Blog Dinner in Durham in September is Full!
Table is full for the Sept. 24 blog dinner in Durham. Many thanks to all responded, and apologies to those who didn't make it this time. There will definitely be a next time!
Was Jesus Thought To Be a Miracle Worker in His Own Lifetime?
This is the final, and most important, of my posts on the miracles of Jesus. In it I raise the question – without being able to come to an absolutely definitive answer – of whether Jesus was thought to be a miracle worker already in his life time or if, instead, miracles came to be ascribed to him only later by followers who believed he had been raised from the dead. I incline toward the latter view. To set the stage for and make sense of what I have to say, I include the final comments from the previous post: ********************************************************** In the other two Synoptics there is a different understanding, one that can be seen most clearly in the saying preserved in Matthew 11:2-6. Here we are told that John the Baptist, who is now in prison, has heard about “the deeds of Christ,” and sends some of his disciples to him to ask if he is the one to come at the end of time, or if there is someone else. Jesus replies: [...]
The Message of Jesus’ Miracles
I have been talking about the stories of Jesus' miracles, and am raising the question of whether they necessarily go all the way back to Jesus' lifetime, as tales told while he was still living. I pick up where I left off last time, after showing that Jesus' miracle-working abilities increased with the passing of time. *************************************************************** Not only does Jesus become increasingly miraculous with the passing of time, these miracles are all told in order to make a point. The stories about Jesus as the miraculous Wunderkind reveal that he really was the Son of God endowed with supernatural power straight from the womb; as a five-year old he was already the Lord of life and death; as the resurrected savior he was manifestly a superhuman being of giant proportions. In more general terms, the miracles in our later accounts repeatedly show that Jesus was the spectacular Son of God. He was far superior to all his enemies (even if these were only the aggravating kids down the street). He was more powerful [...]
Blog Dinners Next Month. Interested?
I would like to host two dinners for anyone on the blog who would like to attend. My idea is to have at least three, but no more than seven, people at each one. This would be a chance for some direct, personal contact with me and with each other, to have some good food, good drink, and good conversation for a couple of hours. I will have no agenda – simply talking about things (presumably related to the issues addressed on the blog) that people want to talk about. The only requirements for attendance would be that (a) you be a blog member; (b) you pay your own way – both getting to the event and your meal itself. Otherwise, there is no expense and no requirements. You don’t even have to feel obliged to say much! After the table is filled, I will put another announcement on the blog; if I don’t get more than a couple of takers then I’ll reschedule it for another time. If you can and want to come, [...]
Is There Sarcasm in the New Testament?
Here is an unusually interesting question I have received: QUESTION: During the time that the New Testament was being written, especially during Paul’s time, did they have in society what we consider sarcasm? Sometimes certain sentences pop out to me as they could have meant them in a sarcastic tone. I know it is probably just me since I am a sarcastic person. RESPONSE: Now *that’s* an interesting question that I, literally, have never been asked before! But it’s something I’ve thought about a bit over the years, and I think the short answer to it is Yes. Let me start by giving a definition of sarcasm. You can find various definitions just on the Internet, but the basic idea is that sarcasm is a form of humor that used irony in order to mock another. It is difficult to identify sarcasm in ancient writings. In fact, as you’ve probably noticed, sometimes it’s hard to know if someone is being sarcastic when they are speaking directly to our face! The way we [...]
Jesus and His Miracles: Some Interesting Features
In my discussion of whether the historian can deal with the category of miracle, I’m now at the point where I can deal directly with the miracles ascribed to Jesus. This is an issue that I have dealt with in several books, including, most recently, Jesus Before the Gospels. It will take three posts for me to cover the waterfront here. This is how I began dealing with the issue in the book. ************************************************************ The Miracles of Jesus When one discusses the activities and deeds of Jesus, it is very hard indeed to avoid talking about his miracles. Miracles are everywhere in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. He is miraculously born to a woman who has never had sexual relations. From the beginning of his public ministry to the end he does one miracle after the other, conquering nature, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. So abundantly attested are Jesus’ miracle-working abilities that even scholars who are otherwise skeptical of the supernatural biases of our sources sometimes claim that [...]
Did the Original Gospels Describe Jesus’ Miracles?
While I'm on the topic of miracles, here's a particularly interesting question I received a long time ago, and my response. QUESTION: I have looked up the content of all the papyri I'm aware of (off of links on wikipedia, so who knows if they're accurate). It is my understanding that although p52, p90, and p104 are dated around 125-150 AD, they contain fragments of John 18 and Matt 21 only, and that it's not until 200 AD that manuscripts emerge which actually contain accounts of supernatural actions by Jesus. So, it's possible that accounts of miracles existed in copies that got destroyed, but is it fair to say that the earliest available copies of accounts of Jesus's supernatural actions date from around 200 AD? In other words, assuming people on average had kids by age 20 back then, and thus 20 years counts as a generation, is it fair to say that the earliest available accounts of miracles by Jesus were written by the great, great, great, great, great, great, grandson of somebody who would have been [...]
More Free Memberships Available
Thanks to the incredible ongoing generosity of members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are still a limited number of free one-year memberships available. These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year. I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment. Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected]. In your email, let me know your situation (why you would like to take advantage of this offer) and provide me with the following information: 1) Your first and last name. 2) Your preferred personal email. 3) Your preferred user name (no spaces). 4) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me publicly extend my heartfelt [...]
More on the Historical Problem of Miracles
I continue my reflections on the historical problem of miracles with another "blast from the past": ******************************************************* Yesterday I started to talk about why historians cannot demonstrate that a miracle such as the resurrection happened because doing so requires a set of presuppositions that are not generally shared by historians doing their work. Over the years I’ve thought a lot about this question, and have tried to explain on several occasions why a “miracle” can never be shown, on historical grounds, to have happened -- even if it did. Here is a slightly different way of approaching the matter, as I expressed it in an earlier publication on the historical Jesus: ******************************************************** People today typically think of miracles as supernatural violations of natural law, divine interventions into the natural course of events. Miracles, by definition, are events that contradict the normal workings of nature in such a way as to be virtually beyond belief and to require an acknowledgment that supernatural forces have been at work. This understanding is itself the major stumbling block [...]
History is not the Past! Proving Jesus’ Resurrection and Other Miracles
Last week I finished a thread on the criteria scholars use to establish what happened in the life of the historical Jesus. That series of posts raises an important question: what do historians do about the fact that throughout the Gospels Jesus does lots of miracles -- and at the end the greatest miracle of all happens, he is raised from the dead as an immortal being, never to die again? Can such miracles be demonstrated to have happened historically? That's a question I've dealt with on the blog before. Here is the first of a series of posts I made on it from five years ago, in which I make a point about "history" that many people maybe haven't thought of. ************************************************************************************************ Yesterday I started to answer a question from a reader who pointed out that just as the existence of Jesus is multiply attested, so too is Jesus’ resurrection. And so if *one* is established as historical, doesn’t the other one *also* have to be seen as historical? And if one is considered [...]
My First Taste of Critical Scholarship
In this week’s mailbag I deal with an interesting question about how knowing about a topic is not the same as understanding the scholarship on it. The question begins by quoting something I said on the blog a while back QUESTION: Quoting me: “That’s because serious scholarship is itself hard. It’s not an easy read. It’s not like reading your favorite novel.” Can you recall the first book of serious scholarship that you had to read? Did you think, “Gosh. Maybe this course of study ain’t for me”?! RESPONSE Oh boy do I remember that! It happened my first semester in graduate school at Princeton Theological Seminary. I arrived on campus there pretty confident in my understanding of the Bible and most things connected with it. I had already spent three very intense years doing a diploma in Bible-Theology at Moody Bible Institute and two years at Wheaton College, among other things learning Greek and taking courses on the translation and interpretation of New Testament texts in Greek. I thought my training at [...]
Upcoming Speaking Events, Fall 2018
I will be doing several speaking gigs hither and yon in the coming fall. These are the ones that are set in stone, if all goes to plan. All of them are open to the public, but may require tickets. I’ve included websites when I have them. I ope to see some of you at them. I’d like to schedule a blog event at the ones that will be in the States, if possible, probably a lunch or dinner. But I’ll let you know! September 8 Smithsonian Associates, Washington DC Four Great Controversies in Early Christianity https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/four-great-controversies-in-early-christianity Description of Seminar The growth of the Christian church from a tiny sect of Jesus’ close followers to a major world religion was not smooth and seamless. Christians faced controversy on every front—externally with both pagans and Jews and internally with various Christian groups holding diverse theological views struggling for dominance. Bart Ehrman, a leading authority on early Christianity, the New Testament, and the life of Jesus, explores four major controversies encountered by the early Christians, [...]
Did Peter Use a Secretary for his Writings? A Blast from the Past
Looking through some posts of blogs-past I came across this interesting one from six years ago now! I think it's an intriguing question, and the answer is not what most people would probably think. QUESTION: What do you make of the author's reference to a Silvanus in 1 Peter 5:12? Could it be that this really is Peter saying he used a secretary to write this letter? I know you said there is little to no evidence that people used secretaries, but what do you make of this reference to a Silvanus? RESPONSE: Yes, this is a question that I deal with in my book Forged, and that I deal with at yet greater length in the book coming out in the fall, Forgery and Counterforgery. Several points are important to make about the question, but first a bit of background. FOR THE REST OF THIS POST, log in as a Member. Click here for membership options. If you don't belong yet, JOIN!! Background. Scholars have long noted that the book of [...]
Finishing my Work on the Afterlife
I am now virtually finished with all my research for my book on the afterlife, and after mopping up a few loose ends, I should be able to start writing next week. It’s been a two-year adventure so far. I always find it amazing how much you can learn in two years of intense research on a topic that you already know (or think you know) a good deal about. The way I can check on how much I’ve progressed is by looking at my early notes on the topic. Almost always, when I decide I’m going to write a book, I jot down all my initial ideas of what I want the book to contain, what kinds of insights I want to discuss in it, what direction I want it to go, how I’m viewing the topic at the time. Then, at the end (now!) I look back at what I wrote at the beginning, and I think – this happens every time – Oh my God! I was *so* ignorant and unaware!! That’s [...]
Traditions About Jesus that Are Probably Not Historical
I have been arguing that there are ways to extract historical information about Jesus from the Gospels – even if they were not written to provide disinterested accounts of what he really said and did but were meant to promote faith in him. So far I have discussed two positive criteria: independent attestation (if a tradition is found in multiple independent sources then that increases the likelihood that it goes back to the life of Jesus, since none of the sources themselves could have made it up) and dissimilarity (if a tradition contains information that the followers of Jesus would decidedly not have wanted to make up, then it more likely is something that actually happened). Now I move to a negative criterion, one that eliminates possible traditions from consideration as unlikely to be historical (rather than a positive criterion that shows which ones are more likely). It is called the criterion of contextual credibility. Again, this is from my book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet. ************************************************************ If The Shoe Fits.... The Criterion of Contextual Credibility. You’re [...]
How a Book Gets Its Title
As I am getting set to start writing my book on the Afterlife (the plan is to begin the first week of August), I am mulling over possible titles. And just as I have been in the midst of my muddling, I have received this question. QUESTION: Dr, Ehrman, can you explain a little how you go about choosing a title for your trade books ? Is it a collaborative effort between you and your agent or publisher? Can it be a difficult process where the title can change as the book progresses . And if so,, can you give just a couple examples when you had decided on a title (could you name the original title ) and changed the title to the book that finally appeared at our local book store ? RESPONSE: I’ve dealt with this issue on the blog before. Here is what I said about it four years ago, soon after publishing How Jesus Became God. ***************************************************************************** In my previous post I discussed the strategies behind giving [...]
The Trickiest Criterion for Determining What Happened in the Life of Jesus
Here I continue the thread on how scholars go about establishing which traditions in the Gospels appear to reflect what actually happened in the life of Jesus. Of all the things I’ve said so far, this is the most controversial. But after thinking about it for some forty years, I still think it makes good sense, for reasons I try to explain. *********************************************************** What An Odd Thing to Say! The Criterion of Dissimilarity. The most controversial criterion that historians use, and often misuse, to establish authentic tradition from the life of Jesus is sometimes called the "criterion of dissimilarity." The criterion is not so difficult to explain, given what we have already seen about the Gospels. Any witness in a court of law will naturally tell things the way he or she sees them. Thus, the perspective of the witness has to be taken into account when trying to evaluate the merits of a case. Moreover, sometimes a witness has a vested interested in the outcome of the trial. A question that perennially [...]
An Important Criterion for Establishing What Actually Happened
I am in the midst of a threat talking about how historians can use sources such as the Gospels to know what actually happened in Jesus’ life. These books were not *meant* to provide disinterested historical information about the past, but were quite intentinally slanted accounts meant to encourage and shape faith in Jesus. They nonetheless do contain important historical information. How does the historian determine what his historical and what is legendary in them? Yesterday I gave some of the basics – a few “rules of thumb” that historians use. Now I get to the harder question of how to reconstruct the life of Jesus based on these kinds of sources. Again, this is taken from my book on the historical Jesus, from 1999. I haven’t changed my views of these matters in all these years! ***************************************************************** Specific Criteria and Their Rationale Over the course of the past fifty years, historians have worked hard to develop methods for uncovering historically reliable information about the life of Jesus. I need to say up front [...]
Rules of Thumb for Reconstructing the History behind the Gospels
In yesterday’s post I laid out the “wish list” historians have when it comes to sources of information about persons and events of the past, and evaluated how well the Gospels stack up against the list. Now I want to move into the kinds of criteria biblical scholars use when trying to extract historical information from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, criteria made necessary by the fact that the Gospel writers were not trying to write objective historical narratives of what really happened, so much as trying to “proclaim the good news” of the salvation brought by Jesus. These Gospels were not meant to be providing history lessons per se. But nonetheless, they do contain historical information. If we want to learn that information, how do we proceed? Here is how I explain the beginning point in my book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet. ******************************************************* Using Our Sources: Some of the Basic Rules of Thumb Before elaborating on some specific criteria that scholars have devised, let me say something about a few very basic [...]
The Historian’s Wish List
While writing the posts in my thread on the contradictions in the New Testament, I had the impression that some readers thought I considered it virtually impossible to use the New Testament for historical purposes. That’s actually not the case at all. I’m going to discuss this issue over a number of posts, focusing on the Gospels. Oddly enough, it appears I’ve never devoted a sustained thread to this precise end, of explaining how historians go about their business of reconstructing the past when all they have are highly problematic sources. My general view is that when trying to determine what actually happened in Jesus’ life – to figure out what he said, did, and experienced – it is important to avoid two extremes. On one hand, it simply won’t work to claim that if something is narrated in the Gospels, it is necessarily historical. There are lots and lots of things that can’t be historical in the Gospels. Just on the most basic level, if one Gospel really does appear to contradict another about, [...]