BDEhrman, Author at The Bart Ehrman Blog - Page 2 of 203

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.

Some Important Readers’ Questions on Some Gospel Head-Scratchers
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Some Important Readers’ Questions on Some Gospel Head-Scratchers

Canonical Gospels

Some Important Readers’ Questions on Some Gospel Head-Scratchers

QUESTION: If the strongest explanation for Luke’s alteration/omission of the centurion’s declaration that Jesus was the Son of God at the crucifixion is that he wants to anchor Jesus’s divine sonship at least as early as his birth, then why does he later associate that same divine sonship AND innocence with Jesus’s death and resurrection in Acts 13? Luke is combining a variety of early traditions that are at odds at WHEN it happened in order to stress that he really WAS the Son of God. (Similar problem in Luke-Acts with other titles for Jesus as well: Christ and Lord. He gets *made* those at the resurrection but is *already* those before he dies!) RESPONSE Yes indeed! It's one of the major questions to be addressed about Luke's Christology. Why does he state that Jesus became Son of God at his conception (1:35); at his baptism (3:21 – that’s the wording of the original text, probably); and at his resurrection (speeches in Acts). I deal with the issue in Orthodox Corruption in my discussion [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-05T09:31:01-04:00May 12th, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

How Early Christians Made Converts. (Tent revivals?)

Did Christians hold massive evangelistic rallies? Is that how they converted the Roman world? Did they send out hundreds of missionaries to go door-to-door with their good news? Maybe use TikTok? Here I pick up on the question of how Christianity spread in the early centuries, from my previous post, with an excerpt again from Triumph of Christianity (Simon & Schuster, 2018). ****************************** Christians then, starting at least with Paul, came to be missionary, convinced they had to convert the world. Goodman maintains it was Paul himself who came up with the idea. He was the innovator, “the single apostle who invented the whole idea of a systematic conversion of the world, area by geographical area.”[1] At the same time, this is what makes it so striking and unexpected that outside of Paul’s work itself, we do not know of any organized Christian missionary work – not just for the first century, but for any century prior to the conversion of most of the Empire. As MacMullen has succinctly put it: “After Saint [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-05T09:22:16-04:00May 10th, 2026|Spread of Christianity|

Converting the World: Why Has Christianity Always Been “Missionary”?

I just now got off the phone with a reporter for the London newspaper the Independent who is writing an article on new developments in our understanding of why Christianity spread so widely in the Roman world. (The Independent is one of the few newspapers anymore that has some articles of substance in addition to the exciting and/or depressing news of the day, given with a decided slant.) He wanted to know what new information, archaeological finds, and or analyses have appeared over the past seven or eight years and I had to tell him that, well, I didn’t know of any. (!) He was surprised, but suggested a few things he had come across (“Christians had better health care/community support” etc), and I had to inform him those were old ideas. Not wanting to go away empty-handed, he asked me my views about the question, Why did Christianity take over the Roman world? He knew I had written a book on it, but he hadn’t read it, so I went into my standard spiel [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-05T09:14:30-04:00May 9th, 2026|Spread of Christianity|

Blog Dinner in Waynesville NC, May 19. Wanna Come?

I'll be in Waynesville NC next week and would love to have a blog dinner with anyone who can make it, on the evening of Tuesday May 19. Interested? I'll probably start around 6:30 or so for drinks with whoever is interested in quenching thirst before satisfying hunger, with dinner at 7:15 or so. Location TBD. You interested? My plan is to limit the table to 8, me and the perfect number 7. For those who come there are no obligations other than: Being a blog member Showing up Talking Paying for whatever you ingest. (Whatever you exgest is free.) If you're interested, do NOT reply here as a comment. Send along an email at [email protected]. Hope some of you can come!

BDEhrman2026-05-09T11:25:09-04:00May 8th, 2026|Public Forum|

Jesus and Capitalism: My Next Book (A Big Change)

For over a year now I've been thinking and saying my next book would be on the formation of the New Testament canon -- how we got these 27 books and not others. I definitely am going to write that book, but something else has come up that is going to occupy my time, brain, and research first. My publisher, now that Love They Stranger is out, has asked me to consider writing a book about Jesus and capitalism (and socialism and marxism etc.). At first I was hesitant. I'm obviously not an economist. And there are plenty of books like that (look them up online). BUT, not so much by New Testament scholars approaching the issue the way I would. So I'm gonna do it. Books like this take shape over time. I never know exactly where my research will take me or what I will turn up that is hugely interesting but that I never thought about much before. (Did you ever see that old Daffy Duck cartoon when he's rowing a [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-04T09:23:49-04:00May 7th, 2026|Public Forum|

Want To Be Involved in More In-Depth Discussion of Key Issues? A Blog Opportunity

Are you interested in going beyond reading blog posts on topics connected with the New Testament/early Christianity and in having a chance to interact with other blog members (and a New Testament scholar) on important and interesting topics or biblical passages? It is an option on the blog. It involves joining a special group called the “Blog Stewards.” We meet once a quarter for a focused seminar. In advance I pick a topic or important passage of the NT; I write up directions for how one might go about studying it; and I explain some of the lesser known background. Then we get together remotely for an hour and a half and discuss it all. No one is required to do the “homework.” Some members just want to sit and listen in while others talk. Others want to bounce their ideas around. I run it as a seminar, much like I would a university course: I usually begin by making a brief presentation about some of the key issues and puzzling and/or debated [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-07T11:17:27-04:00May 6th, 2026|Public Forum|

A Common But Lousy Argument That We KNOW What the NT Originally Said: Anniversary Post #14
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A Common But Lousy Argument That We KNOW What the NT Originally Said: Anniversary Post #14

New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum

A Common But Lousy Argument That We KNOW What the NT Originally Said: Anniversary Post #14

Scholars sometimes make an argument that they themselves surely (surely!) know isn't very good, but that certainly sounds convincing to audiences that don't know the full picture and so have little way of evaluating it. I seem to run across that a lot. Here in my 14th and final Anniversary Post celebrating the blog's fourteen years of mortal existence, I give one from the very first month of the blog, the final post of April 2012, which dealt with a particularly common instance of just such an argument. ****************************** I have had three debates with Dan Wallace (professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary and longtime friend) on the question of whether or not we can know for certain, or with relative reliability, whether we have the “original” text of the New Testament. At the end of the day, my answer is usually “we don’t know.” For practical reasons, New Testament scholars proceed as if we do actually know what Mark wrote, or Paul, or the author of 1 Peter. And if I had [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-30T21:56:53-04:00May 5th, 2026|New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum|

Sailing Cruise to Caribbean Islands in January. Want to Come with Me?

I was so very sorry to announce that we will not be able to do the Cruise on the Nile we had planned for the fall, but Thalassa Journeys has now come up with an alternative that is, well -- how many ways can you say "spectacular?" It is a cruise on a sailing vessel to some of the most gorgeous islands of the Caribbean, January 25-February 1, 2027. The ship, the Sea Cloud Spirit is amazing (just look it up): 136 passengers (our group will be a part of that), small enough to get into remote places the big cruisers cannot, and large enough to be, well, rather luxurious. There will be great sites, great vistas, fantastic food and drink, and friendly like-minded people in our group who will have intriguing stories and lives, and common interests to discuss to our hearts' content. I will be giving lectures on the cruise on one of my all-time favorite topics: “The Greatest Manuscript Discoveries of Modern Times.” Here I will talk about archaeological finds that have revolutionized [...]

BDEhrman2026-05-04T15:03:29-04:00May 3rd, 2026|Public Forum|

The Morality of War

I announced on Friday that we have cancelled (or at least postponed) the Nile-cruise trip I was planning to make with Thalassa Journeys, because of the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Here I'll say a word indirectly about the conflict. As you may have noticed, I have a resolute policy not to discuss politics on the blog. I have always wanted the blog to be politically-neutral, so that people of all persuasions on governmental policy and action, social agenda, particular elected and appointed officials, and so on can benefit from the knowledge scholars (who are also of various persuasions) have acquired in studying the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, the history of early Christianity, and the many related topics connected with religion in antiquity. And so I will not be commenting or giving my views about the war with Iran and related conflicts. BUT, I thought it would be useful to say something factual about armed conflict from an ancient historical perspective. This is something I talk about in my recent book Love Thy Stranger, [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-29T09:42:18-04:00May 2nd, 2026|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

Nile Cruise: Cancellation

In mid-March I announced on the blog that I would be doing a cruise on the Nile (and seeing other interesting parts of Egypt) later in the year. I am sorry to say that because of the situation in the Middle East, we have decided to cancel the trip. Or rather, cosmic forces willing, to postpone it. I very much want to do it ... sometime down the road when potential travellers will be more inclined to go to the region. BUT, I will be doing another trip in its place. To the Caribbean. Whoa. It'll be a good one. I'll give the details in my next post. For now, the Nile cruise has been canceled.

BDEhrman2026-04-28T23:07:11-04:00May 1st, 2026|Public Forum|

Was Jesus the Incarnation of an Angel? Anniversary Post #13

A lot of people had trouble agreeing with the view I set out in this post from April 2025; most reading it now probably will still. But I stick by it! So here is Anniversary post #13. For many years I was puzzled by Paul's Christology--his views of Christ. All the various things he said about it didn’t seem to add up to a coherent whole to me, even though I thought and thought and thought about it. But I finally found the piece that, when added to the puzzle, made it all fit together. I think now I can make sense of [pretty much] every Christological statement in Paul’s letters. This not because I myself finally figured it out, but because I finally read some discussions that actually made sense, and saw that they are almost certainly right. Here’s what I say about it in How Jesus Became God. ****************************** Many people no doubt have the same experience I do on occasion, of reading something numerous times, over and over, and not [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-28T11:23:23-04:00April 30th, 2026|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|

An Amazing Fragment of a Lost Gospel: Anniversary Post #12

Did Jesus tell Peter that his "sheep" (followers) did not need to worry about being torn to shreds by the wolves (persecutors), since, well, when they were, they'd be dead anyway? Celebrating our 14th anniversary of the blog (starting April 2012), I have been posting 14 favorite posts from previous Aprils. This one is from April 2024, on one of my all time favorite Gospel fragments that may be from the otherwise-partially-known Gospel of Peter. It records an intriguing conversation between Jesus and Peter, if nothing else... ****************************** One of the most captivating tiny fragments of a lost Gospel discovered in modern times came from a trash heap excavated from the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, one of many thousands of manuscript fragments found there, some of them Christian but most of them non-Christian (most of which were non-literary texts, that is, personal letters, land deeds, divorce certificates, bills of sale, etc.). Did this fragment come from Gospel of Peter? The "Gospel of Peter" we have today, which was discovered in 1886, is, unfortunately, [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-24T10:32:49-04:00April 29th, 2026|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

Active Pastors Who Have Lost Their Faith: Anniversary Post #11
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Active Pastors Who Have Lost Their Faith: Anniversary Post #11

Public Forum

Active Pastors Who Have Lost Their Faith: Anniversary Post #11

Here's a post that covers a topic many of you may have wondered about, others of you have asked me about, and yet others of you may never have much thought about! Pastors in the pulpit who are no longer believers. Whoa. This is Anniversary Post #11, from April 2023. ****************************** Are you curious about Christian Pastors who have lost their faith? You may not know this, but if you’re in a Christian church – whether it’s a traditional Roman Catholic church, Episcopalian, Southern Baptist, Independent-Bible-Thumping-Fire-and Brimstone-Fundamentalist – your priest/pastor may be losing his/her faith, or already lost it. And yet still be in the pulpit. There are some times when you might suspect something was up. Other times, you’d have no clue. I’ve been there, on both sides of that equation. I won’t talk about the loss of faith on the part of pastors who were preaching in front of me every week. But I can say something about myself, in the pulpit, desperately trying to hold on to my faith, and seeing it [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-24T10:28:14-04:00April 28th, 2026|Public Forum|

A Letter Written by Jesus!? Anniversary Post #10

I sometimes get asked if Jesus ever wrote anything. Well, it depends whom you ask. As it turns out, we do have a couple of ancient writings claiming to be written by Jesus himself. Here is the most famous one that we still have that I blogged about in April 2022, as our Anniversary Post #10. ****************************** In an earlier post I talked about whether Jesus could read, and came up with the definite answer: Maybe. That brought to mind a related question: could Jesus write? And do we have any ancient works that claim to be written by him? Answer: Yes indeed. The most famous (among scholars anyway) is a one-time famous correspondence between Jesus and a king who lived in Edessa in Syria named Abgar. I translated it for the book I published (on all earliest Christian Gospels) with my colleague Zlatko Plese, called The Other Gospels. Here is what I say there about the letters (the one from Abgar to Jesus, then his response); at the end of the post [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-20T22:34:30-04:00April 26th, 2026|Forgery in Antiquity, Historical Jesus|

Anniversary Post #9: Misquoting Misquoting Jesus

Nothing is more frustrating than writing a book and having people -- friends and foes -- misread and misunderstand it and think it's about something it's not. (OK, I think I just lied. There are more frustrating things. It was more frustrating when the the "f" and "b" keys on the keyboard on my laptop stopped working. I had to copy and paste the letters in for weeks) (Well, actually, now that I think about it, there are lots more frustrating things. But still...) That's the topic of my post done in April 2020, which I give here as one of my favorites, Anniversary Post #9, on misunderstandings of my book Misquoting Jesus ****************************** Misquoting Jesus is my most widely read book. And I continue to be a bit amazed and dismayed at how widely it is misunderstood. The book was meant to deal with one very specific issue connected with the New Testament, and people who have read it – let alone the people who have not – often assume it’s about some *other* [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-20T22:29:42-04:00April 25th, 2026|New Testament Manuscripts|

Different Words, VERY Different Theologies, and Understanding Which Words They Were. Readers’ Questions

Here are several recent questions I have received that are oddly (and by serendipity) closely related to each other and connected with knowing the New Testament writings said and meant. QUESTION: Don’t you think NT scholars need to stop calling people raised from the dead back to mortality “resuscitations” (e.g., those in 1 Kgs, 2 Kgs, various NT scenes, and Hellenistic traditions)? These aren’t resuscitations (from an almost dead state), they are real “resurrections” from a truly dead state! NT scholarship has co-opted the word “resurrection” to mean raised from the dead back to immortality, but that’s not what that term means, it just means raised from the dead. In truth, Jesus was both resurrected AND made immortal, and one needs to explain why Jesus’ followers thought both of these things about Jesus. RESPONSE: I'd say it's tricky to come up with words that have the precision the ideas do. The virtue of reserving "resurrection" for the idea of being "raised to immortality" (that is, be brought back to life never [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-20T20:43:01-04:00April 23rd, 2026|Public Forum, Reader’s Questions|

Bad Bible Jokes. (And do you have any?)

I’m visiting my daughter and her family up in New Hampshire just now, and the 16 year-old is reading A Children’s Bible, a novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet, for her English class. But it’s filled with biblical allusions from the book of Genesis and elsewhere, so over dinner last night I decided it was time to tell some Bible jokes. You hear a lot of these if you go to Bible college, trust me. And maybe otherwise! Here are four of the classics. Do you have any? Let’s hear ‘em. Where is baseball first mentioned in the Bible? “In the Big Inning” Where is tennis first mentioned in the Bible? “Joseph served on Pharaoh’s court” Who was the first constipated person in the Bible? “Cain. Because he wasn’t Abel.” (I didn’t tell this last one because I thought it probably required to much background/knowledge to be funny) (I’m assuming it’s funny…): Who was the smallest person in the Bible? There are a variety of possible answers. The wrong ones would [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-20T20:36:01-04:00April 22nd, 2026|Public Forum|

Anniversary Post #8: When Is a Contradiction Not a Contradiction?
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Anniversary Post #8: When Is a Contradiction Not a Contradiction?

Canonical Gospels

Anniversary Post #8: When Is a Contradiction Not a Contradiction?

How can you debate about whether there are contradictions in the Bible if you don't agree on what contradictions are? In this Anniversary POst #8, taken from April 2019, I deal with this issue. At the time we were doing a blog fundraiser involving a debate between me and an Oxford-trained theologian named Matthew Firth, who insisted the Gospels have no contradictions of any kind. I, well, disagreed with this view. What ensued was a multi-post back and forth that you can still see (either go posts from o April 2019 or do a word search for Firth). Here is my preliminary post about the issue of "contradictions," exploring what the term means and does not mean, in my view. ****************************** As many of you know, Rev. Matthew Firth, an Anglican rector trained in theology at Oxford, will soon be participating on the blog in a fund-raising event, for which many of you, bless your souls, have already donated. This will entail a debate with me over whether there are contradictions in the Gospels. The [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-17T10:51:47-04:00April 21st, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

Celebrating our 14th Anniversary! Check Out the Unusual Q&A!

As you may know, this month we are celebrating fourteen years of the blog's existence. The actual anniversary took place back on April 3rd, and to mark the occasion, we did something a little different. Instead of a lecture or formal Q&A, we hosted a live cocktail hour built entirely (okay, well mostly) around hypotheticals. We discussed the kinds of questions that are too playful for a classroom but still rooted in real historical thinking. I offered a few answers to get us started, but the real fun was hearing yours. It turns out that even the most offbeat questions can open up genuinely interesting ways of thinking about the past. If you missed it, here’s the full recording. https://vimeo.com/1182051051/8bf9b050b7?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

BDEhrman2026-04-12T12:53:57-04:00April 19th, 2026|Public Forum|

Anniversary Post #7: Doing a Graduate Degree in Early Christian Studies

It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to get a PhD in New Testament/Early Christianity, right? It ain't quantum physics! How hard can it be? This is an issue I addressed in April 2018, which I present here as my Anniversary post #7. ****************************** I often get questions from people who have been in a career for a while who want to know if it is feasible for them to go back to school and get a PhD in my field of New Testament/Early Christianity. In most cases it is not feasible at all, simply because it is way too complicated and involved -- and takes way more time than one would think. I teach one undergraduate and one graduate course a semester. Teaching undergraduates is a passion of mine. I love doing it. These are nineteen-year-olds who are inquisitive, interested, and interesting. I enjoy lecturing to a crowd like that, figuring out what can make complicated material intriguing and compelling, keeping them attentive, helping them understand such important topics. [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-23T23:20:44-04:00April 18th, 2026|Teaching Christianity|

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