A 250-page book called, among a variety of other names, "The Archko Volume," is typical of some modern frauds on Biblical subjects and might justify a discussion in THE MINISTRY.
The book pretends to give some remarkable documents from the time of Christ, such as Jonathan's interview with the Bethlehem shepherds; Gamaliel's interview with Joseph and Mary concerning Jesus; report of Caiaphas to the Sanhedrim (so spelled) concerning the execution of Jesus ; Caiaphas' report on the resurrection of Jesus; Pilate's report to Caesar of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus; Herod's defense before the Roman senate for his killings at Bethlehem and his execution of John the Baptist.
"These are the official documents made in these courts in the days of Jesus Christ," says the title page. But they are all forgeries and frauds. The peculiar title page itself arouses suspicion. The collection of letters between W. D. Mahan and the pretended translators, McIntosh and Twyman and others, confirms that suspicion, and the ludicrous errors scattered thickly through the book demonstrate not only the fraud as such but also the failings of the impostor.
M. R. James, once of Cambridge University in England, in his book The Apocryphal New Testament (1924), containing the most authoritative and complete collection of New Testament apocrypha, lists this book among modern forgeries as "a ridiculous and disgusting American book called 'The Archko Volume'" (p. 90). Prof. E. J. Goodspeed, one of the foremost authorities on New Testament literature, formerly of the University of Chicago, gives intriguing details in his book Strange New Gospels (1931).
W. D. Mahan, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister of Boonville, Missouri, first published "Pilate's report" as "A Correct Transcript of Pilate's Court" (32 pages) in 1879, pretending that it came from documents made known by a "German" by the name of Henry C. Whydaman (what a German name !) snowbound ( !) with Mahan in Missouri in 1856. This "report" was so successful that within five years, by 1884, after a special "expedition" to Rome and Constantinople, Mahan had "found" enough "documents" to expand his first effort with twelve hundred words, and "translate" further reports from other participants in the trial of Jesus, to make a twelve-chapter book.
It might not matter that some of what Mahan "found" looked word for word like pieces from the famous book Ben Hur that first appeared in 1880. Reproved by a fellow minister for his falsifications, Mahan answered in a letter that "the book cant [sic] do any harm even if it were faulce [sic]" and that it was even in that faulty condition giving him an income of twenty dollars a day—which would be $7,300 a year, not bad for a little book in 1884! And he was planning to have it improved. But his work having been investigated, Mahan was summoned before his presbytery in September. 1885, to answer charges of falsehood and plagiarism, was found guilty, and was suspended from the ministry. He left that meeting promising to stop the printing of the book—but it has continued to be printed ever since. He could start it, but he could not stop it.
The book has not lacked investigators. In the course of that first investigation General Lew Wallace, then American minister in Turkey, was consulted. Receiving permission from the Sultan to visit the library in Saint Sophia accompanied by scholars, he found that the librarian, who had been in the place thirty years, knew of no party such as Mahan had pretended, nor were such manuscripts known by anyone.
Later on, in 1898, James B. Angell, long-time president of the University of Michigan, then American minister in Turkey, was requested by an American publishing company to investigate the matter once more. By his request the Turkish Minister of Public Instruction himself took the matter up through Turkish government agencies, but no such documents were traced in Saint Sophia or in any other Turkish library, nor had anyone ever heard of the like. A report of this Turkish investigation was even sent to the Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., and printed in the Washington Star. Others, examining the many errors in the book, have demonstrated the forgery from its contents. But Mahan's book keeps right on being printed. It is evidently not a losing proposition so far as money goes. Pilate's reports have been printed in magazines and Sunday papers; they have been read in churches and over the radio, framed on wails and fastened in Bibles as appendices to the Gospels.
Indeed, they have also raised up descendants, for another story called "Confessions of Pontius Pilate"—pretending to tell of Pilate's arrival as an exile in Vienne, relating in bitter remorse his experiences with Christ—looks as if it has borrowed material from Mahan's endeavors, although it seems also to have added facts from a piece of fiction written by Anatole France as a Christmas story in 1891.
There were scores of "apocryphal books" of the New Testament produced during the first few centuries after Christ. It may be surprising to learn that the last century has seen a great upswing in the production of such false literature. No doubt the findings of archaeologists and the discoveries of ancient manuscripts, as well as the prospects of making money, have caused this astonishing rise in the production and sale of fakes.
If Mahan's book did not falsely pretend to be ancient, if its ludicrous mistakes were eliminated, and if it were written in good English, the thing would be different. Imaginative accounts, speeches, reports, and dialogues form a legitimate way of representing ancient happenings—if as true to color and fact as possible. In the hands of well-informed, skillful, and honest writers such writing can both convey truth and increase interest.
Such works need not therefore be felled under one blanket condemnation, but as for all the stories and reports about the death of Christ, by Pilate, by Herod, by Caiaphas, by Gamaliel, or any others that are heard of, it must be said: Not one is true; none has been discovered up to the year 1948. And if one is discovered, it will be heard about openly.
