Forgery and Counterforgery

The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine

"Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature," writes Bart Ehrman, "is the degree to which it was forged." The Homilies and Recognitions of Clement; Paul's letters to and from Seneca; Gospels by Peter, Thomas, and Philip; Jesus' correspondence with Abgar, letters by Peter and Paul in the New Testament - all forgeries. To cite just a few examples.

Forgery and Counterforgery is the first comprehensive study of early Christian pseudepigrapha ever produced in English. In it, Ehrman argues that ancient critics - pagan, Jewish, and Christian - understood false authorial claims to be a form of literary deceit, and thus forgeries. Ehrman considers the extent of the phenomenon, the "intention" and motivations of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish forgers, and reactions to their work once detected. He also assesses the criteria ancient critics applied to expose forgeries and the techniques forgers used to avoid detection.

With the wider practices of the ancient world as backdrop, Ehrman then focuses on early Christian polemics, as various Christian authors forged documents in order to lend their ideas a veneer of authority in literary battles waged with pagans, Jews, and, most importantly, with one another in internecine disputes over doctrine and practice. In some instances a forger directed his work against views found in another forgery, creating thereby a "counter-forgery." Ehrman's evaluation of polemical forgeries starts with those of the New Testament (nearly half of whose books make a false authorial claim) up through the Pseudo-Ignatian epistles and the Apostolic Constitutions at the end of the fourth century.

Shining light on an important but overlooked feature of the early Christian world, Forgery and Counterforgery explores the possible motivations of the deceivers who produced these writings, situating their practice within ancient Christian discourses on lying and deceit.

©2013 Oxford University Press (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Hard Hitter

Very convincing. Very thorough as always.

Narrator is pretty weak. It takes a while to get past his inflection. He has some embarrassing pronunciation mistakes. Clearly does not know who Joseph of Arimathea is or Josephus.

Ver Poor reading

The Narrator not only mispronounces certain words but rushes the narration as if he is in a hurry. This is a very distracting approach and takes away from the content of the book.

Enjoyable listen except for pronunciation issues

The performance is good except many of the names are mispronounced. The mispronunciations are frequent enough and extreme enough that it regularly interfered with my enjoyment of the book and occasionally interfered with comprehension. Such as the mispronunciation of the name of the prophet Elisha as "Alicia", though Elijah is pronounced correctly.

Wish the narrator were as good as the text

This is a book worth anyone's time who is interested in the diversity of Christian thought in the early centuries of the common era.

I wish that the narrator were up to the task. As things stand, there may be a language that he can pronounce correctly, but it is not to be found in this book.

Interesting book, poorly narrated

Book interesting, but narration choppy with odd pronunciations ("Marcion" as "Martian" is funniest); be warned.