June 2023 - Page 2 of 2 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

The Radical Teachings of Jesus–And Why No One Follows Them
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The Radical Teachings of Jesus–And Why No One Follows Them

Book Discussions, Historical Jesus

The Radical Teachings of Jesus–And Why No One Follows Them

This is the title I’d like for my next book. Of course, I may change my mind (it happens all the time) and of greater moment, what I propose to my publisher as a title book often ends up having little effect or influence on the actual title. Publishers have the final say on that, and even though there is a lot of back and forth, discussion, and negotiation – in the end, well, good luck winning *that* decision! Even so, it’s what I’m calling the book now because I think it encapsulates what I want to say in it. My view is that Jesus’ teachings on how to live in relation to others were radically different from what can be found in (a) the teachings of Greek and Roman moralists (“moral philosophers”), (b) on the ground, in the Roman empire generally (among non-philosophers) (insofar as we can tell how people normally lived, given the scarcity of our sources of information), and (c) even in the Hebrew Bible tradition in which Jesus “lived, moved, and [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-12T10:38:12-04:00June 13th, 2023|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

The Events Leading up to the Death of Jesus: What Can We Know and Not Know?

Now I’d like the rubber to meet the road. If we think we can know a good bit of the gist of Jesus’ life, what can we say with relative certainly about how it ended? What do scholars who look at all the evidence basically agree on? And what (and how much!) is basically up for grabs? Here’s how I discuss it in Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne 2016). ****************************** Gist Memories of Jesus’ Death One of my purposes in this book is to examine later traditions about Jesus recorded in our Gospels, written between forty and sixty-five years after his death, to see if any of them include distorted memories, either in whole or in part. In this chapter I will focus on traditions involving the death of Jesus; in the next chapter, after exploring the question of whether oral cultures are likely to remember the past more accurately than literary ones, I will explore traditions involving the earlier life and ministry of Jesus. I want to begin with stories surrounding Jesus’ last days [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-05T14:57:12-04:00June 11th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies, Public Forum|

If We Can Know the “Gist” of What Jesus Said and Did … What’s the Gist?

I’m going to be discussing soon some of the things that appear to be “misremembered” about Jesus in our early sources, but first it’s important to emphasize some of the hugely critical positive things about memory – like, that most of the time we get it basically right. Depending, of course, on what “basically” means! Here’s how I discuss the matter in Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ******************* Remembering the Gist? Let me make a point that may not be clear from what I have said so far about the psychology of memory. In stressing the fact – which appears to be a fact – that memories are always constructed and therefore prone to error, even when they are quite vivid, I am not, I am decidedly not, saying that all of our memories are faulty or wrong. Most of the time we remember pretty well, at least in broad outline. Presumably, so too did eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. As did the person who heard a story from an eyewitness may well [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-05T14:53:14-04:00June 10th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Were Jesus’ Most Amazing Deeds the Ones Most Likely to be Remembered?

Here I continue thinking about memory in relation to Jesus by dealing with an obvious objection to the idea that Jesus' followers, and those who heard the stories about him, were prone to misremember what they saw and heard -- these were SPECTACULAR events. Aren't spectacular events and stories far more likely to be remembered accurately than the everyday stuff we forget all the time? Here's how I discuss the issue in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** One of the scary things about memory is not not simply that we forget things over time or don’t quite remember things correctly. Sometimes we actually have “distorted memories,” that is, recollections – often quite vivid – of things that did not happen. One of the fairly recent discoveries in the field is that distorted memories can be implanted in people’s minds, for example, by hearing distorted information about a past event and then remembering it as part of the event. That can happen even with respect to events of one’s own personal history. [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-05T10:16:40-04:00June 8th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Vote for Your Favorite Platinum Post

Hey Platinum Members, Time to vote on your favorite platinum guest post from relatively recent times. Here are four to choose from, all of them interesting and important! Pick one and name your preference, not as a comment here but by letting Diane know at [email protected] She'll tally the votes and then we'll annouce the winner, and I'll post the post. So... what are yiur druthers? April 10, 2023 The Quest for the Legendary Jesus. Robert Droney April 14, 2023 Baptism and the Macbeth Effect Douglas Wadeson April 28, 2023 Is 2 Thessalonians a Forgery? From 132 CE? Omar Robb May 3, 2023 Did The Twelve Become Only Three? Doug Wadeson

Diane2023-06-07T14:43:31-04:00June 7th, 2023|Public Forum|

Eyewitness Testimony: The Importance of Actual Expertise

It is flat-out amazing to me how many New Testament scholars talk about the importance of eyewitness testimony to the life of Jesus without having read a single piece of scholarship on what experts know about eyewitness testimony. Some (well-known) scholars in recent years have written entire books on the topic, basing their views on an exceedingly paltry amount of research into the matter. Quite astounding, really. But they appear to have gone into their work confident that they know about how eyewitness testimony works, and didn’t read the masses of scholarship that shows they simply aren’t right about it. Here's how I begin to talk about eyewitness scholarship in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** In the history of memory studies an important event occurred in 1902.[1] In Berlin, a well-known criminologist named von Liszt was delivering a lecture when an argument broke out. One student stood up and shouted that he wanted to show how the topic was related to Christian ethics. Another got up and yelled that he [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-02T13:50:00-04:00June 7th, 2023|Memory Studies|

Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy
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Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy

Historical Jesus, Memory Studies

Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy

In my book Jesus Before the Gospels, I discuss how “memories” of a famous person based on eyewitness testimony can be easily distorted. Among other examples I use, is a famous miracle-working holy-person from outside the Christian tradition that is in many ways strikingly similar to the situation with Jesus (there are obviously big differences as well). Here is what I say about it in my book: ****************************** To sum up the situation, consider the words of one of the world’s leading experts on false memory, Daniel Schacter: “Numerous experiments have demonstrated ways in which imagining events can lead to the development of false memories for those events.”[1] Does such research have any bearing on the memories about Jesus, a great teacher and miracle worker, by eyewitnesses or by those who later were told stories by eyewitnesses – or even those told stories by people who were not eyewitnesses? Can imagining that a great religious leader said and did something make someone remember that he really did say and do these things? It might be [...]

BDEhrman2023-06-05T10:23:50-04:00June 6th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

“You Have Heard His Blasphemy!” But Did They? A Platinum post by Daniel Kohanski

I'm pleased to present this well-researched Platinum post by Dan Kohanski, on one of the most intriguing (at least for me) questions about the Passion narrative. It's a highly controversial passage and Dan makes a highly controversial suggestion! He makes a good case! What do you think? Remember: you too can make a Platinum guest post for other Platinum members. It doesn't have to be highly learned and sophisticated -- just something you're thinking about connected with the stuff we do on the blog. If you have something, send it along to Diane at [email protected]. ****************************** “You Have Heard His Blasphemy!” Said the High Priest—But Did They? The trial of Jesus as described in the gospel of Mark, and particularly the part where the high priest charges Jesus with blasphemy, is one of the most hotly debated stories in the New Testament. Here is the heart of the passage: Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said, “I am; and ‘you will see the [...]

Diane2023-06-06T16:00:13-04:00June 5th, 2023|Public Forum|

Being Realistic about How Stories about Jesus Spread before the Gospels

In my previous post I showed how Christian missionaries – the vast majority of them not companions of Jesus or eyewitnesses to his life – were telling stories about Jesus as they moved around in the empire spreading the gospel in the early decades, before the Gospels were written (think Paul and his missionary companions, Timothy, Silvanus, etc – none of them from Israel, none of them having laid eyes on Jesus before his death). The problems of word-of-mouth traditions are even more complicated than I’ve so far discussed, however. Here is how I go on to discuss the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** It was not only these missionaries who were converting others, however. The converts they made were themselves converting people. Take another hypothetical but completely plausible situation: suppose I’m a worshiper of the traditional Roman gods, living in the town of Colossae in, say, the year 50 CE. The missionary Epaphras comes to town and I meet him at his place of business. I’m a highly [...]

BDEhrman2023-05-30T11:27:45-04:00June 4th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Who Was Spreading the Stories about Jesus Before the Gospels?

Here I continue my reflections on how stories about Jesus were floating around the Mediterranean world *before* the Gospel writers wrote their accounts (based on these stories). I pick up here with the final paragraph of yesterday's post, again taken from my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** In other words, a story does not have to be written in the newspaper or broadcast on the evening news or even on modern social media to get around, very widely and very quickly. Moreover, the vast majority of the people telling the story – just within three days – are people who were not eyewitnesses and did not get their information from eyewitnesses. What do you suppose happens to stories when they are told, remembered, retold, and then remembered again, just within three days? Or three years? Or, as in the case of Jesus, 40-65 years? How many changes would be made in them? One important issue, of course, involves the storytellers themselves. Who was actually telling the stories about Jesus? To [...]

BDEhrman2023-05-30T11:20:50-04:00June 3rd, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

The 3rd Rail – A Critique of Jesus. Platinum Post by Steve Clark

A Platinum post for Platinum members from Platinum member Steve Clark: ****************************** It was a cold winter morning, the exciting music of the 1970’s was in my head. I was learning to play guitar and learning to be cool. Mostly failing at both but kept trying. What else was a young man to do in the 70’s? I was walking around Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta (my friends called it the concrete campus) and had a spring in my step as I stepped into Philosophy 101 class. In the days to come we were assigned materials to read and one of them was Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell. Like many in the South grew up in a conservative Southern Baptist environment. And like many had never heard anyone criticize Jesus. Ever. Why would they and what would there be to criticize? The short portion of the lecture Russell pens (and pins) directly on Jesus is extremely mild. He appears borderline apologetic about it. For me though, fitting with the [...]

Diane2023-05-30T11:12:22-04:00June 2nd, 2023|Public Forum|

Jesus, Eyewitnesses, and Stories Floating Around….

I return now to questions about how early Christians “remembered” Jesus as they told and retold stories about him. People often claim that the Gospels must be accurate because they are based on eyewitness testimony that was carefully guarded to ensure its accuracy. But let’s think about that for a bit in realistic terms. Here is how I discuss the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (Harper One: 2016). ****************************** If during the 40-65 years separating Jesus’ life and the surviving Gospels, his sayings and deeds of Jesus were not memorized by his followers and then passed down, verbatim, through the church, and if they were not circulated accurately within informally controlled settings, how were they being told and retold? One obvious point to stress, which has not occurred to everybody, is this: stories about Jesus were circulating even during his lifetime. Moreover, even then they were not being told only by eyewitnesses. When someone who saw Jesus do or say something then and told someone else who wasn’t there, it is impossible [...]

BDEhrman2023-05-30T11:11:19-04:00June 1st, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

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