Recent Posts

Dealing With Reviews of My Books By People Who (Apparently) Haven’t Read Them

By |March 28th, 2024|Bart's Critics, Book Discussions, Canonical Gospels|1 Comment

As I am inching closer to writing my next book, on how the ethics of Jesus transformed the moral conscience of the West, I have started thinking, possibly not unnaturally, about how some of my earlier books were critiqued in published reviews.  I really don't mind if someone understands what I write and has reasoned disagreements with it; and I'm happy to make vigorous counter-arguments in response.  But unless the reviewer misrepresents what I say, I'm generally not irritated. I do get irritated, though, by reviewers who go for the jugular without seriously understanding (or caring) what I actually say.  [...]

Public Lecture at Wake Forest University: April 2

By |March 27th, 2024|Public Forum|0 Comments

In case any of you is around Winston Salem NC next Tuesday, April 2 -- I'll be giving a public lecture at Wake Forest.   This'll be the first event I've done like this since before Covid!   I'll be talking about the real-life effects of the Christian view that the End is Near, based on my book Armageddon.   The event is free, and you can find out more about it and register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-public-lecture-bart-ehrman-armageddon-in-america-visions-of-the-end-tickets-777270646427 

Among Paul’s Enemies….

By |March 27th, 2024|Public Forum|0 Comments

In my previous post I indicated that among the lost writings of early Christianity, one batch that I would especially like to see discovered would be those produced by Paul’s enemies among the Christians.  I don’t know how many of his opponents were writing-literate, but possibly some of them were, and their own attacks on him and defenses of their own positions would be fascinating and eye-opening.  Among these, I would especially love to see what his opponents in Galatia had to say for themselves.  My hunch is that they were every bit as aggressive and confident in their views [...]

Reminder! Platinum Webinar This Evening (Tuesday, March 26)! Did Jesus Really Mean It?

By |March 26th, 2024|Public Forum|0 Comments

Reminder of the Platinum webinar this evening!  Here's the original post from last week.  I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on this section of my (soon to be written) (we hope) book. ******************* Hey Platinums, I'm afraid I have bad news and happy I have good news.   Bad news:  We had a technical difficulty during our webinar last week on "Ethics without God," and it did not get recorded.  Ugh.  Welcome to the modern age.  But sorry 'bout that. STILL: I have good news as well.  To compensate for our loss, I'll be doing a SECOND Platinum webinar, next [...]

What Did Paul’s Christian Enemies Write About Him?

By |March 26th, 2024|Paul and His Letters|1 Comment

In my upcoming course I'll be talking about whether Peter and Paul were at odds.  That might seem like a strange and implausible idea to some people.  But from a historical perspective, there is nothing at all unlikely about it.  We know that Paul had enemies (among the Christians!) all over the place.  Some of these anti-Pauline Christians were surely authors.  It would be absolutely fantastic if we were to discover some of the letters of Paul’s opponents. Let me put this into a wider historical context.  In BROAD terms Paul appears to have agreed in major ways with those [...]

A Self-Evaluation of My Self-Debate: Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable?

By |March 24th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|29 Comments

I have now completed my posts on the debate I had with myself in front of my New Testament class on the question of whether the New Testament book of Acts is historically reliable.   If you want to see the whole debate, just read the posts in sequence: the affirmative speech arguing Acts is indeed reliable; the negative speech arguing that it is not; the negative rebuttal of what the affirmative side said; and finally the affirmative rebuttal of what the negative side said. In class I delivered the speeches one after the other.  When “affirmative” I was wearing a [...]

Is the Book of Acts Reliable? The Affirmative REBUTTAL of the Negative Case

By |March 23rd, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|19 Comments

I have been discussing the debate that I had with myself in front of my New Testament class on the resolution, Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable.  So far I have indicated what the Affirmative side argued in favor of the resolution; what the Negative side argued against the resolution; and what the Negative side said in its rebuttal to the first Affirmative speech.  NOW, at last, I can indicate what the Affirmative side said in its rebuttal to the two Negative speeches.   You can find the posts here:  the affirmative speech arguing Acts is indeed reliable; the [...]

Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable? The Negative REBUTTAL of the Affirmative Case

By |March 21st, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|46 Comments

What follows is the “negative rebuttal” of the speech given by the “first affirmative” in its support of the resolution, “Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable.”  If you need to refresh yourself on what the affirmative team argued, you can find it on the March 16 post, here:  The Book of Acts IS HISTORICAL! The Affirmative Argument. In the first negative speech (yesterday’s post) the negative team argued its case, without direct reference to the affirmative side.  This, now, is the negative response to what the affirmative said (the next post in the thread will be the affirmative [...]

The Book of Acts is NOT RELIABLE! The Negative Case

By |March 20th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|34 Comments

I have already devoted to a post to argue the AFFIRMATIVE side to the debate resolution: "Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable"  (see the post two days ago, and for an entire post devoted to showing a major irrelevancy in the affirmative case, see the one from three days ago). In this post I will lay out the NEGATIVE case, as well as I can in this amount of space, arguing that Acts is NOT reliable.  Again, I am not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with this argument; I’m giving it as I would in a debate. ****************************** The [...]

ANOTHER March Platinum Webinar! Did Jesus Really Mean It?

By |March 19th, 2024|Public Forum|1 Comment

Hey Platinums, I'm afraid I have bad news and happy I have good news.   Bad news:  We had a technical difficulty during our webinar last week on "Ethics without God," and it did not get recorded.  Ugh.  Welcome to the modern age.  But sorry 'bout that. STILL: I have good news as well.  To compensate for our loss, I'll be doing a SECOND Platinum webinar, next week Tuesday March 26; 7:30 p.m. TOPIC:  "Did Jesus Really Mean It?   The Hard (Impossible?) Ethics of the Gospels" LINK: Click here to join on Tuesday March 26 We had a great time at [...]

Announcing a FREE Course! “Did Peter Hate Paul?”

By |March 19th, 2024|Public Forum|12 Comments

I am very pleased to announce a free, two-lecture course that I'll be doing on March 30, 2-4pm EST, called Did Peter Hate Paul?  Check it out: bartehrman.com/peterandpaul This is part of my now two-year-old venture, Bart Ehrman Courses Online, which is not directly connected with the Blog, though it is indirectly connected to it by virtue of the facts that (a) these online courses cover the kinds of things y'all are almost certainly interested in (since you are, after all, members of a blog that deals with them all the time) and (b) I do 'em both.   You can [...]

Arguments for “Historical Accuracy” That Are All Smoke and Mirrors.

By |March 17th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|25 Comments

In my next post I will be staking out the “negative” side on the debate I had with myself in class, arguing against the resolution, Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable.  I have already made the affirmative case; in the negative I will argue that the book is not reliable (that first speech was a set speech, prepared without reference to anything the affirmative side said).  I will then give a negative refutation of the affirmative’s first speech, and I will end with an affirmative rebuttal of the negative’s two speeches. Before I do all that, however, [...]

The Book of Acts IS HISTORICAL! The Affirmative Argument

By |March 16th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|19 Comments

I am ready now to explain how I did the debate with myself in front of my undergraduate class on the resolution, Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable. As always happens in a debate, the Affirmative side goes first and gives a prepared speech. In arguing for the affirmative, I made the following points (Note: I’m not saying I personally agree with these points, just as I’m not going to be saying that I agreed with the Negative points. I’m simply making the best case I can for both positions.): THE REST OF THIS POST IS FOR MEMBERS [...]

Who Cares if the Book of Acts is Historical??

By |March 14th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|33 Comments

The debate over the historical accuracy of the book of Acts is important, in no small measure because – as I have pointed out already – it provides us our one and only narrative of what was happening among the followers of Jesus in the years immediately after his death.  This is the key, formative period in the formation of Christianity.  How did it start as a religion?  Acts is our only surviving historical account.  But is it an accurate history? The first thing to stress is that Acts – like all histories – is highly restrictive in [...]

Important Literary Features of the Book of Acts

By |March 13th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles|33 Comments

I am in the middle of a thread dealing with debates over the New Testament book of Acts, the first account that we have of the history of the Christian church at its very beginnings – starting with the events happening right after the resurrection of Jesus and covering the spread of the Christian faith through the Roman world up until the time Paul reached the city of Rome, presumably in the early 60s CE.  And so this is an account of the first three decades of Christianity.   It’s the only one we have of this period.  That’s one reason [...]

What is the Book of Acts About?

By |March 12th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles|32 Comments

To understand a debate about whether the book of Acts is historical, I first have to explain -- by way or reminder or by way of ... minder -- what the book of Acts is actually about.  After this post I'll lay out how I debate (with myself) whether what it says can actually be seen as historically accurate. The first four books of the NT are Gospels, followed then by the book of Acts.  The Gospels each, in their own way, present accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  The book of Acts picks up where the Gospels drop [...]

Gold Q&A: Ask Your Questions!

By |March 11th, 2024|Public Forum|10 Comments

Hey Golds and Platinums, you the few, the proud: Time again for the Big Dance!  I'll be recording the March Gold Q&A this weekend, scheduling gods willing, to be published next week..  Got a burning, a smoldering, or a cool question?  Ask away!  Anything related to the blog.   I'll do my best to answer.  , Send your questions to [email protected], and Diane will compile and send me the list. DEADLINE: Get your question in by Friday  (March 15, 2024) midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). Every question I get is interesting, but remember, Many are culled, but few [...]

Is There Any Point Doing a Public Debate?

By |March 10th, 2024|Bart's Debates|72 Comments

I'm contemplating doing another debate for BECO (Bart Ehrman Courses Online; you can see the various courses on my website: http://www.bartehrman.com).  It won't be just like the last one, on whether historians can "prove" that Jesus was raised from the dead,  since that one was, well, seven hours! (https://www.bartehrman.com/did-the-resurrection-of-jesus-really-happen-bart-ehrman-mike-licona-debate/).  But if I do it, it would be on something equally interesting.  While pondering doing it, I remembered that long ago on the blog I talked about the value (or lack of value) of public debates, in relation to one of the exercises I do in my undergradaute classroom.  I looked [...]

Did Paul Exchange Letters with the Greatest Roman Philosopher of His Day??

By |March 9th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Forgery in Antiquity, Paul and His Letters|8 Comments

I've mentioned several non-canonical letters forged in Paul's name connected with the views of the second-century heretic Marcion.   There are other letters out there that also (falsely) claim to be written by Paul but that were not forged in order to support or attack a particular heretical view in Paul's name.  That is almost certainly the case with a set of letters that were accepted as authentically Paul's (though never accepted as canonical) for many centuries, down until relatively modern times: Paul's correspondence with the great philosopher (and personal tutor and advisor to the emperor Nero).  Here's what I say [...]

Paul’s Letter to the … Laodiceans? Long Thought to be Part of the New Testament!

By |March 7th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Forgery in Antiquity, Paul and His Letters|15 Comments

One of the most intriguing letters forged in the name of Paul is his alleged letter to the Laodiceans.  As you’ll see, it’s intriguing both because some Christian churches accepted it as part of the New Testament for centuries and because scholars have never been able to figure out why a forger bothered to write it.  I have a theory about that though, which I laid out in my book Forgery and Counterforgery (Oxford University Press, 2013),  from which I have taken this discussion. (I’ve edited it a bit to get rid of the weeds; here I explain the issues [...]

Platinum Webinar for March: Ethics Without God??

By |March 6th, 2024|Public Forum|8 Comments

Dear Platinum Members, It's time for our Quarterly Platinum Webinar.  We have scheduled it for Wednesday, March 13, 2023, at 7:30 pm. When I was a young evangelical Christian, I ran across a book called Ethics Without God.  I thought the whole idea was preposterous.  Why would there by ANY reason for being ethical if there is not God overseeing the world?  And how could we possibly have any direction for knowing how to live without divine oversight?  I held those views for a long time, and in fact when I was contemplating leaving the faith, some 30 years ago now, [...]

Paul’s *THIRD* Letter to the Corinthians? A Very Interesting Forgery

By |March 6th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Forgery in Antiquity, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Paul and His Letters|18 Comments

Even though we don’t have the forgeries of Pauline letters connected with Marcion (they’ve all been lost or destroyed by orthodox Christians), we have other letters forged in Paul’s name that appear to be opposing Marcion (you don't need to read the previous posts to make sense of this one; but if you want to learn more about Marcion -- see the two posts preceding).  These surviving letters are forgeries written to oppose forgeries, an orthodox attempt to fight fire with fire.   One of the most interesting is Paul’s alleged Third Letter to the Corinthians! Here’s what I say about [...]

The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul

By |March 5th, 2024|Forgery in Antiquity, Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Paul and His Letters|16 Comments

Here I continue my discussion of Marcion, the arch-heretic of the second century, whose followers forged writings in the name of Paul to support their view that the God of the Old Testament was not the God of Jesus and Paul.  Recall:  Marcion argued that the God of the Old Testament was the Jewish God who created this world, chose Israel to be his people, and then gave them his law.  He was a just, wrathful God:  not evil, just ruthlessly judicial.  The God of Jesus, on the other hand, was a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness.  This good [...]

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