September 2026 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Committed Apologists and Serious Historians

Not to be the dog across the street who won’t stop barking all night, but…. Here is another post on committed Christian apologists who insist they are doing serious history. To ward off a misunderstanding: It is absolutely possible for a Bible-believing conservative evangelical to be a university-level, academically-gifted, peer-review-publishing, respected-in-the-field geologist. BUT, it is not possible for her to be a university-level, academically-gifted, peer-review-publishing geologist if her views of geology are influenced by her Bible-believing conservative evangelical faith. To wit: if she tries to publish an article in an academic journal arguing that the earth really is about 6000 years old (that’s what she learned in church growing up and it’s always seemed right), and tries to cite scientific “evidence” for it, it will not be published and she will jeopardize her career. That’s not because of prejudice or bias, but because every serious scientist in the world knows that it is not true, it cannot be true, and that if anyone thinks it is true it is not because of the [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-30T21:31:06-04:00September 6th, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

Two Intrigues About Noah’s Flood

The Flood of Noah is one of the most familiar stories of the Bible. But even those who know it well often don’t think about how it actually envisions the world (or rather, universe) or know about comparable stories from other (even more ancient) Near Eastern cultures (though some will know about the Epic of Gilgamesh). If you are among that crowd, here is the post for you! These are two more side-boxes from my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press), slightly edited here. ******************************* BOX 3.4 THE THREE-STORIED UNIVERSE The mythical thought world of ancient writers—including the writers of the Bible—was entirely different from the one we inhabit today. Nowhere does that become more clear and obvious than in considering their “cosmology”—their understanding of the world we live in. Modern cosmologists tell us that our little planet is part of a solar system circling a rather average star in a galaxy with something like 200 billion stars; that there are some 100 billion other [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-28T14:27:57-04:00September 5th, 2026|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Angels Seducing Women and the Rite of Circumcision: Two Peculiarities of Genesis

Was Noah’s flood meant to destroy the giants born to women seduced by angelic beings? And what exactly was the point of circumcision? I continue here my discussion of Hebrew Bible points of interest by sharing two more of the side-boxes found in my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press). These are both taken from my chapter on the book of Genesis. ***************************** BOX 3.1 SONS OF GOD AND THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN One of the most mysterious stories in Genesis happens right at the beginning of the Flood narrative (chapter 6) where we are told that the “sons of God” looked down among the human “daughters,” saw that they were beautiful, and came down and had sex with them, leading to the Nephilim. The word “nephilim” means “fallen ones.” According to Numbers 13:33, the Nephilim were giants. Apparently, for the story in Genesis 6, there were angelic beings (the “sons of God”) who lusted after human women, and their offspring were giants. [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-27T09:31:00-04:00September 3rd, 2026|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

How Old Was Jesus When He Was Baptized? And When He Died?

I have been talking about Jesus' life before he was baptized, the so-called "Lost Years." But how many years was that? How old was he when he met up with John the Baptist? And beyond that, how long did his ministry last? How old was he when he died? The standard line is that Jesus started his ministry when he was thirty and was executed three years later when he was thirty-three. But none of the Gospels says all that. So why is it the common view? It'll take a bit to explain how it's calculated (and a bit more to explain why it's highly uncertain). Only one of the Gospels says about how old he was when Jesus began his ministry. Luke says that he was “about thirty” years old when he John baptized him (Luke 3:23). This number is not confirmed by any other source and we really don’t know if Luke had special information about this or if he was just guessing. The other three canonical Gospels say nothing explicit at [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-26T17:18:27-04:00September 2nd, 2026|Historical Jesus|

My Interview with James Carville
Gallery
My Interview with James Carville

Public Forum

My Interview with James Carville

About a week ago, out of the blue, I was contacted by the producer of James Carville's podcast/youtube channel to do an interview. Most of you know him well -- he's one of the top political strategists of our time and an incredibly personable, affable, and funny guy. Unlike me on the blog, he is all ABOUT taking political sides. And I had no idea why he wanted to interview me or what we were going to talk about. Even his producer (when I asked him) didn't really know! OK then. So I went on, and had the time of my life. It's was a terrifically fun interview, and no politics! Just a lot of key questions about everything from Jesus and the Gospels to the Council of Nicea and fun conversation. They've allowed us to put it on the blog, so here it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGmLqJfnw6E

BDEhrman2026-09-01T09:12:25-04:00September 1st, 2026|Public Forum|

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Committed Apologists and Serious Historians

Two Intrigues About Noah’s Flood

Angels Seducing Women and the Rite of Circumcision: Two Peculiarities of Genesis

How Old Was Jesus When He Was Baptized? And When He Died?

My Interview with James Carville

My Interview with James Carville