Historical Jesus Archives - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Paying Your Religious Dues: The Studied Indifference of Jesus

I have been arguing that that are many political and social issues that many of us care deeply about that, surprisingly, Jesus apparently did not. Another passage that illustrates Jesus relative indifference to governmental policies and economic systems is his discussion with Simon Peter about paying the “temple tax,” a story found only Matthew (17:24-27). They have come to the town of Capernaum and some collectors of the “two drachma” temple tax ask Peter if his teacher pays the tax or not. Peter replies that he does, but when he goes back home, Jesus talks to him about it, asking whether kings tax their own children or only other people. Peter naturally replies that children of the king don’t pay taxes, only others. Jesus agrees: the ruler’s “children” are exempt from taxes – implication being that God’s children should not have to pay for the running of God’s house any more than a king’s children pay for the running of his palace. Jesus indicates that, even so, they should “not give offense” and [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-09T21:40:51-04:00August 15th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

What Did Jesus’s Violent Action in the Temple Actually Mean?
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What Did Jesus’s Violent Action in the Temple Actually Mean?

Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus

What Did Jesus’s Violent Action in the Temple Actually Mean?

Several aspects of Jesus’s actions in the temple – the so-called “Cleansing of the Temple” – have long puzzled scholars. As I indicated in the previous post, in all four Gospels – with some important differences among them – Jesus enters the temple compound, is angered by what he sees, overturns the tables of those who are changing Roman currency for temple currency to allow people to purchase sacrificial animals, drives out those who are selling (and even buying) the animals, prevents (in one account) anyone from carrying anything needed for the sacrifices though the temple, and forcefully declares that the temple is to be “a house of prayer for all the nations” but that “you have made it a den of robbers” (quoting Isaiah 56:7). Most critical scholars agree that this cannot be construed as an attack on Judaism per se, since Jesus was thoroughly Jewish and stood in the line of Hebrew prophets who opposed the activities of the temple. But that’s where the puzzlement begins to arise. The temple was built on [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-09T21:28:30-04:00August 11th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Prophetic Condemnations of Jews Within Judaism Before Jesus

Over the past few decades scholars have become loathe to label Jesus’s actions in the Temple (Mark 11:14-17; also in the other three Gospels) with the traditional phrase “The Cleansing of the Temple.” One reason is the hateful afterlife of this phrasing, because it makes it sound as if Judaism at its very heart was foul, dirty, unclean, and vile, and Jesus is the one who purified it. In other words, this phrase can be/has been taken to mean that God hates Jews and their religion and sent Jesus in order to show the true path of holiness. The social and political implications of that view are stunning. They stand at the root of horrible acts of violence over the centuries leading to the Holocaust. The problem, however, cannot be solved simply by insisting that Jesus was a Jew and was not at all opposed to the worship of the Jewish God. That is completely true, of course. He was Jewish in every way conceivable, as were his followers. But that does not [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-06T20:53:07-04:00August 9th, 2026|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Historical Jesus|

Gist and Exaggeration: Jesus and the Cleansing of the Temple

It is virtually impossible to disentangle religion and politics when studying ancient sources:, they were not separate entities but tightly interwoven aspects of the same entity, involving questions of authority, who wields it, how they should wield it, and how these “authorities” are “authorized.” Kings could be gods, and vice versa. Priests were governmental officials and vice versa. Laws were divinely sanctioned. Opposition to the state meant opposition to the gods who supported it and opposition to the state gods meant opposition to the state. That’s why Jesus’s “religious” views that God was soon to bring in a new kingdom and appoint him its ruler was seen as a “political” offense leading to his execution for insurrection. It is also why his so-called “Cleansing of the Temple” was not only a religious statement but also a threat to the established order. The event is recounted in all four of our Gospels, again with important differences in detail (particularly in John), but with the same gist. Mark provides our earliest account (Mark 11:15-17). The day [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-06T21:41:48-04:00August 8th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Was Jesus’s Crucifixion One Big Mistake?

In my previous post I indicated that, looked at in one way, the crucifixion of Jesus was one big mistake. The ruling authorities knew that he considered himself the future ruler of Israel, the messiah, and so they condemned him for insurrection. But Jesus wasn’t in favor of insurrection. He was predicting something much bigger, a cosmic intervention by God. He personally posed no threat to Roman rule. Once I wrote that, it occurred to me – in a rather tangential and possibly irrelevant way – that there actually were early Christians who taught that Jesus crucifixion was One Big Mistake but in a different, unconnected, way. Or rather different ways. So in this post I move us onto a tangent before returning to my thread in the post that follows. Here are two of the most intriguing attempts to explain that the rulers made a BIG mistake when they crucified Jesus. Or when they thought they did. ****************************** Basilides is one of the early Gnostic figures mentioned by the late-second century [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-02T16:16:13-04:00August 5th, 2026|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Heresy and Orthodoxy, Historical Jesus|

The Triumphal Entry and Jesus’s Mistaken Identity
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The Triumphal Entry and Jesus’s Mistaken Identity

Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus

The Triumphal Entry and Jesus’s Mistaken Identity

Even though the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem almost certainly could not have happened as described (see previous post), they clearly contain some elements of historical truth. This is often the case with the Gospels and with other historical narratives that have come down to us from antiquity. The task of the historian is to determine what is invention, what exaggeration, and what is (more or less) historical. With respect to the historical elements, the following seem reasonably secure (even some of these, of course, can be debated, but in my judgment the evidence for them is overwhelming): Jesus did come from Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate a Passover Feast, sometime around 30-33 CE (the year is much debated); While there he preached his message to anyone who would listen (it seems unlikely it was “the masses” but it could well have been small crowds); He offended the local Jewish authorities; At the end of the week they arranged to have him arrested; He was turned over to the governor Pontius Pilate; [...]

BDEhrman2026-08-02T14:39:06-04:00August 4th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

The Implausibility of the Triumphal Entry

It is precisely the intricate and complete intertwining of (what we would call) “religion” and “politics” in the ancient world (see my previous post) that explains why Jesus’ forthright views about God and understanding of himself as God’s spokesperson let to his arrest and execution, as well as, ironically, his indifference to the governmental and cultic status quo. His revolutionary views and yet indifference can be illustrated by his two incendiary actions near the end of his life and, oddly, his two discussions of taxation. I will deal with the first of his two actions, typically designated the “Triumphal Entry,” in two posts. The Triumphal Entry refers to Jesus’s coming into Jerusalem on the occasion of the Passover Feast riding on a colt (according to Mark and Luke) or a small donkey (according to John) or both a colt and a donkey (at the same time! According to Matthew), to the acclamation of the crowd of Jewish pilgrims, who welcomed him as the one who was bringing in the Kingdom to Israel (Matthew 21:1-9; Mark [...]

BDEhrman2026-07-31T10:22:53-04:00August 2nd, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Jesus the Pacifist
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Jesus the Pacifist

Historical Jesus

Jesus the Pacifist

I was raised thinking Jesus was completely relevant for our own current affairs, that his teachings were directly relevant for governmental policies and social agendas, that he had preferred methods of political rules, definite ideas about competing economic systems, and strong opinions about governmental priorities. To no great surprise, growing up in Kansas in the 1960s and early 1970s, I simply assumed his teachings provided divine support for Capitalist Democracy. I don’t think so any longer. It’s not that I think he preferred Marxist Socialism, as has been sometimes argued by academics and their eager followers, or … well, any other modern political-economic system. My view is somewhat (though in a different way) more radical. I don’t think he cared. It will take a while to explain this. But I want to argue, as intimated in my previous post on Jesus’ “Indifference” that Jesus’s concerns were not strictly speaking political (in the ways we think of politics) or economic. His priorities lay elsewhere. This will take several posts. To begin with, I need to start [...]

BDEhrman2026-07-21T08:50:22-04:00July 28th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

The Indifference of Jesus

How concerned was Jesus about the social, economic, cultural, and political issues that are so vitally important to us and occupy so much of our mental space? The answer is surprising. First some (probably unexpected) background. As a Jewish peasant in early first-century rural Aramaic-speaking Galilee, Jesus would not have known about Greek Stoics or their philosophical views. He nonetheless appears to have shared a perspective with them, one that is a bit unexpected. Like them, he was completely indifferent to a number of issues most people find deeply relevant and important, including fundamental questions connected with governmental policies and religious practices. Stoics insisted that a person’s happiness depended on maintaining an internal state of peace and calm, undisturbed by external events and circumstances. There are only so many things that a person can control in their life. Those are the things they should focus on. Anyone who worries about things over which they have no control creates unnecessary stress and anxiety. So it is best to distance yourself, simply not to be [...]

BDEhrman2026-07-22T06:14:20-04:00July 25th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

Foraging in the World of Jesus

I don’t recall hearing or reading anyone make the case that Jesus and his disciples survived during their time of itinerant ministry by foraging. But it’s an idea that makes a good bit of sense and there is some evidence for it in the Gospels. In this post I explain why it seems to make sense; I’ll deal with some of the evidence in the next post. Let me say I’ve only started thinking and reading about all this – so this is my first attempt to articulate my thoughts (at this point). In most developed countries today, foraging is a hobby that outdoorsy and environmentally minded people pick up through books and live instruction, practiced more as a pastime or a social statement than as a mode of survival. In large part that’s because we live in capitalist societies, principally in cities and towns, and most of us can purchase about anything we want from a store. Those who do need or choose to scavenge tend not to do so in isolated [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-28T12:00:25-04:00July 2nd, 2026|Historical Jesus|

Did Jesus Have Wealthy Donors?
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Did Jesus Have Wealthy Donors?

Historical Jesus

Did Jesus Have Wealthy Donors?

In my previous post I raised the question of how Jesus and his disciples supported themselves for a year or three (depending on which Gospel you read) when they were unemployed itinerates? One of the options (I'll get to two others in the posts that follow, so stay tuned) would be that they had wealthy donors, as explicitly indicated in one passage of the Gospels (that I'll discuss below), and intimated in other ways. But is it likely? To begin with, Jesus does seem to get invited to a lot of homes for dinner in the Gospels. It is difficult to know if the Gospel writers are simply telling good stories – for example, setting up a plausible situation for Jesus to have a discussion or controversy with other Jewish teachers -- or if it actually happened regularly. If it did – how often? From a social and historical perspective, it’s a little bit difficult to think that sort of thing was happening a lot during Jesus’ ministry. Wealth – and therefore wealthy people with [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-23T16:31:31-04:00June 30th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

How Did Jesus and His Disciples Get Enough to Eat?

How did Jesus and his disciples support themselves? They left their families, homes, and jobs, to engage in a life of itineracy, preaching about the coming kingdom. But until it came, how did they survive? Specifically, how did they eat? I don’t recall ever seeing any extended discussion of the question in a scholarly (or a popular) book or article. If one of you has, let me know. It seems like an obvious question, and I suppose most people think there is an obvious answer. There may be (I can think of three), but it’s worth thinking about in greater depth. One very BIG problem about understanding the historical Jesus (I confront this all the time) is that nearly everyone (including lots of scholars) seems to assume that modern common sense – both in our minds and our actions – would have been common sense in the time and place of Jesus. And so scholars (and people who read them) talk about Jesus being middle class, or having a summer home around Bethlehem, [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-22T11:05:55-04:00June 28th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

Jesus and the Gospel of John: Some Readers’ Good Questions

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 [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-24T09:06:33-04:00June 24th, 2026|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

The Most Likely Capitalist Parable of Jesus?

Of all the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30; the same parable, with important differences, is the Parable of the Pounds in Luke 19:11-27), in my view, is the one most amenable to a capitalist interpretation – easily and often seen as an exhortation to invest one’s money to make money, at the highest possible rate. Even so, this, in my calculation (!), would be a serious misreading of the parable. It is indeed a parable that discusses money and investment at interest. But it is not about that at all. I’ll explain. But first, by way of summary (recall: a talent not a personal ability but a large unit of money): A man goes on a long journey and entrusts money to three of his slaves: five talents to one, two to another, one to the third. The first two invest the money at interest and double what they received. When the man returns, he showers them with praise for their stewardship. The third slave, however, [...]

BDEhrman2026-06-19T09:38:01-04:00June 17th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

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|

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|

A Letter Written by Jesus!? Anniversary Post #10

I sometimes get asked if Jesus ever wrote anything. Well, it depends whom you ask. As it turns out, we do have a couple of ancient writings claiming to be written by Jesus himself. Here is the most famous one that we still have that I blogged about in April 2022, as our Anniversary Post #10. ****************************** In an earlier post I talked about whether Jesus could read, and came up with the definite answer: Maybe. That brought to mind a related question: could Jesus write? And do we have any ancient works that claim to be written by him? Answer: Yes indeed. The most famous (among scholars anyway) is a one-time famous correspondence between Jesus and a king who lived in Edessa in Syria named Abgar. I translated it for the book I published (on all earliest Christian Gospels) with my colleague Zlatko Plese, called The Other Gospels. Here is what I say there about the letters (the one from Abgar to Jesus, then his response); at the end of the post [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-20T22:34:30-04:00April 26th, 2026|Forgery in Antiquity, Historical Jesus|

Anniversary Post #4: Why Gospels Matter Even Where They Are Not Historical
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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 #3: My Response to an Ill-Tempered Richard Carrier

Here is the third post in my series celebrating our 14th blog anniversary, a post from each of our 14 past years. This is the one I've chosen from April 2014; it's another one that involves a response to a rather spirited attempt to show that I'm an idiot. I tried not to respond TOO much in kind, but, well, I guess it is a bit feisty.... ****************************** Sometimes I think that if I’m “getting it from all sides,” I may be doing something right. The religious conservatives seems to be up in arms about my book How Jesus Became God – both conservative evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics like the Very Reverend Robert Barron. In fact, as I’ve said, I do not think anything in the book is inimical to Christian faith, unless it is completely committed to a view of the infallibility of the Bible and its full, historical accuracy. The Christianity I admire is not like that. But I get it from the non-religious left as well. Yesterday a [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-09T15:35:55-04:00April 12th, 2026|Bart's Critics, Historical Jesus|

The Distinctively Jewish Roots of Jesus’ Ethics
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The Distinctively Jewish Roots of Jesus’ Ethics

Historical Jesus

The Distinctively Jewish Roots of Jesus’ Ethics

One of the points I try to emphasize in my book Love They Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West is that Jesus’ teachings were not made out of whole cloth but are deeply rooted in the Hebrew Bible and teachings of other Jewish teachers of his day. Here is one place in my book where I try to stress the point. ****************************** Throughout the prophets of Hebrew Scripture (Isaiah, Amos, etc.) we find a recurring emphasis that God is concerned for the poor, the outcast, the vulnerable – and he expects his people to be actively concerned as well, helping rather than exploiting those in need. Living centuries later and dealing with different situations, Jesus frequently aligned himself with such prophetic teachings. He shared their assumptions about what it means to live as God wants – above all, to care for others and especially those in need, rather than for one’s own life and desires. Jesus was not alone in this; similar views could be found in [...]

BDEhrman2026-04-04T09:06:43-04:00April 7th, 2026|Historical Jesus|

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