Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Why would a Christian Author Lie about who he Was? By Bart D. Ehrman Read by John Paul Middlesworth in my previous post I said a bit about forgeries in the New Testament, that is, books whose authors claimed to be a famous person Peter, Paul, James, Jude, knowing full well they were someone else. In the ancient world, these books were called lies in Greek Pseudo, or books inscribed with a lie. Pseudepigrapha. But why would a Christian author lie about who he was? How could he live with himself?
[00:00:38] I discussed the matter at length in my books Forged and even more in Forgery and Counter Forgery in my textbook, the New Testament A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Oxford University Press. I can discuss the matter only briefly in a sidebar box to give my students a sense of the situation in antiquity. With this post I'll be concluding for now my thread giving some of these kinds of boxes. But since this is such an intriguing subject, I'd like to set it up first by quoting a paragraph from my book Forged about the author of Ephesians, who claimed to be Paul, lying about it, even though he placed such a premium on the truths.
[00:01:19] It is striking that in his instructions about the Christian armor, the author of Ephesians also tells his readers to fasten the belt of truth around your waist.
[00:01:32] Truth was important for this writer early on. He refers to the Gospel as the word of truth, chapter 1, verse 13.
[00:01:42] He later indicates that the truth is in Jesus and tells his readers to speak the truth to their neighbors. 4:24 25 he also claims that the fruit of the light is found in truth. 5:9 how ironic, then, that the author has deceived his readers about his own identity.
[00:02:06] The book was written pseudonymously in the name of Paul by someone who knew full well that he was not Paul.
[00:02:13] Falsely claiming to be an impeccable Christian authority, this advocate for truth has produced a pseudepigraphon, a falsely inscribed writing.
[00:02:24] At least that is what ancient critics would have called it had they known the author was not Paul.
[00:02:30] And so some Christians went into battle armed not with truth but with deception.
[00:02:36] Possibly they felt justified in lying about their identity. There was, after all, a lot at stake.
[00:02:45] So why would someone do that? Didn't they know lying was wrong?
[00:02:50] Here's my new box in my textbook that gives, in very short order, my own views of the matter.
[00:02:58] Box 25.4 what do you think? Forgery why would a Christian do it?
[00:03:06] Early Christians repeatedly insist that it is important to tell the truth. Is it conceivable, then, that some Christian Authors such as the authors of 2 Peter or of 1st Timothy claimed to be persons other than who they were. That unknown authors would write books claiming to be Peter or Paul, knowing full well that they were someone else.
[00:03:30] How could they live with themselves if they did that? How could they justify their behavior?
[00:03:36] As it turns out, in ancient Christianity, there were two views of lying.
[00:03:41] The view that ended up becoming very popular might be seen as one extreme. It is a view associated with the famous Church father of the 4th to 5th century Augustine. Augustine's view was that a Christian should never lie, ever, under any circumstances.
[00:03:57] Even if telling a lie would prevent a loved one from experiencing the torments of hell forever, you should not do it.
[00:04:04] There were plenty of other people who disagreed, which is why Augustine had to argue his view so forcefully. Lots of people didn't buy it. It was widely thought by other Christians that in some circumstances a person was perfectly justified in telling a lie. This view can be traced way back in both the pagan and Jewish traditions.
[00:04:25] Greek philosophers such as Plato, for example, indicated that sometimes lying was the right thing to do. It is perfectly all right to lie to your daughter if that gets her to take her medicine, since otherwise she might die. It is absolutely acceptable for the general of an army to lie to his troops that reinforcements were on their way if they were losing heart in the midst of battle. So too in the Jewish tradition. In the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Genesis, Abraham lied about Sarah, saying she was his sister in order to save his own skin. Genesis 12.
[00:05:01] If he hadn't, he may well have been killed and there would have been no nation of Israel.
[00:05:07] In the book of Joshua, Rahab, the prostitute lied about not knowing where the Israelite spies were. If she had not done so, they may have been arrested and Israel may never have been able to conquer the Promised land.
[00:05:20] Many people in the ancient world, including many Christians, thought that it was acceptable to tell a lie if doing so would lead to a greater good. The authors of the early Christian writings were all convinced that what they had to say was for the greater good. Is it possible that some of them thought that it was acceptable to lie about their own identities in order to convey that truth?
[00:05:43] If so, then they may have had pure motives, even if others would have condemned them for doing what they did.
