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London, Mar 27 (ANI): Was the Bible forged? Yes, according to an American New Testament scholar.

Bart D Ehrman has claimed that several New Testament books were actually written by people who lied about their identity, claiming to be famous apostles Peter, Paul or James, reports the Daily Mail.

Ehrman, the best selling author of ‘Misquoting Jesus’ and ‘Jesus, Interrupted’, said in an article in the Huffington Post that religious scholars were well aware of the ‘lies’ of the Bible.

While some were happy to acknowledge them, others referred to them as ‘pseudepigrapha’ - meaning a falsely attributed work, he said.

In his new book, ‘Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are’, Ehrman claimed ‘The Second Epistle of Peter’ - or ‘2 Peter’ - was forged.

“…scholars everywhere - except for our friends among the fundamentalists - will tell you that there is no way on God’s green earth that Peter wrote the book. Someone else wrote it claiming to be Peter,” he said.

Ehrman also claimed that six of the 13 letters allegedly written by Paul were actually authored by others.

He said the book of 1 Timothy attributed to apostle Paul was actually written by someone living after Paul’s death.

He said the author tried to use the apostle’s name to solve a problem for the church.

“Women were speaking out, exercising authority and teaching men. That had to stop,” said Ehrman.

“The author told women to be silent and submissive, and reminded his readers about what happened the first time a woman was allowed to exercise authority over a man, in that little incident in the garden of Eden,” he said.

“No, if women wanted to be saved, they were to have babies (1 Tim. 2:11-15),” he added.

Paul is known as one of history’s great misogynists, largely based on this passage from the Bible.

But Ehrman argued this label was not necessarily justified because he was not the one to write it.

He claimed that the 1Timothy was still used today to oppress and silence women, and provides the scriptural basis for the Roman Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain female priests.

“In no small measure it is because Paul allegedly taught that women had to be silent, submissive and pregnant. Except that the person who taught this was not Paul, but someone lying about his identity so that his readers would think he was Paul,” he said.

Ehrman then wrote how the Bible was actually filled with the need for ‘truth’ but many of its writers were telling a lie.

“It appears that some of the New Testament writers, such as the authors of 2 Peter, 1 Timothy and Ephesians, felt they were perfectly justified to lie in order to tell the truth,’ he wrote. (ANI)