BDEhrman, Author at The Bart Ehrman Blog - Page 49 of 207

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.

Analyzing the Prophecies in Daniel 7, 2 and 9. Platinum Guest Post by Omar Abur-Robb

Here Omar Abdul-Robb takes on a brave task -- interpreting the apocalyptic predictions of Daniel chapters 2, 7, and 9. Have you read these chapters? Do so! It's one of the easiest ways of blowing your mind while staying within the bounds of legality. The interpretation of these passages has been highly contested since antiquity. Here is Omar's attempt (see http://www.omr-mhmd.yolasite.com) Comments/questions? Send them along! ****************************** 1# I am going to discuss here the prophecies of Danial in chapters 7, 2 and 9, and I am going to argue that there are some right predictions there, which are mixed with so many wrong ones. Therefore, we cannot say that these prophecies have a divine origin as they are mixed with so many wrong predictions. But also, we cannot ignore the conclusion that there are some impressive predictions. So, I am going here to suggest a philosophical model to explain the mix in these prophecies. 2# We can clearly conclude that the prophesy in Danial chapter 11 (the north and south kings) was a man-made [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:03-04:00February 17th, 2023|Public Forum|

Is Christianity a Cult of the Dead? Guest Post by Kyle Smith, PhD

Now here's an intriguing topic I bet you've never thought about. Can you (should we?) consider early Christianity -- and in fact Christianity as a whole, as a "cult of the dead"? Kyle Smith is an associate professor and director of the History of Religions program in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto (See: Kyle Smith | Department of Historical Studies (utoronto.ca). I have known Kyle for many years, since he was a PhD student in early Chrsitianity at Duke. Since then he has become a well-known scholar of Christianity in late antiquity, who already now at a relatively young age (compared to us geezers) has published six books. (Not sure if you know this, but many, many senior scholars publish only two or three for their entire careers.) Five of them are hard-hitting scholarship. His most recent one is for a general audience, Cult of the Dead: A Brief History of Christianity (University of California Press, 2022). I think it's unusually interesting. I thought it would be extremely interesting to [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:20-04:00February 16th, 2023|Book Discussions, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

What Did Judas Betray, and Why Did He Do It?

In my previous post I indicated that there are several things we can say with relative certainly about the historical Judas Iscariot (and indicated why I think we can be pretty sure about all of them): he really existed, he was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, he was therefore an apocalyptic Jew from Palestine, and he really did hand Jesus over to the authorities to be arrested. But what is it exactly that Judas did that led to Jesus’ arrest, and why did he do it? Here we move from the grounds of relative historical certainty to issues of probability and speculation. The question of Judas’s motives for his act has intrigued Christians from the time before our earliest sources and continues to intrigue scholars today. The reality is that any discussion of motive is almost entirely speculative. If you can’t accurately describe my motives in writing this particular blog thread the way I have – and I can assure you, you don’t know my motives (and even if I *told* you, you couldn't be [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 15th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Want To Listen to the Live Gold Q&A (and maybe ask a question)?

Dear Gold and Platinum members, I've decided to record this month's Gold Q&A live in front of whoever wants to come. I may do this regularly. BUT, here's the deal: I rarely know well in advance when I can squeeze it in, so if I do this on a regular basis I won't be able to announce it, well, well in advance. But anyone who wants to come, can come. I'm doing it on Zoom anyway, so why not? I'm doing this month's tomorrow morning, Wed. Feb 15, at 11:00 am EST. There's no real reason to come unless you want to see it live (since we'll be sending out the recording). BUT: I thought it might be fun to take some live questions as well as the ones submitted in advance (for the proviso, see below). AND: I thought I could do that as a mini-fundraiser. We are trying to raise funds for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria (hence the Movie Club on the film Tár with guest Gisele Ben-Dor, esteemed conductor [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:35-04:00February 14th, 2023|Public Forum|

Judas Iscariot: What We Can Say With Relative Certainty. (I think…)

What then can we say with relative certainty about Judas called Iscariot? I think the following five points just about cover it: He did exist. This has been doubted in some circles and by some scholars, of course, especially among those who have wanted to point out the etymological similarity between his name, Judas, and the word Jew, and have argued, on this and related grounds, that Judas was a creation of the early church who wanted to pin the blame of Jesus’ death on the Jewish people. I think this is an attractive view, and one that I personally would like very much to be true, but I don’t see how it can be. Judas figures too prominently in too many layers of our traditions to be a later fabrication. I give all the data in my book on Judas, but here let me just say that there is unique and shared material about Judas in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – so that his existence passes the criterion of Multiple Attestation with flying [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 14th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Can We Know Anything About Judas Iscariot?

I get asked about Judas Iscariot far more than any of the other disciples, even the ones who are completely central to Jesus' life and ministry (Peter, James, and John). I guess that's because he is seen as, ultimately, more crucial to the story of Jesus. The betrayer. Without him, no arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Or at least, a completely different scenario for the death of the Son of God. This week, when scrounging around looking for something else, I came across this paper I delivered at a conference years ago. I thought it might be of interest to blog members. This will take three posts. (The paper was written for scholars, so I'll put any necessary explanatory notes in italics) ****************************** In recent years, more has been written and less known about Judas Iscariot than about any of Jesus’ followers, with the outstanding exception of his wife and lover, the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. (That was a little joke about people who take Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code seriously about what he says about [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 12th, 2023|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Historical Jesus|

How Theologians and Historians Approach the Same Bible Differently. Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski

I am very pleased to announce that a scholar of religion who is also a log-term blog member, Dan Kohanski, has just published an intriguing book of direct relevance to what we do here on the blog (A God of Our Invention: How Religion Shaped the Western World). When I got the book I realized it would be great to have Dan do a couple of guest posts on the blog to share some of the views he develops in it. He agreed, and here is the first of three of his posts. Feel free to comment and ask questions! ****************************** (This essay is adapted from my just-published book, A God of Our Invention: How Religion Shaped the Western World, Apocryphile Press, 2023; https://apocryphilepress.com/book/a-god-of-our-invention-how-religion-shaped-the-western-world/ . Support your local independent bookstore and order using the “Buy paperback from Bookshop” link on that webpage.) There are several ways one can approach the Bible (including ignoring it), but I want to look here at two most of the most common ways: that of the theologian, and that of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 11th, 2023|Book Discussions, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Do You Want to Discuss the Movie Tár with World-Renowned Conductor Gisele Ben-Dor? Blog Fundraiser for Earthquake Victims in Turkey/Syria

We are all devastated by the ongoing reports of casualties from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. I would like to have a blog fundraiser for funds for Doctors without Borders, one of our regular charities, who is actively on the ground dealing with the crisis. This unusually special event will be February 22, 7:30-9:00 pm. It will be something completely different from what we normally do on the blog. The idea came about by the chance occurrence of two events. I saw the movie Tár (with Cate Blanchette) when it came out, and I was blown away by it (which rarely happens). As many of you know, it is a powerful portrayal of a female conductor who abuses her power and suffers the consequences. It is a riveting script, with fantastic acting, addressing massively important issues with twists and terrific nuance. I wanted to know, among other things, how "good" it was and "true to life" and thought to ask someone who would be able to talk about it with authority . Some of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:20-04:00February 10th, 2023|Public Forum|

Why Do Muslims Deny that Jesus Was Crucified? Platinum Guest Post by Imran M. Usmani

I am very pleased to publish this learned and intriguing discussion of the one verse in the Qur'an that appears to deny that Jesus was crucified. That is the standard Muslim view today -- but is it right? Is that what the verse really says? Our guest poster is Imran M. Usmani and as you will see, he provides significant historical and literary evidence for an alternative interpretation. Please feel free to comment or ask questions! ****************************** Most Muslim scholars today deny the crucifixion of Jesus based on literal interpretation of a Quranic verse.1 This incurs the wrath of Christians and secular historians, who see it as an attempt to re-write history. It is one thing to hold an opinion or theological belief, but it is quite something else to meddle with the fabric of history. In this article, I shed light on the religious dispute about the crucifixion of Jesus by tracing the origins of crucifixion denial in the Muslim tradition. The religion of Islam is founded upon three fundamental sources, namely the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:03-04:00February 10th, 2023|Public Forum|

An Intriguing Anti-Jewish Variant: Did Jesus Pray “Father forgive them”?
Gallery
An Intriguing Anti-Jewish Variant: Did Jesus Pray “Father forgive them”?

History of Christianity (100-300CE), Jews and Christians in Antiquity, New Testament Manuscripts

An Intriguing Anti-Jewish Variant: Did Jesus Pray “Father forgive them”?

In my previous post I pointed out that scribes appear to have changed their texts of the New Testament in ways that reflected the rising anti-Jewish sentiment of the early Christian centuries. For me, by a wide margin, the most intriguing example of this is the prayer Jesus makes from the cross in Luke's Gospel (and nowhere else in the New Testament) "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." I wrote about this passage in an article many years ago that I called “The Text of the Gospels at the End of the Second Century,” which was reprinted in a collection of my more scholarly essays on textual criticism called Studies in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament (Brill, 2006; the paper was originally written for a conference in 1993) (not that I'm dating myself...) The paper was written for fellow scholars, but I’ve decided to go ahead and include it here verbatim. BUT, I have added several explanatory comments in [brackets] for technical terms and ideas that are not the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 9th, 2023|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Jews and Christians in Antiquity, New Testament Manuscripts|

Anti-Jewish Alterations of the New Testament Writings?

In my previous post I pointed out that scribes sometimes changed the manuscripts of the New Testament in order to make them more theologically "orthodox," that is, more in line with theological views of (most of) the scribes who were copying the texts in the second and third centuries. Five points I would like to emphasize about that phenomenon (if you want a fuller analysis, this is the topic of my study, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effects of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament). It would be a very big mistake to think that this was the main reason scribes changed their texts (as I've said my entire life, even if many people haven't noticed!) These changes were never done consistently or throughly, at least in any of our surviving manuscripts, and that suggests it was an ad hoc affair, happening now and then as a scribe decided to modify a passage. So far as we can tell it was never done on orders from on high. That is, [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 8th, 2023|History of Christianity (100-300CE), New Testament Manuscripts|

New Testament Manuscripts That Reveal Later Theological Controversies

In my previous post I started to explain how the manuscripts of the New Testament can help us reconstruct not only the “original” texts that the author wrote but also, when looked at in a different way, what was happening in the worlds of the scribes who changed them. In this post I deal with the one part of that context that is best known today, scribes changing the text for theological reasons. In my next post I’ll get to the issue that started this small thread, changes of the text made in opposition to Jews and Judaism. This again is from my essay “The Text as Window,” in the collection of essays Mike Holmes and I edited, The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research. (This post is a bit longer than usual; if you want to cut it in half, you have my permission, indeed, my suggestion, not to read the footnotes. It was written for scholars, who like nothing better than footnotes....) ****************************** The Internecine Struggles of Early Christianity Arguably the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 7th, 2023|New Testament Manuscripts|

My New Online Course on the Gospel of Mark!

In case you haven't heard, I will be doing a live, eight-lecture online course on the Gospel of Mark on Feb. 18-19. The course is not connected with the blog -- it is part of my separate venture for a series I'm publishing called How Scholars Read the Bible. But I mention here because some of you may be interested. Even if you can't make the live sessions and Q&A, you can purchase the course to watch at your leisure. You can learn about it here: bartehrman.com/mark The course will consist of four lectures and Q&A each day. The lectures will be 45 minutes each, so a bit longer with more substance than the other courses I've done. I'm completely pumped about this course. Mark is my favorite Gospel and, in fact, probably my favorite book of the Bible. It is a book that is widely misunderstood, in part because casual readers often think of it as a Readers Digest version of Matthew and Luke, a kind of no-frills, nuts-and-bolts account of Jesus' life without [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:20-04:00February 5th, 2023|Public Forum|

New Testament Manuscripts as Windows into Early Christian History

My recent post asking whether the Gospels can be seen as anti-Jewish generated a number of comments and questions, one of which was whether scribes who copied the texts of the New Testament ever made them *more* anti-Jewish than they originally were. The answer to that is Yes. I have a student just now who is writing a dissertation that deals with that topic. It's a question I've been intrigued with for years; one of the first times I wrote about it was in an essay called “The Text as Window: New Testament Manuscripts and the Social History of Early Christianity," in The New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis, ed. Bart D. Ehrman and Michael W. Holmes. Studies and Documents; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995, pp. 361-79. The essay was about the wide range of ways that copies of the New Testament from long after the originals were circulated can help us do something other than figure out the original text of each book; when used in a different way, they can [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:19-04:00February 5th, 2023|New Testament Manuscripts|

February Gold Q&A: Go for the Gold!

It is time to schedule the Gold Q&A for February. For me to provide the A's you need to provide the Q's. What are you interested in? It can be about most anything related to the blog in one way or another. 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 try to be informative. And happiness will reign. To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] The DEADLINE for your question is Friday February 10 , at midnight (whenever midnight is where you live). I will record my answers that weekend (but not, uh, during the Superbowl) (go Chiefs!), and we will release the recording in both video and audio form -- for Gold and Platinum members only -- the following week. Ask some tough ones! Or, even better, ask ones you're most interested in, even if you think they're softballs. I'm looking forward to it! Bart

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:00:50-04:00February 4th, 2023|Public Forum|

Am I About To Become Muslim?

I often get asked about the Qur'an (on which I have zero expertise) and my views of Islam (which I admire as one of the great religions of the world with lots of problems involving how it sometimes gets interpreted and used, just like every other great religion of the world). I was just thinking about that this morning and remembered a post I did a long time ago answering a question a reader had raised with me. Is it true I am about to convert to Islam? Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I thought I would be worthwhile repeating the post: READER COMMENT: I received a message on Facebook a couple of weeks ago from a person who has been proselytizing to me about the Muslim faith. This has happened a few times with others on your FB page. I guess that's what they do. Anyway, the other day I asked him if he was on your blog. He responded with a yes. Then he said that we (the members) were going [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:03-04:00February 4th, 2023|Bart’s Biography, Book Discussions|

Was the Roman Soldier Pantera Jesus’ Father? His Cousin? Platinum Guest Post by Omar Abur-Robb

I am pleased to publish this unusually controversial and interesting Platinum guest post of Omar Abdur-Robb. Lots to think about here! What do you think? ****************************** A Summary of an article: Discussing the conclusion of James Tabor related to the relationship between Jesus Pantera and Abdes Pantera, and presenting a new model for this relationship (Jan 2023). Omar Abur-Robb Library: https://omr-mhmd.yolasite.com James Tabor has a conclusion in his informative book “The Jesus Dynasty”. He noticed a reference for a tombstone in Germany that was dedicated to a Roman soldier from Sidon with the name “Abdes Pantera”. This immediately grabbed the attention of Tabor and he started studying it. One of his conclusions in the book was that this soldier might be the true biological father of Jesus. Although I totally don’t agree with this conclusion (metaphysically or historically), but still, all of his conclusions represented about 30% of the book, while the other 70% were high quality of information, which made the book valuable. However, I am going to draw the attention to [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:51-04:00February 3rd, 2023|Public Forum|

Finally: The Martyrdom of Polycarp as a Clever Christian Forgery

Here now I bring this thread on the Martyrdom of Polycarp to an end, arguing yet further reasons for thinking the account was forged, and explaining the “truths” the author was trying to advance by not telling the truth about his real identity. (From my book Forgery and Counterforgery, Oxford University Press, 2013). ****************************** Problematic for entirely other reasons is the account of what happens in the aftermath of Polycarp’s death. The Jews, moved by the devil, are intent not to allow the Christians to collect Polycarp’s body “even though many were desiring to do so and to have a share in his holy flesh” (ch. 17). And so, the centurion ordered the body to be burned. That did not hinder the Christians’ enthusiasm for Polycarp’s material remains, however: “And so, afterwards, we removed his bones, which were more valuable than expensive gems and more precious than gold, and put them in a suitable place.” It is there that the author anticipates celebrating, with his fellow believers, the “birthday of his martyrdom.” One might be able [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:03-04:00February 2nd, 2023|Public Forum|

Evidence of Forgery. More Reasons the Martyrdom of Polycarp Was Not Written by Someone There

In my previous post I began to lay out my case that the Martyrdom of Polycarp, our (allegedly) first full narrative account of a Christian martyr, who died 155 CE, written (allegedly) by an eyewitness, in fact was written decades later, by someone who wanted his readers to think he was an eyewitness and to that end (falsely) claimed to be one. Here I move from the intriguing fact (from the last post) that the author asserts his eyewitness authority precisely at the points that are, well, rather difficult to believe to other historical problems in the text that suggest the author was not living at the time or privy to what actually happened. Again, this is from my book Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (Oxford University Press, 2013). ***************************** Apart from the miraculous elements of the text – which include the martyr’s blood gushing forth in such profusion as to douse the flames of his pyre, and a dove emerging from his side and flying [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:03-04:00February 1st, 2023|Book Discussions, Forgery in Antiquity, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Do Eyewitnesses Prove Miracles? Can They Be Faked? The Martyrdom of Polycarp

For over two hundred years scholars of antiquity have worked diligently to determine which ancient writings by pagans, Jews, and Christians were actually produced by their alleged authors and which are by authors merely claiming to be some other famous person, as well as which originally anonymous writings were wrongly ascribed to one famous author or another. If a book is wrongly ascribed, it’s not the author’s fault. If Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did not write Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that would not make these books “forgeries.” A “forgery” is when an author intentionally takes the identity of another (famous or important) person with the intent of deceiving her or his readers. There were lots of reasons for doing that in antiquity, and I discuss all such matters on a popular level in my book Forged (HarperOne, 2011), where by and large I focus on the writings of the New Testament (e.g., the six letters that claim to be written by Paul but appear not to have been; and also letters by Peter; [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:01:02-04:00January 31st, 2023|Book Discussions, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Forgery in Antiquity|

Previous 1···484950···207 Next