Recent Posts
Casting Doubt on Jesus as the Carpenter…
As a late teenager deeply committed to Christianity and invested in debate – making arguments, evaluating evidence, convincing skeptical judges – I was naturally drawn to Christian “apologetics,” the attempt to demonstrate the truth claims of Christianity based not on faith but on proof. And so, like others in that boat at the time, and like many still today (often still using the same arguments we did), I had at my ready disposal numerous “proofs” for the existence of God, the fulfillment of prophecy, the divine nature of Christ, his (actual, physical, historical) resurrection from the dead, and the full [...]
What’s Wrong with Being a Carpenter??
In my previous post I tried to show why the evidence that Jesus was a carpenter before beginning his public ministry is thin at best. It is found only in Mark 6:3 (“isn’t this the carpenter?”), which is changed in Matthew (to “son of the carpenter”) and Luke (to “son of Joseph”). John doesn’t have the passage and doesn’t say anything about Jesus being a carpenter, nor do any of the other books of the New Testament, nor any other early Christian writing at all, apart from those that are getting it from Mark. This raises three questions that may [...]
Next Platinum Lecture on November 14th
Platinum members, as you know, one of the benefits of your subscription is a quarterly lecture by Bart followed by a Q&A. These lectures provide an opportunity to dig deeper into a particular topic and offer an opportunity to ask your questions to Bart directly. mark your calendars for our next Platinum lecture, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday November 14th at 2pm Eastern. The topic for this quarter's lecture is still being finalized, but check back to this post for an update as we get closer to the event date. I will also include it in the [...]
Was Jesus a Carpenter? The Surprisingly Thin Evidence.
Was Jesus a carpenter? Nearly everyone assumes he was – not just the two billion Christians but also the other billions who have ever thought or heard about it. And they have done so for 2000 years. As it turns out, the evidence for it is very thin. I just came to think seriously about this recently. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and reflecting on what it would be like to grow up and live in a place like Nazareth, a small rural village of maybe fifty small houses that together accommodated maybe 400-500 people altogether. Archaeologists have [...]
Supernatural “History.” Church Fathers. Atonement. Gospel Sources. All Sorts of Questions!
I continue to receive great questions from folk and continue to try to answer them. Here is a wide range on key issues for anyone interested in the informed study of the New Testament. ****************************** QUESTION: Do critical scholars agree that miracles and the supernatural are outside the purview of the historical process? If so, can you present the evidence to that effect? Is this what is taught in post grad history schools outside evangelical institutions? RESPONSE It doesn't take much evidence. Read any historical account of, say, WWII, the Civil War, the French Revolution; the presidency [...]
An Even Stranger View of Eternity in the Book of Revelation
In my previous post I pointed out that there seems to be an irony in the teachings of Jesus about the coming Kingdom of God. On one hand, it seems like it should be a completely utopian place where there are no longer any enemies of God or animosity and strife among humans, a return to the glory days (maybe literally only days) of the Garden of Eden. On the other hand, Jesus will be the “king” and his twelve disciples will be “co-rulers” in this kingdom. But why will they need a king and rulers? There is only now [...]
The Irony of Jesus as the King of the Coming Kingdom
Jesus believed there would be levels of reward in the coming Kingdom of God, as I began to show in my previous post. Could there be any problems, though? Any unruliness? Any need for discipline and judgment for people who did something illicit or harmful? Could or would people sin in the Kingdom of God? These are tricky questions that Jesus never addresses directly in the canonical Gospels. I never even thought about them or realized they could be problems until, well, something like two weeks ago. My assumption since I became a sentient human being has always been that [...]
A Head-Scratcher in the Sermon on the Mount: Who Gets Into the Kingdom?
There is a passage in the Sermon on the Mount that is crucial for understanding Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus, as I’ve taught for years, without, though, being able to get my mind around it completely. It doesn’t seem consistent with itself. Here’s Matthew 5:17-20 in the New Revised Standard Version (Updated Edition): 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law [...]
November 2026 Gold Q&A
Gold and Platinum Members, our November Q&A is coming up. Join Bart live on Saturday November 7th at 3pm Eastern as he answers your questions. Bart will spend the first half of our Zoom session answering your pre-submitted questions. Send yours to [email protected] no later than Thursday November 5th so we can add it to the queue. Then we’ll open things up. During the second half, you’re invited to come on the microphone and ask Bart a question live. If you’d like to participate in the live Q&A: Prepare your question in advance Keep your question to roughly 20 seconds [...]
How Much Reward Do You Want? The Tiers of Heaven
I have become deeply interested in the question of whether Jesus thought that people should be considered equally and treated as equals, and that has led to my ponderings on Jesus’ view of the afterlife for those who are “saved.” Will everyone in the future kingdom of God be treated equally? That made me reflect on the fact that there is a longstanding view within the Christian tradition that says: definitely not. This view of differentiated afterlives is portrayed most emphatically in one of the most popular and influential portrayals of the realms of the blessed and the damned referenced [...]
Are People Treated Equally in the Age to Come?
For nearly all my life – until a few months ago, actually – I assumed that Jesus favored and promoted equality: everyone deserves equal treatment and will receive equal rewards from God if they are on his side and survive the coming day of judgment. This really was a pure assumption on my part. I never much thought about it and didn’t realize I was simply assuming it. Hey, I believe everyone deserves to be treated equally. And if that’s what makes sense to me, obviously all right-minded people would think that. And who was more right-minded than Jesus? But [...]
Great News For the Blog! A Significant Milestone
I’ve got some exciting news about how we’re doing on the blog this year – with respect to funds raised, and in connection with a series of posts I did last year. The funds, as you’ll see below, are significant. To this point, in terms of the monies we’ve given to our charities, this is our best year yet of the fourteen we’ve had running this show. First let me explain a long-term project that ended up making a big difference. As (lots of you) know/remember, I did that “New Testament in a Nutshell” series in 2025, producing usually 3 [...]
Did Jesus Believe in Equality? You Might Think So….
Did Jesus believe in equality, and if so, what would that mean? It obviously means different things to different people in different contexts (we don’t equally mean the same thing…). Our (the U.S.) declaration of national independence insisted that “all men are created equal,” but it really did mean “men” (not women) and none of the Founders thought that their incomes and possessions should be equal to those of hoi polloi they saw in the streets. So too, the apostle Paul said that “There is neither New nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor male and female; you are all [...]
A Very Different (not to say Bizarre) Gospel Featuring Mary Magdalene
To round out this brief thread of Gospels connected with Mary Magdalene, I've decided to repost something from a few years ago that almost no one outside of the small pond of early Christian studies knows about, a book called “The Greater Questions of Mary” (i.e., of Mary Magdalene). Trigger warning: sexual content! (Really???) One of the “great questions” for scholars is whether such a book ever really did exist. It is mentioned only once in ancient literature, in a highly charged polemical context by Epiphanius of Salamis, a Christian heresy-hunter who was prone to exaggeration and [...]
Where Christianity Started, And Why – Platinum Guest Post by Peter van Kan
I am pleased to publish this Platinum post by Peter van Kan, in which he explores why Jesus would come to think he was the messiah, and makes the case that he is best understood as a Jewish mystic, largely misunderstood by the writers of the Gospels. Interesting thesis! What do you think? Feel free to comment and give your opinion. ****************************** In this article I aim to narrow down where in history the junction ‘christianity or no christianity’ lay. Having found the place, the obvious next question is: why did history take the christianity direction? Not [...]
Was Mary Magdalene the Actual Founder of Christianity?
In my last post I talked a bit about the relationship of / competition between Peter and Mary in early Christian traditions. Peter, of course, has traditionally been seen as the “rock” on which Christ built his church, the very foundation of Christianity (Matt. 16:18 – “You are Peter (Greek: petros) and upon this rock (Greek: petra) I will build my church.”). And indeed, according to 1 Cor. 15: 3-5, Peter was the first to see the resurrected Jesus (and realize he had been raised from the dead), and that is the very beginning of Christianity. But what if the [...]
Peter and Mary Magdalene Going Toe to Toe
In my previous post I talked about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and ended with the passage showing her having a rather serious disagreement (after Jesus' death) with Peter about whether she could have been favored by Jesus. I want to pick up there, and show how not just in the Gospel of Mary but in other parts of the early Christian tradition Mary and Peter were sometimes portrayed in controversy over who was Number One! Here is how I discuss it in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. slightly edited here. ****************************** In some early Christian circles Mary [...]
The Intriguing Gospel of Mary Magdalene
This past weekend I hosted an online conference on the relationship of Christian apocrypha to the New Testament canon (apocrypha = Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses that in the end were not included in the New Testament). There were a number of terrific talks given, one of them by Nicola Denzy Lewis (at Cornell), on the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. As she was giving it I realized that even though many people are intrigued by Mary Magdalene, few actually know much about this Gospel. I taught it when I did my undergraduate class on ancient Gospels and modern Jesus films, [...]
Does Paul Ever Refer to (or Even Know About) Judas Iscariot?
For many years I thought that Paul knew about the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. And I had good reason: he seems to refer to him in 1 Corinthians 11:23-24: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” NRSV) Since Paul indicates that the Last Supper happened on the night Jesus was betrayed, that settles it, right? If so, [...]
Did Judas Iscariot Actually Exist? Or Was He “Made Up”?
Over the years on the blog whenever I have posted something about Judas Iscariot (as in my last post), I've had readers ask me whether he was a real person or, as some folk have it, he was made up by Christian story tellers who wanted to explain how Jesus ended up in the hands of his enemies? Often it is pointed out that "Judas" sounds like "Jew": did Christian story tellers come up with the "Jew" who "betrayed Jesus" in order to make a theological point? I have a definite view about that. I think he was a real [...]
About the Betrayer Judas Iscariot. What’s an Iscariot?
This past weekend I sponsored the fourth annual "New Insights into the New Testament" conference, with an array of speakers giving talks for non-scholars on a particular topic. This year the topic was "Apocrypha and Canon" which was dealing with books that did not make it into the New Testament -- other Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses. The most recent significant discovery in this field was the Gospel of Judas, and we certainly had a paper on that. It made me wonder when I last discussed Judas Iscariot on the blog and I looked -- and it's been years. So [...]
Slaughter and Human Sacrifice: Understanding Tales of the Hebrew Bible
When I was a kid we celebrated the “Battle of Jericho” when “the walls come a’tumblin’ down” as a great victory of God that shows how he will bring victory to those who are faithful to him. I don’t think we thought for a moment what it must have been like for the people in the city itself who were slaughtered to a person (man, woman, and child) so that the Israelites could take possession of the place. And I doubt if we ever heard at all the story of “Jephthah’s daughter” – it’s a little bit harder to make [...]
Can You Explain the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and/or the Shema?
The Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Shema! Key features of the Israelite religion as portrayed in the Hebrew Bible, even if widely misunderstood or virtually unknown among the populace at large. (Can you explain them off the top of your head? If not, keep reading. If so, keep reading to see if you’re right. If you’re right, congratulations!) Here I continue this Hebrew Bible thread by extracting two side-boxes from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press. BOX 6.1 THE TABERNACLE AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT Nearly [...]
Jesus’s Salvation, Self-Identity, and Birth: Key Questions from Readers
Here are three questions I've received recently on Paul's views of Christ, Jesus's view of himself, and the marital status of his mother. QUESTION: What is your opinion on Paul’s Greek, translated as “Faith in Jesus” vs “faith of Jesus” (the faithfulness of Jesus in God’s plan?) There are a few verses this comes up in, including gospel material. (I don’t know Greek, and I’m not a linguist or scholar, and I have basically no idea what I’m talking about. However, I’m told through literature and scholarship that the Greek seems to be able to go either way.) Do [...]
Do You Really Mean That? Antisemitism.
Some really important words tend to become more vague and generalized to the point where they don’t mean what they used to. A lot of times that’s fine – doesn’t create a lot of problems. Other times, it makes it hard for us to know what each of us is talking about. Or it makes it easy to use a word as a tool, on the assumption that people will not know that it doesn’t mean what it used to. I showed how that is true of the terms “consciousness,” and “socialism” in the previous post. Now I turn to [...]
Categories on the Blog
Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.
- Anniversary Post #3: My Response to an Ill-Tempered Richard Carrier April 12, 2026
- Anniversary Post #1: Defending Misquoting Jesus April 9, 2026
- Can We Trust You When You Say “Most Scholars” Think Something? May 3, 2025
- A Really Scathing Review of My Book on Suffering March 31, 2024
- Making the Gospels Say What You WANT Them To Say March 30, 2024
- Dealing With Reviews of My Books By People Who (Apparently) Haven’t Read Them March 28, 2024
- But Your Own Teacher Bruce Metzger Didn’t Think That! November 21, 2023
- Why Do Some (Many?) Scholars Not Treat the Bible Like Other Ancient Sources? August 26, 2023
- Caught Red-Handed! An Unrepentant Christian Forger September 16, 2026
- My Odd Situation, Writing this Book… August 27, 2026
- Anniversary Post #5: Why I Was Reluctant to Write The Triumph of Christianity April 15, 2026
- My Next Book: Creating the Bible — How We Got the Canon of the New Testament September 7, 2025
- Jesus as God in the New Testament October 24, 2024
- Oral Traditions and the Dates of Our Gospels October 23, 2024
- Suffering. Is It Really Worth Talking About? Doesn’t the Bible Give the Right Answer? October 20, 2024
- The Problem of Suffering? So What’s the Problem? October 17, 2024
- Do You Really Mean That? Antisemitism. September 26, 2026
- Do You Really Mean That? Consciousness and Socialism September 24, 2026
- Health, Wealth, and the Prosperity Gospel September 19, 2026
- The Perpetual Virginity of Mary (and related topics) September 13, 2026
- Interesting Questions on the Teachings of the NT September 9, 2026
- Modern Appearances of Jesus September 8, 2026
- My Odd Situation, Writing this Book… August 27, 2026
- The Moral Benefits of Capitalism August 23, 2026
- Does the Book of Hebrews Indicate Jesus Ever Came To Earth? A Response to Richard Carrier. July 26, 2025
- Did Jesus Exist? Why I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Mythicists July 12, 2025
- More About My Book “Did Jesus Exist” September 25, 2024
- My Book “Did Jesus Exist” (an answer to the mythicists) September 24, 2024
- Nazareth in the Time of Jesus: the Archaeological Record December 27, 2023
- Did Nazareth Even Exist? December 21, 2023
- Would I Be Personally Upset if the Mythicists Were Right (That Jesus Never Existed)? October 8, 2022
- Richard Carrier: A Fuller Reply to His Criticisms, Beliefs, and Claims about Jesus April 25, 2022
- Casting Doubt on Jesus as the Carpenter… October 25, 2026
- Next Platinum Lecture on November 14th October 23, 2026
- A Head-Scratcher in the Sermon on the Mount: Who Gets Into the Kingdom? October 17, 2026
- November 2026 Gold Q&A October 16, 2026
- Great News For the Blog! A Significant Milestone October 13, 2026
- Where Christianity Started, And Why – Platinum Guest Post by Peter van Kan October 9, 2026
- A Blog Dinner in Denver, CO on November 19. Interested? September 25, 2026
- October 2026 Gold Q&A Announcement September 11, 2026
- What’s Wrong with Being a Carpenter?? October 24, 2026
- Was Jesus a Carpenter? The Surprisingly Thin Evidence. October 22, 2026
- Did Jesus Believe in Equality? You Might Think So…. October 11, 2026
- Was Mary Magdalene the Actual Founder of Christianity? October 8, 2026
- Peter and Mary Magdalene Going Toe to Toe October 7, 2026
- Did Judas Iscariot Actually Exist? Or Was He “Made Up”? October 3, 2026
- Important Questions About Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels September 20, 2026
- Jesus the Carpenter? September 12, 2026
- Eyewitness Accounts of Miracles March 14, 2026
- A New Proof of the Resurrection. What Do YOU Think? March 10, 2026
- Fundamentalist Apologists, Christian and Mythicist July 13, 2025
- More on the Initial Debacle on First-Century Mark (in relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls) July 20, 2024
- The Debacle Over the First-Century Copy of Mark July 18, 2024
- Toe-to-Toe with Evangelical New Testament Scholar Peter Williams: Can We Trust the Gospels? June 19, 2024
- A High-level Intellectual with an Infuriating “Solution” to Why There is Suffering May 7, 2024
- A Self-Evaluation of My Self-Debate: Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable? March 24, 2024
- What’s Wrong with Being a Carpenter?? October 24, 2026
- Was Jesus a Carpenter? The Surprisingly Thin Evidence. October 22, 2026
- Two Years that Transformed the World of Biblical Studies. July 14, 2026
- A Common But Lousy Argument That We KNOW What the NT Originally Said: Anniversary Post #14 May 5, 2026
- Anniversary Post #9: Misquoting Misquoting Jesus April 25, 2026
- Anniversary Post #1: Defending Misquoting Jesus April 9, 2026
- Has Luke Gotten Rid of the Idea That Jesus Died for Your Sins? February 19, 2026
- The Controversy Over Jesus’ Last Supper in Luke (Did He Speak of Dying “For you”?) February 18, 2026
- Supernatural “History.” Church Fathers. Atonement. Gospel Sources. All Sorts of Questions! October 21, 2026
- Jesus’s Salvation, Self-Identity, and Birth: Key Questions from Readers September 27, 2026
- Important Questions About Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels September 20, 2026
- Interesting Questions on the Teachings of the NT September 9, 2026
- Martyrs, Forgers, and Textual Scholars: Intriguing Questions From Readers August 20, 2026
- Problems of Suffering and Why Gospels Started Being Written: Questions from Readers August 12, 2026
- Personal Faith, Textual Problems, and the Miracles of Jesus: More Readers’ Questions July 16, 2026
- How To Figure Out If a Miracle Happened… Questions from Readers June 11, 2026
- Unpacking 1 Enoch, the Apocryphal Writing Quoted by Jude October 1, 2025
- 1 Enoch: The Scripture Quoted by Jude September 30, 2025
- Why Wasn’t Peter’s Apocalypse Included in the New Testament? September 9, 2025
- The Transformation of Paul’s Teaching: The Apocalypse of Paul July 15, 2025
- Paul’s Vision of Heaven and Hell July 10, 2025
- What About People Who Come Back From the Dead in the Hebrew Bible? April 17, 2024
- More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place? April 16, 2024
- What Is Sheol in the Hebrew Bible? April 14, 2024
