Historical Jesus Archives - The Bart Ehrman Blog

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|

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|

Eyewitness Accounts of Miracles

When thinking about my upcoming debate with Jonathan Sheffield about "proof" of the resurrection, since I anticipated he would take a "legal" approach to the question (since something connected with the law is his day job), I expected we would get into a discussion of the validity of eyewitness testimony. Hey, if all these people said they saw Jesus after his death, he must have been brought to life, right? I've always been struck by how conservative Christians find "eyewitness testimony" strong evidence for what they believe but of no value for what others in other religious traditions believe. One of my favorite instances involves a well-documented case in far more modern times that most people have never heard of, and when they do hear of it they simply dismiss it. It involves the 18th century founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov, often simply called Besht. I talk about the situation in my book Jesus Before the Gospels. (The specific issue is that it has been show that if someone imagines [...]

BDEhrman2026-03-16T09:34:35-04:00March 14th, 2026|Bart's Debates, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

A New Proof of the Resurrection. What Do YOU Think?
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A New Proof of the Resurrection. What Do YOU Think?

Bart's Debates, Historical Jesus

A New Proof of the Resurrection. What Do YOU Think?

Last week (March 2) I did a two and a half hour debate on whether Jesus was raised from the dead with Jonathan Sheffield, who is not a scholar but a self-professed “Anglican Autodidact.” (He works in some kind of legal field but I don’t believe he’s a lawyer.) He debates a lot of people (someone provides funding for it I suppose): Mark Goodacre, Richard Carrier and others. I debated him some months ago on whether Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John actually wrote the Gospels. You can find the debate on YouTube. You can find last week’s as well. I’m afraid that I was a bit forceful at times and I hope he didn’t find me somewhat belligerent or rude, but, well, I can see why he might have. He is a good guy and we have some laughs together, but I don’t find his argument convincing. But it certainly was unusual. I’d never heard THAT one before! It took me about fifteen minutes before I understood what it was. Here I’ll describe [...]

BDEhrman2026-03-10T18:48:53-04:00March 10th, 2026|Bart's Debates, Historical Jesus|

Was Jesus a Member of the Dead Sea Scroll Community (the Essenes)?
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Was Jesus a Member of the Dead Sea Scroll Community (the Essenes)?

Early Judaism, Historical Jesus

Was Jesus a Member of the Dead Sea Scroll Community (the Essenes)?

In my previous post I talked about the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for understanding Jesus and the milieu out of which earliest Christianity grew. My basic point is that if Jesus was a Jew, then to understand him, you have to understand Jews in his world. And the Dead Sea Scrolls provide us valuable information to that end. I am not saying that the Dead Sea Scrolls are representative of what all or even most Jews thought at the time. They clearly are not. If the “Essene hypothesis” is right (that is, that the Scrolls were produced by members of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes) – and it is the view held by the vast majority of the experts (I am *not* an expert on the Scrolls) – then the Scrolls were produced by a Jewish sect that had very distinctive views of its own that were not, in many respects, shared by outsiders. In particular, this was a group of Jews who insisted that the coming apocalyptic judgment, soon to [...]

BDEhrman2025-12-16T11:01:45-05:00December 16th, 2025|Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Why Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Matter for Understanding Jesus?

Many people assume that somehow or other the Dead Sea Scrolls matter for understanding better who Jesus was and what he preached. But how? In this post I'll give a fairly succinct answer to the question. I should begin by stressing that the Scrolls are *mainly* important for understanding early Judaism, and only secondarily for understanding early Christianity. Even so, they are highly important for Christianity as well, though not in ways you might suspect (especially if you acquire all your historical knowledge from random searches on the Internet!). If I were to do the one-sentence version of why they matter for understanding Christianity, the shortest iteration I can come up with is that: "The Dead Sea Scrolls are texts written and/or copied by Jews living at about that same time and about the same place as Jesus, and so inform us about the milieu out of which his ministry, and the earliest Christian church, emerged." The first thing to stress is that the Scrolls are thoroughly Jewish in every sense. There is [...]

BDEhrman2025-12-16T10:55:09-05:00December 14th, 2025|Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

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|

Four More Intriguing Topics on the Historical Jesus

The previous post provided a summary of the first four lectures given by internationally known historical Jesus scholars at our New Insights Into the New Testament conference at the end of September (the summary was produced by Marko Marina, in advance of the lectures). The second day of the conference also had four lectures, by Paula Fredriksen (Boston University emerita and Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Me (UNC Chapel Hill), James Tabor (UNC-Charlotte, emeritus), and A.J. Levine (Hartford International University and Vanderbilt University, emerita). Well, sort of. James Tabor was in Athens and his Internet went a bit haywire, so he had to record his talk later -- it is included in the recording of the conference. In its place, I gave a rather impromptu additional talk (on whether Jesus was probably literate). Here are Marko's summaries of the lectures, made in advance of the conference itself: Dr. Paula Fredriksen: Turning the Tables on the ‘Purification’ of the Temple All scholarship, as the saying goes, stands on the shoulders of those who came before. [...]

BDEhrman2025-10-09T10:34:48-04:00October 12th, 2025|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

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|

A Primer for the Study of the Historical Jesus: Our Non-Gospel Sources

As some of you know, my recording company, Paths in Biblical Studies (PBS) which normally produces online courses (www.bartehrman.com) held its third annual New Insights Into the New Testament (NINT) live/remote/recorded conference last week. The topic was the Historical Jesus, and we had eight speakers along with a keynote address by Elaine Pagels (you can see it all here: https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2025/_) About a week prior to the event I realized (duh...) that some in the audience may not know a number of the fundamental critical issues that scholars have to deal with when broaching the topic. And so we asked Marko Marina, an early Christianity specialist who writes online articles and does sundry other things for us at PBS, to write up a "Primer" to explain what scholars who work to unpack what Jesus really said and did have to confront when taking on the task (so that viewers would not think: "Well, why don't they just read the Gospels and see?") Marko produced a primer to set the stage for the conference [...]

BDEhrman2025-10-07T08:37:16-04:00October 8th, 2025|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

The Death and Afterlife of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction Part I – by Mark Reichert (Platinum Member Winner)
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The Death and Afterlife of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction Part I – by Mark Reichert (Platinum Member Winner)

Historical Jesus, Public Forum

The Death and Afterlife of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction Part I – by Mark Reichert (Platinum Member Winner)

As you know, the Platinum Members of the blog are invited to submit their own posts to be considered for publication on the blog. After we've published four of these posts, Platinum members are asked to vote for one to be published to the entire blog. Today, we have a post for you from Platinum blog member Mark Reichert. He offers the first part of a compelling two-part reflection on one of the most well-known—and debated—stories in history. It’s part historical reconstruction, part personal inquiry, and entirely worth the read. According to the Gospel of Mark, the Jewish preacher Jesus was crucified by Roman Governor Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem the day before the Sabbath (Friday) during the holiday period of Passover. After about 9 hours on the cross Jesus “gave up the ghost.” The Roman centurion in charge of the crucifixion said “truly this man was the son of God.” A supporter and onlooker, Joseph of Arimathaea, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. After consulting with the centurion, Pilate relented and Jesus was removed [...]

admin2025-09-09T20:23:54-04:00August 12th, 2025|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Does the Book of Hebrews Indicate Jesus Ever Came To Earth? A Response to Richard Carrier.

In an earlier post I indicated that I have difficulty responding to writings of mythicists, largely because they often say things that I think are dead wrong, but it would take so much time and effort to explain why. This morning I did think I should at least give one example of the sort of thing I mean, and I have chosen (just) one of the claims made several times by one of the mythicists’ leading spokespersons, Richard Carrier. Carrier argues that the earliest Christians did not believe Jesus ever came to earth but was a god who ministered and crucified in the heavenly realms. He also claims this view is supported by a close reading of the early New Testament writings themselves. He lists a number of them and discusses them all. I am here simply picking one example, the book of Hebrews. I could do the same thing with others (he equally surprisingly includes the letters of Paul and the non-canonical book of 1 Clement, for example) but my idea is not to [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:12:50-04:00July 26th, 2025|Catholic Epistles, Historical Jesus, Mythicism, Public Forum|

Did Jesus Exist? Why I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Mythicists

I’ve been doing some reading in preparation for a two-lecture on-line course called “Did Jesus Really Exist” scheduled for July 19. You can find out about it here: https://courses.bartehrman.com/did-jesus-really-exist. It’s a freebie, so, well, feel free to get it for free! Even though I'm pumped to do this course, and I don’t really much enjoy reading about it (that is, reading the work books that argue Jesus did not exist). I once did, back when I wrote my book Did Jesus Exist. But unlike most issues I deal with, I don’t find it very interesting or intellectually challenging. Still it’s a topic that comes up a lot among lay people, especially over the past 20 years or so, and so I feel a need to address it, and will do so with vigor. In preparation, Ive been rereading some of the work of one of the leading spokespersons among the “mythicists." In this view, it’s not just that Jesus did not do and say a number of things recorded of him in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:12:35-04:00July 12th, 2025|Historical Jesus, Mythicism, Public Forum|

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