Reilgion Forgories

Martin Luther a well known philosopher states that as humans we have the right to believe in what we chose. The United States does not force a certain religion on to us which we have to follow. Since we are free to choose the religion we want to follow and be involved with, we can see how Bart D. Ehrman is using Luther’s perspective by stating that the New Testament has forgeries in it.
Bart D. Ehrman has done research for years on the New Testament trying to prove that several of the books in the New Testament are forgeries. He claims that 1st Peter and 1st Timothy were written by Paul or someone claiming to be Paul, then later goes on to discuss that Paul would have not written the letters, thus revealing that the Gospel of Peter is written in the first person claiming to be written by Paul.
If the United State was a country that had a set type of religion for the entire country, Ehrman would not be allowed to express his views of the New Testament. Many people in the United States follow different religions and have been expressing different views for different religions. Most of the religions that have different beliefs and are trying to escape the “norm” of their religion do not have substantial evidence to prove their case. Ehrman has several different ways he can prove that there are New Testament forgeries.
One way he proves this is by studying the ancient Roman World and other documents from that time period. During the Roman World, forgery was widespread and was common among documents. During that time period people did not have nice laptops like we do today to record everything that happens, which then caused the events of what happened to be written down by someone who knew how to write or to be passed down from generation to generation by orally.
Ehrman discussed 1st and 2nd Peter with Peter allegedly writing 13 letters to followers of Jesus. Many scholars think that Peter wrote about 6 of the letters but are unsure of the other 7. Since they do not think Peter wrote the letters, Ehrman believes that someone else wrote them and put Peter’s name to them. Since they do not believe Peter wrote them they would be considered forged. 1st and 2nd Peter is not the only books in the New Testament to be considered forged. Ehrman also believes that the letter to James from peter is also forged. He believes this because in the letter he speaks of a missionary to Gentiles or Non-Jews who preaches a “lawless Gospel” which does not make sense considering Peter is a Jew. If this is a forgery in the New Testament, we then cannot tell who the author is, but someone that claims to be Peter.
Ehrman also states that this practice of forgery was condemned during this time period, but people still participated in it. Going back to Luther’s statement, if the people wanted to worship their own way, they could have chosen not to believe in what they were being told.
There is no clear way for anyone to know if there are truly forgeries in the New Testament or in the Bible in general. Scholars, like Ehrman can study the ancient documents from the Roman World and they can also apply theories like Luther’s to the New Testament and the Bible, but we can only apply their theories so many ways before that form of religion turns into another form. Even if there are forgeries in the Bible or the New Testament, people still read the Bible and follow their religion faithfully. By following Luther’s statement, Ehrman and other scholars have had the opportunity to present the material that they feel is false and not written by who it claims to be. If our country did not have freedom of religion Ehrman and other scholars would have to find a different way to present what they have found.
Even with Ehrman having his methods of proving that the New Testament has forgeries, how do we truly know if the New Testament is forged? There will never be a way to know for sure if the New Testament is forged because we were not there when it was written. Many people can try to prove that it was forged with different theories, but there theory will not be right.
With different theories about religion being claimed it would be hard for everyone to pick just one to believe in. With different theories, there are even more theories because of the different form of religions. With different forms of theories there can be different forms of forgeries with different religions. Baptist could view these theories differently than people who are catholic compared to people who are Jewish.
Since many of the religions use the Bible as their primary text they could all interpret in different ways, leading scholars to have different viewpoints. As Erhman claims that Paul has forgeries, we do not know that God wanted it to be that way. He could have wanted Paul to have had his letters to be forged for a reason we have yet to discover, and that we may never discover in this lifetime. There are many things in our lifetime that we may not discover until we have passed on and are on the other side with God.
No matter what people believe about the Bible, everyone will always have their own view about their religion. Scholars are not going to be able to change people’s views and will always try to change them. Viewpoints are hard to change without substantial evidence and Erhman doesn’t seem to be a reliable evidence from what he claims to be right. Scholars will continue to share their viewpoints and will always have an opinion. It is up to us to decide what we want to believe in and nobody but ourselves can change our viewpoint.