10/3/2024 Update: Bart has returned safely home and recorded the below video message for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDM8_jr6qn0&t=108s Original Post: As many of you know, Hurricane Helene swept through the mountains of Western North Carolina over the weekend, leaving significant destruction in its path. On Sunday, we announced a fundraiser to support relief efforts. We're asking for a suggested donation of $50.00, though any amount is appreciated. Those who donate will be invited to attend a lecture by Bart to be given on Monday October 7th at 7:30pm ET on the topic of: Why Do Disasters Hit? The Bible’s Views. All those who donate and register for the event will be sent a recording of the lecture, so please consider donating even if you're not able to attend live. To the many of you who have already donated, we sincerely thank you for your generosity and look forward to seeing you on Monday. If you missed that email, we're sharing the details here as well. ****************************** Hi from Jen, I hope this message finds you safe [...]

How does one decide which books should belong to a collection of ALL the surviving early Christian writings of the first hundred years of the church?  Here I explain my procedure when producing my set of translations with introductions, The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader, 2nd ed. 2004 (Oxford University Press), and explain the other features of book.  This follows on my earlier posts and again is taken from the Introduction to the volume. ****************************** In sum, it is important for modern readers to realize that the book we call the New Testament is actually a collection of books, put together by persons living much later than the actual authors. When "Matthew" wrote his Gospel, he had no idea that someone would eventually combine his book with three others that were more or less like it to form the first section of a canon of Scripture, a canon that was to include a history of the Christian movement, personal letters sent by other early Christians, and an apocalyptic narrative [...]

Do you yourself think there can be empirical proof that Jesus was raised from the dead?  There’s not a right answer – I’m just asking, so you can express your opinion. Last week I held a live Q&A for the Gold Members of the blog (if you’re not familiar with the perks that go along with being a Gold member, check the options out here:  https://ehrmanblog.org/register/ )   There were lots of intriguing questions on a range of topics.  One that I found particularly, well, intriguing was about an argument sometimes used to show that Jesus must have been raised from the dead and that the Christian claims are therefore demonstrably true. The questioner asked what I thought of the argument made by William Lane Craig that the amazing expanse of Christianity, as it began to grow into the world’s largest religion, shows that the resurrection of Jesus must have happened.  How else would one explain the incredible success of the Christian claims?  It must have been based on a miracle. Let me make [...]

That's the KEY question I address in my book Jesus Interrupted (2010).  Here is an excerpt from the Intro where I press it head on : ****************************** One of the most amazing and perplexing features of mainstream Christianity is that seminarians who learn the historical-critical method in their Bible classes appear to forget all about it when it comes time for them to be pastors. They are taught critical approaches to Scripture, they learn about the discrepancies and contradictions, they discover all sorts of historical errors and mistakes, they come to realize that it is difficult to know whether Moses existed or what Jesus actually said and did, they find that there are other books that were at one time considered canonical but that ultimately did not become part of Scripture (for example, other Gospels and Apocalypses), they come to recognize that a good number of the books of the Bible are pseudonymous (for example, written in the name of an apostle by someone else), that in fact we don’t have the original copies of any [...]

I’ve been excited about this coming weekend’s conference (New Insights into the New Testament) for eight months now.  If you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance. You can sign up here:  https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024/ This annual conference is not directly connected with the blog per se, except to the extent that I do both and both are focused on spreading biblical scholarship to a wider non-scholarly audience. We mean to do that in a big way at the conference. The topic: Paul and His Letters 10 of the best New Testament scholars in the world Each giving a 50 minute lecture with 10-15 minutes live Q&A Over the course of two days (Sat Sept. 21 and Sun Sept. 22) We will transform it into a video course with additional materials for all who come. And for all who purchase a ticket but choose not to come to the live lectures. And additional features for all: An Attendee Mixer for all who want to come, remotely, to see and talk with presenters (in break out rooms; you [...]