in terms of words, syntax, and all other issues of style, the author of Colossians had a distinctive style much unlike Paul’s.” [9] Here, we should also note that Keener believes the differences in writing styles could be explained due to the borrowing of some languages “from the false teachers to make his case against them (this is because in Colossians, the author is combating “false teachers”).[10] Others believe that the differences in writing style and syntax is due to his maturing thoughts.[11]  In any case, Keener’s thesis has not gained much support as his theory is based on speculation and imagination. There is lack of evidence to entertain the idea that Paul would adopt the languages of his opponent simply to refute their argument or to make fun of them. In fact, it is to the contrary. When Paul was mad at his opponents, he would either cursed them or wish awful matters would befall them. For example, Galatians 5:12 (I wish that those who are troubling you [by teaching that circumcision is necessary for salvation] would even [go all the way and] castrate themselves, AMP[12]) or Galatians 1:9 (As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed, ESV[13]). 

In conclusion, forgeries were prominent in the ancient world. In fact, the only authentic letters in the New Testament are the genuine Pauline epistles (Galatians, Philemon, Philippians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians).[14] The other Pauline epistles such as Ephesians and Titus (among others) began with salutations “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God; Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…(Ephesians 1:1, Titus 1:1, NRSV).” But it turns out that these writings have been demonstrated by modern critical scholars to be pseudonymous due to syntax, vocabularies, and all sorts of writing styles.

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[1] Oxford Dictionary

[2] Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. 585-680.

[3] For example, Craig S. Keener disagree with the thesis that Colossians is a pseudonymous writing. See NRSV Cultural Background Study Bible. Zondervan Academic, 2019. 2098

[4] ‘Pseudepigrapha,’ DLNT, 977-984

[5] The Making of New Testament Documents. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999. 322

[6] Forgery. 24.

[7] Brown. An Introduction. 585.

[8] Ehrman, Bart D. Forgery and Counter Forgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 29. Here, Ehrman is quoting Becker. It should also be noted that in the next paragraph, Ehrman actually did not follow Becker and indicate that he will use pseudonymous writing in a broader sense.

[9] Martin, Dale B. New Testament History and Literature. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. 251-2

[10] Keener. NRSV Cultural Background Study Bible. 2098.

[11] Bourke, Myles M. “Colossians.” The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 1493

[12] Translation from the Amplified Bible

[13] Translation from the English Standard Version

[14] The debate on the authenticity of the Pauline epistles will never be satisfied. Conservative scholars such as Michael F Bird and N.T Wright insist that all epistles attributed to Paul were written by him. See The New Testament in its world. Zondervan Academic, 2019. 420-21; 458-59; 530-40. Others like Brown and Martin disagrees. See An Introduction and New Testament History and Literature.