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How I’ve Changed My Approach To Writing

In a previous email I mentioned that I had started writing my trade book on Revelation, tentatively titled Expecting Armaggedon.  Over the past couple of months I have been reflecting on how my approach to writing books like this has changed over time.  I talked about my basic procedure a few years ago on the blog:  https://ehrmanblog.org/how-i-write-the-crucial-phase/   The basic line is that I typically spend a couple of years doing the research and making very detailed outlines of the book, chapter by chapter, and then a short amount of time writing it. The process I described there still holds for the most part (it’s a process that I’ve tried to convince every single graduate student I’ve ever had to follow, and every single one of them has decided not to!) (to their advantage, often...)   But I've changed my approach to the writing itself. As I recently mentioned, my first trade book was Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium.  Once that was finished, I decided (again) to move back to hard-core scholarly writing.  But a [...]

2021-10-24T19:48:16-04:00November 4th, 2021|Book Discussions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Those Darn Demons! Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson

Here is an intriguing guest post!  And a controversial one.  Did Jesus actually heal people? As you know, blog members who are at the Platinum level can submit posts for other Platinum members.  Would you be interested in doing so?  Move up to Platinum!  Every month or so, Platinum members can vote on a recent post to appear on the entire blog.  This is the current WINNER. Our guest poster is Doug Wadeson, himself a medical doctor with (obviously) a lifelong interest in healing but also a keen interest in the historical study of the NT Gospels.  In this series he combines these two interests and provides some some unusually interesting reflections.   ****************************** The Gospels portray Jesus as performing amazing miracles.  Some of them have to do with nature, such as calming a storm or turning water into wine.  Most have to do with healing a variety of afflictions, including leprosy and possibly other infectious diseases (like Peter’s mother-in-law, and maybe Jairus’ daughter?), blindness, being mute and deaf, paralysis (or some form of crippling [...]

2021-11-06T08:56:08-04:00November 3rd, 2021|Public Forum|

Why I Prefer the NRSV

In my various posts recently I've talked about problems I have with the NRSV; some people have asked why, then, it is my preferred translation.  And even more commonly (a few times a month) I get asked if there are ANY translations out there that try to give the original form of the text instead of the one(s) altered by scribes. I've dealt with both questions in the past, and here will, in short order, explain my overall strong preference for the NRSV, all things considered.  This is a post from aeons ago. ****************************** A number of people have responded to some of my recent comments by asking what my preferred Bible translation is. I get asked the question a lot – especially since my book Misquoting Jesus, where I talk about the changes scribes made in the manuscripts they copied over the years.  A number of readers were alarmed and wondered whether I should let scholars know about these problems.  In every case I responded that yes, indeed, scholars – all scholars of the [...]

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