Pseudonymity: An Author’s Perspective
I was a sophomore in college when I took my first class devoted to the scholarly study of the Bible. It was a course on the New Testament that covered the background of the Christian Scriptures and dealt with matters such as the authorship of the New Testament books. It was the first class for my major in religious studies, and I was excited to take it. My professor was a kind and very encouraging man, so I was glad to have him as my instructor. However, the subject matter of the class was occasionally jarring. It was my introduction to the world of biblical scholarship, and it was the first time I saw how many professional Bible scholars did not treat the biblical text as the Word of God. That was not in itself especially surprising to me; before taking the class, I had known many people who did not treat the Bible as God’s Word. No, what was surprising to me was seeing how scholars would outright reject statements made in the Bible that should not be objectionable, even to those who ...