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How Jesus Became God!!

It is time – well past time, some of you may think – for a new thread. And one is oh-so-ready-to-hand. My new book, How Jesus Became God, will be released on Tuesday (March 25). I am unusually eager for that to happen. I’ve never had a trade book (i.e., written for a popular audience) that I’ve been as invested in. Many of my other ones have done well, and I’ve been proud of each and every one of them (they’re like your children – you love each of them dearly and deeply ….). But this is that one that I think is the really important one – in its way, more important than Misquoting Jesus, and all the rest. That’s because the question it’s dealing with is really BIG, in my opinion. It may sound a bit outlandish, crazy, or over the top, but I think a case can be made that the question of how Jesus became God is one of the most important questions for the history of Western Civilization. OK, that [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T23:30:58-05:00March 23rd, 2014|Book Discussions, Memory Studies, Public Forum|

John from a Socio-Historical Perspective

Now that I have explained what the socio-historical method is in general terms (in my previous post) I can go on to show how it can be applied to a particular Gospel, in this case, the Gospel of John. Again, none of this is new and fresh scholarship that I myself came up with; two of the real pioneers of this method were two of the greats of New Testament interpretation in the latter part of the twentieth century, both of whom, remarkably, taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York (taught, in fact, some of my good friends!), the Protestant scholar J. Louis Martyn, and the Roman Catholic scholar, Raymond Brown. Their views ended up being a more or less consensus position for many years, and continues to be prominent among teachers of the NT still today. **************************************************************** The Gospel of John from a Socio-Historical Perspective The place to begin is by examining the different thematic emphases evident in different stories, which ultimately may derive from different sources, and to consider the kinds of [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T23:31:09-05:00March 22nd, 2014|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

The Socio-Historical Method

More on the Gospel of John! In previous posts I explained how it can be studied following a variety of methods that I had introduced earlier in relation to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In my textbook I go on to introduce a different method altogether, which is concerned with a *completely* different set of questions and issues. It will take me a couple of posts to explain the method, and a couple to apply it to the Gospel of John. Let me stress that I did not come up with these methods. I’m simply explaining methods that scholars tend to use when approaching these books. I should emphasize this point in part because I want to stress that interpreting an ancient text is not simply a matter of reading it and summarizing what it says. Hard-core interpretation requires self-reflective and rigorous methods, and a patient (verse-by-verse, word-by-word) application of these methods. When a bona fide scholar makes a pronouncement about the meaning of this or that passage of the NT, it is not simply a [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-14T23:31:40-05:00March 21st, 2014|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum|

Keep on Keepin’ On?

This post is a brief hiatus to say that if you’re getting tired of all this talk about methods and the Gospel of John, let me know and I’ll go on to something else. I haven’t heard any complaints, so I’ll keep going till I do! I realize these posts may not be the sexiest things to come across the blog, but sometimes it is good to deal with lots of substance as well as / in addition to the human interest stories. I suppose we need both! In any event, these posts have been a boon for me, because they have allowed me to continue to contribute to the blog with less of a time commitment during a period when I have been even more crazily swamped than normal. This past week, on Spring Break, I’ve been in London, which should in theory have been a vacation! And I have seen two plays (a *terrific* rendition of Ibsen’s Ghosts, and my all-time favorite actor Simon Russell Beale in King Lear). And it’s been [...]

BDEhrman2014-03-14T18:13:38-04:00March 14th, 2014|Public Forum|

Did Jesus Exist? Video Presentation

Did Jesus exist Bart Ehrman? I was invited to read my book, "Did Jesus Exist: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth" at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Bulls Head Bookshop on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. Here is a video of the event. Bart Ehrman: Did Jesus Exist? Reading at the University of North Carolina Bulls Head Bookshop To give you an idea of the topic, the back cover of the book reads, "Large numbers of atheists, humanists, and conspiracy theorists are raising one of the most pressing questions in the history of religion: 'Did Jesus exist at all?' Was he invented out of whole cloth for nefarious purposes by those seeking to control the masses? Or was Jesus such a shadowy figure—far removed from any credible historical evidence—that he bears no meaningful resemblance to the person described in the Bible? In Did Jesus Exist? historian and Bible expert Bart Ehrman confronts these questions, vigorously defends the historicity of Jesus, and provides a compelling portrait of the man from [...]

BDEhrman2022-06-28T13:18:00-04:00March 6th, 2014|Historical Jesus, Mythicism, Public Forum, Video Media|

Video: Does It Matter If Jesus Was Married?

As I think I've indicated on the blog before, on January 23, 2014 there was an interesting discussion, on stage, between Karen L. King (Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School), Mark Jordan (Distinguished Professor at Washington University, Saint Louis; he is returning to Harvard next year), and me on the topic "Does It Matter if Jesus Was Married?" The discussion was hosted by the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Beam Music Center, Doc Rando Hall, UNLV. The Black Mountain Institute is an International Center for Creative Writers and Scholars. The event was moderated by the former President of UNLV, Carol Harter, who did a very fine job indeed keeping us all on target and on topic. The basic underlying question was: what would a married Christ mean for the theology, practices, and politics of Christian traditions as they grapple with changing times? I did manage to say a few words about the prior question: *Was* Jesus married? The Black Mountain Institute was motivated to invite us [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:34:05-05:00February 25th, 2014|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

Snake-Handling and the Gospel of Mark

Here is something to break up a bit my thread on the Gospel of Mark, studied from a literary-historical perspective (to be resumed in my next post). This current post is related to Mark but it’s well, different. There was a recent CNN report that some of you may have seen. I include it here, below, with the link to the site at the bottom. This practice in some southern circles (especially in the Appalachians) of handling deadly snakes as part of a worship service is based on the saying of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, after his resurrection, where he tells his disciples that those who come to believe in him will be able to speak in foreign tongues (as happens in Pentecostal churches, e.g.), that they will be able to handle deadly snakes, and if they drink any poison, it will not harm them. Offhand, I don’t know what in additional to snake-handling churches, we don’t have poison-drinking churches. Maybe we do? I’m sure someone on the blog can tell me. In any [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:35:30-05:00February 20th, 2014|Canonical Gospels, New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum, Religion in the News|

Similarities and Differences: The Synoptic Problem

In yesterday’s post I mentioned my New Testament class, and that one of the main lessons I’m trying to convey in it is that each of the Gospels has to be read for what *it* has to say. This requires the reader to bracket information that is conveyed in some other Gospel (or that they’ve heard before elsewhere), to see what the meaning of this particular text is. That shouldn’t be such a hard idea to grasp. If I write a book about Jesus, I don’t expect or want my readers to read my book in light of what some other author said (say, Reza Aslan or Bill O’Reilly), interpreting my views in light of the other person’s views, as if my views, as I state them, are not enough or sufficient. And yet people regularly read the Gospels as if Mark must mean the same thing that John does, or that this passage in Matthew makes best sense in light of that other passage in Luke, and so on. We don’t do that [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:36:43-05:00February 11th, 2014|Canonical Gospels, Public Forum, Teaching Christianity|

Video: Illuminated Manuscripts and Legends about Jesus

I was asked to speak at the Getty Museum, in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, September 22, 2011 during the exhibition "In the Beginning Was the Word: Medieval Gospel Illumination." Illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages are significant for the literary texts they preserve. But they are also important, historically and culturally, for their illustrations of the life of Jesus and other figures associated with him. These artistic representations tell tales of their own, and the visual stories are not always found in the corresponding texts. A careful examination of these images shows clearly and convincingly that medieval artists were familiar not only with the stories of the canonical Gospels but also with many noncanonical apocryphal tales of Jesus. The apocryphal stories, in some instances, were understood to be "Gospel truth" on par with accounts found in Scripture. In any event, here is the lecture that I gave: Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition: Details on the "In the Beginning Was the Word: Medieval Gospel Illumination" 2011 [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:37:57-05:00February 3rd, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, Public Forum, Video Media|

Ramtha Again: The Question-Answer Session

Here is the second part of my talk at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. It is a question-answer session that I had with the attendees, and for my money, it was the best, most interesting part of the evening. Since we had abundant time -- well over an hour -- I was able to give the questions full, drawn out answers, virtually mini-lectures in themselves, on an enormous range of issues that came up. The questions dealt with intriguing topics on the whole. Many of my answers are not what the questioner wanted to hear. And it is interesting to see what the crowd reaction to my answers was (usually very positive -- effusive at times; but it is clear that I am the odd-person-out in this group as, well, you would surely expect!). At some points I get very personal and talk not just about my scholarship but about my beliefs and understandings of the world. In any event, I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed participating in [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:40:09-05:00January 22nd, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, Public Forum, Video Media|

Video: The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot Part 1

This past November I flew to Yelm, Washington, outside of Seattle, to deliver a lecture on the Gospel of Judas Iscariot at the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. When I had been invited to give the talk the year before, I frankly had never heard of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. In fact, when I was invited, I was told that the school was called The Gnostic School of America -- and so I naturally thought that it was some kind of college made up of west-coast-modern-day-Gnostics who saw themselves standing in line with the ancient Gnostics. Such people do exist! But that is not what this school is. The School of Enlightenment was founded by a woman named JZ Knight, and it is named, obviously, after Ramtha. In case you don't remember who that was, let me tell you. Ramtha was a philosopher-warrior who lived 35,000 years ago, who, with his 2.5 million soldier army, conquered most of the known world at the time, including the island of Atlantis. JZ channels him. (In one of [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:40:54-05:00January 16th, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, Public Forum, Video Media|

My New Testament Pop Quiz

Last semester I posted here on the blog the pop quiz I gave on the first day of the semester to my class on Jesus in Scholarship and Film. As you may have noticed in my post yesterday, I also give a quiz to begin my New Testament class, which I started teaching yesterday. If you were on the blog five months ago, and have a very good memory, the quiz will look very familiar. About half the questions are the same. I give a quiz on the first day – before I’ve taught the students anything – both in order to break the ice while having some fun together and in order to teach a few things, as I give the answers after they have taken a stab at them. I’ll say a few things about what I try to accomplish with that in my next post. I told the students yesterday that if anyone got at least nine of the eleven answers correct, I would buy them dinner at the Armadillo Grill. [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:41:47-05:00January 9th, 2014|Public Forum, Teaching Christianity|

My New Testament Syllabus

The new semester started today. Here I am, 58 years old, and still organizing my life around semesters…. In any event, I’m teaching my regular two-course load this semester. My undergraduate class is the Introduction to the New Testament that I teach every Spring, with 240 students; my graduate seminar is a graduate level course basically about the same thing, covering (at a graduate level) the major issues in New Testament studies and the history of the discipline, all with an eye toward pedagogy (i.e., how to teach this material to undergraduates). It will have about ten students. I’ll have more to say about each course anon. For now, here is my syllabus for the undergraduate class, for your amusement and reading pleasure. INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Reli 104 Spring, 2014 Instructor: Dr. Bart D. Ehrman Teaching Assistants: Candace Buckner, Brian Coussens, Shaily Patel, Nathan Schradle Course Description This course is designed to help you (a) learn about the New Testament writings and the history of earliest Christianity and (b) develop [...]

BDEhrman2017-12-25T12:41:54-05:00January 9th, 2014|Public Forum, Teaching Christianity|

Looking Ahead to 2014 on the Blog

I’d like to take the opportunity of the New Year to look ahead with you on matters related to the blog. My idea for this post is to tell you what my goals for the coming year are and what challenges we are (or that I am) facing, and then to ask a couple of questions from you, the members, about how best to proceed. Goals and Challenges I have several different goals for the blog this coming year. Financial. This past year, as I indicated in my past post, we pulled in $61,000. That is a significant increase over the previous year. I would like to keep the increase going, and have as a target $70,000 for 2014. This will obviously mean acquiring significantly more members; keeping the members we have; and hopefully increasing the number of donations from people who are already members. On that final point, there are some people who generously give everything from $25 and up. I appreciate more than I can say, from each and every one of your [...]

BDEhrman2014-01-03T23:38:20-05:00January 2nd, 2014|Public Forum|

End of the Year Blog Reflection

Here at the end of the year, on this New Year’s Eve, I’m reflecting on the blog and how it has gone over the past 12 months. I’d say this has been a fantastic year. Every now and then (like, every ten minutes) I wonder if it is really worth all the time and effort. I’ve continued to post five or six times a week (usually six), and each post is about 1000 words long. But in addition, I need to approve all the comments that come in, and respond to the ones that have asked for a response. Altogether it takes about an hour of my day. On one hand, that doesn’t seem like much – hey, it’s only an hour! On the other hand, I already don’t have enough hours in the day. We need longer days and more days in the week! I’ve often wished there could be some kind of trade-off system, where people who are bored with nothing to do, for whom the hours and days drag on and [...]

BDEhrman2014-01-01T00:56:39-05:00January 1st, 2014|Public Forum|

Free Memberships All Claimed

I very much regret to report that all the free memberships that have been available by the generous donors who are already members on the blog have already been given out. So please do not send in a request if you have not received one. Hopefully we will be able to make more available in the future. Thanks again toall the donors. Your response was heartwarming. And to the recipients, I hope you enjoy the blog!!

BDEhrman2014-03-06T07:24:53-05:00December 29th, 2013|Public Forum|

Still a Few Free Memberships for those Who Need Them

There are still a few free memberships to the blog available to those who need them, thanks to the incredible generosity of others. 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: 1) Let me know your situation and; 2) Provide me with the following information: a) Your first and last name. b) Your preferred personal email. c) Your preferred user name (no spaces). d) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me sincerely thank them once again for such kind and generous donations to help others in [...]

BDEhrman2013-12-27T19:29:02-05:00December 27th, 2013|Public Forum|

2009 Debate With Mike Licona: Can Historians Prove the Resurrection of Jesus?

I've decided to take a day or so off from my discussions of Reza Aslan's Zealot, both for my sanity and yours. Here, for a bit of variety, is a video of a debate that I had a few years ago with Mike Licona on the topic or whether historians can *prove* that Jesus was raised from the dead. Mike thinks the answer is "yes"; I think the answer is "no way." It's important to note: the debate was *not* about whether Jesus was raised from the dead. The debate was about whether historians can *prove* that he did (if he did). Mike Licona has burst onto the scene as a conservative Christian apologist. He did a master's degree at Liberty University (that's Jerry Falwell's place) and then a PhD in New Testament at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Someone may be able to correct me on this, but I *think* that is the kind of degree where instead of taking PhD seminars and so on, as at an American university, it [...]

BDEhrman2021-02-13T01:10:41-05:00December 26th, 2013|Bart's Debates, Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

Free Memberships for those Who Need Them

Thanks to the incredible generosity of other 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: 1) Let me know your situation and 2) Provide me with the following information: a) Your first and last name. b) Your preferred personal email. c) Your preferred user name (no spaces). d) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me publicly extend my heartfelt thanks for such kind and generous donations [...]

BDEhrman2013-12-24T13:54:10-05:00December 24th, 2013|Public Forum|

Aslan Zealot: A Deeper Evaluation of the Thesis Itself

I have not completed my evaluation of Reza Aslan’s popular, interesting, and well-written account of Jesus, Zealot. To this point I have merely tried to show that despite his claims (e.g. in the Fox News interview) of being an expert who is qualified to write such a book, he is not an expert – in the ancient world, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, or in the historical Jesus. When I began this discussion I understand that a lot of readers thought that I was just being snooty and dismissive by pointing this out; but in my subsequent posts I’ve tried to show why being an expert really does matter. Someone who is not an expert makes mistakes – lots of mistakes, and often serious mistakes. And the problem is that the person doesn’t even know it. I don’t think Aslan knowingly wrote anything he didn’t think. The problem is that he doesn’t know the field well enough to know where there are gaps in his knowledge, or where he has accepted incorrect [...]

BDEhrman2013-12-21T17:18:45-05:00December 21st, 2013|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

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