Bart D. Ehrman, the New York Times bestselling author of Jesus, Interrupted and God’s Problem reveals which books in the Bible’s New Testament were not passed down by Jesus’s disciples, but were instead forged by other hands—and why this centuries-hidden scandal is far more significant than many scholars are willing to admit. A controversial work of historical reporting in the tradition of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan, Ehrman’s Forged delivers a stunning explication of one of the most substantial—yet least discussed—problems confronting the world of biblical scholarship.

Forgery and Counter-forgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics is the first major contemporary work on forgery in early Christian literature. It examines the motivation and function behind Christian literary forgeries.

Is the Bible the word of God? This classic of atheistic literature has the answer, and it's a loud and profound NO! American writer JOSEPH WHELESS (1868-1950) employs all the tools of the logician, from the self-evidence of reason to the words of the very proponents of the attitudes he strives to dismiss, to condemn Christianity as nonsense. Wheless roundly debunks. . the patriarchs and the covenants of Yahweh . the wonders of the Exodus . the forty years in the wilderness . the "ten commandments" and the "law" . the "conquest" of the promised land . the holy priests and prophets of Yahweh . the "prophecies" of Jesus Christ . the inspired "harmony of the Gospels" . the Christian "plan of salvation" . and more. This is a highly provocative work, one that should be explored by believers and doubters alike. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM COSIMO: Wheless's Forgery in Christianity

Incendiary in its passion and irrefutable in its evidence, this classic of atheistic literature condemns Christianity as superstition and wishful thinking rooted in early paganism, "sourced" by anonymous fables, and promoted by self-serving men seeking "worldly riches and power." Raging against the blatant manipulations of the early Church and the antiscience agenda of the modern Church, American writer JOSEPH WHELESS (1868-1950) takes on everything from faked "relics" and the "holy mummery" of stigmatics and other dramatic mystics to the "priestly terrorism" of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Church's historical intolerance. This is an absolute must-read for anyone looking for ammunition to counter the argument that the longevity of Christianity is evidence of its legitimacy. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM COSIMO: Wheless's Is It God's Word?

A documented record of the Foundations of the Christian Religions. Contents include: Pagan Frauds - Christian Precedents; Hebrew Holy Forgeries; Christian "Scripture" Forgeries; the Saintly "Fathers" of the Faith; the "Gospel' Forgeries; the Church.

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author comes the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star religion professor at Harvard, announced a breathtaking discovery just steps from the Vatican: she’d found an ancient scrap of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “my wife.” The mysterious manuscript, which King provocatively titled “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” had the power to topple the Roman Catholic Church. It threatened not just the all-male priesthood, but centuries of sacred teachings on marriage, sex, and women’s leadership, much of it premised on the hallowed tradition of a celibate Jesus. Award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar covered King’s announcement in Rome but left with a question that no one seemed able to answer: Where in the world did this history-making papyrus come from? Sabar’s dogged sleuthing led from the halls of Harvard Divinity School to the former headquarters of the East German Stasi before landing on the trail of a Florida man with an unbelievable past. Could a motorcycle-riding pornographer with a fake Egyptology degree and a prophetess wife have set in motion one of the greatest hoaxes of the century? A propulsive tale laced with twists and trapdoors, Veritas is an exhilarating, globe-straddling detective story about an Ivy League historian and a college dropout—and how they worked together to pass off an audacious forgery as a long-lost piece of the Bible.

In 2002, an ancient limestone box called the James Ossuary was trumpeted on the world's front pages as the first material evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ. Today it is exhibit number one in a forgery trial involving millions of dollars worth of high-end, Biblical era relics, some of which literally re-wrote Near Eastern history and which could lead to the incarceration of some very wealthy men and embarrass major international institutions, including the British Museum and Sotheby's. Set in Israel, with its 30,000 archaeological digs crammed with biblical-era artifacts, and full of colorful characters—scholars, evangelicals, detectives, and millionaire collectors—Unholy Business tells the incredibly story of what the Israeli authorities have called "the fraud of the century." It takes readers into the murky world of Holy Land relic dealing, from the back alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to New York's Fifth Avenue, and reveals biblical archaeology as it is pulled apart by religious believers on one side and scientists on the other.