I am very pleased to announce that the book of my former student, Jason Staples, The Idea of Israel in Second-Temple Judaism, has just appeared from Cambridge University Press.  Jason did his PhD here at UNC and this is part of his dissertation.  I say "part" because the dissertation was large, and he has divided it into two separate monographs; the second will be dealing with how the term "Israel" is used in the writings of Paul -- in particular, what Paul might mean when he says "All Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26) -- an unusually thorny statement that has generated a huge amount of research and opinion over the years (all the usual and fairly commonsense explanations are problematic, for one compelling reason or another).  Jason thinks he has found the solution.  That will be volume 2! Here he presents for us one of the issues he address in vol. 1, related to the overall topic of the book.  Short question: what is the difference in the ancient world between talking about "Israel" [...]

A lot of terrific comments have come in on James Tabor's posts on Revelation.  I'm afraid we've been having technical difficulties on the blog in making it possible for him to reply to them.  But we think we have it worked out now (long story; I won't bore you with it).   So hopefully responses will be coming.  He will not be able to reply to all of the comments, but will take on some, and we will make sure that all of them, whether replied to or not, are published!  Thanks for your patience.   The difficulty is about to be resolved.  It is "coming soon"!

Two months ago I did a three-part lecture series on Zoom as a fundraiser to help defray the expenses of the blog.  I recorded the lectures and have now decided to make them available -- still as a fundraiser -- to anyone who would wants to hear them.  For details how to get access to them, see further below. The lectures all discussed stories involving Jesus that are not widely known to the world at large.  Or to *Christians* at large.  Or to *Blog Members* at large.   I'm pretty sure you didn't hear *these* growing up....  Want to hear them?  These  are the titles and topics:   Lecture One.  Jesus and the Other Divine Men Jesus may be the only miracle-working Son of God people know about today, but in antiquity there were others – “Divine men” who were miraculously born, who could do miracles, and then, at the end of life, ascended to heaven to live with the gods.  How could anyone think such things of mere mortals?  And is there anything that makes [...]

In this post I would like to address some questions I have received about blog “comments” and in so doing reaffirm the blog’s policies and procedures. As all of you know, blog members at the Silver, Gold, or Platinum level are allowed to make comments on posts and respond to comments of others.  The limit is 200 words for a comment and only two per day are allowed.  These limits are designed to help commenters keep their remarks direct and on point, and to make the entire enterprise manageable for the one person who manages them (yours truly). A lot of the comments the posts invoke involve a question for me and I try to respond to each and every one.   Since we began the blog in 2012 we have had over 112,000 comments and I have written some 37,000 responses.  Ouch. Most of the time, commenters give a remark or reflection on a particular post.  You can ALWAYS do so on an old post, no problem.  I’ll post it/answer it no matter how old [...]

If you're a blog member and are either in or able to get to London just now:  are you interested in getting together for a blog dinner?  If we can get 3-4 (or more!) people together, I'd be happy to do it. It would need to be one of the evenings of Sunday July 11 to Thursday July 15. In either central London or Wimbledon (where I reside when over here). No obligations other than: Being a blog member Showing up Talking Paying for your meal. If you're interested, do NOT reply here as a comment.  Send me an email at [email protected] If you're not around here just now, hey, our day may come!

Now *this* isn't the kind of interview I get asked to do every day!  Hanny Seylim is a former Muslim who split his time growing up between Egypt and Ireland (a parent from each) and now lives in Melbourne.  For his podcast, Critical Faculty, he interviews all sorts of critical thinkers in numerous different fields (physics to NT!).  Hanny knows a *lot* about early Christianity and wanted to interview me about my work.  I think this one is unusually good.  Enjoy!  

This Saturday at 3:00 p.m. I will be giving a live lecture (via Zoom) on an intriguing topic that very few people I"ve ever met (including New Testament scholars) have ever delved into:  What did early Christians think Jesus was doing between the time of his death and his resurrection. This is the third and last lecture in my series on Jesus according to the Christians.  You do not have to have been at either of the others to come or to understand this one -- it is a stand alone lecture, with a good ole Aristotelian beginning, middle, and end. All the funds we bring in will go to help pay for blog expenses, so we can continue to give every dime of membership fees and regular donations to the charities we support.  The fee for the lecture, if you have not already paid for it, is $10.  We accept more than the requested fee of course! This week's event will last for about 75 minutes.  I will lecture for 45-50 minutes and then [...]

I’ve been talking about Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse,” the long five-chapter discourse that is Jesus’ last speech (virtually a monologue) in the Gospel of John.  In the previous post we saw that in the speech Jesus discusses how he relates to the Father: he is in the Father and the Father is in him, so that even though the Father “is greater” than he, when someone sees him he sees the Father.  They are “one.” That doesn’t mean they are the same person/thing; it’s more like when you tell a colleague or friend “you and I are completely unified in this” or “you and I are at one on this.”  There is no distance between you.  For Jesus it means that he has been given the authority of the Father and that his words are the ones the Father has given him to speak so that whatever he does and says has the full authority of the Father behind it.  There is no distance between him and the Father.  Not because they are the same but [...]

Derek Mythvision Podcast Last month I did a long and detailed interview with Derek Lambert, the person who started and runs an interesting podcast called MythVision Podcast.  Derek is unusually well informed about the New Testament and he has deep and penetrating questions about my positions/views in some of my popular books, especially in light of what a very conservative evangelical apologist John McLatchie has been saying about my, well, sloppy ignorance.  I had never heard of McLatchie before, but that's not unusual.  There are over two billion Christians in the world and I've never heard of most of them.  Still, not that many of them assault my intelligence without telling me directly (e.g. in an email) that I'm an idiot. Still, maybe he's right about everything.  That's the nice thing about human intelligence.  You yourself have it, and you can make up your own mind.   In any event, here's the interview.  The bit with McLatchie kicks in part way through, but the whole thing is about important topics that I've dealt with in my [...]

I have decided to do a three-part lecture series as a fundraiser to help defray the expenses of the blog.  As the blog continues to grow, it becomes more expensive and I simply refuse to take any money from Membership Fees or Regular Donations to pay for any of the expenses.  Every penny you pay to join goes directly to the charities the blog supports (see https://ehrmanblog.org/charities-we-support/).   This lecture series will help pay some of the overhead costs so that we don't have to take a dime out of the fees for overhead.  (BTW, in terms of overhead, for what it's worth:  I don't take a penny from the blog myself.)  (But if you want to mail me a number of small unmarked bills, that would be fine.) The lectures will occur over three consecutive Saturdays, starting this week, May 29, and continuing then on June 5 and 12.  They will all be at 3:00 pm.  On each occasion I will lecture for 45-50 minutes and then take questions for 15 -20 minutes.  There will [...]

Thank the gods, travel is becoming possible again.  Stir crazy?  How about an amazing culinary trip to North Italy to check out the wine, food, and scenery?   It will be September 4-11 (2021!) and it looks like an amazing trip.  Check out the brochure in the link below.  I'll be giving lectures on early Christianity in the Roman Empire; it'll be a small, intimate group (19 people max!), and I'll be hanging out with any and all the whole time, both shooting the breeze and talking about anything that strikes anyone's fancy about the New Testament and early Christianity.  Why not you and your fancy?! As you'll see, the trip is sponsored by the General Alumni Association at UNC, BUT you do not have to be a graduate of the school to come: it's for anyone.  If  you're NOT an alum, all you need do is pay $50 ($60 for a couple) to be considered a temporary Tar Heel.  Last time I did one of these things, maybe half the people were in that category.  [...]