Public Forum Archives - Page 64 of 72 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Bart’s Public Blog that provides membership samples.

Getting the Facts of My Life Straight

I have to admit, I sometimes get a bit tired of being the whipping boy for fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christian apologists. If they would deal with my views head on and actually get the facts of my life right, it would be one thing. But when they publicly accuse me of holding, or having held, positions that I never did – when they are flat our wrong in what they say about me -- it gets under my skin. The first time I noticed this in a big way was when Craig Evans – a long time colleague and friend – indicated, in writing!, that the reason I had become an agnostic was that I came to realize that there were differences in our manuscripts of the New Testament. Good grief. I had known about differences in our manuscripts from the time I was sixteen years old!! I had studied them and known all about them in all the years I was a fundamentalist. These differences had nothing – Zero, Nada, Not a Thing [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T15:47:22-05:00October 6th, 2014|Bart’s Biography, Public Forum|

Gift Subscriptions!!!

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new addition to the Blog. This could help you, me, and a person you love. Or like. Or would like to like. A friend, a colleague, a family member. The new addition: the possibility of a GIFT SUBSCRIPTION. Many, many of you know of someone who would benefit from the blog. By giving a gift subscription, you would make it possible. It’s obvious why that would be a benefit to the person to whom you give the gift. They would have full access to these virtually daily discussions of all things having to do with the New Testament and Christianity in Antiquity. The gift It benefits you because you feel oh so good about yourself. And it benefits me because it contributes to my ultimate objective in running the blog in the first place – raising revenues for charities that deal with hunger and homelessness. And so I would like to challenge all of you to think of someone who would enjoy being on the [...]

BDEhrman2014-09-30T01:51:49-04:00September 29th, 2014|Public Forum|

New Discussion Forum: Suggestions?

Thanks to the hard work of my computer assistant, Steven Ray –if you have any website or related needs, he’s the guy to hire! – we are nearly ready to make a major change in the Bart Ehrman Blog, a.k.a. the CIA. Because of regular and repeated requests, we are going to add a Discussion Forum, open to all paid members. At present, as you know, the only way to “discuss” anything on the blog is by asking me a question, or by making a comment, on one of my posts. Occasionally one person will respond to another person’s question or comment, but that’s about the extent of conversation among participants. Everything, more or less, begins with my post and all comments pretty much pass through me. With a discussion forum, on the other hand, anyone can start a thread of their own and people can interact on the question/topic, talking with one another directly instead of through me. When I’ve mentioned the possibility of setting up such a thing for the blog, I have [...]

BDEhrman2014-09-28T21:31:47-04:00September 28th, 2014|Public Forum|

Yale Shaffer Lectures 3 of 3 – Christ Against the Jews

Here is the third of my Shaffer Lectures delivered almost exactly ten years ago. This final one has to do with textual variants and apocryphal texts that show evidence of Christian anti-Judaism. I call this one: Christ Against the Jews. It is a topic that I continue to be interested in, and on which I plan to write a book for a general audience, at some time in the next few years (not about textual variants, but about the rise of Christian opposition to Jews and Judaism.) Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition. Quality is lacking since this is a VHS to 720p uprez:

BDEhrman2017-12-14T15:50:14-05:00September 21st, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum, Video Media|

Letter from Urban Ministries of Durham

As most of you know, there are four charities that the Bart Ehrman Blog supports. Two of them are international: CARE and Doctors Without Borders. Two of them are local to me: The Food Bank of North Carolina and the Urban Ministries of Durham. I very much wish we could support all of them more and more -- they are all superb organizations. Click to Enlarge and Expand Browser But I have a special soft spot for the Urban Ministries of Durham. Despite its name, it is not a religious organization. It is the principal organization that deals with hunger and homelessness in my community. It's a huge task. But what is really amazing about UMD is that they are not interested in simply putting a band-aid on the problem, for example by having a soup kitchen and an emergency shelter. They do have those, and a clothes pantry and a food pantry and much more. BUT what is really impressive is that they work very hard at *eliminating* homelessness (and hunger), [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:34:47-05:00September 19th, 2014|Public Forum|

A Day In the Life of a Research Professor

I sometimes get asked what it is that professors in universities actually do. The question is usually raised when someone realizes that at a major research university, most professors teach two classes a semester. Classes tend to involve three hours of class time per week. But that means a professor is in the classroom only six hours a week. Is this a full time job? Are you serious?? And on top of that you have tenure so that you can, for all practical purposes, never get fired? Hey how can *I* get a job like that??? It’s a really good question. First let me say something about what it is professors do, maybe in a couple of posts, and then say something about tenure. As it turns out, being a full-time professor is a boatload of work. I won’t say that it’s more than a lot of other busy and highly demanding occupations – a lot of you, I’m sure, work just as hard and long as I do. But it *is* a busy and [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T16:33:51-04:00September 15th, 2014|Public Forum, Teaching Christianity|

Yale Shaffer Lectures 2 of 3 – Christ The Divine Man

As I indicated in a post last week, on October 12-14, 2004 I gave the three Shaffer lectures at Yale University, on "Christ in the Early Christian Tradition: Texts Disputed and Apocryphal." This is the second of those lectures, dealing with Christ as a Divine man. (Again, the quality is not as high as we have come to expect over the past couple of years, because it was recorded originally on VHS. But it's been worked over to make it still pretty decent. Enjoy!) Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition.

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:37:55-05:00September 8th, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, Public Forum, Video Media|

Upcoming Speaking Schedule and … Cruises!

I have finalized my speaking schedule for the Fall semester (I’m 58 and I still organize my life according to semesters… ) and more or less for the Spring as well. These are the events that are all open to the public; some charge for a ticket, others not. If any of these is near you, simply google the sponsor and my name, and normally that will take you to any information you may need should you want to attend. Two events in particular I want to highlight. The first is a cruise in the Caribbean this coming January 18-25. This event is sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society, and anyone who wants to purchase a place (and can do so) is absolutely welcome, whether you’ve ever been involved with or even have ever heard of the Biblical Archaeology Society or not. Now, you may wonder what the Caribbean has to do with Biblical archaeology. There is a clear and definite answer: Nothing At All. Well, except for the fact that the BAS is sponsoring [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:39:36-05:00September 1st, 2014|Bart’s Biography, Public Forum|

Yale Shaffer Lectures 1 of 3 – Christ Come in the Flesh

Ten years ago now -- October 12-14, 2004 -- I delivered the Shaffer lectures at Yale University Divinity School. The central theme of the series was "Christ in the Early Christian Tradition: Texts Disputed and Apocryphal." Among other things, I tried to show how early Christian groups tried to restrict readings of their sacred texts to suit their own purposes. This first lecture is entitled on "Christ Come in the Flesh." (The video quality will not be up to what we all have come to expect, as it was recorded on VHS.) Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition.

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:40:12-05:00August 31st, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, Public Forum, Video Media|

Suggested Donation for the Blog

With this post I would like to request that everyone on the blog consider making a donation, above and beyond your membership fee. I know that some of you simply cannot afford to do so, and that, of course, is absolutely fine. Others of you simply do not want to do so, and that also is absolutely fine. But if you have the means and the will, I would very much like you to consider my request. My proposed amount is $20. If everyone were to make a donation of that amount, we would stand a very good chance of reaching my desired fund raising goal of $100,000 for the year. As you know, every penny that comes into the blog goes out to charities supporting hunger and homelessness. I don’t keep a dime for myself, and I pay for all of the expenses of the blog out of my own pocket. For some of you, $20 will be more than you can afford, but you’d like to give something. So give $5. For others [...]

BDEhrman2014-08-23T16:26:12-04:00August 23rd, 2014|Public Forum|

Freedom From Religion Foundation Lecture

On May 3 of this year I gave a lecture at a meeting of the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Raleigh NC. The lecture is about what it is like to be an agnostic who writes about religion. That's an irony that I am constantly aware of and most of the lecture is about my experience as a non-religious person who is an expert in something he doesn't believe in. I also used the lecture to stress that being "free from religion" is not the same thing as "attacking religion." I absolutely agree with the founding principle of the FFRF that no religion (of any kind, Christian or otherwise) should be imposed on us by the state. But I do not at *all* think that this is the same thing as being opposed to religion. I am personally not opposed to religion or people who practice it (although I *am* quite definitely opposed to fundamenalist kinds of religion -- whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or whatever). And I think organized agnostic/atheist/secular/humanist attacks on religion per [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:43:38-05:00August 16th, 2014|Public Forum, Video Media|

Clarification!

I need to clarify something that I said in my earlier post today about my next project, since I have elicited several demurrals in response, and it was because I didn't express myself very clearly. What I said was this: Scholars have long held that Mark was the first of our Gospels to be written, and that it probably appeared sometime around the year 70 CE. Some scholars think it might have been a bit before that (I used to think that); more scholars think that it might have been a bit after. But almost everyone agrees that Mark dates to around the end of the Jewish War (66-70 CE). The only ones who consistently have argued otherwise are fundamentalists and very conservative evangelicals, who very much want Mark, our earliest Gospel, to be closer to the time of Jesus. When I said that the only scholars "who consistently" argued for an earlier date I didn't make myself clear. The reason I said "consistently" is because the only group of scholars that regularly [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:47:24-05:00August 13th, 2014|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

Suggestions for Improving the Blog (Its Content)

In my previous post I discussed some of the ideas that had been put forth for increasing the amount of money that the blog takes in – which is my ultimate goal, as I’ve repeatedly said. I realize that for most of you (all of you?), that’s *not* the ultimate goal. Most of you are interested in what the blog can provide by way of substance and content. So, on that topic…. I have tried to vary my posts since this endeavor started over two years ago now, and looking at the categories in which the posts appear, I think that has worked pretty well. And so far I have not run out of things to say and, to my knowledge, I have not yet repeated a post. Maybe I have and didn’t notice, and you were too kind to point it out! (Sometimes I have had ideas and searched only to see, yup, did that one already….) I have received a number of good suggestions about possible ways to change the blog to make [...]

BDEhrman2014-08-11T07:00:24-04:00August 11th, 2014|Public Forum|

National Cathedral Lecture – Misquoting Jesus

Here is a version of my lecture "Misquoting Jesus." Some of you have seen a different version of the lecture (I'm sure I've posted one!); I'm particularly fond of this particular one, both because of its setting in the Washington National Cathedral and because, well, I just think I was on better form than usual. The lecture was given on Feb. 6, 2007.

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:48:04-05:00August 10th, 2014|Public Forum, Video Media|

Ideas for Raising More Money on the Blog

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my request for comments about how to improve the blog. I am taking all of them under advisement! Here I’d like to flesh out a bit three specific suggestions and give my take on them (I will address a few others in my next post). Please consider each of these and respond if you feel so moved! These are themed: they are all about money and about how to raise more of it – one of my ongoing interests and concerns 1. The Price of the Blog. Several people suggested that if I want to achieve my fund-raising goals for the charities I support (i.e., make more money), I could raise the cost of the blog. Simply charge more. Some suggested $50 instead of $24.95. I was amused to see that no one suggested I charge *less* in order to make more money. It made me think that maybe there are more Democrats than Republicans on the blog. J The reason I don’t want to charge more is [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:48:20-05:00August 7th, 2014|Public Forum, Reflections and Ruminations|

Follow-up Apologies for the Post on Dinesh D’Souza

I was completely taken aback when I got up this morning (I’m in London – five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time) to check my blog and Facebook pages to find that I caused a bit of a firestorm by my comments on Dinesh D’Souza when in yesterday’s post I introduced the video of the debate that I had had with him a couple of years ago. That was not my intention at *all* and I’m non-plussed, surprised, and embarassed. All sides of the political spectrum have reacted strongly – rabid liberals hee-hawing and rabid conservatives fuming and others weighing in one way or the other. Woops. Not what I had in mind. Now that I re-read my opening comments, I see how they are being read, and they are not being read in the way that I meant them. But I need to apologize to Dinesh and to anyone else I have offended. My intention was *not* to badmouth Dinesh, whom I like on a personal level even if absolutely not on the political. [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:49:10-05:00August 3rd, 2014|Bart's Debates, Public Forum|

My Debate with Dinesh D’Souza on the Problem of Suffering

A prominent figure in the news lately has been Dinesh D'Souza. Dinesh is best known as a hyper-conservative political commentator. His most recent book is America, and this week it is #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for non-fiction. It has a companion documentary film. If you're politically very-right-wing conservative and despise Barack Obama and everything he stands for -- this is the book for you! Dinesh was a policy analyst in the Reagan White House as a 20-something Wunderkind; he has served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The New York Times Magazine named him as one of America's most influential conservative thinkers. Newsweek listed him as one of the country's most prominent Asian Americans. Dinesh has also been in the news for several other things in the past two years, in connection with his (former) presidency of Kings college -- a conservative evangelical institutions that trains conservative Christians in business and finance so that they can get high level places at Goldman Sachs-- and more recently because [...]

BDEhrman2020-12-29T00:55:02-05:00August 2nd, 2014|Bart's Debates, Public Forum, Video Media|

About the Blog

I have now finished with my extensive comments on Jesus’ burial. Some of you may be relieved to hear that. I know I am! That was the most intense thread that I’ve done on the blog since its inception over two years ago. It was really more like producing scholarship than anything else I’ve done. And I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. So now I can move on to other things on the blog. If you weren’t really into that more hard-core kind of thing, then I hope that the sorts of things that I’ll be doing now for a while will strike your fancy. I thought this would be a good time to pause and think a bit about the blog, and to hear your ideas and suggestions for it. As probably everyone on the blog knows, I have two major objectives in doing it, one far more major than the other. The one that is *less* major for me is the one that is *more* major for virtually everyone else. I [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-29T16:12:26-04:00August 1st, 2014|Public Forum|

The Skeletal Remains of Yehohanan and Their Significance

I plan to make this the last post responding to Craig Evans’s article, “Getting the Burial Traditions and Evidences Right,” in which he attempts to refute my argument in How Jesus Became God, that Jesus was probably not given a decent burial on the day of his crucifixion. Several readers have asked me interesting questions about this or that thing that I’ve said, and I may try to answer these questions in a few days or, well, eventually; but for now, this will be my last post on it. It think maybe this thread has been more than enough! I have dealt with a wide range of Craig’s arguments, and have saved his two strongest arguments for last. In my last post I dealt with the claim of Josephus that Jews (always? usually? sometimes?) buried crucifixion victims before sunset, and I showed that as a general statement it simply isn’t true, and argued that in any event it would not have applied to a case such as that of Jesus, one who was crucified as [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T16:39:45-04:00July 31st, 2014|Bart's Critics, Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Hiatus: A New Teaching Company Course

Another brief hiatus as we near the end of my thread on the burial traditions of Jesus, occasioned by the inquiries of several members of the blog, and others not on the blog, about my new course for the Teaching Company (the company is also called The Great Courses). A couple of days ago my new course on “How Jesus Became God” came out. It is obviously based (roughly) on the book of the same title. The Course consists of twenty-four lectures, each thirty minutes in length, and as with all the Great Courses, it is available in numerous formats: on CD for audio only, or DVD for video, or as a download, and so on. For a quick link: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=6522 You’ll see that it is right now being offered at a serious discount. One hint about the Teaching Company courses: ALWAYS buy them at discount! (They all get discounted on and off.) These are the titles of each of the lectures: 1 Jesus—The Man Who Became God 2 Greco-Roman Gods Who Became Human 3 [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T22:50:46-05:00July 26th, 2014|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Teaching Christianity|

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