Thanks to the incredible 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, let me know your situation (why you would like to take advantage of this offer) and provide me with the following information: 1)      Your first and last name. 2)      Your preferred personal email. 3)      Your preferred user name (no spaces). 4)      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 [...]

‘Tis the season!   It’s hard to believe, but the holidays are upon us again.  And I want to open up a holiday giving option that can help out people who really want to be on the blog but cannot afford the membership fees. As many of you know, last year, thanks to a number of generous donors, we pulled this off in a big way.  It happened in two stages.   Two anonymous donors had provided some funds to pay for memberships for a few people who wanted to be on the blog but because of personal circumstances, could not afford the membership fees.   I put out the offer on my Facebook page, asking if anyone was in that boat, and within twenty minutes I had thirty requests –all from people who were eager to join but simply did not have the means to do so otherwise.  I had to shut down the offer nearly as soon as I made it.   This made me suspect that there were a lot more people out there like [...]

  I am happy to say that the membership forum – where people can interact with each others’ ideas, thoughts, claims, arguments, and perspectives directly, without any interference from me – is going very well.   We started off slowing, with just a couple of people posting questions, comments, and responses.  It slowly has been building.  And it is getting to be more and more every day.  I want to encourage you to consider contributing – and to tell others about it as a way to increase membership on the blog. (As you know, blog membership is, for me, what this entire enterprise is about, because I do the blog as a way of raising money for charity.  As far as I’m concerned, the more money raised, the better we’re doing.   Please encourage friends, colleagues, family members, neighbors, and others to join!) It is very easy to participate in the Forum.   Simply click the tab from the homepage that says, yes, “Membership Forum.”  And go from there. To this point the posts and responses have followed [...]

A new day is dawning.   We have decided to establish a Discussion Forum for the blog.  It will be up and running very soon, probably later today.  Many thanks to Steven Ray, my assistant in all things technical and technological, for all his hard work in getting this set up. The forum is designed to provide an outlet for members of The Bart Ehrman Blog: The History & Literature of Early Christianity to have discussions *among themselves* about issues of interest to them.   The one major proviso is that these interests need to be related to the concerns of the blog – the history of early Christianity (including the historical Jesus and the NT, up through the fourth century or so) and related topics (such as the Hebrew Bible).   Now, instead of simply making comments on my own posts – which will continue at the same rate as before, i.e. 5-6 / week – you can talk with one another about related topics. I will not be participating directly in the Discussion Forum as a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]