W. D. (William Dennes) Mahan (1824-1906) was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and died in Boonville, Missouri. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1832. By 1845, he was living in Boonville, where he was serving as a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mahan married Martha R. Mahan (b. Johnston) in Cooper, Missouri, in 1852. Mahan is known for his The Archko Volume (1884), which was purported to be a translation of a Jewish, Roman, and other contemporary documents about the trial and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The first version of the volume is titled 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. Soon after its publication, its authenticity was questioned, and the book has been definitively discredited as a forgery and fraud. Mahan was suspended from the ministry for two years. Following his suspension, he made no effort to return to the pastorate.

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