March 2022 - Page 2 of 2 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

How Luke Rewrote Matthew’s Nativity Story Platinum Guest Post by Dennis J. Folds

I'm pleased to give this Platinum Guest Post by Dennis Folds, a highly informed and informative assessment of the relationship between the infancy stories of Matthew and Luke. A lot has been said about these stories over the years, but Dennis has an intriguing perspective that I don't recall seeing before. Terrific! Read it and see what you think. And send some comments/questions for Dennis. Do you have a post to send along for Platinum members? It does not need to be highly informed, erudite, researched: just something you've been thinking about that you would like to share with other Platinum members, anything related to the many issues we deal with on the blog. The queue is virtually empty now, so send your post along! For now: here's Dennis. ****************************** The Synoptic Problem is the framework in which scholars debate about the commonalities among the three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. A lot of material is in all three, more material is common to two of the three, and the remainder is found in [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-16T09:36:41-04:00March 14th, 2022|Canonical Gospels|

Young Jesus with the Brahmins in India!

In my last post I talked about a humorous Gospel forgery by a modern scholar. There are a number of other forgeries of Gospels done in (relatively) modern times -- especially in the nineteenth century -- which were not particularly risible but were far more successful. I still get asked about them today, especially by people who don't know what to think about them or, even more, people who assure me they are true. I talk about them in the last chapter of my book Forged (HarperOne, 2011). Here's one of the most successful, as I discuss there. ****************************** One of the most widely disseminated modern forgeries is called The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ.[1] From this account we learn that Jesus went to India during his formative teen years, the “lost years” before his public ministry, and there learned the secrets of the East. The book made a big splash when it appeared in English in 1926; but as it turns out, it had already been exposed as a fraud more than thirty years [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-06T13:06:32-05:00March 13th, 2022|Christian Apocrypha, Forgery in Antiquity, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Fundraiser for Ukraine. Lecture on “Who Killed Jesus? And Why?”

Most of us are feeling depressed, frustrated, anxious, stressed, fearful, and helpless in the face of what is happening in Ukraine. Even though there is nothing we as individuals can do to halt the Russian advance and is horrific consequences, we can at least do something to help those in the throes of the humanitarian crisis. I would like to do a fundraiser to provide funds for one of the great charities dealing with the situation, one that the blog has always supported.. We will send all the money we raise directly to Care International. They are doing fantastic work in the crisis and desperately need the funding. Our event will be on Sunday March 20, 4:00-5:30 Eastern Time. It will be a Zoom lecture that I give on "Who Killed Jesus? And Why?" It will involve a 45 minute lecture and a 45 minute Q&A. We are asking all attendees for a minimum donation of $45 dollars. If you choose to come, please consider giving more -- as much as you can and wish. [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-14T16:34:40-04:00March 12th, 2022|Public Forum|

Interested in Going to Rome with Me?

Two years ago and then last year I was scheduled to do give lectures on a tour in Italy, starting in Rome and going to Naples, Pompeii (!), and Sorrento. I was eager to do it -- great places! But alas, it was cancelled both times. BUT, it's back on, as I've announced. AND there is still some room for travelers. Interested? My topic is the relationship of Christianity and traditional Roman religions and cultures in the early centuries CE: “Christians and Pagans.” The tour company, Thalassa, is terrific; it will be a small and intimate group and we will have tons of time to talk, discuss, and hang out together. They are now accepting registrations for the trip. Below is a poster for it, with a link for more information. Here is part of what I say about my lectures. When Christianity arrived on the world stage in the first century AD, Rome and the Empire it founded were predominantly “pagan” – filled with a large number of polytheistic religions worshiping the Greek [...]

FreedomBen2022-03-08T09:55:15-05:00March 12th, 2022|Public Forum|

A Humorous Modern Gospel Forgery

In a previous post I gave the introduction to my book about ancient forgery, Forged, written for a general audience. Posting it reminded me of a modern forgery that was done by a bona fide scholar -- of a Gospel text! I heard the story numerous times because the fraud was exposed by my own teacher, Bruce Metzger. I think the first time I wrote about the story was in my book Lost Christianities (Oxford University Press, 2003). Here is what I said there: ****************************** Some forgeries have been perpetrated in modern times, of direct relevance to our current study of early Christian apocrypha. One might think that in our day and age, no one would be so deceitful as to try and pawn off any first hand accounts of Jesus as authentic. But in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. Strange Gospels appear regularly, if you know where to look for them.[1] Often these record incidents in the “lost years” of Jesus – e.g., accounts of Jesus as a child or a young [...]

BDEhrman2022-02-28T13:14:37-05:00March 10th, 2022|Forgery in Antiquity, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Why Date the Gospels after 70 CE?

New Testament scholars are virtually unified in thinking that the Gospels of the New Testament began to appear after 70 CE. The major exceptions are conservative evangelicals who often date them earlier. One can understand why: they typically maintain that the Gospels of Matthew and John were written by disciples of Jesus and it seems implausible that they would still be alive toward the end of the first century (especially given live expectancies in antiquity). There are good reasons, nonetheless, for the scholarly consensus outside evangelical circles. I’ve talked about the matter on the blog before but just now I reread my discussion in my New Testament textbook and thought it might be useful to give it here. In particular I like the final point I make (in the second to last paragraph), which, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve stressed enough over the years. Here is what I say there: ****************************** Critical scholars are widely agreed that the earliest Gospel was Mark, written around 70 c.e.; [...]

BDEhrman2022-02-28T13:08:24-05:00March 9th, 2022|Canonical Gospels|

An Intense Back and Forth on Key Issues

I recently had a very interesting interview for a podcast called "Global Skeptics." We had only about 20 minutes and so we agreed to do it rapid-fire. This was one of the best Bam-Bam-Bam interviews I've ever done -- great and wide-ranging questions from a variety of perspectives. Here it is!

FreedomBen2022-03-06T13:08:49-05:00March 8th, 2022|Public Forum, Video Media|

“In the Beginning” (Part 2)

In my previous post I began to summarize the lectures that are available in my course: “In the Beginning: Myth, Legend, and History in the Book of Genesis.” If you’re interested in the course, you can learn more about it on my personal website (which is not directly connected to the blog): www.bartehrman.com Here I will give a synopsis of the final four lectures. Lecture 3: The Ancient Tales of Genesis: Borrowings from the Wider Culture Scholars and lay-readers alike were shocked in the mid 19th century to learn that versions of the most important stories of Genesis 1-11 were discovered in other (non-Israelite) parts of the Ancient Near East. In fact, in many cases these other non-biblical versions can be shown to be much older than those in Genesis. There is, for example, a story of creation from ancient Canaan called the Enuma Elish, which is different in many ways from the story in Genesis 1, but with numerous similarities as well both in the overall concept and sometimes even with [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-06T13:08:34-05:00March 6th, 2022|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Public Forum, Video Media|

In the Beginning: Myth, Legend, and History in the Book of Genesis (Part 1)

As I have mentioned before, I have started a small business on the side, Bart Ehrman Professional Services (BEPS). At this point it involves booking speaking engagements, providing consultations with authors of various kinds, and online courses. The online courses, of course, are a way of disseminating knowledge about the Bible, the historical Jesus, the history of Christianity, and so on. BEPS is a separate commercial endeavor for me and I am diligently keeping it distinct from the blog, except to announce what I’m up to there for blog members who might be interested. You can also learn more about it on my website, www.bartehrman.com This past month I produced a six-lecture course called “In the Beginning: Myth, Legend, and History in the Book of Genesis.” This is the first of possibly many courses in a long series called “How Scholars Read the Bible.” The entire series will be devoted to showing what critical scholars think, believe, and argue about the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, but also to show why they think what [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-06T13:08:06-05:00March 5th, 2022|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Public Forum, Video Media|

Don’t Forget! Ask Bart Anything: Sunday!!

Please remember our fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders (MUCH in need of support just now in particular!). It's your chance to ask me questions and my chance to desperately think of answers. ALSO: I will have a one-one-one after the event with the highest bidder! And bids are due TONIGHT. See details here: https://ehrmanblog.org/ask-bart-anything-blog-event-march-6/

BDEhrman2022-03-04T17:32:36-05:00March 4th, 2022|Public Forum|

Sting and Thomas. Guest Post by Evyatar Marienberg

Here now is the second post on Sting and the New Testament by my colleague Evyatar Marienberg. To learn more about Evyatar and his book on Sting (Sting and Religion: The Catholic-Shaped Imagination of a Rock Icon, Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock, Oregon 2021) see yesterday's post. ****************************** Those who checked the Wikipedia’s page about Sting (and many other online sources), might have noticed that it is said his “real” name is “Gordon Matthew Thomas.” I did not mention “Thomas” in his name, following his birth certificate, and still the reality of Sting’s legal name. Some might have also noticed that a saying attributed to the New Testament’s figure of Thomas was mentioned above. Thomas, in fact, is some kind of a ghost around Sting. In his most recent album, The Bridge of 2021, the ninth track is called “The Bells of St. Thomas” (full disclosure: Sting shared with me an early demo of that song, and asked me for comments). In this song, the interlocutor wakes up in an unknown bed, in the [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-04T13:11:34-05:00March 3rd, 2022|Book Discussions|

Sting and Pilate. Guest Post by Evyatar Marienberg

One of my interesting and unusually wide-ranging colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC is Evyatar Marienberg, trained in orthodox circles in Haifa, PhD from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, in Paris, expert in Rabbinic Judaism, author of a textbook on Roman Catholicism, and, most recently, a study of Sting and Religion. That's right, the English rock singer and song writer: Sting and Religion: The Catholic-Shaped Imagination of a Rock Icon, Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock, Oregon 2021. I've asked Evyatar to write some posts for us. Here's the first of two on Sting and the New Testament. ****************************** Professor Bart Ehrman, a colleague, a friend, and the person who was running the search committee that hired me for a position at his (and since 2009, also my) department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was asking me for some time now if I would like to write for this blog. Well, I, unfortunately, recently, said yes. Following his suggestions of topics, I might [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-02T18:05:00-05:00March 2nd, 2022|Book Discussions|

Forgery for a Scholarly Audience

I have been doing a few posts on the difference between popular writing (for a trade book) and scholarly writing (for an academic book). In my last post I reproduced the introduction to my book Forged: Why The Biblical Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are (popular book published by HarperOne); here, by way of contrast, is the introduction to Forgery and Counterfortery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (academic book by Oxford University Press). Both the title and the opening paragraphs are give-aways that this is not meant for most readers, even if those who are interested can certainly follow it and get a lot out of it. It ain't quantum mechanics. ****************************** Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature is the degree to which it was forged.[1] Even though the early Christians were devoted to the truth– or so their writings consistently claimed – and even though “authoritative” literature played a virtually unparalleled role in their individual and communal lives, the orthonymous output of the early Christians was [...]

BDEhrman2022-03-04T13:08:06-05:00March 1st, 2022|Book Discussions, Forgery in Antiquity|

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