Here we are at the end of the year.  What a year.  We thought we would see the end of the pandemic and the good times would roll.  Well, not exactly.  They sure seemed about to roll but, nope, just when we thought the thing was ending … hello Omicron!   I hope you have come through it OK so far, and that you can keep safe as we move forward. Not for all, but for some there have been bright spots through the darkness, and we should certainly celebrate them.  It’s been a very good year for the blog – the best ever – and so that part’s good.  We started this blog venture in April of 2012, so this is the conclusion of the ninth calendar year.  We now head into year 10!  Who woulda thought?  Certainly not me…. As you know, I have had two goals for the blog from Day 1, and have never wavered on them. I’d say we’ve done unusually well this year in achieving our goals for the blog, [...]

We've been doing short stories in this thread, and now I will introduce two more.  These are from the "Apocrypha."  This is the term that Protestants use for a group of Jewish books not in the Hebrew Bible that are, however, accepted by both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians as having a secondary canonical status.  In these denominations, therefore, they are called "Deuterocanonical Books." There are some terrific narratives among these books.  Here I describe two of the best known, Tobit and Judith, again from my textbook on the Bible. ****************************** Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction—by which I mean it is a fictional tale set within a real historical context. Originally the book was written in Aramaic, either in the late third century B.C.E. or the early second. The narrative is set in the eighth century B.C.E. in the city of Nineveh, where the hero of the story, Tobit, has been exiled from his town in Galilee during the conquests of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. In other words, the account is [...]

Here now is my second post on that intriguing little article by Louis Markos in the journal First Things, which he entitled “Errant Ehrman.”   If you’ll recall from my last post, Markos starts the article by indicating that he felt “great pity” for me because I was the wrong kind of fundamentalist back when I was a conservative Christian.  My problem, he indicates, is that I applied modern standards to decide whether the Bible was inerrant.  Here are his words: He [Ehrman] was taught, rightly, that there are no contradictions in the Bible, but he was trained, quite falsely, to interpret the non-contradictory nature of the Bible in modern, scientific, post-Enlightenment terms. That is to say, he was encouraged to test the truth of the Bible against a verification system that has only existed for some 250 years….. And so, as I pointed out last time, the right kind of true believer is obviously one who does not “test the truth of the Bible” by modern standards using modern criteria, but only by pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment [...]

I was breezing through some old posts and came across this one from many years ago; I'd forgotten all about it, but it still make me smile and scratch my head. ****************************** Several readers of this blog have pointed me to an article in the conservative journal First Things;  the article (a review of a book by the evangelical scholar Craig Blomberg) was written by Louis Markos, an English professor at Houston Baptist University.  The title is called “Ehrman Errant.”   I must say, that did not sound like a promising beginning. I had never heard of Louis Markos before – had certainly never met him, talked with him about myself or my life, shared with him my views of important topics, spent time to see how he ticked and to let him see how I do.  I don’t know the man, and he doesn’t know me.  And so it was with some considerable surprise that I read the beginning of his article. “I feel great pity for Bart Ehrman.” So, from someone I don’t know, [...]

As we barrel forward in the holiday season, a lot of people are thinking about end-of-the-year giving.   If you’re one of them, would you consider making a donation to the Bart Ehrman Blog?  Every penny you donate goes straight to the charities we support (see below); we take nothing out ourselves to pay for overhead.   And if you’d like, we can apportion your donation to just one or more of these charities as you prefer. Our goal for the blog heading to December 31 is to raise $325,000 for the year (through membership fees and donations).  We’re close.  Wanna help?   Just go to the homepage and scroll to the bottom of the screen, and you’ll see the two easy options for making the donation. In case you don’t know, or in case you’d like a reminder,  here are the charities we support through member donations.   The Urban Ministries of Durham: This charity is near and dear to my heart, the agency that deals with hunger and homelessness in my own part of the universe. It [...]

Of all the holidays we celebrate in the U.S., Christmas evokes the most extreme emotional reactions.  Where do you line up? Many of us grew up thinking Christmas was the most sacred time of the year, a time to remember and celebrate the most wonderful, touching, and humbling event in human history, the entrance of God into our world as a little child, come to save us all from our sins. Even for many of us who no longer celebrate the religious side of the holiday, it can be a time of joy, of appreciating others, of giving, and of reflection. But Christmas is obviously about a lot more than even that, at least as it has come to be institutionalized in our world.  And so many of us growing up absolutely thrived on receiving gifts and having special times with family.  And many of us have loved all the accoutrements of the season: snow, Christmas trees, lights, candles, decorations, festivities, carols, the movies (A Christmas Carol!  The Christmas Story!  It’s a Wonderful Life!  White [...]

Thanks to the incredible ongoing generosity of members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available.   These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year.   I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment.   Send us a separate email, privately, at [email protected]  .In your email, please provide me with the following information: Your first and last name. Why you would like to take advantage of this offer -- that is, why you  can't afford it. I don't need or want all the details, just an idea of why you aren't able just now to purchase a membership. Country of citizenship (we're required, as a non-profit, to ask). Your preferred personal email. Your preferred user [...]