It is often said, even by critical scholars who should know better, that "writing in the name of another" was widely accepted in antiquity. But religion scholar Bart D. Ehrman dares to call it what it was: literary forgery, a practice that was as scandalous then as it is today. Here, Ehrman's original research takes readers back to the ancient world, where forgeries were used as weapons by unknown authors to fend off attacks to their faith and establish...

Presents a series of twenty-four lectures that examines in detail the New Testament. Professor Bart Ehrman discusses its form, the methods of composition, its authors and their original audiences, and the surrounding historical context. He focuses on questions of historical evidence and explanation rather than on issues of religious belief and theological truth.