William Dennes Mahan

William Dennes Mahan (July 27, 1824 - October 19, 1906) was an American Cumberland Presbyterian minister in Boonville, Missouri, and author of a book, commonly known as The Archko Volume (1884), purported to be a translation of a Jewish, Roman, and other contemporary documents about the trial and death of Jesus of Nazareth.

It purported to be an official report of the trial and death of Jesus made directly to the Roman Emperor Tiberius by Pilate as governor of Judaea.

[3] This work was copied almost verbatim from "Ponce Pilate à Vienne", a short story by Joseph Méry published in Revue de Paris in 1837.

[4] In 1884 Mahan published the first version of the Archko Volume, entitled The Archaeological Writings of the Sanhedrin and Talmuds of the Jews, Taken from the Ancient Parchments and Scrolls at Constantinople and the Vatican at Rome, Being the Record Made by the Enemies of Jesus of Nazareth in His Day: The Most Interesting History Ever Read by Man.

This included an expanded version of "Pilate's Court" plus a series of other texts that he claimed to have obtained himself in a visit to Rome and Constantinople and translated with the aid of Dr. M. McIntosh of Scotland and Dr. Twyman of England, also otherwise unheard of.

Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur and American Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Empire, testified that no record of Mahan’s visit to Turkey or to the library of the Hagia Sophia existed, and that the primary sources he cited were unknown.

[9] Following his suspension, Mahan made no effort to return to the pastorate, living the remainder of his life at the home of his son-in-law, a hotel keeper in Boonville.

He declined to make any further statements regarding the part he had taken in the preparation of the book except to say when he was told that the literary world pronounced it a forgery: "Well, I have been a much deceived and a much persecuted man."

[11] A year after his suspension, the New Lebanon Presbytery submitted a resolution indefinitely dismissing Mahan from the ministry: "Your committee to whom was referred the motion to grant W. D. Mahan a letter of dismission [sic] and recommendation after the term of his suspension expires, have had the subject under consideration, and in view of all the surrounding facts, and in view of the interests of the Church, we recommend the following: Whereas, This Pres., at its session in Slater, Sept. 29th, 1885, did suspend from the functions of the ministry, for one year, W. D. Mahan; said one year terminating on the 29th of the present month; and Whereas, The definite form of said suspension was more the result of sympathy for him and his family, than a desire for rigid administration of the law, and this sympathy being exercised under the hope that said W. D. Mahan would use all proper efforts to heal the wounds his course had inflicted; and, Whereas, It now comes to the knowledge of this Pres., that he still occupies the same position, by the sale of his publications, and by negotiations to bring out new editions, therefore;

"[12]The circumstances of composition, the letters to the Boonville Advertiser, and the proceedings of the church court were all investigated by Edgar J. Goodspeed and published in his books Strange New Gospels (1931) and Modern Apocrypha (1956).