Why did the Romans kill Jesus?  Was it really because he was calling himself "King of the Jews"?  Was that really what he was calling himself?  How would we know?  I've been asked these questions several times in connection with my posts about Jesus' (death and) burial.  Here is what I've said about the matter before, in reference to whether Jesus considered himself the "messiah" (i.e., the future king): ****************************** One of the main reasons I think Jesus called himself the future messiah is that this best explains the best attested event of his entire life: his crucifixion by the Romans. There are a few things we can say with virtual certainty about Jesus.  For example: he was a Jewish preacher from rural Galilee who made a fateful trip to Jerusalem and was crucified by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.  There are, of course, lots of other things that we can say, without quite so much certainty (see my book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium).  But that much is certain.  So why did [...]

Here now is the third and final post on the Qur'an by scholar of Early Islam and Ancient Christianity Stephen Shoemaker, Professor at the University of Oregon.  Stephen is an internationally-known scholar and his first two posts are highly informed and have been controversial among some of our blog members--as one would expect for someone whose research leads to conclusions different from what everyone has always said and assumed to be true! In this post he addresses the question many of us have long had: when was the Qur'an actually produced and could the traditions it contains have been changed over the years before it was written?   ******************************   Creating the Qur’an: The Formation of the Last Ancient Scripture   Hi again. Welcome to my final post, and I’d like to thank Bart for the opportunity to engage this lively forum and also all of its members for reading and considering my thoughts. In my two previous posts, you will recall, I noted some significant problems with prevailing understandings of how the Qur’an as [...]

A while ago we had an unusually intriguing Movie Club event on the blog as a fundraiser.  The movie Tár with an absolutely stellar performance by Cate Blanchett was nominated for six academy awards; as you probably know, it was about the downfall of a brilliant woman who is an orchestra conductor.  As it turns out, an active member of the blog is an internationally known orchestra conductor, Gisele Ben-Dor (see: Gisele Ben-Dor Conductor – A champion of Latin American music ), and we asked her if she would lead a discussion on the movie from her vast experience. It was terrifically interesting!  We recorded it and are now offering it for those who make a donation to the blog.   What about it?   The donations are tax deductible and you'll find it a great experience! To give it a shot: First, go to the Blog Home page and scroll to the bottom to find the donation buttons. Then, grab your invoice number from the email the blog just sent you, and head to the Tár [...]

I am very pleased to announce an upcoming event 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, on the canonical Gospels, delivered by some of the most highly recognized New Testament scholars in the country, in terms accessible to layfolk. There's never been anything like this. (But there will be again, since we're planning on making it an annual event!) The conference is not connected with the Blog per se, apart from the facts that the issues are all directly related to what we do here and that I'm the one organizing and moderating the event. Check out this video description (and look at the site: New Insights into the New Testament: A Biblical Conference for Non-Scholars (bartehrman.com)   *****

Now that I have devoted a few posts to presenting my argument for why I think Jesus was probably not given a decent burial – the posts were portions of a chapter lifted from How Jesus Became God (HarperOne, 2014)– I am in a position to begin to respond to the counter-arguments of Craig Evans, my evangelical friend and naysayer, whose essay “Getting the Burial Traditions and Evidences Right” is widely seen – at least by people who have said anything to me about the matter – as the best contribution in the response book How God Became Jesus.   In my replies to his arguments, I will call him “Craig,” hoping that this does not smack too much of over-familiarity.  But, well, we’ve known each other for thirty years, have worked together on various film projects (documentaries that we have both in), and have had a number of cordial public debates.  Referring to him as “Evans” might seem a bit contemptuous. And truth be told, I’m not at all contemptuous of his scholarship or of [...]

In case you missed this -- I'll be doing a FREE four-lecture course tomorrow (with long Q&A) on "Why I Am Not A Christian."  In it I will talk about my faith journey not for the sake of autobiography per se, but to explain one story of a person who came no longer to believe and decided to leave the faith.  The course will include discussions of my scholarly endeavors but also of my wider struggles with the question of the existence of God and with the fears when I started wondering if I could continue to believe, the difficulties associated with leaving the faith, and, most important, the ways I and others have found meaning and purpose in a world without God. I hope you can come!  The first 3000 get in!   But the course will later be available to anyone (with the lectures, q&a, questions for reflection, etc.)   See the promo below; for more information and registration, go to https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/    

A final guest post from Glenn Siepert, on his recent book! ****************************** Here's my last post about my book, "Emerging From the Rubble" - a reflection on Matthew 7:13-14. If you've read the posts, thank you. As you can imagine, this book means the world to me. And if you find yourself navigating through your own loss and demolished Temple, my hope is that it can become a friend to you. Whether you believe in God or not or consider yourself a Christian or not ... I don't think it really matters because I think that whether it's God or the Universe or our own inner knowing - I think that small inner voice can speak to us through these stories and leave us challenged, encouraged, and full of ideas about how to move forward. May it be so. -- A Threat? A while back someone told me that I was walking down the wide road to hell. I don’t remember why or the context of the comment … Was it the podcast episodes about [...]

This is an unusually important post on how to solve the problem of the date of the Qur'an, by my colleague Stephen Shoemaker, connected with his earlier scintillating discussion based on his recent book Creating the Qur'an, which you can check out here: Amazon.com: Creating the Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Study eBook : Shoemaker, Stephen J.: Books The question is: can't you just do a scientific dating of the Qur'an manuscripts and quickly solve the question: when were they produced?  The answer may surprise you.  It enlightened *me* ****************************** Radiocarbon Dating and the Origins of the Qur’an: The Perils of Scientism and Internet Sensationalism   Bart invited me to make another post or two about studying the origins of the Qur’an from a historical-critical perspective, and right off the bat I knew that I needed to write something about attempts to radiocarbon date early Qur’anic manuscripts. It turns out that over the last ten years this topic has become the 800-pound gorilla in the room (to mix metaphors), and much like an actual 800-pound gorilla in [...]