Canonical Gospels Archives - Page 11 of 35 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Was Matthew Influenced by Buddhist Writings? Platinum Post by Steve Sutter

Platinum Members! Here is another guest post by Steve Sutter on interesting parallels between Buddhist writings and the Gospels. What do you think? Let him, me, and your fellow Platinum folk know! ALSO: The platinum-post well is running dry. Do you have something you'd like to contribute? Go for it! We'd all enjoy it and you can get your thoughts and ideas out there to a generous and welcoming public! It can be on anything related to the blog, if even remotely! But for now, here is Steve's post. ****************************** Matthew’s Gospel Tinged by Buddhism as Well It seems to me entirely possible that the authors of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew had knowledge of Buddhist scriptures while composing the content of their manuscripts in the late first century AD. Some parallels are very fascinating. Using a similar format as articles I published in the Fort Fairfield Journal November 18, 2020 and January 13, 2021, let me again share a sample of Buddhist scriptures, while pointing this time to verses in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:53:04-04:00March 9th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Platinums|

In What SENSE is Jesus “God” in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? My Change of Mind

In yesterday’s post I pointed out that if one asks about an early Christian text: “Does it portray Jesus as God,” then almost always if the answer is Yes (which it usually is), it has to be qualified: “Yes, in *some sense*. “ And the question is always, in *what* sense? The reason I stress this point is that for many years – until I dug deep into research for my book How Jesus Became God – I was quite vehement, in person and in print, that the Synoptic Gospels did not portray Jesus as divine, but only the Gospel of John did. It’s true – I still think and, I suspect, always will think – that in the Gospel of John there is little doubt about the divinity of Jesus. As we have seen, the Gospel opens with the amazing poem: “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:48-04:00February 28th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, Public Forum|

Is the “Word” (Logos) of God in John the Wisdom (Sophia) of God in Judaism?

In yesterday’s post I began to discuss the Prologue of the Gospel of John, which contains a poem that celebrates Christ as the Word of God that became human. This Word of God was with God in the beginning of all things, and was himself God; through him the universe was created and in him is life. This word took on flesh to dwell with humans, and that human – the divine word made flesh – was Jesus. Some readers over the years have wondered if this celebration of the Logos of God that becomes flesh owes more to Greek philosophy than to biblical Judaism. It’s a good question, and hard to answer. One thing that can be said is that this Logos idea does find very close parallels with other biblical texts – in particular with texts that speak of the Wisdom (Greek: Sophia) of God. Sophia and Logos are related ideas; both have to do in some respect with “reason.” Sophia is reason that is internal to a person; Logos is that reason [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:48-04:00February 21st, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Does Luke Present Different (Inconsistent!) Views of Christ?

In a recent post I tried to show that the author of Luke-Acts (same person; let's call him Luke) presented an "exaltation" Christology -- that is, that he thought Christ was not originally a divine being but had been exalted to divinity at some point of his existence; but unlike most of our other sources, he affirms *different* moments when this happened: at Jesus' birth, his baptism, and his resurrection. (See the post if this is not ringing a bell: https://ehrmanblog.org/the-oldest-view-of-christ-found-in-only-one-greek-manuscript-of-luke/ ). I ended the post by saying I would explain how Luke could have it all three ways. And as a reader pointed out to me, I never posted the post! So here it is. I dealt with this specific issue on the blog some years ago, and I may be older now, but I'm no wiser, at least as far as this question goes. Here's what I said then and would continue to say now: ******************************** Does Luke present a (strictly speaking) consistent view of Jesus throughout his two-volume work of Luke-Acts? I raise [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:34-04:00February 18th, 2021|Acts of the Apostles, Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

How Old Was Jesus ???
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How Old Was Jesus ???

Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Reader’s Questions

How Old Was Jesus ???

I received a very interesting question from a blog reader, and it has led to an unexpected answer. QUESTION Is there any significance to the age of Jesus and its relation to the start of his ministry? RESPONSE: I don’t know what the questioner actually means about the “significance” of Jesus’ age, and so I’ve decided to answer a related question. What, in fact, was his age? Well, the matter is … like so much else in our universe … unexpectedly complicated. It turns out I dealt with this years ago on the blog. I know because I just checked. I had forgotten about that post, and even more interesting, I had forgotten my answer, which contains some information that I ALSO FORGOT. In fact, some really interesting information. I bet you didn’t know (as I apparently used to know) that there is a discussion of Jesus’ age in the writings of one of the most important early church fathers, which indicates that Jesus grew to be a relatively old man before he [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:34-04:00February 17th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Reader’s Questions|

Was Christ actually God in the Flesh?
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Was Christ actually God in the Flesh?

Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine

Was Christ actually God in the Flesh?

We now move from Paul's Christology that *combined* an incarnational view with an exaltation view, to a Christology that is incarnational through and through -- still in the New Testament, in the final Gospel to be written (possibly 30 years or so after Paul's death?) In it we find what is arguably the best known and most influential passage dealing with Christology in the New Testament: the Prologue of the Gospel of John, 1:1-18. It is also probably the most studied and discussed passage – even more than the Christ poem in Philippians 2:6-11. The first eighteen verses of John are typically called the “Prologue” because they are clearly set apart from the rest of the Gospel as a kind of celebration of the main character of the book; these verses are written in a different writing style from the rest of the Gospel (lofty poetry), they contain key concepts not found in the rest of the Gospel (Christ as “the Word” made flesh), and yet they introduce well some of the most important views [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:34-04:00February 16th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

The Oldest View of Christ: Found in Only One Greek Manuscript of Luke!
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The Oldest View of Christ: Found in Only One Greek Manuscript of Luke!

Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum

The Oldest View of Christ: Found in Only One Greek Manuscript of Luke!

The oldest view of Christ is found in one Greek Manuscript of Luke. I’d like to address the issue of early Christology from a slightly different angle in this post. So far I have talked about how an “exaltation” Christology, in which Jesus, the man, is made the Son of God. At some point of his existence he can be found in various parts of the New Testament (Rom 1:3-4; speeches in Acts), and how different early Christians located that exaltation to different moments in Jesus’ existence (resurrection, baptism, birth, pre-existence). As it turns out, this view of Christology relates to an important textual variant in the Gospel of Luke. Only One Greek Manuscript of Luke So, by way of background for anyone new to this kind of discussion. We don’t have the original copy of Luke’s Gospel (or of any other NT book or, actually, of any book at all from the ancient world!). What we have are copies made from copies made from copies that were made from copies. We have thousands of copies [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:17-04:00February 4th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum|

Another Two Lectures on the Gospels, Live on Sunday. Join Us!

On each of the past couple of Sunday afternoons I have given two Zoom lectures, recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament, and invited all of you to come. After the second lecture we had about 30 minutes of Q&A, all very lively. Both times went well and a good time was reportedly had by all. But what do reporters know? I'm going to do it again this Sunday, and you are welcome to come. There would be no charge per se, but I would like to ask for a (completely voluntary) donation to the blog. This will be Sunday, Feb. 7. I will again give two lectures), one at 1:00 and the other at 2:15. Each lecture will take about 40-45 minutes. The topics this time: "The Ending of the Gospel of Mark and Jesus the Unknown Savior" This lecture introduces students to the problem that we do not have the original copy of Mark’s Gospel. It appears that the final twelve verses were not originally in the account, so that it [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:52:33-04:00February 2nd, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

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|

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|

Responses to my Newsweek Article on Jesus

Just as happened the first time I made a couple of posts on the article I wrote about Christmas for Newsweek, this time too, in my reposts, I've been asked about the kinds of reactions I received. Back then I gave two follow up posts, and here is the first. It's a pretty funny one, from my perspective. I start out being completely defensive (not that I have a thin skin or anything) and cap it all off by emphatically insisting that I was not being defensive. As I get older, I find I have a better sense of humor about myself... Here's the first of the two posts. ******************************************************** My Newsweek article this week has generated a lot of response. I have no idea what kind of comments they typically get for their stories, but so far, as of now, there have been 559 on mine; and most of them are negative – to no one’s surprise – written by people (conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists for the most part, from what I can [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00December 30th, 2020|Bart's Critics, Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Where is the Virgin Birth in John?

I have pointed out that our earliest Gospel, Mark, not only is lacking a story of the virgin birth but also tells a story that seems to run precisely counter to the idea that Jesus’ mother knew that his birth was miraculous, unlike the later Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is striking to note that even though these two later Gospels know about a virgin birth, our latest canonical Gospel, John, does not know about it. This was not a doctrine that everyone knew about – even toward the end of the first century. Casual readers of John often assume that it presupposes the virgin birth (it never says anything about it, one way or the other) because they themselves are familiar with the idea, and think that John must be as well. So they typically read the virgin birth into an account that in fact completely lacks it. As is well known, John’s Gospel begins ... THE REST OF THIS POST IS FOR MEMBERS ONLY. If you don't belong yet, REMEMBER: THE END [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00December 28th, 2020|Canonical Gospels|

Does the Gospel of Mark Deny a Virgin Birth?

I want to continue my discussion of the virgin birth in the NT, with a set of reflections that is pretty unusual: the views of the Virgin Birth in Mark and John (who do not narrate it!). I've talked about this on the blog before, but it's been a few years, and is worth thinking of again. It is interesting that Mark, our first Gospel to be written, does not have the story of the Virgin birth and in fact shows no clue that it is familiar with the stories of the Virgin birth. On the contrary, there are passages in Mark that appear to work *against* the idea that Jesus’ mother knew anything about his having had an extraordinary birth. There is a complicated little passage in Mark 3:20-21 about Jesus’ family coming to take him out of the public eye because they thought he was crazy. It is a difficult passage to translate from the Greek, and a number of translations go out of their way to make it say something that it [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:58-04:00December 27th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem? Luke’s Version.

Yesterday I discussed Matthew’s account of how it is that Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem, if in fact he “came” from Nazareth. It may well be that Matthew has placed Jesus' birth there to fulfill Micah's prophecy (5:2) that a great ruler (the supposed messiah) would come from Bethlehem. Matthew explains it all by indicating that Joseph and Mary were originally from Bethlehem. That was their home town. And the place of Jesus’ birth. Two or more years after his birth, they relocated to Nazareth in Galilee, over a hundred miles to the north, to get away from the rulers of Judea who were thought to be out to kill the child. (That in itself, I hardly need to say, seems completely implausible, that a local king is eager to kill a peasant child out of fear that he will wrest the kingdom away from him….) Luke has a completely different account of how it happened. In Luke, Bethlehem is decidedly not Joseph and Mary’s home town. The whole point of the story [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:41-04:00December 24th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem? Matthew’s Version….

It is virtually certain that Jesus’ was raised in the small hamlet of Nazareth in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. All of our sources agree that he was from there, and it is very hard to imagine why a Christian story teller would have made that up (since there was no prestige about the place: no one had ever even heard of it!). But now the question is whether that was also his place of birth. The only two accounts we have of Jesus’ birth, Matthew and Luke, independently claim that even though he was raised in Nazareth, he was actually born in Bethlehem. So isn’t that the more likely scenario? Born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth? You might think so, given the fact that this is what is stated in our only two sources of information, and that they independently agree about the matter (based on their own sources, the no longer existing M – Matthew’s source or sources – and the no longer existing L – Luke’s source or sources). But [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:41-04:00December 23rd, 2020|Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Do Christians Have to Believe in the Virgin Birth?

The last time I went to visit my mom in Kansas during the holiday season was six years ago (she is now in a retirement home in Ohio; 93 and still walkin' around!). I talked about it on the blog soon thereafter. I was not a church going person then (still not) but I did the sonly thing and took her to her church. This was a conservative evangelical Free Methodist Church – one that my mom has attended for many years. It was not really my style – I rather prefer centuries-honored liturgy to electric guitars and drums, myself – but I wasn’t there to satisfy my own aesthetic preferences. (She doesn’t like the guitars and drums either, but we missed the earlier service with the choir). The sermon in that kind of church is very different from what one hears in an Episcopal church and is also very different from the kind of sermon I learned to preach when I was in my Masters of Divinity program at the Presbyterian Princeton Theological Seminary. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:41-04:00December 20th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

An Apocryphal Story of Mary’s Conception of Jesus

In my previous post I introduced the seventh-century Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, one of the most popular Christian writings of the Middle Ages. It tells an expanded version of the events leading up to Jesus’ birth, and then yet more legendary tales of what happened afterward. I continue here with another intriguing portion of the account: the events surrounding Mary conceiving Jesus, even though she was a virgin, and the reactions of Joseph when he realizes she is pregnant, and then – something completely missing from the New Testament – the religious “test” inflicted on her by others to see if she was telling the truth. Again, this is taken from the translation in my book The Other Gospels, produced with my colleague Zlatko Pleše. The Annunciation 9 1 On the next day while Mary was standing beside the fountain to fill her small pitcher, an angel appeared to her and said, “You are blessed, Mary, for you have prepared a dwelling place for God in your spirit. Behold, a light will come from heaven [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:41-04:00December 15th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

A Different Account of Joseph and Mary!

As we move to the Christmas season, I thought it would be interesting to post some extracts on one of the most popular Gospels in the Middle Ages, an account of Jesus’ birth – and before that, his mother Mary’s birth – and what happened in the aftermath. It is called the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, because modern scholars once thought that it had claimed to be written by Matthew (the author of the first canonical Gospel); but in fact, as you will see, it claims to be written by Jesus’ brother James. The Gospel comes to us in Latin and was probably produced in the early 7th century. Some of you may know, from the blog or elsewhere, a Greek Gospel of this description from the 2nd century, the Proto-Gospel of James. This later Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is a kind of reworking and expansion of the Proto-Gospel, with some parts removed, lots more added, and others simply altered. It may be that its unknown author wanted to propagate the stories of the Proto-Gospel in the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:40-04:00December 13th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

What Really Happened at Jesus’ Trial Before Pilate?

An important question I’ve received from another scholar who is interested in New Testament studies but is an expert in a different field. QUESTION: Have you ever encountered the argument that the Gospels’ portrayal of Pilate giving in to the crowd’s call for Jesus’ death could be possible in as much as Pilate would have wanted to avoid a riot and so acquiesced for that reason? I am wondering whether this is an old apologist argument of some sort? RESPONSE: It is a great question and it has an easy answer. Yes I have indeed. This is a standard argument made by people, including scholars, who think that the Gospel accounts are entirely reasonable and probably accurate. It’s the view I myself had for years. The idea behind it is pretty simple, and works in easily delineated stages: Jesus was exceedingly controversial among the crowds in Jerusalem. His trial was a major public event. The Jewish leaders were intent on having him executed, and they stirred up the crowd by having them shout [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:51:23-04:00November 23rd, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Reader’s Questions|

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