Are you interested in pre-ordering my new book: Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife?   Here's a fantastic deal.  As you may know, I have done eight courses over the years with the Great Courses (starting back when they were called The Teaching Company!).   If you pre-order the book (or have already done so), you can receive an 80% discount on any of them.   That's a pretty rippin' serious discount. Just click on this address. https://simonandschusterpublishing.com/heavenandhell The Great Courses I've done over the years. The New Testament The Historical Jesus Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity The History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers The Greatest Controversies in Early Christianity How Jesus Became God For full descriptions of each of these courses, go here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/bart-d-ehrman/?pid=150 Are you familiar with the Great Courses?  They really are great -- not mine necessarily, but in general.  I've watched a ton of them, on [...]

Several people have asked me about my scheduled lecture in Sacramento at the Slavic Pastors apologetics conference.  I'm sorry to say that the sponsors of the event have cancelled my talk (without, well, notifying me!).  They assure me that it is not because of my views, but because of their financial restraints.   I'm not hugely sorry, as it would have been a bit of a lark and not my normal kind of thing: it was a long trip over three days to tell a group of conservative evangelical pastors that Jesus really did exist.  (!)

I am pleased to announce that the raffle for galleys of my book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife has been concluded.  We have three winners of the autographed copies, and I have notified them.  If you participated and I did not notify you, I'm so sorry. But be of good cheer!  The book will be available on March 31. Many thanks to all who participated!

OK, this will not be a high demand item.   But I have five copies of my book Triumph of Christianity in Korean translation.  I don't read Korean.  Does any of you? Want one?  I'm happy to mail one to you, but only if you're willing to help cover the cost of mailing by making a donation to the blog.  Make the donation as large as you'd like!  Hey, what are we worth?   But for domestic mailing, let's say a minimum of $10; international, $25. If you're interested, don't reply here, but zap me a message at [email protected].  If you don't read Korean, there's no time like the present!

I don’t think I’ve made any kind of official announcement that we are doing a massive rehaul of the blog, a complete rebuild.   But I am now. Official announcement:  WE ARE DOING A MASSIVE REHAUL OF THE BLOG, A COMPLETE REBUILD. Well, technically “we” are not.  Steven Ray, my assistant from the beginning and mastermind of all-things-blog-related is.  He’s been working on it for many months.  It’s a major undertaking.  For some years now he’s been keeping the current version running on duct tape and bailing wire, having started it over eight years ago when technology and life as we know it was different.  Things have changed.  Now we’ll change better with them. We are using the new blog structure to implement lots of other changes that we think will make the blog much better for blog users and to attain the goals of the blog itself better.  There have always been two goals:  To disseminate scholarly knowledge about the New Testament and the Beginnings of Christianity as broadly as we can, in simple terms [...]

I have written emails to everyone who has participated in the auction and put in a bid to have a look at my new book before it appears.   I *believe* I have managed to contact everyone.  If you did put in a bid but did *not* received (today) an email about it, and about what happens in the auction now, please send me an email at [email protected]    Many thanks! I will announce the amount raised at the end of the week.

As you may know, my next book Heaven and hell: A History of the Afterlife will be published on March 31.  That’s nearly three months off.  Would you like to read it *now*?     I have three copies of the galley proofs that I am willing to auction off -- as a fund-raiser for the blog -- to be sent directly to the highest bidders. A “galley proof” is the book as it is sent out to reviewers and journals and editors and book stores well in advance – some months ago now – so they can decide whether to advertise and / or stock the book and at what quantities.  They are never for sale.  They are in paperback with the same kind of cover that will be on the book itself, but at a cheaper production level since they are not for display in bookstores.   The book itself – the content -- is as it will be published, *except* for minor stylistic things (typos here and there etc.) that had not yet been cleared [...]

A number of my upcoming "events" have been more or less finalized (barring natural or national catastrophe, collapse, or cataclysm or, well, catabasis).   At the bottom are the currently scheduled book readings/lectures based on my forthcoming Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife. Any questions about any of this, let me know.   But first: my two international venues.   APRIL 14-24, 2020 Tour to Rome!! I've mentioned this a couple of times on the blog, most recently here: https://ehrmanblog.org/my-trip-to-rome-interested-in-joining/ This is going to be an amazing trip!   But they are ALMOST completely full.  So if you think you want to go, better contact them now.   Here is the brochure with contact information for the organizers, Thalassa Tours. https://www.thalassajourneys.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Pagans_Christians.pdf   April 24-30 Lecture tour in Sweden. This has just been added to my schedule.   I will be giving talks at universities in Umeå, Stockholm, and possibly Upsala.  Are you in Sweden?  Maybe we could meet!   THEN, in OCTOBER 2020 October 16-29 Tour to Egypt, sponsored by the University of North Carolina General Alumni Association [...]

Thanks to the incredible ongoing generosity of members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available.   These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year.   I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment.   Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected].   In your email, please provide me with the following information: Your first and last name. Why you would like to take advantage of this offer.  I don't need or want a full account of your history or financial affairs, only an idea of why you are not able just now to purchase a membership. Country of citizenship (we're required, as a non-profit, to ask) Your preferred personal email. Your preferred user [...]

As you know, the overarching purposes of the blog are (1) to communicate broadly, to a reading public, scholarship on the New Testament and Early Christianity (as opposed to most of the material you find on the Internet, which is almost entirely devotional and not based on historical scholarship) and (2) in doing so, to raise money for charity.   The latter is what keeps me going.  I absolutely love communicating with non-scholars what the scholars are finding about these fundamentally important topics.  But my ultimate passion for the blog is to help people in need.  Hence the charity aspect. As you know, every penny that comes into the blog from membership fees and from direct donations goes to the charities we support.  There are no overhead costs because I pay for the blog myself, as my own contribution. Blog members sometimes indicate they would like to have more information about what those charities are and what they actually do.   There are five that receive our support.  Three of them are local to me:  Urban Ministries [...]

Blogging friends!   I have learned that two of the participants for the fund-raising blog dinner on December 3 will not be able to come after all.   So there are two seats available.  Here is the original announcement.  If you're interested, please let me know!  Tempus is fugiting. ******************************************************************************** On December 3, at 7:00 pm., I will be holding a new kind of blog event in Durham NC: a fund-raising dinner.  It will be at a nice restaurant to be named later.  We will have a maximum of seven places at the table (along with me, making eight). For the fund-raising:  the event is $100 per plate, the money to be donated directly to the blog.    Each person will also pay for his or her own meal. There will be no set agenda for the dinner.  It will be a chance to get to meet each other and talk about matters of mutual interest and importance, especially as they relate to the blog –anything connected, even remotely, with the New Testament and early Christianity.  The basic [...]

The following post is free for anyone who wants to look.  Most posts on the blog are only for members.  The good news is that it's easy and inexpensive to join.  You get five posts a week, for less than 50 cents.   And every cent goes to charity helping those in need.  So why not join???   In my previous post I indicated that I will be doing a short thread that introduces the New Testament very broadly, with the goal of then combining all the posts into one long (4000-5000 word) post that can then be accessed by anyone doing an Internet search for a basic overview.  If you don’t recall: see https://ehrmanblog.org/what-is-the-new-testament-a-broad-overview/ This is my second post of the series.  In it, I give a very, very brief description of each book of the New Testament, the kind of thing you can say without taking another breath.  It seems like this might be useful for anyone who just wants to know what each book is and, very roughy, what it is about. The [...]

On December 3, at 7:00 pm., I will be holding a new kind of blog event in Durham NC: a fund-raising dinner.  It will be at a nice restaurant to be named later.  We will have a maximum of seven places at the table (along with me, making eight). For the fund-raising:  the event is $100 per plate, the money to be donated directly to the blog.    Each person will also pay for his or her own meal. There will be no set agenda for the dinner.  It will be a chance to get to meet each other and talk about matters of mutual interest and importance, especially as they relate to the blog –anything connected, even remotely, with the New Testament and early Christianity.  The basic idea is that you will be able to pick my brain at will, and I may pick yours. For any of the table members who want an add-on, with additional brain-picking potential: for an additional donation of $100 you can start with drinks with me at 5:30.   I [...]