NT 17.1 | Pseudepigraphy: Why Ancient Writers Published Under False Names скачать в хорошем качестве

NT 17.1 | Pseudepigraphy: Why Ancient Writers Published Under False Names

In the ancient world, writing under someone else's name wasn't fraud — it was standard literary practice. This video examines pseudepigraphy across Jewish, Christian, and pagan traditions, using the forged correspondence between Jesus and King Abgar of Edessa as a detailed case study. You'll learn how to distinguish pseudonymous texts from anonymous ones, why that distinction matters for reading the Bible, and how the material conditions of ancient manuscript culture made false attribution remarkably easy. Key concepts covered: • Pseudepigraphy defined — publishing a text under a name that is not the real author's • The Abgar-Jesus letters (~250 CE) as a case study, with three scholarly red flags: literary Greek, Johannine theological echoes, and anachronistic fame • The critical distinction between anonymous texts (no authorship claim, e.g., the four Gospels) and pseudonymous texts (false authorship claim, e.g., the Abgar-Jesus letters) • Cross-cultural prevalence — pseudepigraphic texts in Christian, Jewish, and pagan philosophical traditions, including the Paul-Seneca letters and the letters attributed to Plato • How ancient manuscript culture enabled pseudepigraphy: scriptio continua, hand copying, no printing press, no copyright infrastructure • Four methods scribes used to introduce pseudepigraphic texts into circulation • A decision tree framework for classifying any ancient text as authentic, anonymous, or pseudepigraphic • Why pseudepigraphic texts remain invaluable historical sources for understanding the communities that produced them ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOURCE MATERIALS The source materials for this video are from    • 17. Paul's Disciples