1 Peter at a Glance 1 Peter claims to be written by Simon Peter, the close disciple of Jesus. Modern scholars have shown reasons to doubt this ascription. It may have been written in Peter’s name by a later Christian living near the end of the first century. If so, it is one of a number of early Christian pseudepigrapha allegedly written by Peter. The book is addressed to Christians in Asia Minor who have been experiencing persecution. The book is written to encourage them in their suffering, to explain why it is happening to them, and to urge them to remain faithful to God in the midst of it so that they may earn an eternal reward for their wrongful mistreatment.   Questions for Reflection What do you think are the strongest arguments that 1 Peter was not actually written by Peter? Do you find these arguments convincing?  Why or why not? In what ways does 1 Peter sound a lot like the teachings of Paul? Explain how a context of persecution [...]

I continue here with my posts that give brief bullet-point summaries of each book of the New Testament “At a Glance” along with questions for reflection to help think through some of the major issues each book presents. Here I cover the first two books of the “General (or Catholic) Epistles,” Hebrews and James. AT A GLANCE: Hebrews The book of Hebrews is anonymous, although it was eventually admitted into the canon by Christians who thought Paul had written it. Modern scholars are unified in thinking that he did not. The book was probably produced sometime near the end of the first century. It is frequently called an “epistle,” but it appears in fact to be a Christian homily or sermon—the earliest one we have, outside of those in the book of Acts. It is written for a group of Christians who have experienced persecution. Despite the book’s title (“To the Hebrews”), the recipients appear to have been Gentiles. The author’s purpose is to convince his listeners not to convert to Judaism. [...]

Some of you have asked when / where my next lecture tour would be, and now I've decided. Sometimes I do kinda obvious ones (Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, etc.) and sometimes less obvious (or, well, unexpected) ones because ... I've never done them before.  And so this time.  It's supposed to be flippin' amazing.  A cruise from Bergen Norway up the gorgeous coast to Svalbard and check out the polar bears (and lots of other things). It'll be this June.  I'll be lecturing on a topic of key interest for anyone connected with the blog.  (It will not be related to Polar Bears; others will be doing that.  'Cause we'll be seeing them). Wanna come?  I'll be giving out more information anon, but for now, here is the description that I've written for the forthcoming brochure.  Give it some thought for now, with more details coming soon. ******************************   On June 1-14, 2026, I’ll be giving lectures on a cruise traveling up the western coast of Norway to the incredible Svalbard [...]

Teaching has long been a passion of mine, even before I took my first university position at Rutgers in 1984, gulp, forty-one years ago.  After four years there I moved to Chapel Hill and have taught in the Religious Studies Department here since 1988.  And now I have decided it is time for me to retire.  This semester will be my last.  As of January 1, 2026, I will be gainfully unemployed. At least, at the university.  I will still be engaging – actually, having more time to pursue – my other academic interests: my research and publications (Books!), the Blog, and what we originally called BEPS (my company, co-owned with Chris Huntley, that produces online courses, holds conferences, provides consultation services, and so on; if you don’t know about it, see my website bartehrman.com). In short, now that I’m moving out of the ABC’s it will be almost entirely the BBB’s (Books, Blog, BEPS). Well, not exactly.  In addition I will also be able to put more attention to those things that matter most [...]

The previous two posts explained why scholars have such difficulty using the Gospels as historical sources, as explained by early Christianity scholar Marko Marina (see more about him here: https://tragoviproslosti.eu/about-me/).  This primer was mean to set the stage for the eight lectures given by a range of internationally known historical Jesus scholars at our New Insights Into the New Testament conference at the end of September. Marko ALSO provided overviews of what the lectures would  be about and why he thought the topics were important.   Here is what he said about the first four (to be continued in the next post), the lectures given by Mark Goodacre (Duke University), Helen Bond (University of Edinburgh), Dale Allison (Princeton Theological Seminary, emeritus), and Joel Marcus (Duke Divinity School, emeritus): Dr. Mark Goodacre: The Missing Pieces in the Quest for the Historical Jesus I think it was Martin Hengel who once estimated that nearly 80 percent of early Christian literature has been lost to history. That observation resonates strongly with anyone working in the field of antiquity: much of [...]

When I started the blog back in 2012, I had two main goals. The first was to take the historical study of the New Testament and early Christianity out of the academy and make it available to anyone who wanted to learn. The second was to do some good with it. From the very beginning, every membership fee has gone straight to charity. That’s now added up to more than $3 million for organizations fighting hunger, homelessness, and more. But here’s the reality: because every membership fee is passed directly to charity, the blog itself doesn’t keep a penny to cover its own expenses. Running this site costs money (staff, technology, infrastructure, growth). Those costs have only ever been met by a handful of generous supporters working quietly behind the scenes. Without them, there would be no blog, no community, and no charitable giving. Now we’re opening that small group of supporters more formally, and inviting you to become a Blog Steward. (You can proudly call yourself a BS’er!) What It Is A Blog Steward [...]

I have come up with a new way of thinking about our finitude, about the fact that we all die and (in my view) that’s the end of the story.  At least I think it’s a new way.  I don’t recall ever hearing or reading it.  If it is a common view, or a least a view that is out there (and/or long has been!), I have no doubt some of you will tell me. First, some background: My new (to me) thought is predicated, as I just indicated, on my personal opinion that death is the end of the story for each of us, an opinion many of you will heartily disagree with.  I began to hold this opinion when I became an agnostic/atheist some thirty years ago or so.  I don’t think we have souls  that are somehow separate from our physical/material beings or that will live on after we die.  I think this bodily existence is all we will ever have. Many people find that view deeply depressing and [...]

Now that I have discussed the themes, emphases, authors and occasions of the “Johannine epistles” (1, 2, and 3 John) I can provide some suggestions for further reading.  These are all important works written by scholars for non-scholars.  I have given brief annotations for each book to give you a sense of what it’s about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while. I have divided the list into three sections: Books that provide important discussion of one or more of these Catholic epistles, and of the problem of persecution dealt with in 1 Peter. Commentaries that give lengthy introductions to all matters of importance about the book of Acts and then go passage by passage to provide more detailed interpretation (that’s where you can dig more deeply into “what does this particular word actually mean?”; “what is the real point of this passage”; how does this passage relate to what Luke says elsewhere in his two-volume work or to what we can find in other parts of the New [...]

In this post I continue my summaries of the books of the New Testament “In a Nutshell” by turning to the letters of 2 and 3 John.  Because these are so brief, I will deal with them together in a single post, explaining their themes and emphases and exploring the question of who wrote them, when, and why.   For a one-sentence, fifty word summary of the two together, how ‘bout this:   2 and 3 John are letters by an author called the “elder,” the first addressed to a community and the other to one of its prominent members, warning against believers who preach a false understanding of Christ and who refuse to welcome Christian travelers because they disagree with their views.   I can now move on to a more extensive overview of these two books. On one level, they are not nearly as difficult to read as, say, the Gospel of John. Each of them is short and direct, taking up only a page each, about average for most [...]

If you've been following along with the blog the last few years, you've probably heard various rumblings about a new blog platform. You might have even have periodically wondered, "Is that project still happening? What's the latest?"  We're excited to let you know that the first phase of the new platform we've been working on behind the scenes is finally ready to launch on Monday, September 8th. The blog will briefly go offline during this time. Here’s what that means: The blog will likely be down for 8–12 hours, though it could take up to 2 days. During that time you’ll just see a maintenance message when you navigate to the website. If any scheduled posts are impacted, they will simply be published when the site is back up and running. You won't miss anything! When it’s back up, you won’t notice any visible changes. The blog will look and work just the same for the time being. The difference is under the hood. We’ve cleared out years of technical debt, which means from here [...]

I now provide a bullet point list that summarizes "at a glance" Paul's very first surviving letter (and therefore the earliest Christian writing of any kind that we have!), along with some questions to reflect on based on this very interesting text.  It's a short but fascinating letter; if you don't remember it very well, give it a re-read; and do see what I've said about it in this "Nutshell" series, see the posts here: 1 Thessalonians in a Nutshell 1 Thessalonians: Who, When, Why 1 Thessalonians for Further Reading Here now is a quick overview/summary of key points: At a Glance:  1 Thessalonians I Thessalonians is the earliest of Paul’s epistles, and thus the earliest book of the New Testament and the earliest surviving Christian writing of any kind. It can be used to provide clues concerning how Paul went about his missionary activities. He evidently did not preach on the street corner or stage evangelistic rallies, and he did not (contrary to the book of Acts) begin by preaching in [...]