BDEhrman, Author at The Bart Ehrman Blog - Page 17 of 180

About BDEhrman

Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has served as the director of graduate studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

How Do You Prove an Ancient Manuscript is Ancient? The Secret Gospel of Mark

In my previous posts I explained how American scholar of early Christianity, Morton Smith, claimed to have discovered the Secret Gospel of Mark in 1958. Now I’ll discuss how, once he discovered it (assuming he did – some scholars think he actually forged it…), how he went about trying to find out if it was actually an ancient Gospel. Again, from my book Lost Christianities: Authenticating and Interpreting the Letter Morton Smith devoted much of his research for the next fifteen years studying this find. Roughly speaking, the work involved establishing the authenticity of the letter and determining the meaning of the passages quoted from the Secret Gospel. In 1973, Smith published the results of his labors in two books, one a popular account for general audiences, full of interesting anecdotes and still worth reading, The Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the the Secret Gospel According to Mark, the other an erudite report on his investigations for scholars in the field, an amazing book of scholarship but inaccessible for the most part to [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-21T18:32:31-04:00April 22nd, 2023|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Biblical Scholarship|

The Naked Man of Mark 14:51-52, the Secret Gospel, and a Pressing Question: Did Jesus Engage in Homoerotic Behavior?

I am providing here a thread of posts on Morton Smith’s discovery, in 1958, of the “Secret Gospel of Mark,” a longer version of Mark’s Gospel in a letter allegedly written by Clement of Alexandria who attacks a group of nefarious Gnostics. Smith argued this really was an authentic letter, that the Secret Gospel really did exist in antiquity, and, yet more intriguing, that IT was the older form of the Gospel of Mark. Our Gospel of Mark *today* is an abbreviated version, edited to rid the Gospel of a couple of potentially scandalous passages. Whoa. Could that be right? Here’s a summary of Smith’s argument: ****************************** There are some interesting features of the shorter version – the one found in the New Testament – that can be explained if the longer version were the original, and this is some of the evidence that Smith and others have adduced for their view. To take the second quotation first. Clement indicates that it appeared after the first part of Mark 10:46: “And they came to Jericho; [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-21T13:16:45-04:00April 20th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Interview with Michael Shermer
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Interview with Michael Shermer

Public Forum

Interview with Michael Shermer

Many of you will know Michael Shermer, from his publications and podcast. He writes about the history of science from the perspective of religious skepticism, and is the editor-in-chief of Skeptic Magazine. Like me, he converted to evangelical Christianity as a teenager, went to a conservative Christian college, and ended up leaving the faith. Michael and I had an unusually interesting discussion about my book Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End for his podcast, and he has agreed to allow me to share it with y'all here. Enjoy!

BDEhrman2023-04-21T13:29:23-04:00April 19th, 2023|Public Forum|

Baptism and the Macbeth Effect. Platinum post by Douglas Wadeson MD

Here is very thoughtful post by Platinum blog member Doug Wadeson, an intriguing psychological assessment of the rite of Baptism. In relation to MacBeth. The Bible and Shakespeare in one post? Whoa. What do you think?? Remember, you too can write blog posts for fellow Platinum members. It can be on anything you want that is related to the blog. One out of four of these guest posts get voted to go onto the whole blog. So don't hold back. Let me know if you want to give it a shot. For now, check this one out. ****************************** There is a movie in theaters now called “Jesus Revolution,” based on the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. It depicts people being baptized in the ocean, and upon arising from the water you can see their joy as they feel spiritually refreshed, their old sins and past life washed away and a new life begun. Does this reflect a spiritual reality, or perhaps a psychological one? Baptism is a Christian rite which goes back to [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-10T10:06:05-04:00April 14th, 2023|Public Forum|

The Discovery of a Lifetime: A Secret Gospel of Mark?

In this thread I am discussing the discovery of the Secret Gospel of Mark in 1958. Or was it the forgery of the Secret Gospel of Mark? Entire books have been written on the topic. My first foray into the fields was in my book Lost Christianities (Oxford Press, 2003). Here is how I begin to talk about the matter there: ******************************* The Discovery We need to begin with the tale of the discovery, as recounted by Morton Smith himself in his sundry publications on the “Secret Gospel of Mark,” especially the two books published fifteen years after the discovery – one for a general audience, a beautifully written piece that reads like a detective novel, and one for scholars, a detailed linguistic and philological analysis of the text and its significance.[1] In 1941, as a twenty-six year old graduate student, Smith had gone to the Holy Land on a traveling fellowship from Harvard Divinity School. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean was closed by the war, and he was stuck in Jerusalem. While there he became acquainted [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-03T11:22:24-04:00April 13th, 2023|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Biblical Scholarship|

Do Scholars Ever Forge Gospels?

Do modern scholars ever produce “ancient” forgeries? In particular, have experts in the New Testament and early Christianity ever gone out on a limb and forged a Gospel, claiming to have discovered it, and tried then to convince others that it is ancient and authentic? Yup. I’ve discussed some examples in earlier posts on the blog – e.g., just last year: https://ehrmanblog.org/teeth-will-be-provided/ But I don’t believe I have ever devoted any attention to the most famous instance, a “discovery” of an ancient text by a renowned scholar, a text that some other scholars claim he himself forged. Others very much think it really is authentic. The debate focuses on a brilliant academic named Morton Smith, and his alleged (or real) discovery of “The Secret Gospel of Mark.” I devoted an entire discussion to Smith and the Secret Gospel twenty years ago in my book Lost Christianities; the book is about different kinds of early Christianity (Gnostics, Marcionites, Jewish Christians, etc.), and is particularly interested in the kinds of books they claimed provided “apostolic” support for [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-03T11:28:31-04:00April 12th, 2023|Forgery in Antiquity, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Why Purgatory Makes Sense

Christians have always had a wide variety of beliefs about the afterlife, and just about everyone (who chooses) is able to find biblical support for their views. The Bible itself has an enormous range of views. Among other things, there have always been Christians who have thought that there must be varying levels of punishment for sinners in the afterlife. The guy on the street who does his best but is not always a very good father surely doesn’t get punished to the same degree as Hitler. Among believers who are convinced that there are different levels of punishment I would certainly class those who believe in purgatory. Even though it is a view almost universally rejected by Protestants, purgatory can make a lot of sense even to some of them. The afterlife is not just black and white, one thing or the other, either/or – it is not either eternal bliss for all the saints and eternal torment for all the sinners. There must be gradations, right? And purgatory is a way of implementing [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-10T11:51:01-04:00April 11th, 2023|Afterlife, Historical Jesus|

Gold Q&A LIVE! (And Recorded) Tuesday April 11

Dear Gold Members, I will be recording my Gold Q&A tomorrow afternoon, April 11, 2:00 pm. If you're free and want to watch it, come along! I've got a full set of questions to deal with and am looking forward to it. No charge for admission, just show up. We'll meet and greet, I'll do my thing, and then we can chat for a few minutes after. Here's the link: https://unc.zoom.us/j/92207490998?pwd=MXRhQW9GTlRaMmE1WXdvRHVEVlNRQT09 Meeting ID: 922 0749 0998 Passcode: 339508 One tap mobile +16469313860,,92207490998# US +19294362866,,92207490998# US (New York) Dial by your location +1 646 931 3860 US +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 305 224 1968 US +1 309 205 3325 US +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 386 347 5053 US +1 507 473 4847 US +1 564 217 2000 US +1 669 444 9171 US +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 689 278 1000 US +1 719 359 4580 US +1 253 205 0468 US +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-10T14:54:05-04:00April 10th, 2023|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Don’t Wanna Be Left Behind? An Upcoming Lecture on the Rapture!

Interested in the "rapture"? Want to be sure you're not "left behind" when the Antichrist arises and all hell breaks out on earth? Then come to my lecture: April 15, 3:00 pm: "Will You Be Left Behind? A History of The Rapture" Check it out here. Will You Be Left Behind? » Powered by ThriveCart If you don't know about the rapture, this is the lecture for you. It's believed by many millions of Christians in our world. If you do know about the rapture, this lecture is even more for you. I bet you don't know where the idea came from! (Well, some of you maybe might.) Please note: this lecture is not connected with blog per se; it is part of my enterprise of online lectures and courses for the Bart Ehrman Professional Services (BEPS; you can learn about it at my personal website: http://www.bartehrman.com) BUT: blog members can get a nice discount. Enter the code BLOG5 for $5.00 off the purchase price ($14.95). If you can't come to the lecture itself, you can still [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-10T15:07:17-04:00April 10th, 2023|Video Media|

How Does An Author Write a Bestseller?

Almost everyone has the wrong idea about how a book becomes a bestseller. In the crowd I run around with, the term “bestseller” tends to have a technical meaning: a book on the New York Times Bestseller List. Every week the NY Times receives data from all the major book-selling outlets – from Amazon to Indies – and crunches the numbers for their various lists (Fiction Hardbacks, Non-Fiction Hardbacks, paperback fiction, etc.). There are 25 books in each category that make the list, but they *print* only the top 15. To put that list in a bit of perspective, there are about 700 – 800 new books published in the U.S. every day (not counting self-published books). To make the top 25 in a given week is … well, not easy. As many of you know, a non-fiction “trade book” is one written for a broad, general audience rather than for scholars in a field of study (an “academic” book or a “monograph”) or for classroom use for students (a textbook). Normally, the point of [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-10T11:50:25-04:00April 10th, 2023|Book Discussions, Reflections and Ruminations|

The Quest for the Legendary Jesus. Platinum Guest Post by Robert Droney

Now *here* are some smart and interesting reflections about a topic most of us think is rather crucial: the quest for Jesus. But which Jesus? And which quester? Here Robert Droney discusses the search for the "legendary Jesus" by one who is questioning his faith. It should generate some feedback! So comment away! ****************************** I “accidentally” listened to the audio book of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. I intended to check out H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. My disappointment grew when I realized Ellison’s novel focused on racial issues. Not because I consider racial issues unimportant. Rather, I consider racial issues and racial justice very important. In fact, I believe that, in the same way that the Colosseum stands as an icon for Imperial Rome, slavery and racial tensions will epitomize the American Republic. However, I find the cacophony of ideologies, rhetoric, and the partisan bickering about racial issues in the media tiresome and, in my opinion, these don’t do much to change people’s minds or resolve the problem. Nevertheless, I continued to listen to Ellison’s [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-05T11:22:27-04:00April 10th, 2023|Historical Jesus|

The First Actual Account of the Resurrection (Hint: It’s Not in the New Testament)

On this Easter Sunday I thought it would be appropriate to repost a blog from several years ago on a Gospel not in the New Testament -- a Gospel that gives us an actual narrative of the resurrection. I often say that there is no story of Jesus' resurrection in the the New Testament -- and people think I'm nuts. Of *course* there is! No, there's not. In the New Testament, Jesus is buried on a late Friday afternoon. The action picks up, then, on the third day when the women arrive at the tomb, only to find it empty. The resurrection happened *between* these two events. It is never narrated. We have no account of Jesus being revived and coming out of the tomb. But we do from *outside* the New Testament, in a book that some early Christians considered canonical Scripture, the Gospel of Peter. This was an account that was lost for many, many centuries. It deals not just with Jesus' resurrection (though that is clearly the highlight), but with his trial [...]

BDEhrman2024-02-22T11:33:25-05:00April 9th, 2023|Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

What If I Commit the Unforgivable Sin? Can It Be Purged in Purgatory?

In my previous post I discussed one of the passages of the New Testament that has traditionally been used to support the idea of Purgatory, the place that most of the “saved” go after death to be purged of their sins (Matt 5:26 “you won’t get out of there until you have paid the last penny”). In my judgment this passage is not talking about what happens in the afterlife, even though it has been read that way. With another passage, the matter is not quite so clear. In a famous passage, again in Matthew, Jesus talks about the “unforgivable sin”: “Therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven; and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven, either in this age or the ages to come.” As you might imagine, over the Christian centuries there have been numerous interpretations of what that [...]

BDEhrman2023-03-26T13:06:30-04:00April 8th, 2023|Afterlife, Historical Jesus|

Yahweh and Moses. Platinum Guest Post by Omar Abur-Robb

For those of you interested in Hebrew Bible, the (existence of the) historical Moses, the Hebrew language (you don't have to know it!), and... so on -- here's the post for you! This is a Platinum offering for other Platinums only. Omar will be happy to address your comments and questions! ******************** The name “Yahweh” might be a good indicator for the “Scientific Historical” existence of Moses [By scientific history I mean the historical data without the metaphysics]. Yahweh is a “sentence name” and this is really rare. We might find a full name (the first name and the surname) that represents a sentence, but it is very rare for the ‘first name’ to be a sentence. We need here to differentiate between compound names and sentence names: Ismael is as compound name that consists of two words: ‘Isma’ and ‘El’, which means The hearing of El. The Semitic people are famous with the compound-names, for example In Arabic we have Abdullah (Abd-Allah) which means ‘The Servant of Allah’, Nasrallah (Nasr-Allah) which means ‘The victory [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-03T20:08:14-04:00April 7th, 2023|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Blog Volunteer Needed!!

As you may know, a number of Volunteers devote their time and talents to the blog, making it work, succeed, thrive, and grow. And an important position has now opened up. We have a special need for someone who is skilled in social media of all kinds. For some time now we have been highly fortunate to have a skilled volunteer taking on this task,, more or less behind the scenes. She needs now to move on to other things. Life calls! And now the blog is calling in response. We need to expand our blog horizons and develop our potential, with the goal of significantly increasing our membership so as to achieve our dual objectives of spreading expert knowledge about the New Testament and Early Christianity to a wider world and, concomitantly, raising more funds for charity. Our ideal volunteer would be someone experienced, skilled, and creative in posting to social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more! Among other things, the ability to create short clips from existing videos and post to Reels would [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-06T18:16:23-04:00April 6th, 2023|Public Forum|

Did Jesus Believe in Purgatory?
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Did Jesus Believe in Purgatory?

Public Forum

Did Jesus Believe in Purgatory?

The topic I’m dealing with on this destined-to-be-a-very-long thread seems to me to be particularly important. Most of my scholarship is of interest mainly to people concerned about the life and teachings of Jesus, the New Testament, the history of Christianity, and so on; but this is of interest to *all* of us. What happens when we die? Or more specifically, what happens to *me* when I die? My current discussion of purgatory may be of little interest to people, until they think about it for a second. Do most people have to go through horrible suffering after death, even if they are not destined for the eternal flames of hell? I for one don’t look forward to getting a tooth ache or ending up in the hospital. What if there are years, decades, centuries of physical torment ahead for me? Shouldn’t I want to know about that and, well, make some preparations? But it’s a topic most of us don’t think about. Those of us raised in a Protestant tradition simply don’t buy it [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-06T11:10:59-04:00April 6th, 2023|Public Forum|

Purgatory Before There Was a Purgatory

As I said in my last post, the definitive doctrine of Purgatory did not exist before the 12th century, even though the basic *idea* had been around for a long time – the idea that even though Christ’s death brought salvation to the world, most people, except for the most holy saints, such as those who had been martyred for their faith, had still to pay for their sins. By the 13th century Purgatory had become an actual place of torment. Before then it was not so much a place as a condition of suffering to purge away sins. The question is how early this idea existed. How long had Christians maintained that suffering was necessary for the sinner – even the believing Christian sinner – before they would be allowed into their eternal bliss in heaven? The idea is not part of the New Testament, although as we will see in a later post, there are some passages that could be used in support of the view. The first place we find any reference [...]

BDEhrman2023-03-26T13:16:17-04:00April 5th, 2023|Public Forum|

The Origins of Purgatory

As I indicated in my previous two posts on the Martyrdom of Perpetua, I'm interested in the question of where the idea of purgatory came from. Ths idea of purgatory is *widely* misunderstood today; in fact, just about everyone who mentions it to me (including two days ago), doesn't know what it actually is -- including friends who have been Catholic for the entire 70 years of their lives! (Not to mention the Protestants...) This is how I discussed the issue some years ago when I was working on my book Heaven and Hell: ****************************** Roughly speaking purgatory is a kind of third place, between heaven and hell. The abject sinners (or those who reject Christ, or whoever you think is destined for punishment) go to hell; the righteous saints go to heaven. But what about those who will ultimately be saved but who have not lived a good (enough) life? They go to purgatory. This has been the standard teaching of the Catholic church since the 12th or 13th century. The classic study of the [...]

BDEhrman2023-03-26T13:23:24-04:00April 4th, 2023|Public Forum|

April Gold Q&A: Submit your questions!

Dear Goldies, Time to crank up another monthly Gold Q&A. Have a question? ASK IT! DEADLINE for your question(s): this coming Friday, April 7, midnight your time. I'm more likely to answer questions that are relatively short and to the point than those that go on for a long paragraph. So be concise. I'll answer as the spirit leads. To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] My plan is to record the session soon after that, probably on the weekend. I will probably send out a note indicating when that'll be a day or so ahead of time in case any of you want to listen in live. So, let me hear what you're curious about and I'll do my best to respond! BDE

BDEhrman2023-05-01T16:11:28-04:00April 3rd, 2023|Public Forum|

Dreaming of Purgatory

Yesterday I began to talk about the Martyrdom of Perpetua, one of the most interesting and moving texts to come down to us from early Christianity. It is an account of a 23-year old Roman matron who is willing to die a gruesome death for her Christian faith. Among other things, the text shows that her faith is far more important to her than her family. In particular, she is shown in conflict especially with her father (no husband is mentioned, which has led to considerable speculation: Divorced? Widowed? Unwed mother? Something else?). And even though it is with regret, she is willing to leave behind her own infant child by being martyred. Family figures prominently in the two excerpts here. In the first her father begs her to avoid martyrdom, to no avail. In the second (chs. 7-8) we have an account of her dream and intervention on behalf of her dead brother Dinocrates. This is the part that I will be most interested in for the next post. Is it an early adumbration [...]

BDEhrman2023-03-26T13:25:55-04:00April 2nd, 2023|Afterlife, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Women in Early Christianity|

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