On Monday, March 21, 2011, I gave a lecture at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club of California, underwritten by The Bernard Osher Foundation. The moderator was Alan Jones, Dean Emeritus, Grace Cathedral. Below is a link to the lecture.

I gave the lecture soon after my book Forged: Writing in the Name of God. Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are appeared. In that book I try to present, to a lay audience, the evidence that scholars have found compelling that not only are some books *outside* the New Testament written (falsely) in the names of the apostles (for example, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocalypse of Paul, and so on: these were not really written by Peter, Thomas, or Paul, as everyone agrees) but also books written *inside* the New Testament. This does not apply to “anonymous” books, where an author does not provide his name (e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — the authors themselves do not say who they are, it was only later readers, editors, and scribes who called them by these names). But it does apply to any book that claims to be written by someone who in fact did not write it, as is the case for example of Ephesians or 1 Timothy (claiming to be written by Paul, but not), or 1 and 2 Peter (not actually written by Peter) or James or Jude (not actually written by Jesus’ own brothers).

 

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