Canonical Gospels Archives - The Bart Ehrman Blog

The Parable of the Sower as Advice for Capitalists
Gallery
The Parable of the Sower as Advice for Capitalists

Canonical Gospels, Public Forum

The Parable of the Sower as Advice for Capitalists

Is Jesus’ parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9) best understood as providing (pre-)capitalist advice about how to think about monetary investments? Is it a divine guide for growing your portfolio? Is it instructing us to consider the market and plant our wealth where it is most likely to grow – thirty-fold, sixty-fold, one hundred-fold? There are certainly people today who have read it that way. If you’re a hard-core capitalist who sees everything in economic terms then it would make sense that this is how you think about the parable. (Understanding Jesus as the “greatest businessman who ever lived” has been around for a century now; see Bruce Barton, The Man Nobody Knows, 1925 – one of the best selling non-fiction books of the 20th century!). But what if you want to understand the parable in Jesus’ own context? In that case, yeah, not so much. This is not a guide to how to run your business or choose your investments. When you look at the details, it is actually quite the opposite. The parable, [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-12T09:33:45-04:00June 16th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

The Capitalist Parables of Jesus

Capitalist Parables of Jesus There is a lot of truth in Albert Schweitzer’s observation in his book The Quest of the Historical Jesus (German original 1906), that scholars of every generation since the Enlightenment have portrayed Jesus “in their own image.” Thus Enlightenment-era “rationalists” who realized we do not need supernatural interventions to explain what happens in our world -- from lightening strikes and earthquakes to the healing of physical ailments or mental illnesses -- explained the amazing records of Jesus’ “miracles” as misunderstood natural events. And hopeful, positive, progressive liberals who thought Jesus, like modern folk, just wanted all of us to get along emphasized that Jesus was mainly interested in the “brotherhood of man” (as they said it back then) and the “Fatherhood of God.” Moreover, is it an accident the “apocalyptic” understanding of Jesus -- expecting the imminent of the world -- became increasingly popular during the 20th century World Wars and then the Cold war when we (people of my generation) were all being taught to hide under our [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-08T19:01:49-04:00June 14th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

More Criticisms of the Criticisms of the Gospel of John (by John! Spong)

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I began to discuss the recent Huffington Post article from 2103 by John Shelby Spong in which he discusses his then new book on John; the book is called The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. Today I will finish out what I started to say yesterday. Let me say again that I long appreciated Spong’s work and was sympathetic to his mission. He was trying to do from inside the church something very similar to what I've long tried to do outside of it: help educated lay people outside the field of biblical scholarship see what scholars – believers and non-believers alike – are saying about the New Testament. Since Spong was operating within the church, however, and saw himself as a Christian, some of his perspectives and goals were different from mine. At the end of the day, he was interested in reforming Christianity in order to make it sensible for the twenty-first century. That is not my goal, since I am not [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-06T22:04:11-04:00June 10th, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

Controversies About the Gospel of John: The Views of John Spong
Gallery
Controversies About the Gospel of John: The Views of John Spong

Canonical Gospels, Public Forum

Controversies About the Gospel of John: The Views of John Spong

Just how reliable is the Gospel of John? Is there *anything* in it that is historical? A radical view of John was presented by John Shelby Spong in one of his last books (he published some nineteen or so over the course of his long career.) In my previous post I gave a brief biographical notice about John Shelby Spong, in commemoration of his death in 2021 -- in case you don't know who he was. There aren't too many Christian scholars who are more skeptical of its historical value than I am: but he is one! Here is how I discussed and engaged with the book when it came out. This will take two posts. ****************************** John Shelby Spong, former Episcopal bishop of New Jersey and highly controversial author (because of his skeptical views about the New Testament and traditional Christian doctrine) has just published a new book on the Gospel of John, called The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. He also wrote an interesting article on it that appeared [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-04T08:52:07-04:00June 9th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

These Are Weird Parables. Do They Make Sense?

There are passages of the New Testament that I’ve always found puzzling and have left it at that – not digging in deep in order to try to understand them. That may be kinda weird for a NT scholar, but it is just as common as it is weird. Some of these puzzlers involve the parables of Jesus. Recently I’ve decided to put in the brain work to figure them out, and I have – to my own satisfaction, at least. And hey, who else do I need to satisfy? Here are two examples. I have long thought neither of these parables made sense, and I’ve thought that whatever sense they made, they sure seemed to stand at odds with one another. Both are found only in the Gospel of the Luke, the Gospel most concerned to portray Jesus’ views on wealth and money, and both are in fact about money: The Rich Fool Who Builds Barns (Luke 12:16-21) The Dishonest Steward who Bilks his Boss (Luke 16:1-8) In this post I’ll [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-01T01:13:44-04:00June 4th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

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

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

Anniversary Post #6 Is Mark’s Seemingly Simple Gospel Unsophisticated?

On the surface, Mark's Gospel seems straightforward and simple, a kind of nuts-and-bolts account of Jesus' life from his baptism to the empty tomb. But is it just that? Here is my Anniversary post #6 celebrating our 14th Blog anniversary, taken from April 2017, where I dealt with this issue in response to a reader's question: ****************************** This post focuses on the literary artistry of the Gospel of Mark – is it a fairly unsophisticated account of Jesus’ life and death? The question itself will require a bit of set-up and explanation. In an earlier post I argued that Mark’s Gospel almost certainly ended in chapter sixteen at verse 8. Jesus has been crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day some women go to his tomb to anoint his body more appropriately for burial, but when they arrive the tomb is already opened, Jesus’ body is not in it, but a young man is, who asks them if they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He then tells them that he has [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-14T10:34:30-04:00April 16th, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

Anniversary Post #4: Why Gospels Matter Even Where They Are Not Historical
Gallery
Anniversary Post #4: Why Gospels Matter Even Where They Are Not Historical

Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus

Anniversary Post #4: Why Gospels Matter Even Where They Are Not Historical

If the Gospels are not historical, why should they matter?? Here is my anniversary post from April 2015; in it I expostulate on the importance of the Gospels even if they are not historically accurate, and challenge the idea that history is all that matters. (It's longer than my typical post.) It is taken from the ending of my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne) based on feedback / pushback I was getting from some readers, and explains why "memory" is just as important (more?) as history. ****************************** Like most authors, I get a lot of email from people who have read my books. I find one of the comments I repeatedly receive somewhat puzzling and even disheartening. To explain it, I need to provide a bit of background. When I discuss historical understandings of the New Testament and of the historical Jesus, I frequently refer to the problems of our sources. The Gospels were written decades after Jesus’ death by people who were not eyewitnesses and had probably never laid eyes on an eyewitness. [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-14T10:29:15-04:00April 14th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Anniversary Post #2: Why Were the Gospels Written Anonymously?

Here is the second of my "Anniversary Posts" given in celebration of the fourteenth year of the blog. Unlike the snarky first in the series, this one is meant to be strictly informative, on an issue that I regularly get asked about by people who come to realize that the Gospels were not originally circulated in the names we now know them by. But they weren't called something else. They were anonymous. But why? Here was my answer from April 2013, and it's pretty much what I think now in April 2026! ****************************** It is always interesting to ask why an author chose to remain anonymous, never more so than with the Gospels of the New Testament. In some instances an ancient author did not need to name himself because his readers knew perfectly well who he was and did not need to be told. That is almost certainly the case with the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. These are private letters sent from someone who calls himself “the elder” to a church [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-09T15:15:49-04:00April 11th, 2026|Canonical Gospels|

Understanding the Gospels, Jesus, and the Spread of Christianity: Great Readers’ Questions

Weren't Jews trying to make converts? Did Christians really do it mainly by telling stories about Jesus through word of mouth? And what did Jesus mean when he was talking about the Son of Man? Here are some of the excellent questions I've been asked by readers recently. QUESTION: Bart, My understanding is that Judaism WAS a proselytizing religion between about 150 BCE and 100 CE., which spread Judaism all around Mediterranean and parts of eastern Europe. I got that understanding from the book Crossing Over Sea and Land: Jewish Missionary Activity in the Second Temple Period (2010) by Michael F. Bird. Michael Bird is apparently a well-known New Testament scholar in Australia. Are you familiar with him or with that book? What is your rationale for thinking he is incorrect? RESPONSE: Yes, I know Michael. And no, there's no real evidence of Judaism as a proselytizing religion. This was the view that was popular about 50 years ago and still is among some evangelicals today. The passage in Matthew that [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-02T16:24:04-04:00April 5th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Reader’s Questions|

While We’re Talking About the Reliability of Eyewitnesses…

After posting on the (surprisingly good) eyewitness testimony to the miracles of the founder of Hasidic Judaism (the Besht) yesterday, I couldn't resist saying a bit more about it, not from a purely anecdotal perspective but from the academic perspective of scholars engaged in actual research on the matter, research that is virtually ignored by conservative Christian biblical scholars who have written entire BOOKS on eyewitness testimony but appear to know very little about it as a phenomenon. Here is another excerpt from my book devoted to the issue, Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). (the book includes footnotes/references I won't include here for the post) ****************************** In the history of memory studies an important event occurred in 1902. In Berlin, a well-known criminologist named von Liszt was delivering a lecture when an argument broke out. One student stood up and shouted that he wanted to show how the topic was related to Christian ethics. Another got up and yelled that he would not put up with that. The first one replied [...]

BDEhrman2026-03-12T14:52:16-04:00March 15th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

If It Wasn’t “For Your Sins” Why Did Jesus Die (according to Luke)?

I have been dealing with the question of Jesus’ death in the Gospel of Luke and have been arguing that Luke does not appear to have understood Jesus’ death to be an atonement for sins. He has eliminated the several indications from his source, the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus’ death was an atonement, and he never indicates in either his Gospel or the book of Acts that Jesus died “for” you or “for” others or “for” anyone. Then why did Jesus die? It is clear that Luke thought that Jesus had to die. For Luke it was all part of God’s plan. But why? What is the theological meaning of Jesus’ death for Luke, if it was not a sacrifice that brought about a right standing before God (which is what the term “atonement” means)? You get the clearest view of Luke’s understanding of Jesus’ death from the speeches delivered by the apostles in the book of Acts. As you probably know, Acts is about the spread of the Christian church throughout the Roman [...]

BDEhrman2026-02-13T11:29:22-05:00February 21st, 2026|Acts of the Apostles, Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

Has Luke Gotten Rid of the Idea That Jesus Died for Your Sins?

In my previous post I tried to argue that the longer version of the account of Jesus’ Last Supper in Luke could have been created by a scribe who wanted to make the passage sound more like what is familiar from Matthew, Mark, and John, and to stress the point made in those other accounts as well, that Jesus’ broken body and shed blood are what bring redemption. The passage, as you recall, reads like this: 17 And he took a cup and gave thanks, and he said: “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you that from now on I will not drink from the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.” 19 And taking bread he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body that is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 Likewise after supper (he took) the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood that is shed for you. 21 [...]

BDEhrman2026-02-15T11:41:06-05:00February 19th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, New Testament Manuscripts|

The Controversy Over Jesus’ Last Supper in Luke (Did He Speak of Dying “For you”?)

In my previous post I pointed out that scholars have often claimed that Luke has gotten rid of the idea that Jesus "died for your sins." That will seem counter-intuitive to, well, everyone on the planet, and some astute and learned Bible readers will point out that Luke explicitly does indeed have Jesus talk about his death "for you" in Luke, at his Last supper. I indicated that there's a textual problem with the verse (it's not in our oldest and best manuscripts). Years ago I dealt with the problem on the blog. I deal with it again here -- over the course of a couple of posts. The issue is focused on the wording of Luke 22:19-20. Here is the form of the text as found in most of the manuscripts. (I have put verse numbers in the appropriate places) 17 And he took a cup and gave thanks, and he said: “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you that from now on I will [...]

BDEhrman2026-02-15T11:41:38-05:00February 18th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, New Testament Manuscripts|

Should You Say It Like You Mean It? Those Inoffensive Critical Scholars…
Gallery
Should You Say It Like You Mean It? Those Inoffensive Critical Scholars…

Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship

Should You Say It Like You Mean It? Those Inoffensive Critical Scholars…

Yesterday I was listening to my weekly Misquoting Jesus Podcast (I do that each week to make sure I didn’t make any egregious mistakes in the interview) (I did make a couple, as usual, but so it goes…) and was struck by how, at the end, I described the topic for our next podcast: why “Luke has gotten rid of the idea that ‘Jesus died for your sins.’” I had forgotten I put it that way, and when I heard it said out loud, head-on and clear-as-day, I realized I had never heard anyone put it that way before. And that struck me as interesting – especially because it is what most of my classmates in my PhD program at Princeton Seminary also were taught and thought but they never said/say it this way. What did/do they say instead? The said/say what we learned from our teachers, a far more innocuous way of putting it: “Luke doesn’t have a theology of the cross.” What that means (as my peers and teachers knew) is [...]

BDEhrman2026-02-22T17:59:55-05:00February 17th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Some Key Passages from the Gospels: Questions from Readers
Gallery
Some Key Passages from the Gospels: Questions from Readers

Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions

Some Key Passages from the Gospels: Questions from Readers

I've received some terrific questions about the Gospels recently; here is a good sample and my responses. QUESTION: I have a question on the Gospel of John. This gospel describes Jesus as a pre-existing divine being (the Word) who became flesh. But it does not mention any virgin birth of a divinely sired baby. Without the virgin birth, how did John imagine the incarnation to have happened? Did Jesus simply materialize in the world as a baby? Or as a full-grown man? What can we know about this? RESPONSE: Ah, good question. Actually John's view of incarnation is at odds with the idea of Virgin Birth, even though Christians have long conflated the two by saying the line in the Creed: "He became incarnate through the Virgin Mary." When you read the Virgin Birth narratives of Luke, it indicates that Jesus became the son of God at and because of his conception: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you SO THAT the one born of you will be called holy, the Son [...]

BDEhrman2025-12-16T10:39:32-05:00December 9th, 2025|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions|

Uh, Duh. What I SHOULD Have Said. (Bethlehem)

Last week, in the lead up to Christmas, I had a remote, live event, a back and forth with Roman Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin on the question of whether Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem. This was part of Paths in Biblical Studies, my online courses and events venue that is not directly connected with the blog; you can learn more about it on my website http://www.bartehrman.com. This particular event was one of our “Face to Face on the Bible series. It was not set up as a formal debate but a conversation. But we did have disagreements! Jimmy has a highly unusual way of reconciling the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke. I naturally responded to it -- I explained why I didn't think it was plausible -- but after it was over I realized that there was a killer argument that a forgot to mention. Ever do that? Come away from a disagreement and later say, “Ah, I should-a said that!!”? The issue concerns the home town of Joseph and Mary. [...]

BDEhrman2025-12-30T16:37:17-05:00December 3rd, 2025|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Problems with the Gospels: A Primer for the Study of the Historical Jesus (Part 2)

This now is the second part of the Primer on the Historical Jesus prepared by Marko Marina, which deals head on with the hardest question of all: how do scholars deal with the Gospels of the New Testament "critically" (not "criticizing" them but providing an honest assessment of their historical value) Marko provides a very clear summary and set of insights, as you'll see: To Begin With For me as a historian, it’s self-evident that no narrative source from the ancient world can be taken at face value. All texts reflect the perspectives, interests, and cultural assumptions of their authors -- even ones that are discussing historical events. This is all the more true for writings that come from a time and place so distant from our own. When we turn to the canonical Gospels from a historical perspective, we must therefore be prepared to recognize both their immense value and their serious limitations. Canonical Gospels and Their Historical Value On the side of value, the Gospels remain our earliest extended narratives [...]

BDEhrman2025-10-09T17:20:38-04:00October 9th, 2025|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, History of Biblical Scholarship|

My First Scholarly Encounter with the Canon of the New Testament

So: I've started to work on my next book (or books, depending on how things go), on how we got the canon of the New Testament. Why these 27 books? Why not others? Who decided? When? On what grounds? etc. I started thinking about this issue already as an 18-year-old in Bible college, but at that point had the traditional theological answers for it that are still being published regularly by evangelical scholars as if they are "news" (!). We saw it as a divinely directed event with an inevitable outcome in which the inspired books were the ones that were included simply because they were the ones recognized as being inspired by God. When I went to Princeton Seminary, for my Masters and then PhD, it was primarily to work with Bruce Metzger, because he was the world leading expert on ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He was also the foremost scholar of the day on the formation of the canon of Scripture (and published the still authoritative account of it, over [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-12T00:23:19-04:00September 10th, 2025|Bart’s Biography, Canonical Gospels|

12···35 Next