BDEhrman, Author at The Bart Ehrman Blog - Page 84 of 208

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.

Did Humans Ever Become Divine in Judaism? (Seems unlikely, no?)

I have been discussing how human beings were sometimes thought to become gods in the ancient world. All of this is backdrop to my assessment of why Christians thought that Jesus had become God. Of course, most Christians say that Christ did not *become* God: he had always *been* God. That indeed is the traditional Christian teaching, but I will be arguing that it was not the original view. The first followers of Jesus, after his resurrection, believed he had been made divine at that point. Only later did that view develop into the notion that he had always been divine. It will take a while for me to show that, but my premise will be that Jesus’ immediate followers were influenced by traditions that humans could indeed become divine beings. Still what relevance will that have for Christianity? The earliest Christians were Jews. The traditions I’ve been talking come out of *pagan* cultures.. No relevance for early Christians, right? Wrong. As it turns out Jews also sometimes thought that a human could become divine. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 20th, 2021|Early Judaism|

A Christian is Not Necessarily a Disciple: Platinum Post by Douglas Wadeson

The weeks' Platinum post comes to us from Douglas Wadeson, a long time member of the blog and recently retired (lucky fellow) physician. The post comes in two parts: the second part will appear next week. Remember: this post, your comments about it, and any ensuing back and forth come to Platinum members only. (And remember: you too can submit a post! I hope you do so. Just send it to my assistant Diane Pittman, at [email protected]) Here now is part 1 of Doug's post: ******************************* In Dr. Ehrman’s Christmas blog post he ponders: “So this is what I don’t understand: why so many of the alleged followers of the Prince of Peace not only refuse to accept his teaching but by and large preach *against* it, standing precisely for what he stood against. It’s as if they haven’t read their Bibles. It’s all there – in Jesus’ teachings, in the Old Testament prophets, he based his message on, in the gospel proclaimed by his earliest followers. God is not on the side of the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:17-04:00January 19th, 2021|Reflections and Ruminations|

Guest Post Part 2 by New Testament Scholar Jeff Siker: Why I Am Still a Christian

This is re-post of part 2 of an interesting set of comments from exactly eight years ago by my friend and colleague Jeff Siker, a New Testament scholar who agrees with most of the critical views I have of the New Testament but who is still a believing and practicing Christian. To make fullest sense of this post, you should read it in conjunction with the one from yesterday. Jeff Siker is the author of Jesus, Sin, and Perfection in Early Christianity, Liquid Scripture: The Bible in the Digital World and Homosexuality and Religion: An Encyclopedia. ****************************** Like Bart, I became interested in pursuing an academic career, but with some grounding in the life of the church. And so after my BA and MA (Religious Studies) at Indiana University, I went off to Yale Divinity School. And so my trajectory from Young Life in high school to Indiana to Yale was rather different from Bart’s trajectory from Moody to Wheaton to Princeton. Whereas much of Bart’s education involved the study and practice of Christian [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 18th, 2021|Reflections and Ruminations|

Guest Post by New Testament Scholar Jeff Siker: Why I am Still a Christian

Bart speaking: I often get asked how someone can be a scholar of the NT, understand all its critical problems, and yet still remain a Christian. That's a mystery to many people. But it's not a mystery to biblical scholars. I was looking back through old posts and saw that in the first year of the blog, eight years ago now, I asked my friend Jeff Siker, a well-published NT scholar and long time professor of NT at Loyola Marymount, if he would explain why despite all he knows, he remains a believer and an active member of the church. He has agreed to allow me to republish the two posts he made and is happy to answer questions about them. Jeff is the author of a number of books, including Jesus, Sin, and Perfection in Early Christianity, Homosexuality in the Church, and Liquid Scripture: The Bible in the Digital Age. Here is the first of his posts. ***************************** When I first went to Princeton Theological Seminary to begin the Ph.D. program there in New Testament [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 17th, 2021|Reflections and Ruminations|

Still Other Humans Who Became Gods: In Jesus’ Time!

Here I continue my account about how some human beings became gods according to ancient Greek and Roman traditions. Last time I discussed the “founder of Rome,” Romulus. Now I shift to a time period more relevant for Jesus – in fact his own period – and to figures who are not legendary (Romulus), but actual historical figures we know about from a large range of sources. Again, this will be taken from my book How Jesus Became God. ************************ Julius Caesar The traditional date for the founding of Rome [under Romulus] is 753 BCE. If we move the calendar forward about seven centuries, we still find men who are declared to have become gods. Few are better known than Julius Caesar, the self-declared dictator of Rome who was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BCE, by political enemies who preferred not having a dictator when all was said and done. A life of Julius Caesar is provided for us by the Roman biographer Suetonius, in his Lives of the Caesars, published [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 16th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

Could a Human Become a God in the Ancient World?

If early Christians were monotheists, how could they claim that someone other than the One God was also God and yet still say there was in fact only one God? That will be the first issue to figure out if we want to understand how the doctrine of the trinity developed. With respect to Christ, if he was a human, how was he divine? In other words, how could ancient people get their minds around that? Not just whether he was divinely handsome or divinely wise – but actually Divine? In some sense a God? (I will, over this thread, emphasize the terms “in some sense,” as you will see). A couple of weeks ago I talked on the blog about some special individuals in the Greco-Roman world who were understood to be both human and divine because they had one of each kind as a parent. Typically this involved a mortal woman who was attractive to one of the gods (Zeus / Jupiter wasn’t the only one, but he was the most notorious), who [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 14th, 2021|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus|

Were Ancient Pagans Sometimes Monotheists?

In my last couple of posts I’ve been talking about Jewish monotheism and henotheism as a backdrop to early Christianity. And now *here* is a something almost no one in the civilized universe knows any more: even among traditional pagan religions there were sometimes movements toward monotheism, or at least evidence of serious henotheism. Here is how I discuss it in my book Triumph of Christianity, in the context of why the Christian claims about their God would not have seemed completely unprecedented. ****************************** Scholars have long known of henotheistic tendencies among ancient (pagan) philosophers, who had come to think that behind all the diversity of the world, above all the manifestations of what we know and experience, there must be one ultimate reality that makes sense of it all. This principle of unity could be understood to be the ultimate divinity, and so some philosophers stressed the “oneness” at the heart, or at the beginning, of all things. The sense of one ultimate divinity could also be found outside the ranks of the professional [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 13th, 2021|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

Were Ancient Israelites Actually Monotheists?

Monotheists. The first thing to stress in considering the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is that even though the orthodox view (that is, the one that got declared “right”; “Orthodoxy” literally means “right opinion”) claimed there were three persons in the godhead, there was only one God. That is, Christians insisted they were monotheists. No doubt they did so because they quite consciously came out of the Jewish tradition and wanted to retain its monotheistic emphasis. But that in itself needs to be thought about for a minute. Were Ancient Israelites Actually Monotheists? This is Debatable Just about everyone thinks that Jews are and always have been strictly monotheistic. As it turns out, the matter is hotly debated and not all that simple. There are indeed passages in the Hebrew Bible that stress there is only one God. Most importantly in some parts of Isaiah, especially the parts called “Second Isaiah” (chapters 40-55) they are called this because this part of the book was not written by “Isaiah of Jerusalem” the prophet of the 8th [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 12th, 2021|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Platinum Guest Post by Steve Sutter: The Buddhist Influence on the Gospel of Luke

Here is a post submitted by Platinum member Steve Sutter, for the enjoyment of all you other shining Platinums. It will go only to Platinum members of the blog and any comments you make will go only to Platinums as well. Steve wanted me to let you know that he is not a scholar, but a very interested observer. But I’m glad he’s made this post: I get asked about this sort of thing on occasion both on and off the blog. Thank you Steve! And the rest of you: enjoy! Buddhist Influence on the Gospel of Luke By: Steve Sutter, M.S. Presque Isle, Maine Scholars have often considered the possibility that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity. They have drawn attention to the many parallels concerning the births, lives, ethics, and deaths of the Buddha (Siddhattha Gotama), and Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in their respective traditions of scripture and legend. (Old World Encounters – Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times, Chapter 2 Jerry H. Bentley, Un. Of Hawaii, [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 11th, 2021|Canonical Gospels|

The God Jesus, In Competition

I have started what will almost certainly be a long thread on where the idea of the Trinity came from within the Christian tradition. In plotting out the thread I saw right away that the very BIG issue is not really about the “three” (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) but about the “two”: God and Christ. This was the matter Christians debated for centuries, with the Spirit being (by far) a less central figure. The very major problem early Christians confronted was that they were monotheists who believed in only one God but they also thought Jesus was God. And they did not think that he was the same being as his Father. So God was God and Christ was God but there was only one God. How can that be? Answering that question will eventually get you to the doctrine of the Trinity. To explain it I will need to go into some length on the issue of Jewish monotheism, and what it meant (especially in a world where everyone else was a polytheist), [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 10th, 2021|Bart’s Biography, Early Christian Doctrine, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

Gold Members Only Audio Q&A

Dear Gold Members, As you know, one of your perks is a monthly audio version of a Q&A, designed and created just for you. Only those with Gold privileges can participate and benefit.. You submit the Q's and I do the A's. Interested? Now we are set to do the first one. I will announce later the date on which it will be available, but first we have to make it! For that to happen we need questions. Want to submit one? Here are the rules. You will be allowed to submit *one* question per month. We will collect questions until Friday January 15. Your question can relate to anything connected to the blog. It should be relatively concise (not a page long) and an actual question, not a comment or disquisition on a topic you want the world to consider. You should send you question NOT to me, and NOT as a comment on this post, but to my assistant, Diane Pittman <[email protected]>; she will collect and collate them, and we will decide which [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 9th, 2021|Public Forum|

Platinum Members Webinar!

Dear Platinum Members, As you know, one of the perks of having Platinum membership is that I will be doing a Platinum-only webinar four times a year. I now want to announce the first one, ever. It will be held on Thursday, January 21, 7:00 pm EST. Some of you will be rejoicing that day (from the previous one), some will be in mourning. But we ain't gonna talk about it. Instead, we're gonna talk about something related to the blog. The webinar will last 75 minutes: I will give a talk for 40-45 minutes, and after that I will answer questions. The webinar is open to all Platinum members, and only to them. What should the topic be? Below are three options. I will let you vote! If you would like to do so, please send an email to my assistant, Diane Pittman <[email protected]>; you don't need to say anything to her, just tell her which of these topics you would prefer hearing. Majority rules! 1. Does the Book of Revelation Predict Our Future? [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:16-04:00January 9th, 2021|Platinums|

One of the Most Significant Passages in the NT: Paul’s Christ Poem

In my previous post I began to speak about the “incarnation” Christology found famously in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, 2:6-11. There are a lot of other things I want to say about this passage, all of them relevant to the issues I’ve been discussing. The first and most important thing is that it has been widely recognized by scholars for a very long time that this passage is something that Paul appears to be quoting, that it is not simply part of the prose letter. Moreover, it is frequently called (probably wrongly) a “hymn” (that’s probably wrong because – as I’ve been told by an expert in the field of ancient music, it doesn’t actually scan as music). But in any event, it is highly structured in a balanced fashion and thus seems to be more like a poem than like prose. The reasons for thinking that Paul is quoting rather than composing it are pretty compelling, and I will get to them eventually. For now I want to point out the rhythmic structure. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:33-04:00January 9th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|

How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament: Part 2

I continue now with the story of how the doctrine of the Trinity as stated in 1 John 5:7 (the only passage in the entire Bible that states that there are three divine figures and “these three are one”) was actually not originally part of 1 John – or the Bible at all. It was a later addition. But how did it come into the King James Bible then? Read on! This is how I explained it in my book Misquoting Jesus. (If you haven’t read the previous post, it provides some background) (it also does even if you did read it). ************************** Even though the Complutensian Polyglot was the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament, it was not the first published version. As I pointed out, even though the work was printed by 1514, it did not actually see the light of published day until 1522. Between those two dates a famous and enterprising Dutch scholar, the humanist intellectual Desiderius Erasmus, both produced and published an edition of the Greek New [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 9th, 2021|Catholic Epistles, Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts|

How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament

In my previous post I began to discuss the doctrine of the Trinity, which states that the godhead comprises three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are completely and equally God, with no one superior to the others, all of whom have existed forever, and all of whom are of the same essence/substance. But these three are actually one. So there is only one God, but he is manifest in three persons. I maintained in the post that this doctrine is not taught in the New Testament, but I pointed out there is one apparent exception, depending on which translation you are reading. In the King James Version you will find the following passage in the letter of 1 John: There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three are one (1 John 5:7-8). That first part does [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:59-04:00January 7th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts|

Is the Trinity in the Bible?
Gallery
Is the Trinity in the Bible?

Early Christian Doctrine, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Public Forum

Is the Trinity in the Bible?

I recently did a webinar discussing the origins of the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s an issue that I am often asked about. Where did the idea come from? How does it work? If God the Father is God, Christ is God, and the Spirit is God – how is it that Christians don’t have three Gods? And if they have three Gods, aren’t they polytheists? On the other hand, if Christians want to insist there is only one God, and that they are monotheists, how can they say that Jesus and God are both God, let alone the Spirit? If they are both, or all three, God, then there is not just one God! So what’s going on with this Trinity business? It’s an involved question, and I’ve decided to make a series of posts on the question. Let me start by making sure we are all on the same page when it comes to what the doctrine of the Trinity involves. This is important because a lot of people assume that if they [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00January 6th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Public Forum|

No Virgin Births? Then How Were Demi-gods Born In Antiquity?

In my previous post I pointed out that there do not appear to be any instances in the other religions of antiquity of a virgin birth – where a woman gives birth without having sex. In this post I’ll lay out the more typical view of how a “son of God” came into the world. It very much does involve sex. Most of the post will deal with one (very funny) story in particular which is emblematic of the rest. For this post I will quote a section from my recent book, How Jesus Became God. ****************************** Even though Apollonius of Tyana was understood to be a pre-existent god come in the flesh, that is not the normal Greek or Roman way of understanding how a divine human could be born of a mortal. By far the more common view was that a divine being comes into the world – not having existed prior to birth – because a god has had sex with a human, and the offspring then is in some sense divine. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00January 5th, 2021|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

What About All Those Other Virgin Births in Antiquity?

I have devoted several posts to the issue of Jesus’ virgin birth, as recounted in Matthew and Luke. As I pointed out, there is no account of Jesus’ virgin birth in the Gospel of John, and it appears that the idea is actually argued *against* (implicitly) in the Gospel of Mark. As happened last time I did a thread like this, several readers have asked me (or told me) about the similarities to the virgin birth stories in pagan texts, where a son of God, or demi-god, or, well, some other rather amazing human being, is said to have been born of a virgin. Aren’t the Christians simply borrowing a widely held view found among the pagans, that if someone is the son of God (e.g., Hercules, or Dionysus, or Asclepius, etc.), his mother is always thought to have been a virgin? As it turns out, that’s not the case at all. I don’t know of any parallel to ... Want to be well informed? Keep reading. Not a member of the blog? Join! Costs [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00January 3rd, 2021|Book Discussions, Canonical Gospels, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture|

With Respect to Others Who Did Not Like My Newsweek Article

When the editor at Newsweek asked me if I would be willing to write an article on the birth of Jesus, I was hesitant and wrote him back asking if he was sure he really wanted me to do it. I told him that I seem to be incapable of writing anything that doesn’t stir up controversy. It must be in my blood. Still, he said that they knew about my work and were not afraid of controversy, and they did indeed want an article from me. What’s interesting to me is that I’ve been getting it from all sides. I don’t know why that should surprise me. It seems to be the story of my life. For years my agnostic and atheist readers were cheering me on from the sidelines as I talked about the problems posed by a critical study of the New Testament: there are discrepancies and contradictions, the Gospels are not written by eyewitnesses, and the stories they contain were modified over time, and many of them were invented in the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00January 2nd, 2021|Bart's Critics, Canonical Gospels|

The Blog Year in Review, 2020

Another year has passed. Most of us are oh so happy to say goodbye to THIS one. An awful year, in many many ways, and we are not out of the woods. Even those who have weathered the storm well have faced hardship, suffering, and loss. Whatever your own situation, please accept my best wishes as we move onward. There is a light ahead and possibly a bright future. Whether you pray, hope, or both, this would be a good time to do so with renewed vigor! There have been silver linings and good things as well, of course, for many of as individuals, our communities, our country, and our world. There certainly have been me, and I do try to look on the bright side even while I’m torn by the suffering all around us. But it would be wrong, not to mention unhealthy, not to celebrate the bright spots that have sometimes shone through. For me the blog has been a bright spot. It’s been a really good year for us. Our NINTH!! [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00December 31st, 2020|Public Forum|

Previous 1···838485···208 Next