Public Forum Archives - Page 14 of 89 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Platinum Webinar for October: “The Literacy of Jesus: Could the Christian Savior Read and Write?”

Dear Platinum Members, If you missed the live session of this quarter's Platinum Webinar, fear not. We have recorded the talk and it is now available for you to view. This webinar addressed The Literacy of Jesus: Could the Christian Savior Read and Write? Bart covers a lot of fascinating ground in this talk, including: Why this topic is even a question. Context around literacy in ancient societies. What the Bible says (and doesn't say) about Jesus reading and writing. ...and so much more. Please enjoy the lecture here: Platinum Webinar: The Literacy of Jesus (October 2024) Hope to see you next time! -Jen

jennao2025-09-10T13:09:24-04:00October 10th, 2024|Platinums, Public Forum|

Some of the Old Testament Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther

In my previous post I began to describe the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. In the several posts that follow I will describe the ones commonly accepted by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. These are very interesting books, well worth reading, and, as I've said, canonical Scripture for some parts of the Christian church. My summaries here are taken from my book, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford, 2018) ****************************** Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction —by which I mean it is a fictional tale set within a real historical context. Originally the book was written in Aramaic, either in the late third century b.c.e. or the early second. The narrative is set in the eighth century b.c.e. in the city of Nineveh, where the hero of the story, Tobit, has been exiled from his town in Galilee during the conquests of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. In other words, the account is allegedly taking place after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. The story involves two subplots that eventually [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:09:08-04:00October 9th, 2024|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Public Forum|

Was the New Testament Canon Really Closed in 367 CE?

If we are talking about the earliest Christian writings -- the subject of my previous three posts -- we naturally want to know when decisions were made about WHEN church father settled on our 27-book canon of the New Testament. Many people -- including tons of scholars -- set a precise date: 367 CE, in the decision written by the famous theologian Athanasius of Alexandria. Is that right? My first academic publication addressed this question and answered: NO. Here's how I have talked about the issue and my attempt to overturn the widely held view, from long ago! ****************************** My first semester in the PhD program at Princeton Theological Seminary I had a seminar on the “Canon of the New Testament” with Bruce Metzger. This was a class that focused on the questions surrounding how we ended up with the twenty-seven books in the New Testament. Who decided that it would be these twenty-seven books, and no others? What was motivating these people? What were the grounds for their decisions? And when did they make [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:09:07-04:00October 3rd, 2024|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Public Forum|

Special Webinar Announcement: Hurricane Helene Fundraiser

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 [...]

jennao2025-09-10T13:09:08-04:00October 2nd, 2024|Public Forum|

Finding All the Earliest Christian Texts in One Place

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:09:07-04:00October 2nd, 2024|Public Forum|

Platinum Webinar: Could Jesus Read and Write?

Dear Platinum Members, Our next Quarterly Platinum Webinar is set for Wednesday, October 9, 2023, at 7:30 pm ET. For this talk, I’ll be tackling a question that has been widely debated among scholars and enthusiasts alike: Could Jesus read and write? While many have pondered this over the years, the scholarly evidence and interpretations are far from settled, and there’s more to the story than you might expect. I’ll explore the latest research and perspectives, followed by a Q&A and discussion, where we can really unpack the topic together. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Here's the Zoom link: Quarterly Platinum Webinar I hope to see you there. Bart

jennao2025-09-10T13:09:08-04:00September 27th, 2024|Public Forum|

A PROOF of the Resurrection of Jesus. What Do YOU Think?

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:09:07-04:00September 26th, 2024|Public Forum|

Paul and the Anachronistic Origins of Early Christianity – Part 2 by Dr. Robyn Faith Walsh

Here is the second post by Robyn Faith Walsh, challenging what the majority of scholars think and teach about the relationship of Paul and the Gospels, and the implications for early Christianity. Again, this is related to her book, which you can find here: The Origins of Early Christian Literature. ****************************** Paul makes sense as a “source” for the gospel writers for several reasons. The first relates to literary practices and social context: given what we know about the processes of ancient authors, it is likely that the gospel writers would have sought out any available material about the Christ movement as they created their works. And the only available writings that we know existed before the gospels are Paul’s letters; that some of these letters even survive to the degree that we have them suggests they were circulated and/or known in some measure. Yet, as discussed in Part 1, it is exceptionally rare to find studies that link Paul directly with the gospels, even if this makes good chronological sense. Paul [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:08:52-04:00September 22nd, 2024|Canonical Gospels, Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

Paul and the Anachronistic Origins of Early Christianity – Part 1 by Dr. Robyn Faith Walsh

I am happy to publish two guest posts by Robyn Faith Walsh, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Miami, based on her book The Origins of Christian History. She stakes out some controversial claims here about the Gospels, contrary to what you often hear. What do you think? ****************************** Studies on the so-called origins and development of the Jesus Movement largely focus on the figure of Jesus, his teachings, and biography. This is evident in courses and textbooks that begin with the narratives of the canonical gospels. It is also evident in scholarship that seeks out evidence for the historical Jesus, Jesus’ earliest followers, and/or early Christian “oral traditions” (such as Q). In each case, Jesus is presumed to be the starting point for Christian history. Such approaches, whether consciously or not, mirror the strategic aim of the New Testament canon—namely, to establish Jesus as the religion’s founder via a compilation of late first century biographies (bioi). These approaches persist despite knowing that the gospels are not [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:08:52-04:00September 21st, 2024|Canonical Gospels, Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

Gold Q&A: Ask Your Questions!

Hey Golds and Platinums: It's that time again — the moment you've been waiting for: the September Gold Q&A is just around the corner! If all goes according to plan, I'll be recording it next weekend. Got a question on your mind? Whether it’s big, small, or somewhere in between, send it my way and I’ll do my best to tackle it. Send your questions to [email protected], and Jen will compile and send me the list. DEADLINE: Get your question in by 11:59pm Thursday September 26 (whenever that is in your time zone). Concise, direct questions stand the best chance of being answered — and if you’ve got a zinger, even better!

admin2025-07-16T17:49:54-04:00September 20th, 2024|Public Forum|

Jesus, the Law, and a New Covenant (Lecture)

For some reason I don't understand (maybe someone can explain it to me), one of the most frequently watched lectures I've ever given was on "Jesus, the Law, and the New Covenant." This was keynote address for the Mendenhall Symposium, in honor of the eminent scholar of the Hebrew Bible, George Mendenhall, on October 6, 2016 at the University of Michigan. The symposium focused on issues on the law and covenant in the the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, and second-temple Judaism, with prominent scholars in these fields presenting papers on key aspects of the subject. This is not a topic I normally talk about (I never had lectured on it before and, now that I think of it, have never done so since) and ... and well, it's not one I would have guessed would be widely viewed. But anyway, it is. If you haven't seen it, here it is. And if you have seen it, well, here it is again.

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:51-04:00September 18th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

Why Don’t Pastors Teach What They Know about the Bible?

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:51-04:00September 17th, 2024|Public Forum|

New Insights Into Paul! Conference this Weekend! Wanna Come??

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:52-04:00September 16th, 2024|Public Forum|

Special Gold Members Event: A Live AMA (Ask Me Anything)

Hey Gold Members, I much regret that we did not get a July Gold Q&A out (there were scheduling and sundry other issues), and I want to make up the loss by doing a special event on the evening of Monday September 16, at 8:00-9:00, Eastern Time, a Live GOLD-ONLY Q&A. You ask the questions, I answer them. Do NOT send questions here in a comment to the post. (Any that do come in that way will immediately be sent up into stratospheric oblivion.) The way it will work is instead this: If you have a question (just one please) send it into [email protected] Keep it concise and directly relevant in some way to anything we deal with on the blog. We will choose a selection of them to represent a range of interests and topics. If yours is chosen, we will contact you a day or so in advance to ask you to ask it live at the time of the event, so it will be direct "you-ask-I-answer" event. The DEADLINE for submitting your question [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:51-04:00September 9th, 2024|Public Forum|

The Quest for the Historical Paul: Sorting Through Our Sources (Part 2) by Dr. James Tabor

Here we have Part 2 of James Tabor's explanation of how and what we can know about the life and letters of Paul, in anticipation of the upcoming conference, designed for folks like you, non-scholars interested in what lifelong experts in the study of the New Testament say about it. James will be one of the ten presenters at the conference. If you haven't already, check it out: New Insights into the New Testament 2024. ****************************** The book of Acts provides the following independent biographical information not found in the seven genuine letters: Paul’s Hebrew name was Saul and he was born in Tarsus, a city in the Roman province of Cilicia, in southern Asia Minor or present-day Turkey (Acts 9:11, 30; 11:25; 21:39; 22:3) He came from a family of Pharisees and was educated in Jerusalem under the most famous Rabbi of the time, Gamaliel. He also had a sister and a nephew that lived in Jerusalem in the 60s A.D. (Acts 22:3; 23:16) He was born a Roman citizen, which means his father [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:08:50-04:00September 8th, 2024|Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

The Quest for the Historical Paul: Sorting Through Our Sources (Part 1). Guest Post by James Tabor

As you know, I hope, I will be sponsoring an upcoming conference for non-scholars, on the Apostle Paul soon, Sept. 21-22 (see https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024 ). We will have ten high-level Pauline scholars each give a 50-minute lecture with Q&A, dealing with various issues connected with Pauline studies. This is gonna be a good'un. In preparation for it, I've asked James Tabor, one of the ten presenters at the conference, to give us a couple of preliminary posts here on the blog, dealing with some of the fundamental issues that scholars deal with, all centered on "how can we know" about what Paul really said and did? Turns out, it's not simple. ****************************** What can we reliably know about Paul and how can we know it? As is the case with Jesus this is not an easy question. Historians have been involved in what has been called the “Quest for the Historical Jesus” for the past one hundred and seventy-five years, evaluating and sifting through our sources, trying to determine what we can reliably say about him.[1] As [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:08:50-04:00September 7th, 2024|Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

The Next Ten Commandments Platinum Guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD

Here's another guest post by Platinum member Doug Wadeson, who once again brings out some startling issue just from what the Bible says that most people don't see, or at least blithely ignore. What do you think? If you like Doug's work (I do!), he has started a new blog, that he describes as providing "off-beat articles about the Bible." Interested? Check it out: TheBibleUndressed.blog – A doctor dissects the Holy Book at https://thebibleundressed.blog For now, let's get to Doug's reflections on the heart of the Bible: the Ten Commandments! (And remember: you too can post on most anything you'd like connected to the blog, as a Platinum member for other Platinum members) ************************* There is a controversy these days about Louisiana requiring that the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, (King James version no less) be posted in public schools. I wager that few people who support this can list the ten laws. I will also wager that even fewer people have ever turned the page to study the next set of commandments. After all, the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:33-04:00September 6th, 2024|Public Forum|

How Strikingly Few Early Churches Were There? How Amazingly Many Christian Letters?

In his important and stimulating article, “Christian Number and Its Implications,” Roman historian Keith Hopkins next begins to think about the implications about the size of the Christian church at different periods. One point to emphasize is that there was not simply one church. There were lots of churches in lots of places, and it is a myth to think that they were all one big cohesive bunch. On the contrary, they were often (as we see in our records) often at odds with each other. But even more than that, even within one city – if it was large enough (think Rome or Antioch for example) there would have been more than one church. And why? Because there would have been too many people to meet in one place. The first time we have any evidence of a church “building” – that is, what we today normally think of as a church (the Baptist church on the corner; the Methodist church up the street) – is not until the middle of the third Christian [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:51-04:00September 5th, 2024|Public Forum, Reflections and Ruminations, Spread of Christianity|

New Insights into the New Testament 2024: A Conference you DON’T Want to Miss!!

In case you haven't heard, there is a very excieting event coming up that surely *anyone* connected to the blog will be deeply interested in: a two-day remote Bible conference for non-scholars, called “New Insights into the New Testament,” consisting of ten lectures (each with a live Q&A), on the Life and Letters of Paul, delivered by some of the most highly qualified New Testament scholars in the known universe, in terms accessible to layfolk. It will be Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21-22; anyone who comes will get the conference as a recording for life-time use; anyone who wants the recording and can't come can do that too! We are nothing if not flexible. This will be our second annual New Insights Conference. We had well over 2000 come to the inaugural event last year, and heading into it we weren't sure how it would be received. Oh boy was it received well. The presentations were crisp, clear, and informative, by world-renowned scholars, all of whom know how to communicate serious advances in scholarship in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:51-04:00September 2nd, 2024|Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|

If You’re Counting Christians, Who Counts as a Christian?

When I first started thinking about the the rise and spread of Christianity, I was particularly struck by an article written by a prominent and deservedly acclaimed British historian, Keith Hopkins, a long-time professor at Cambridge University. It was called “Christian Number and Its Implication,” and it appeared in the Journal of Early Christian Studies in 1998. ****************************** Hopkins begins his article by reflecting on the fact that it’s very difficult to know even what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the numerical growth of Christianity. For one thing, what are we going to count as Christianity and whom are we going to count as Christians? Do we count only those who hold to the views that later came to be the dominant understanding of Christianity, for example, that there is only one God, or that Christ was both human and divine at one and the same time, or that the material world is the creation of this God, and so on? What about other forms of Christianity? What about those people [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:08:50-04:00September 1st, 2024|Public Forum, Spread of Christianity|

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