Loading...I have decided to hold a small and intimate webinar in order to raise money for the Bart Ehrman Blog. Every penny that the webinar brings in will go directly to two of the blog’s charities, The Food Bank of Central/Eastern North Carolina and Doctors without Borders, split equally between them. It will be held on Tuesday December 15 at 7:00 pm EST. It will last for an hour and fifteen minutes.
The topic of the seminar will be “What Can We Really Know about the Birth of Jesus?” Among the topics to be covered will be: What do the Gospels say about Jesus’ birth? Can they be right? Why do two of the Gospels not say anything about it? Why is Jesus’ birth not mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament? Are the accounts we have consistent with one another? Are they consistent with what we know from ancient Jewish and Roman history? Can we decide when Jesus was actually born — year and day? Or where? How do we explain the idea of a virgin birth? Can we explain what most likely actually happened?
As you can see: there is a lot to talk about here!
In the webinar I will deliver a talk for about 40-45 minutes; the rest of the time I will entertain questions from the twelve participants, on this particular topic. We will do the webinar on Zoom.
Each of the twelve participants will make a donation in advance. Anyone on the planet is welcome to be one of the twelve. In order to maximize the amount that we can raise for these important charities, the twelve positions will be made available to the twelve highest bidders. Bidding will start at $100 for a spot.
From now until Saturday December 5 I will accept bids for the opportunity to participate. BUT, there will be a second round. Once the bids are in, I will announce what the top twelve bids are and people who still want to participate can then make a second bid, until Tuesday December 8 at 6:00 pm.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS: To put in a bid, send a private email to me at [email protected]. DO NOT reply here on the blog. For the SUBJECT LINE simply say “Bid for Webinar.” In the text of the message, indicate how much you are willing to bid. Once all the bids are in I will contact all bidders to indicate the level of the top twelve bids for the second round, and will notify all participants of the second round whether or not they have made it “in.”
As an additional bonus, the top bidder will have an additional 30 minutes with me, one-on-one, on Zoom, following the meeting – to discuss either the topic of the webinar further or to talk about anything else she or he would like.
If you have any questions about the procedure, feel free to ask me on the blog or in a private email.
I hope we can raise a lot of money for worthy causes. This season more than ever we need it. I’m looking forward to it!
Will the webinar be available on YouTube afterwards?
I’m afraid not. But I’ll be doing others for blog members on other topics down the line.
I won’t be participating, but I’ll make a separate donation to the blog.
However, (hint, hint) I hope someone addresses the question of the chain of reporting under the assumption that the Gospels’ nativity stories weren’t made up out of whole cloth after Jesus’ death. That is, who would have been in a position to know the things recounted in the Gospels and subsequently tell other people, who told yet others, who told…? Mary was certainly in a position to know, quite possibly Joseph too. Who else?
Also, when did the stories begin to be told? 4 BCE, 30 CE, subsequently?
Thanks. I deal at length with the issue of the chain or reporting in my book Jesus Before the Gospels.
Can’t imagine 30 minutes with Bart Ehrman. I would be tongue-tied!
Then you’d have to hope he wasn’t!
Twelve donors will be meeting with Bart…then one of the twelve is given special attention. Why does that sound familiar?? Hopefully the top donor’s fate will be different than Acts 1:18!
And hopefully Bart’s will be different too….
So this is only for the chosen participants and not for spectators?
If so, I suggest a small fee for the chance to be a spectator (watching only, with no questions allowed) would make this an even bigger money-maker.
Just a thought!
Yes, I did one of those some months ago, and it was great fun. It didn’t bring in nearly as much money, but it certainly reached a lot more people.