I've received some interesting and important questions involving the Gospel of John -- who actually wrote it and whether it's record of Jesus' claims to be divine are likely historical.  Here are the questions an my attempts to answer   QUESTION: I heard Mike Licona say the other day, that he seems to think Tertius wrote Romans in the same way a literate Greek-speaking secretary wrote the Gospel of John on behalf of John, the son of Zebedee. So strictly speaking, these are his words and the letter ought to be called, the Letter to the Romans according to Paul. What is your understanding of Rom 16:22 – ‘I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord”?   Was Tertius simply taking dictation or did he put his interpretation of Paul’s thoughts into words? RESPONSE: I’m afraid I don’t think Mike is right about this at all.   Romans 16:22 certainly does come as a surprise to many modern readers of Romans.  What??  Someone named Tertius wrote this letter?  I thought [...]

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 [...]

  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 [...]

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. [...]