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 [...]

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 [...]

I continue to get terrific questions from readers.  Here are two rather tough ones on the Gospel of Luke, with my responses.   QUESTION: This is a question of whether there is some good evidence that Luke used Matthew (rather than both of them using the hypothetical Q source.) How do you explain the fact that Matthew and Luke add the very same five words to Mark’s story of Jesus being hit by the soldiers at his trial before the Jewish authorities, both using the Greek word for “hit”, a word which neither one of them uses in any other passage in their respective Gospels? Coincidence? Q didn’t have a Passion Narrative so they could not have gotten it from that source. Mark 14:65 “Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him and beat him.” Both Matthew and Luke add to this Markan passage: “Who is the one who hit you?” Matthew 26:67-68: Then they spat in his face [...]

It has just occurred to me (duh) that some blog readers who are enjoying these "In a Nutshell" posts on the books of the New Testament may like to see a more extended exposition of the various issues I address, and I've devoted entire lectures courses for some of these books (and will be doing more).  You might be interested in them. One of the first I did was on the Gospel of Matthew, an eight-lecture course (50 minutes or so each; with two Q&A's; and additional materials provided).  You can find it here.  https://courses.bartehrman.com/matthew   Blog members get a discount with the code Blog5. Whether you want to get the course or not, I thought it would be valuable to explain what I cover there, lecture by lecture.  And so here is a summary! ****************************** The Genius of Matthew Lecture Descriptions   Lecture One:  How Do You Study a Gospel?  Take Matthew For Example. After a brief overview of the Gospel of Matthew – its contents, date, language, author, and sources of [...]

I've discussed how John differs strikingly from the Synoptics, especially considering the stories and sayings/discourses in each.  I've also indicated that they differ strikingly even when they tell the same *kind* of story, but I haven't been able to illustrate that yet.  Here is one of my favorite examples. How does Jesus raise from the dead? In Mark 5 Jesus raises an unnamed young girl, the daughter of Jairus, from the dead; in John 11 he raises a (young?) man from the dead, Lazarus, sister of Mary and Martha.  How do these stories compare and contrast? The following discussion is based on what I say in my textbook (The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 7th ed. Oxford University Press), expanded and edited a bit here. ****************************** The differences between John and the Synoptics are particularly striking in stories that they have in common. You can see the differences yourself simply by taking any story of the Synoptics that is also told in John, and comparing the two accounts carefully.   Try [...]