Every year on 9/11 a post circulates on social media. It purports to be a transcript of a phone call from a certain Todd Beamer (on United 93) to a telephone operator, named Lisa. It often circulates with a photo of Todd Beamer. It is a real tear-jerker. I read it every year when I see it.

Now, Todd Beamer is real. He was on the flight. And he did place a call to the operator, and he did speak to a woman named Lisa. And many of the details in the transcript reflect what actually happened on the flight that day,; at points, it even reflects accurately what Lisa has since confirmed they discussed.

But the transcript is a fabrication. No recording of the call exists. And on some points, the alleged transcript contradicts what Lisa has related about their conversation.

What fascinates me is what this fictitious transcript tells us about human behavior, and the implications it could carry for the gospels.

Someone wrote that transcript from scratch and then circulated it. True, whoever wrote it was working with some genuine facts about what happened that day. But the transcript itself is simply a work of fiction.

People continue to circulated it as authentic, even though two minutes on google would show it is a fabrication–it has been widely and thoroughly debunked by many reputable sources.

This sort of behavior seems like it could shed some light on the composition and spread of the gospels.