Another brief hiatus as we near the end of my thread on the burial traditions of Jesus, occasioned by the inquiries of several members of the blog, and others not on the blog, about my new course for the Teaching Company (the company is also called The Great Courses).
A couple of days ago my new course on “How Jesus Became God” came out. It is obviously based (roughly) on the book of the same title. The Course consists of twenty-four lectures, each thirty minutes in length, and as with all the Great Courses, it is available in numerous formats: on CD for audio only, or DVD for video, or as a download, and so on. For a quick link: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=6522 You’ll see that it is right now being offered at a serious discount. One hint about the Teaching Company courses: ALWAYS buy them at discount! (They all get discounted on and off.)
These are the titles of each of the lectures:
- 1 Jesus—The Man Who Became God
- 2 Greco-Roman Gods Who Became Human
- 3 Humans as Gods in the Greco-Roman World
- 4 Gods Who Were Human in Ancient Judaism
- 5 Ancient Jews Who Were Gods
- 6 The Life and Teachings of Jesus
- 7 Did Jesus Think He Was God?
- 8 The Death of Jesus—Historical Certainties
- 9 Jesus’s Death—What Historians Can’t Know
- 10 The Resurrection—What Historians Can’t Know
- 11 What History Reveals about the Resurrection
- 12 The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus
- 13 Jesus’s Exaltation—Earliest Christian Views
- 14 The Backward Movement of Christology
- 15 Paul’s View—Christ’s Elevated Divinity
- 16 John’s View—The Word Made Human
- 17 Was Christ Human? The Docetic View
- 18 The Divided Christ of the Separationists
- 19 Christ’s Dual Nature—Proto-Orthodoxy
- 20 The Birth of the Trinity
- 21 The Arian Controversy
- 22 The Conversion of Constantine
- 23 The Council of Nicea
- 24 Once Jesus Became God
This course was great fun to produce, though really (really!) difficult as well. I recorded the course during two weekends in the middle of the spring semester, and that was rugged. Because of my time commitments otherwise, I had to be extremely focused to get through the lectures (my other courses have been taped at greater leisure, in the summer). It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
But I think the end result is extremely interesting. The technical aspects of production at the Teaching Company – and their expectations and production values – have grown and grown. It is an enormously professional organization, at every level and in every way.
This particular course covers the same material as the book, of course (since it’s the same topic). But that should not deter anyone (ANYONE!) from getting it. The media are so radically different that even though the material may sound familiar, it is coming at you in a fundamentally altered form.
In lots of ways, the course is even better than the book. I cannot cover as many of the details as I do in the book, but I am able to go into greater depth on the really key points.
I suppose there are some people who “refuse to see the movie” because they “have read the book.” I’m a *bit* like that myself, especially since I cherish books more than movies. But if the movie is really good, I don’t mind a bit. I love period costume pieces for example, and can’t get enough of seeing Jane Austen reproductions, even though I’ve recently reread all the novels, or George Eliot, or Charles Dickens, and so on.
On a more contemporary level, two nights ago I saw “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” here in London, to a sold-out crowd in a large theatre (the Gielgud). It was absolutely spectacular. I had read the book two years ago, and loved it. But the book didn’t take away a bit from the play: having read it only made the play even more interesting. Different media, different experiences.
In any event, if you have any academic/intellectual interests at all, I cannot recommend the Teaching Company Courses highly enough. I don’t mean my courses; I mean *any* of the courses. I myself get and watch them. I’ve watched courses on topics as wide ranging as Ancient Rome and Great Classical Music and Human Memory. Terrific.
When it comes to topics in religion, they have a superb selection by top-flight scholars/teachers. I myself have done eight courses for them, and in my judgment this one is the best. So if you’re able to get ahold of one, I strongly urge it! Or if you’re interested in any of their vast numbers of courses, you should definitely go for it.
that would be a dream come true to be in one of your classes
For some of my students it’s a nightmare. 🙂
you need a study partner that dwells of scripture and jesus of course I’m your guy
I’ve been told I have a old soul lol
where do i sign up
man that would be a dream come true
Amen to the Great Courses! My father-in-law got me started with “Understanding the Fundamentals of Music,” and I’ve covered a lot of ground in a wide variety of subject areas since then, including religion — where I first got exposed to Bart via his “New Testament” course. I get all my courses on audio so I can listen in the car on my commute. I’m currently listening again to “The Story of Human Language.” Maybe when I retire I’ll have time to watch my favorites on video.
Thanks for giving us the heads-up! I’ve been chucking their catalogs and deleting their e-mails without taking time to look at them, because I knew we’d learn about this release here.
I was looking through my DVDs recently, and was surprised to realize how many of their courses I’d impulsively bought, and then never found time to look at! I *have* viewed all of yours, and will eagerly look at this one. Then I’ll try to make time to look at the others I own, before considering anything else. (I admit I quit looking at some of them – one on Genetics, as an example – because they were too technical for me.)
Thanks. I was curious why it had not yet come out and here it is. I have taken your other 7 courses as well as most of the other religion courses and the Hubble telescope courses. Your courses are unique because of their clarity. They are much easier to understand than some of the other religion courses. I will order today.
Already ordered! Will be listening to it on a long road trip to the West in September. Your other courses have helped me through many a mile on the road.
In my non-expert opinion, “How Jesus Became God” is your best book to date. I’ll be sure to get the audio course as well. As soon as I’m done with “The Greatest Controversies of Early Christianity”.
Yeah, I think it is too. Thanks,
While “Forged” and “Forgery and Counterforgery in Christianity” are treasure troves of great information (and latter was a bit overwhelming at times), “How Jesus Became God” made me think in ways I didn’t before. Even though I’ve read quite a few of your books, I expected another Nicene council Athanasius/Arius deal. Well, I was more than pleasantly surprised that this was quite a bit different book, though I should have expected that from an author such as yourself. I think even your critics applaud you for that.
I too fell in the trap of a false dichotomy, thinking that there is either “El Elyon” or just human plane of existence. Forgetting all the Mediterranean myths with a rich middle between Zeus and humans. What the book does in a very accessible way is show all the middle ground and how Jesus fits in that.
Are you in the fake classroom this time with the lectern or did they set up a more informal environment? How large is the in-studio audience this time around? Does it help you to have one?
It’s set up as a TV studio more than a classroom — no lecturn.
I am listening to it now. I am delighted to have this course as I find your lectures both interesting and easy to follow. I have most of the ones available from The Great Courses and it is a pleasure to be able to listen to and repeat each one at will. I am especially glad to have your personal commentary on this book as I was disappointed with the narrator of the Audible.com audiobook. Yes, I have a print copy also, but since having some vision issues I am glad to have the other formats as well. Thanks!
Speaking of your critics, it seems to me that they miss your point completely. It’s not just that the scribes changed the text, it’s the fact that those changes were used to argue theological points. As in example of Jesus sweating blood in Luke. In your debate with Peter Williams on Unbelievable, he was eager to concede the point about 1 John and the interpolation regarding the Holy Trinity. However, his explanation was that, since there are footnotes now in Bibles showing that the text is of questionable quality, everything is OK. But if people used 1 John 5 to argue for Trinity, isn’t that a huge problem?
Your point about different day on which Jesus is crucified can not be reconciled by John simply using different calendar. That doesn’t help us with the fact that John is trying to score a theological point.
Seems to me that the NT is replete with theological changes to both tradition (like Gospel of John example) and text (like 1 John example). If so, aren’t these huge problems?
Just few things that were on my mind.
Thank you.
I can’t wait to see them. I have several of them already and I can’t get enough of them. Maybe it’s because of spending nearly 40 years being manipulated and controlled by belief. I can’t thank you enough for making this information available to us all. Ironically, it was going to a Christian college and learning about the history (and I use the term loosely in this context) of the Biblical texts that started me on my journey toward shedding that belief. Now I just can’t satisfy that desire to know more about the ACTUAL history of Christian belief. Again, thank you so much for making it available to us.
I went to check out the TTC site and it was down, but they had this coupon code for $10 off any order placed by This Sunday :NEWTGC. If the course is still on sale tomorrow I’ll probably grab the video DL.
It will surely be on sale! Go for it.
FYI: Yes, the course is on sale (for those new to The. Teaching Company, this is standard practice when they issue a new course).
I’ll also mention that the website (and the newest catalogue) combines this new course with the “Lost Christianities” course as “reduced price” set.
I love the Teaching Company’s courses. I’m going to buy HOW JESUS BECAME GOD, watch it, and write a riveting review on their site. And the reviews for Professors Ehrman’s other courses are fun to read as they seem to be an outlet for lively sparring between believers and nonbelievers.
Another course worth checking out is The Everyday Guide to Wine by Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan. It only comes in video, but trust me, if you have the slightest interest in wine, you won’t be disappointed. (That’s one lucky Teaching Company audience, if they get to sample all of that fine wine!)
I highly recommend this course! I purchased and half way through. It is extremely informative, easy to follow and very direct. The information and contradictions in the NT that are shared seem fictitious and find my self verifying and Yup they are real. After so many years reading the Bible – or pretending to read- never realized the contradictions on what day Jesus was crucified. I also recommend reading the book first. Thank you very much Bart. Now I have to figure out what I shall do with all of this new knowledge.
I have been into The Teaching Company since I retired 6 years ago, and it has been wonderful continuing to learn about subjects I did not have the time for during my teaching career. I just got this in the mail the other day and am through several lectures ( five) and I am really enjoying it! What I get from this media/approach is just another way to amplify what I already learned from the book. Often reading the book does not result in a full retention of the facts. It has to be read twice at least. I like this approach and it is as professional a one as you have done for them! I have all your other ones as well and have listened to all of them. I have also seen quite a few debates on U-Tube. I have spent a lot of time with Dr. Ehrman’s works. Such a pleasure!
I bought the course in the audio version and it seems great so far!
Bart,
In the last two minutes of part twelve of your Great Courses presentation of How Jesus Became God (“The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus”) you speak of the thought process of Jesus’ apocalyptic followers who had a bereavement vision of Jesus: “If Jesus was alive again it was not because his spirit lived on after death, it was because he had been brought back to life in his body. But then where is his body if he comes and goes and is nowhere to be found once the vision is over? For the disciples there was a clear and obvious answer. Jesus had been raised in the body and his body had been taken up to heaven” (29:25-30:10). If what you say is true, shouldn’t we have examples of other apocalyptic Jews thinking from a bereavement vision of a lost loved one (other than Jesus) that they had been bodily resurrected up to heaven?
I don’t know if we should have any, but you would think they one time existed.
Bart,
Maybe the reason there are no examples of Jewish apocalypticists concluding from a bereavement hallucination of a lost loved one that they had been bodily resurrected up to heaven is because these experiences were fairly easily dismissed as a figment of the imagination, just like many people do today who do not believe in spirits of the deceased. Did you consider this possibility when concluding that a bereavement hallucination of Jesus led to the resurrection belief?
Yup. I’d say there are very different situations that these visions arise in, and so by definition they are all distinctive. We simply don’t have any record of other greatly beloved apocalyptic teachers “appearing” (in a vision) to their devotedly apocalyptic disciples, so it’s hard to say what *would* have happened in other cases. But of course, other explanations of how the followrs of Jesus came to think he had been taken up to heaven are completely welcome!
Bart,
I think for your bereavement vision hypothesis to have any viability at all requires, in conjunction with a bereavement vision of Jesus, a large amount of rationalization of Jesus’ death on the part of Jesus’ followers. However, once one goes down this route, I see no reason why a rationalization of Jesus’ death alone could not have led to the resurrection up to heaven belief and then visions of Jesus followed in the highly charged religious environment (1 Cor 15:3-7 only says visions of Jesus occurred, not that they caused the resurrection belief, and the Gospels attributing the resurrection belief to appearances by Jesus could be part of their later embellishments). If you like, I can send you a monograph detailing this possibility that is currently under peer review at LNTS. I would definitely be interested in your feedback and I think your current bereavement vision hypothesis would benefit. However, I’ve pitched this idea to you before and you always seem too busy to seriously consider it.
In the NT visions are what make people believe, in every case I think. I’m not saying it’s definitive proof, but it’s certainly what all the early sources seem to think, starting with Paul.
Bart,
For sure Paul had a conversion vision of Jesus, but what in 1 Cor 15:3-7 (or anything Paul says anywhere) suggests to you that the *initial* visions of Jesus caused the resurrection up to heaven belief instead of the visions coming *after* the resurrection up to heaven belief was rationalized? My point is that we cannot tell from our earliest sources what the sequence was, so you have to weigh the explanatory power of a bereavement vision causing the resurrection up to heaven belief against such a belief being rationalized, and I think the latter comes out on top or is at least a required component of your bereavement vision hypothesis. That is what I argue in my monograph. Are you interested?
I wish I had time to read everything people send me! Is this something you’ve published?
No, my monograph has not been published. As I said earlier, it is in peer review at the Library of New Testament Studies. If you like, I can come back to you if/when it passes peer review. If it does not pass peer review, I think it will be because it is outside their normal purview, but I think you would still find it useful. I do not think a typical bereavement vision would have been enough to convince Jesus’ followers that Jesus was still the Messiah despite his death and had been resurrected up to heaven. I think you need a robust amount of rationalization on the part of Jesus’ followers for your hypothesis to even be viable. Are you interested in such a critique and possible fix for your hypothesis?
I too think there was a lot of complicated thought processes involved, but mainly those involving the implications of resurrection for those who were committed apocalypsticists believing the end of the age is near. You have a good question about why other followers of apocalyptic leaders didn’t have similar experiences or draw similar conclusions. I just don’t know. Then again, I don’t know why most things in history didn’t happen. I think the same objection can be raised about lots of other theories, though; that is, in your book you’ll need to explain why the same process or rationalization didn’t happen in other cases. God luck getting it published. As I may have mentioned, I simply don’t have time to read everything people would like me to read — or even published work by my closest friends! Keep me posted on the process though; hopefully whether they accept it or not they’ll give you comments from readers.
Bart,
Thanks for the kind wishes on getting my monograph published. I cover all of the issues you just mentioned, including the reasons why no other Jewish leaders (or lay people) were ever thought resurrected up to heaven. I will let you know if I get published with LNTS.
Thanks. Good luck with it!!
Bart,
Just to get back to you on this, my monograph arguing that Jesus’ followers *rationalized* Jesus’ resurrection up to heaven and *then* there were visions of Jesus failed peer review at LNTS. In a nutshell from the reviewer: “The major weakness of the submission does not lie with its argument, however. It is rather that it falls short of an academic treatment.” As I mentioned to you earlier (and I argue at length in my monograph), I do not think a typical bereavement vision would have been enough to convince Jesus’ followers that Jesus was still the Messiah despite his death and had been resurrected up to heaven. I think you need a robust amount of rationalization on the part of Jesus’ followers for your hypothesis to even be viable. If you think it worth your time, I would be happy to send you my manuscript with no obligation to respond, but I also understand if your plate is full.