Evangelical Response to Bar Ehrman 4

The Canon of the Bible

A Roadmap of Books Claimed by Alleged Followers of Jesus Today


Not claimed as Scripture but good to read	Claimed as Scripture by people who say they follow Jesus	Altered Scriptures

Liberals: whatever you believe becomes the God’s word for you

Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible	Thomas Jefferson’s scissors cut out New T. verses he didn’t like
Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible
	Zwingli (d.1531) rejected Revelation

	Luther called James an “epistle of straw” but still included it as scripture

John Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible (One Calvinist said that though it was not included in scripture it almost should have been.)	Protestant Bible: 39 Old Testament books plus 27 New	Jehovah Witness New World Translation
	Protestant Bible: 39 Old Testament books plus 27 New	Jehovah Witness New World Translation

	Catholic Bible - previous plus O.T. apocrypha of 8 books & 4 additions	Joseph’s Smiths’ Bible translation (RLDS Mormons own the copyright, so LDS Mormons don’t use much.)

	Slavonic Orthodox Bible - same as Catholic Bible plus 2 & 3 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, Prayer of Mordecai


	Greek Orthodox Bible – same as previous plus 4 Maccabees

Mormon Journal of Discourses: early Mormon sermons (26 volumes)	LDS Mormons: Book of Mormon (1829), Doctrines and Covenants (1833/35) Pearl of Great Price (1835)	Over 4,000 change in the Book of Mormon since first published

	The Parables of Jesus – The Jesus Seminar

	Christian Science: Science and health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (1875)

	Children of God/ Family of Love cult “Mo Letters” by Moses David

	The Urantia Book (2,097 pages)

The Lost Years of Jesus by Elizabeth Clare Prophet	The Lost Books of Jesus (4 volumes) by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Instead of other books	Claimed as Better Scripture
The Aquarian Gospel (1911)	Rev. Moon’s Divine Principle (1977)

The Unknown Life of Christ	Bahai’s: Lawb-i-Aqdas (1863-1892)

The Crucifixion of Jesus, by an Eyewitness (1907)	Babis revere as prophet’s words The Bayan, Kitabu’l-Asma’, Panj Sha’n

The Qur’an (Muslim claim to follow the prophets, including Jesus) (Gospel of Barnabas written (c.1380-1560) not thought scripture)		The Fihrist lists Qur’an changes

Druze claim Jesus a true prophet: Letters of Wisdom by al-Muqtana

Hindu scriptures (a few Hindus claim Jesus was a Hindu guru)

Groups spanning the first two columns would accept only parts of the Bible as from God. Some might think it ridiculous to consider Muslims, some Hindus and Druze all as followers of Jesus. But it is no sillier than someone defining a Christian as someone who claims to try to follow Jesus’ teachings.

A Roadmap of the Old Testament and Other “Scriptures” Prior to Jesus


Not claimed as Scripture but good to read	Claimed as Scripture by Jews or those who say they follow Jesus	Altered Scriptures

Acts of Solomon 1 Ki 11-41 Chronicles of Kings 1 Ki 14:19, 29, 2 Ki 19:9-12, Kings of Judah & Israel 2 Chr 16:11; 25:26; 28:26,32; etc. Kings of Israel 2 Chr 20:34; 33:18; 24:7; 1 Ki 14:19 Jasher Josh 10:13; 2 Sam 1:18 Wars of the Lord Num 21:14	Sadducee Jews: only first 5 books	Samaritan Pentateuch

	Christian writer Melito of Sardis (170-180 A.D.) rejected Neh., Ezra

	Jew Ben Sira (2nd century B.C.) all O.T. except Ezekiel

	11 Jewish writings said rabbis should not publicly read one or more of Ecc, Esth, Ezek., Prov, Ru., Song of Songs

Paul quoted from Aratus, Cleanthes, and Epimenides in Acts and Titus	Christians and Jews generally accepted 39 Old Testament books	Jer 8:8: lying pen of scribes handled scripture falsely

Sibylline Oracles [5 writers] Plato’s Timaeus [5-1 writers] some truths in philosophers	Majority of early Christians and Greek-speaking Jews – O.T. plus historic apocrypha: Catholic apocrypha + 1,2, Esdras, Prayer of Manasses

Book of Enoch [2-1 writers] Assumption of Moses

	Eldad and Modat [Shepherd Hermas]

Instead of other books	Book of Enoch [2-1 writers]

Most Gnostics rejected all of the Old Testament. But a few Gnostics said the lesser God had some truths there	Ethiopian Orthodox Bible – OT plus Letter of Jeremiah, 1,2,3 Maccabees (different than in apocrypha)

We should not be surprised to find a similar situation of fake Old Testament books with the New.

A Roadmap of the New Testament and Other “Scriptures” After Jesus


Not claimed as Scripture but good to read	Claimed as Scripture by people who say they follow Jesus	Altered Scriptures

	Ebionites: shorter form of Matthew

	The Alogi rejected John’s Gospel

	Eusebius (319-340 A.D.) and Amphilochius of Iconium (after 394 A.D.) rejected Revelation	Tatian’s Diatessaron (Encratite) 4 gospels combined minus parts on Jesus’ humanity

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account…” Lk 1:1	Orthodox Christians generally accepted 27 New Test. books	Marcion used Luke and Paul’s letters but said O.T. references were corruptions. He wrote Antitheses.

About 84 pre-Nicene Christian writers and 104 writers within 100 years after Nicea	3 Corinthians in papyrus p72 (ca.300 A.D.), Armenian, some Syriac) (slightly smaller than Titus)

p72 also has 1, 2 Peter Jude, Nativity of Mary, 11th Ode of Solomon, Melito’s Pasha, fragment of a hymn, Apology of Phileas, Ps 33,34.

Instead of other books	Gospel of the Egyptians, Preaching of Peter, Acts of Paul, some accept Apocalypse of Peter
Manichaeans: Creation of the Word and the Alien Man The Religion That I, Mani Have Chosen, Mani’s Death, Visions of Paradise, The Light of Paradise, Prayer to Mani, other poems

	Sinaiticus manuscript (340-350 A.D.) has Bible plus Letter of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas

Mandaeans: Song of Ascent Ethics and Morality, etc.	Alexandrinus manuscript (c.450 A.D.) Bible + 1, 2, Clement

Ebionites: Clementine Homilies, Protoevangelium of James, Recognitions of Clement,	Ethiopian Orthodox New Testament: Book of Covenant, Clement, Sinodos, Didascalia

Valentinian Gnostics: Gospel of Truth, The Round Dance of the Cross, Gospel of Philip, Treatise on the Resurrection, + 8 others	Spurious works by orthodox Christians (Acts of Paul and Thecla, plus 23+ others)

Naasene Gnostics: Naasene Hymn Gospel of Thomas (180-235 A.D.)	Paul mentioned a false report or letter supposedly from him in 2 Thess 2:2. We know of forged letters of Paul to the Laodiceans, Alexandrians, multiple to Seneca

Sethian Gnostics: Three Tablets of Seth, Secret Book of John, plus 8 others

Hermetic Gnostics: Asclepius, Poimandres, On God’s Bisexuality	Muratorian canon says some will not have Apocalypse of Peter read in church

Gnostic Basilides: Octet of Subsistent Entities + 7 others

Gnostic Justin: Book of Baruch

25+ other Gnostics groups wrote their own scriptures

Samples of Gnostic Writings

Samples from Tatian’s Diatessason

[Jesus said,] I said unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” Tatian’s Diatessaron section 35:24. This is the same as John 8:24.

[Jesus said,] “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: and no man cometh unto my Father, but though me.” Tatian’s Diatessaron section 45:34-35. This is almost the same as John 14:6-7, except that it has “the Father”.

The Diatessaron is a harmony of the gospels, made by the Encratite Gnostic Tatian (died 170 A.D.). It is a harmony of 79% of all the gospel verses, leaving out verses referring to the humanity of Jesus. Since the Diatessaron has nothing except gospel verses, but it leaves out teaching that Jesus was a human, should it be considered God’s Word or not?

Samples of Justin’s Book of Baruch

In Justin’s Book of Baruch the creator, Elohim, is not evil, but he is bumbling, neglectful, and abandons his wife Edem [Eden]. The Gnostic Bible p.119

“Naas [the serpent] had transgression, for he approached Eve and seduced her and debauched her and he also approached Adam and used him as a boy. This was the origin of adultery and pederasty…. Baruch was sent to Moses, and though him spoke to the sons of Israel … but the third angel of Eden, Naas, though the soul given by Eden and dwelling in Moses, as in all men, overshadowed the commandments of Baruch and made his own commandments heard…. For the soul is Eden, while the spirit is Elohim; and each is in all, both female and male. After that Baruch was sent against to the prophets, … Naas beguiled the prophets, … Finally, Elohim chose a prophet from the uncircumcision, Heracles [Hercules], and sent him to contend with the twelve angels of Eden and to free the spirit of the Father from the twelve evil angels of the creation. These are the twelve labors of Heracles… Finally, ‘in the days of king Herod’, Baruch was sent again by Elohim, and he came to Nazareth and found Jesus,…” Justin’s Book of Baruch in The Other Bible p.640.

Naasene Gnostics (Found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt)

Thomas answered and said, ‘What can we say in the face of these things? What shall we say to people who are blind? What instruction shall we give to these miserable mortals? They say, ‘We have come to do good, not to curse,’ but add, ‘If we had not been born in the flesh, we would not have known about sin.’ The savior said, ‘This is true: do not think of them as human beings, but consider them as animals. For as animals devour each other, so also people like this devour each other.” Book of Thomas ch.5:1-4

“But these sayings that you utter are laughable and ridiculous to the world, for they are misunderstood. How can we go forth and preach them, since the world does not respect us?’ (Jesus goes on to say that those who laugh or smirk will be cast into Hell/Tartarus for ever and be handed over to the angel Tartarouchos who will chase them with fiery whips. Book of Thomas ch.6:2-8

His disciples said, ‘When will you appear to us, and when shall we see you?’ Jesus said, ‘when you strip and are not embarrassed, and you take your clothes and throw them down under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the child of the Living One and you will not be afraid.” Gospel of Thomas saying 37

“Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of the Father is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of flour. While she was walking on a road far from home, the handle of the jar broke and the flour spilled behind her on the road. She did not know it: she had not noticed the problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and discovered that it was empty.’” Gospel of Thomas saying 95.

[One might see some truth in this statement. Maybe this is what the Gnostics will find out that the kingdom of their Father is like.]

Other Books Found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt

“Since you have asked me to send you a secret book revealed to me and Peter by the Lord, I could not turn you down or refuse you. So I have written it in Hebrew, and set it to you and only you. But, considering that you are minister for the salvation of the saints, try to be careful not to communicate this book to many people, for the Savior did not even want to communicate it to all of us, his twelve disciples. Nonetheless, blessed are those who will be saved through the faith of this treatise. Ten months ago I sent you another secret book that the Savior revealed to me. Think of that book as a revelation to me, James. As for this one,…” Secret Book of James 1:2-6

Secret Book of James 3:11 has Jesus saying, “So disdain death, but care about life. Remember my cross and my death, and you will live.”

“When the light mixed with the darkness, it made the darkness brighter. When the darkness mixed with the light, it dimmed the light. The result was neither light nor darkness, but rather gloom. This gloomy ruler has three names: The first name is Yaldabaoth. The second is Saklas. The third is Samael. He is wicked because of the Mindlessness that is in him. For he said, ‘I am God, and there is no other God besides me.’ Since he did not know from where his own strength had come.” Secret Book of John ch.6.10-13. Later it teaches that Yaldabaoth was this world’s Creator.

“Then [Yaldabaoth’s] Mother began to move around. She realized that she was lacking something when the brightness of her light diminished. She grew dim because her lover had not collaborated with her.’ I [Judas Thomas] said, ‘Lord, what does it mean that she moved around?’ The Lord laughed and said, ‘Do not suppose that it happened the way Moses said, ‘above the waters.’ No, when she recognized the wickedness that had taken place, and the robbery her son had committed, she repented. Though she had become forgetful in the darkness of her ignorance, she began to be ashamed and agitated. This agitation is the moving around. The Arrogant one took power from his Mother.” Secret Gospel of John ch.8:1-5a

Samples of Other Jewish Writings

“And if the year begins in Sagittarius: Everyone whose name contains a Beth or Pe will have misery and a severe disease, and in the beginning of the year it will increase in severity.” Treatise of Shem ch.p.1 (Old Testament Pseudepigrapha vol.1 p.485)

“And I, Enoch, began to bless the Lord of the mighty ones and the King of the universe. At that moment the Watchers were calling me.’ And they said to me, ‘Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go and make known to the Watchers of heaven who have abandoned the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, … they have defiled themselves with great defilement upon the earth; neither will there be peace unto them nor the forgiveness of sin….” 1 Enoch ch.12 p.19

“Abram arose in the night and burned the house of idols. And he burned everything in the house. And there was no man who knew. And they rose upon the night, and they wanted to save their gods from the midst of the fire. And Haran rushed to save them, and the fire flared up over him. And he was burned in the fire and died in Ur of the Chaldees before Terah, his father….” Book of Jubilees ch.12.12-14

Samples of Spurious Writing

3 Corinthians 1: Two men have come to Corinth, Simon and Cleobius, who pervert the faith of many through pernicious words we want you [Paul] to respond to. We have never heard such things from you or the other apostles.… What they teach is as follows:

1. We must not appeal to the prophets
2. God is not Almighty
3. There is no resurrection of the flesh
4. Creation is not God's work

5. The Lord did not come in the flesh
6. The Lord was not born of Mary
7. The world is not of God but the Angels

So brother, hurry and come here, that the church here in Corinth may remain pure, and the foolishness of these men may be made known to all. Farewell in the Lord.

Ehrman Kicks out Some New Testament Books Based on Statistical Methods

Different liberals and skeptics have different view on which books were genuinely by Paul. Ehrman’s view is that he has confidence Paul wrote Romans, 1, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon, but not Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, and the anonymous book of Hebrews.

Brief synopsis: Ehrman says that Ephesians and Colossians could not have been written by Paul, because their longest sentence is much longer than other letters of Paul, and they have a higher percentage of 50-word plus sentences (Jesus, Interrupted p.126). However, the percentage of long sentences in Ephesians matches Romans 1-6 fairly well. The percentage of long sentences in Colossians after chapter 1 tend to match Philippians. The clincher though is that original manuscripts did not have punctuation, and what Ehrman calls the longest sentence in Ephesians is recognized by Nestle-Aland and Aland, et al. today as four sentences. We also look at a third criteria others sometimes use: frequency of word use.

However, a statistic can be useless or misleading, unless four things are known about it:

1) How it is measured

2) How does it compare to two or more things known to be identical or similar.

3) How does it compare to two or more things known to be very different

4) What could artificially skew the statistical measures.

1) The following sentence lengths were calculated from the Aland et al. The Greek New Testament 4th revised edition (1994, reprinted 1998). However, one of Ehrman’s numbers does not match this, but it does match the older Aland et al. 3rd edition (1975), so I will refer to that too. In both versions some words are in square brackets meaning there was some debate before they were included in the text. These are included in the count too.

2) We will look not only at entire letters of Paul, but also see where the length of sentences changes within the same book. For comparison, we will also look at some modern authors: C.S. Lewis and Bart Ehrman himself.

3) We will also look at the first 7 or so chapters of Luke and Acts, which Ehrman agrees were both written by the same person, who is someone besides Paul.

4) Using length of the longest sentence is easy to skew by the length of book, subject matter, and differences where modern people delineate the sentence boundaries in the New Testament. For the distribution of sentences we see how it can be skewed by subject matter, and fraction of the book devoted to deep doctrine, practical instructions, and greetings. It also seems that sentences are longer for books that would have been written later in Paul’s life.

Length of Longest Sentences in a Book

First let’s deal with the longest sentence(s) argument. He says that Ephesians 1:3-14 [203 words] and Colossians 1:3-8 [102 words] are much longer than sentences in other books. (Jesus, Interrupted p.126)

Brief answer: The sentences Ehrman mentions are not much longer than sentences Ehrman agrees are written by Paul. One reason is that Ehrman is against the consensus of where the sentence breaks are.

There are four points to answer this claim.

1) No punctuation was in the early Greek manuscripts, so one can only infer what was a period versus a semicolon or comma.

2) Skewing: Even if God Ehrman and everyone else agreed on all the punctuation, it would still be an unsuitable statistic, for the longest sentence would depend on not only the length of the book but also the subject matter. For example, Paul wrote more deep theology at the beginning part of his books, and more short greetings at the end, and was the ratio of beginning theology, middle application, and ending greetings different for different books.

3) Ehrman disagrees with other scholars on sentence breaks. Eph 1:3-6, 1:7-10, and 1:11-12, and 13-14 are not one but four sentences, according to Aland et al.’s The Greek New Testament, 4th revised edition (1998). The Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (1993) says the same. Ehrman never gave the source for why he thought it was only one sentence. However, 23 years earlier, the 1975 3rd edition Aland et al’s, The Greek New Testament showed them as one sentence, so I am surmising he was using the much older version. Again though, the original Greek had no punctuation, so building an argument on where late 20th century people think the periods go, before they changed their minds, is a sketchy argument at best.

4) Colossians does not differ much from other books of Paul: In contrast to the third point, Ehrman, Aland et al 4th revised edition, Aland et al. 3rd edition, and Nestle-Aland all agree that Colossians 1:3-8 is one sentence. It is 102 words. Ehrman writes, “Colossians 1:3-8 is all one sentence in Greek; it’s a whopper, and quite unlike the kind of sentence Paul typically wrote. Ephesians 1:3-14 is even longer, twelve verses – not like Paul at all.” (Jesus, Interrupted p.126).

I am mystified why Ehrman gives no basis for comparison. I have provided one below. Since some think Hebrews might have been written by Paul, I went ahead and included it too. Luke and Acts are agreed to be by the same author, so those are included just for comparison. For reference 1 and 2 Peter are included too.

Sentence	Word count of the longest 3 sentences	Average of 3 longest sentences	Total Greek words in the book	References. These are based on Aland et al. 4th edition.
2 Thessalonians	158, 57, 54	90	823	2 Th 1:3-10; 2:8-10; 2:1-3a
Colossians	157, 123, 102	127	1,582	Col 1:11b-20; 1:24-29; 1:3-8
Romans	139, 123, 113	125	7,111	Rom 9:19-26; 4:16-21; 2:2-8
Hebrews	135, 72, 65	91	4,953	Heb 8:8-12; 1:1-4, 2:2-5
Ephesians	124, 124, 104	117	2,422	Eph 2:1-7; 4:11-16; 3:1-7
2 Corinthians	118, 102, 94	105	4,477	2 Cor 6:2b-10; 9:10-14; 8:1-6
2 Timothy	105, 61, 52	73	1,238	2 Tim 1:8-12; 1:3-5; 2:23-26
1 Thessalonians	104, 81, 70	85	1,481	1 Th 3:9-13; 1:2-5; 4:15-17
1 Corinthians	95, 84, 82	87	6,830	1 Cor 1:20-25; 9:4-9a; 14:6-9
Philemon	94, 47, 41	62	335	Phm 8-14; 4-6; 1-3
Galatians	94, 77, 75	90	2,230	Gal 2:6-10; 2:14-16; 1:1-5
Philippians	88, 82, 79	83	1,629	Php 1:3-7; 1:27-30; 3:8-11
1 Timothy	71, 57, 56	61	1,591	1 Tim 6:13-16; 3:2-6; 1:8-11
Titus	65, 64, 57	62	659	Tt 1:1-4; 2:1-14; 3:4-7
Lk 1-7	165, 95, 77	109	5,960	Lk 3:23-28; 1:67-75; 3:15-17
Acts 1-6	108, 89, 87	95	3,582	Acts 4:5-10; 3:12-15; 1:1-5
Acts 7-11	72, 65, 64	67	3,971	Acts 7:38-40; 10:36-38; 7:44-46
1 Peter	79, 65, 59	68	1,684	1 Pet 1:17-21; 2:21-24; 1:6-9
2 Peter	96, 88, 65	83	1,099	2 Pet 2:4-10a; 2:12-16; 3:14-16

Ehrman agrees that the books in italics are most likely by Paul. The “whopper” of 102 words in Colossians 1:3-8 is shorter than many other verses in books Ehrman agrees Paul wrote. The longest sentence in each book and which books he agrees are by Paul look rather random.

Distribution of Length of Sentences

Immediately after the previous quote of Ehrman he writes, “Nearly 10 percent of the sentences in Ephesians are over fifty words in length; this is uncharacteristic of Paul’s undisputed letters. Philippians, about the same length, has only one sentence that long. Galatians is much longer, and also has only one.” (Jesus, Interrupted p.126)

This is not true on multiple counts. Actually it is 26% of sentences that are greater than 50 words long. I am not sure if he meant 50 to 60 is 10%, or something else. Regardless of whether he made a mistake, or the editor introduced a “textual variant” here, we can still clearly see his point from the chart below.

Book	words	Sen-tences	Aver-age	Std. Dev	Med-ian	Lar-gest	Smal-lest	< 11	11 to 20	21 to 30	31 to 40	41 to 50	51 to 60	>60
Rom (all)	7111	276	25.8	18.6	21	139	5	16%	31%	22%	16%	8%	3%	4%
Rom 1-5	2256	63	35.8	24.3	32	124	5	10%	14%	25%	24%	8%	5%	14%
Rom 6-16	4855	213	22.8	15.3	19	139	5	18%	36%	21%	14%	8%	2%	1%
1 Cor (all)	6830	292	23.4	15.2	19	95	2	16%	38%	24%	13%	2%	2%	4%
1 Cor 1	499	14	35.6	25.9	23.5	95	13	0%	50%	7%	14%	0%	7%	21%
1 Cor 1-6	2029	78	26.0	17.0	20.5	95	3	10%	40%	19%	19%	3%	3%	6%
2 Cor (all)	4477	172	26.0	18.3	20.5	118	3	15%	35%	22%	10%	9%	5%	3%
2 Cor 6-10	1600	50	32.0	23.9	24.5	118	3	12%	26%	24%	12%	12%	6%	8%
Gal (all)	2230	103	21.7	15.0	17	94	5	20%	40%	20%	10%	5%	2%	3%
Gal 1-2	750	24	31.3	23	22	94	9	8%	33%	21%	17%	4%	4%	13%
Gal 3-6	1480	79	18,7	10	17	51	5	24%	42%	20%	8%	5%	1%	0%
Eph (all)	2422	65	37.3	27.8	25	124	7	2%	35%	20%	8%	9%	11%	15%
Eph 1-3	1088	20	54.4	32.2	48	124	14	0%	15%	20%	10%	5%	10%	40%
Eph 4-6	1334	45	29.6	21.9	22	124	7	2%	44%	20%	7%	11%	11%	4%
All Php	1629	61	26.7	18.6	20	88	3	15%	36%	15%	15%	11%	3%	5%
Php 1	501	13	38.5	24.8	35	88	9	8%	23%	8%	15%	23%	8%	15%
Php 2-4	1128	48	23.5	15.3	19	79	3	17%	40%	17%	15%	8%	2%	2%
Col (all)	1582	45	35.2	31.5	26	157	4	20%	18%	22%	7%	11%	7%	16%
Col 1	538	6	89.7	46.8	84.5	157	28	0%	0%	17%	0%	0%	0%	83%
Col 2-4	1044	39	26.8	17.8	23	71	4	23%	21%	23%	8%	13%	8%	5%
1 Th (all)	1481	51	29.0	20.6	25	104	3	18%	24%	20%	22%	4%	4%	10%
2 Th (all)	823	26	31.7	29.7	27	158	5	12%	31%	23%	12%	12%	8%	4%
1 Tim (all)	1591	70	22.7	13.4	20	71	4	14%	40%	27%	7%	7%	3%	1%
2 Tim (all)	1238	52	23.8	17.9	19.5	105	4	17%	37%	21%	10%	10%	2%	4%
Tt (all)	659	27	24.2	17.5	20	65	5	19%	33%	22%	7%	7%	4%	7%
Phm (all)	335	13	25.8	23.8	16	94	9	23%	46%	0%	8%	15%	0%	8%
Heb (all)	4953	173	28.6	20.5	23	135	3	13%	32%	18%	12%	14%	2%	8%
Luke 1-7	5960	239	24.9	17.6	20	165	3	10%	41%	22%	13%	7%	2%	6%
Acts 1-6	3582	117	30.6	18.8	26	108	7	4%	32%	22%	22%	7%	3%	9%
Acts 7-11	3971	168	23.6	13.9	19	72	3	11%	42%	22%	14%	5%	2%	4%
Acts 12-17	3989	171	23.3	12.8	21	86	3	13%	31%	35%	15%	3%	2%	2%
Acts 13-18	4006	163	24.6	13.0	22	86	4	9%	32%	36%	14%	5%	2%	2%

First what is not a part of the answer, and then four points to consider in the answer.

Not the answer: Romans was not written down by Paul, but rather dictated to the scribe Tertius (Romans 16:22). On the other hand, Col 4:18, 2 Th 3:17, and Phm 19 specifically say that Paul wrote down these letters in his own hand. However, we cannot do much with this information, because we don’t how Paul writing down himself vs. verbally dictating to a scribe would affect sentence length. Moreover, the other letters are silent on whether or not Paul used a scribe, and whether the scribes were the same people.

First, we must recognize that Paul used longer sentences on some topics (such as heavy doctrine) than on others (such as application and greetings.) Thus a book may have a different distribution of length of sentences depending on what percent was heavy doctrine, application, and greeting. As proof of this, look at Romans 1-5 vs. Romans 6-16. All of Colossians after chapter 1 and Ephesians 4-6 are not significantly different from Paul’s other books.

Second, Romans 1-5 compares very similarly to Ephesians and Colossians. So sentence length is no reason to reject that the author of Romans 1-5 was the same author of Ephesians and Colossians.

Third, let’s see how this compares with other authors. Acts 1-6 has 9% of the sentences are at least 60 words, and Acts 7-12, by the same author in the same book, has only 3% of the sentences are at least 60 words. In the book of Romans by Paul, chapters 1-5 have 19% of the words are at least 50 words, but chapters 6-16 have only 3% of the sentences at least 50 words.

Fourth, how about doing a benchmark on this test using the writings of Ehrman, as well as C.S. Lewis?

Chapter	words	Sen-tences	Aver-age	Std. Dev	Med-ian	Lar-gest	Smal-lest	< 11	11 to 20	21 to 30	31 to 40	41 to 50	51 to 60	>60
Bart Ehrman
Jesus, Interr. ch.1	1613	72	22.4	28.2	15.5	224	1	35%	28%	14%	11%	6%	3%	4%
J.I. ch.8	5044	220	22.9	13.4	20	62	1	20%	32%	21%	15%	9%	3%	0%
O.C.S. ch.1	3010	111	27.1	13.9	24	94	6	5%	32%	34%	14%	12%	3%	2%
C.S. Lewis
Screwtape Ltrs. ch.6-8	2763	115	24.0	12.7	24	56	3	17%	25%	28%	18%	9%	3%	0%
Problem of Pain 1st half ch.1	1649	67	24.6	12.4	24	64	4	16%	25%	27%	22%	6%	1%	1%
Pain Last half ch.1	2025	75	27.0	15.8	24	75	5	13%	24%	25%	23%	5%	4%	5%
Pain ch.6	2283	89	25.7	12.8	24	66	5	7%	33%	34%	12%	9%	4%	1%

Looking at the sentences longer than 50 words, one could (speciously) argue that the author of Jesus Interrupted chapter 1 could be the same as the author of the last half of chapter 1 of the Problem of Pain. But the author of Jesus, Interrupted ch.1 might be a different author than Jesus, Interrupted ch.8.

Cannot Use High Frequency Words

Some people try to determine similarity of writer style by the frequency of words use. While Ehrman did not use this argument in his books, other critics think the frequency of words used can indicate authorship, so this argument is still worth discussing too.

A.C. Clark performed some statistical studies on Luke vs. Acts. Among other things, he found that the Greek word te is used 158 times in Acts but only 8 times in Luke. All 8 are the te kai type, while in places where Acts could have used that, it used 99 other types instead. Acts frequently uses “it came to pass” followed by an infinitive, but never followed by an infinitive in Luke. Also, the relative frequency of men, oun and sun in Acts indicates that it is more classical than Luke.

Yet Colin J. Hemer, in The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History pp.30-31, before bringing up the previous says, “This question will not detain us long, for the unity of Luke-Acts is today so generally accepted as to seem a datum of the problem, and the onus does not lie upon us to establish a position which not many would care to deny.” In other words, almost everyone agrees that Luke and Acts are by the same author.

Appendix: Pseudepigraphal Writings

For readers familiar with Islam, there were about 300,000 to 400,000 hadiths, traditions, about Mohammed. Yet Muslims reject almost 99% of them because of lack of their chain of transmission or strange content. This is somewhat analogous to many of these spurious books. When books appear out of thin air, centuries after Jesus, with nobody prior to then who had heard of these books, the Christian church generally would pay no attention to it. There were equivalent spurious writings prior to Christ, yet these did not confuse either Jesus or most of the Jews about what was scripture.

Total pseudipegraphal writings prior to Christianity (36+)

Jewish Pseudepigrapha (36)

Apocalypse of Sedrach

Apocalypse of Ezra

Apocalypse of Elijah

Apocalypse of Zechariah

Apocalypse of Zephaniah

2 Baruch (Apocalypse of Baruch)

Cleodemus Malchus

Damascus Document (Dead Sea Scrolls)

The Divine Throne-Chariot (Dead Sea Scrolls)

2 Enoch (Book of the Secrets of Enoch)

4 Ezra (Apocalypse of Ezra)

Genesis Apocryphon (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Hagaddah

History of the Rechabites

Jannes and Jambres

Joseph and Asenath

Jubilees

Ladder of Jacob

Lamech

Lives of the Prophets

4 Maccabees

Manual of Discipline (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Martyrdom of Isaiah

Odes of Solomon (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Prayer of Jacob

Prayer of Joseph

Psalms of Solomon

Revelation of Moses

Sibylline Oracles (perhaps by multiple sources)

Syriac Menander

Testament of Adam

Testament of Job

Testaments of the Three Patriarchs

Thanksgiving Psalms (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Treatise of Shem

Wars of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Story of Ahikar/Ahiqar (no claim to be Jewish)

Philo the Epic Poet

Manichaeans (7)

Manichaeans were started by Mani/Manes of Persia, around 250 A.D.

Creation of the Word and the Alien Man

The Religion That I, Mani Have Chosen

Mani’s Death

Visions of Paradise

The Light of Paradise

Prayer to Mani and Other Poems

Coptic Psalm-Book

Mandaean (1)

Mandaeans are an obscure group, still around in the marches of southern Iraq, that claim to follow John the Baptist.

Song of Ascent

Ethics and Morality

Writings during early Christianity (total 92+)

Christian Apocrypha (27+)

Apocalypse of Peter

Apocalypse of Paul

Apocalypse of Thomas

Apostolic Constitutions

Gospel of Bartholomew

Gospel of Nicodemus

Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Infancy Gospel of James

Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Infancy Gospel

Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

Acts of John

Acts of Peter

Acts of Paul

Acts of Paul and Thecla

Acts of Andrew

Ascension of Isaiah

Apocalypse of Moses

Book of John Concerning the Falling Asleep of Mary

The Passing of Mary

Secret Gospel of Mark

Christian Sibyllines

Mystical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius

Letter of Pontius Pilate concerning our Lord Jesus Christ

Report of Pilate the Procurator Concerning our Lord Jesus Christ

The Report of Pontius Pilate

Death of Pilate

Ebionite (5)

Gospel of the Hebrews

Gospel of the Ebionites

Recognitions of Clement

Clementine Homilies

Protoevangelium of James

Valentinian Gnostics (5+1)

Gospel of Truth

Ptolemy’s Letter to Flora

A Prayer of Paul the Apostle

Epistle to Rheginus (Treatise on the Resurrection)

Gospel of Philip

Valentinian-offshoot: System of Ptolemaeus

Naasene Gnostics (2)

Naaseene Gnostics were unknown in the time of Irenaeus’ compendium Against Heresies (182-188 A.D.) However, they were mentioned in the compendium of his pupil Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies (225-235/6 A.D.)

Gospel of Thomas

Naasene Hymn

Hermetic Gnostics (4)

Greatest Human Evil is Forgetfulness of God

Hermes Trismegistus: Asclepius

Hermes Trismegistus: On God’s Bisexuality

Hermes Trismegistus: Poimandres

Other Gnostics (22)

Acts of Thomas

Apocalypse of Adam

Apocalypse of the Great Power

Baruch by Justin

Book of Thomas the Contender

Fable of the Pearl

Gospel of Apelles

Gospel of Basilides

Gospel of Cerinthus

Gospel of Marcion

Gospel of Mary Magdalene

Human Suffering

Hypostatis of the Archons

Melchizedek

Origen of the World

Paraphrase of Shem

Second Treatise of the Great Seth

Secret Book of James

Secret Book of John

Sophia of Jesus Christ

Thunder, Perfect Mind

Trimorphic Protennoia

Other Books (18)

Circuit of Paul

Circuit of Peter

Circuit of John

Circuit of Thomas

History of Joseph the Carpenter

Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Savior

Narrative of Joseph

Avenging of the savior

Acts of the Hoy Apostles Peter and Paul

Acts of Barnabas

Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Andres

Acts of Andrew and Matthias

Acts of Peter and Andrew

Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew the Apostle

Consummation of Thomas the Apostle

Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Bartholomew

Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus

Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

Textual variants is discussed at www.BibleQuery.org/OtherBeliefs/Skeptics/ResponsetoEhrman1_TextualVariants.htm.

More modern books not accepted by orthodox Christians, but function as divine revelation by others (361)

Rev. Moon’s Divine Principle

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science)

Urantia Book (alleged divine revelation of God, Jesus, cosmology, etc.)

A Course in Miracles (Foundation for Inner Peace)

4 volumes The Lost Years of Jesus (Elizabeth Claire Prophet)

Philemon Stewart's A Holy, Sacred and Divine Roll and Book.(Shakers)

300 books Edgar Cayce (member of the Disciples of Christ denomination. He said Jesus was an Essene who traveled to India)

Edgar Cayce believed in “Akashic Records” which included the record of what people had done in past lives

Helen Stewart Wambach (1925–1985) claimed she could read the Akashic records and tell people of their future reincarnated lives in parallel universes.

The Qur’an (Muslims claim to follow Jesus’ teachings)

Kitabu’l-Asma’ (The Bab)

Bayan (The Bab)

Panj Sha’n (Five Modes) (The Bab)

Baha’u’llah and the New Era (Baha’is)

Books in the Druze Scripture, Letters of Wisdom

Kitab al-Majmu’ (‘The Book of the Collection’) (‘Alawite)

Kitab al-Ashbar wa’l-Azilla, ‘the book of Phantoms and Shadows’ (‘Alawite)

Poem of the God-Man (pronounced heretical by the Catholic church, said should be read by the apparition Mary of Medjagorge)

28X Emannual Swedenborg’s writings (claimed by some as divine scripture. Swedenborg said Jesus returned in spirit in 1757. Swedenborg wrote 28 works, including Life on Other Planets, where Swedenborg said he conversed with beings from Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.)

Doctrines & Covenants (Mormon)

1 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon)

2 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon)

Jacob (in the Book of Mormon)

Enos (in the Book of Mormon)

Jarom (in the Book of Mormon)

Omni (in the Book of Mormon)

Words of Mormon (in the Book of Mormon)

Mosiah (in the Book of Mormon)

Alma (in the Book of Mormon)

Helaman (in the Book of Mormon)

3 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon)

4 Nephi (in the Book of Mormon)

Ether (in the Book of Mormon)

Moroni (in the Book of Mormon)

Book of Moses (Mormon Pearl of Great Price)

Book of Abraham (Mormon Pearl of Great Price)

Book of Onias (Fundamentalist Mormon group called the School of Prophets)

Second Book of Commandments (Fundamentalist Mormon group called the School of Prophets)

Spurious or inaccurate translations

Joseph Smiths’ “translation” of the Bible

Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation

Bible textual variant are discussed at www.BibleQuery.org/OtherBeliefs/Skeptics/ResponsetoEhrman1_TextualVariants.html.

Alleged Bible contradictions are discussed at www.BibleQuery.org/OtherBeliefs/Skeptics/ResponsetoEhrman2_AllegedContradictions.html.

The video series another speaker called the Making of the Messiah is discussed at www.BibleQuery.org/OtherBeliefs/Skeptics/ResponseToTheMakingOfTheMessiah.html.

For a bibliography see www.BibleQuery.org/OtherBeliefs/Skeptics/ResponseToEhrman_ListOfReferences.html

by Steven M. Morrison, PhD.

The Jewish Pseudepigrapha included:

Apocalypses: Abraham, Adam, Daniel, Elijah, Ezra (=4 Ezra), Sedrach, Zechariah, Zephaniah. Greek Apocalypse of Ezra (not 4 Ezra)

2 Baruch, Cleodemus Malchus, Damascus Document (Dead Sea Scrolls),

The Divine Throne-Chariot (Dead Sea Scrolls)

1, 2 Enoch, Epistle of Jeremiah

Apocryphons: Genesis (Dead Sea Scrolls), Ezekiel

Hagaddah, History of the Rechabites

Jannes and Jambres, Joseph and Asenath, Jubilees

Ladder of Jacob, Lamech, Lives of the Prophets

1, 2, 3, 4 Maccabees, Manual of Discipline (Dead Sea Scrolls),

Martyrdom of Isaiah, Odes of Solomon (Dead Sea Scrolls)

Prayers: Jacob, Joseph, Manasseh

Psalms 151, 152-153, 154-155, Psalms of Solomon

Revelation of Moses, Sibylline Oracles, Story of Ahikar/Ahiqar

Syriac Menander

Testaments: Adam, Job, Moses, Solomon, Three Patriarchs, 12 Patriarchs

Thanksgiving Psalms (Dead Sea Scrolls), Treatise of Shem

Wars of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness (Dead Sea Scrolls)