Public Forum Archives - Page 80 of 89 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

Why Don’t You Believe Like Your Teacher, Dr. Metzger?

QUESTION: Dr. Ehrman just out of curiosity, why do people pit you against your teacher Dr. Bruce Metzger? Did Metzger also find the construction of the originals impossible due to the late manuscript attestation and the inability to know what the original looked like? Or did your teacher, Dr. Metzger, disagree and hold to biblical inerrancy? RESPONSE: It’s a very good question and it has a very straightforward answer. The people who do this are all, to my knowledge, conservative evangelical Christians who find it upsetting over two of the things that I say: (1) that I am now no longer a believer because I do not think the Christian faith can adequately explain how a good and powerful God can be in control of this world when there is so much senseless pain, misery, and suffering in it and, completely unrelatedly (2) that since we do not have lots of early manuscripts of the New Testament (let alone the originals) there are places where we cannot know for sure what the authors originally wrote. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:29-04:00November 24th, 2014|Bart’s Biography, Public Forum, Reader’s Questions|

The Year’s Society of Biblical Literature Meeting

This coming week, on Thursday, I head off to the annual Society of Biblical Literature, which this year is being held in San Diego. I’m not sure if I’ve discussed the meeting on the blog before. It is the main professional meeting that I go to every year; it’s always held the weekend before Thanksgiving (well, Saturday through Tuesday). I go on Thursday evenings because I always have a commitment there first thing Friday morning. The SBL is a learned society for all professors of biblical studies – and graduate students and others academically committed to the field. It’s not a really a conference that layfolk would or should be interested in. It is a group of serious scholars talking serious scholarship using serious scholarly jargon based on scholarly assumptions. Not fit for normal human consumption. When I say a “group,” that makes it sound rather small, like a couple of dozen people. And it’s not actually that kind of group. It’s a group of many thousands. The Society meets at the same time, in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:13-04:00November 15th, 2014|History of Biblical Scholarship, Public Forum|

A Newly Discovered Gospel? Was Jesus Married with Children???

I have been repeatedly asked about the brand new news story, that a new Gospel has been discovered that shows that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had children. If this sounds like (bad) fiction to you (think Da Vinci Code) (or for movies: think “Last Temptation of Christ”), it is. The claim is completely bogus. This “new” Gospel is not a Gospel, but a text that scholars have known for roughly forever. It’s not a Christian text (ostensibly). It’s about Joseph (as in the Old Testament) and his wife Asenath. Rather than explaining why the new claims about this text are not worth taking seriously (no scholar will), instead of explaining the whole situation myself, I give you a post made by Bob Cargill, assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa. I reproduce his post here with Bob’s permission. It’s a bit long for this blog, but I thought you should get the whole shooting match before you. *************************************************************** Review of “The Lost Gospel” by [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:12-04:00November 13th, 2014|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Discussion Forum (Please read to the end)

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:12-04:00November 5th, 2014|Public Forum|

Who Changed the Bible and Why? Diane Rehm Show

When my book Misquoting Jesus came out, I had a number of radio and television interviews, including this -- one of my favorites, on the The Diane Rehm Show (December 5, 2005). The show is produced at WAMU 88.5 and distributed by National Public Radio, NPR Worldwide, and SIRIUS satellite radio. This episode was called "Who Changed the Bible and Why?" In the interview I talk about how scribes copying the NT made both mistakes and intentional changes, and how some of these changes involve widely held beliefs about the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself. Other issues were raised as well, including, for example, homosexuality as understood in Jesus' time and the Christmas holiday. Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition:

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:56-04:00November 3rd, 2014|Public Forum, Video Media|

Why I’m To Be Pitied for Having Been the Wrong Kind of Fundamentalist

Several readers of this blog have pointed me to an article in the conservative journal First Things; the article (a review of a book by the evangelical scholar Craig Blomberg) was written by Louis Markos, an English professor at Houston Baptist University. The title is called “Ehrman Errant.” I must say, that did not sound like a promising beginning. I had never heard of Louis Markos before – had certainly never met him, talked with him about myself or my life, shared with him my views of important topics, spent time to see how he ticked and to let him see how I do. I don’t know the man, and he doesn’t me. And so it was with some considerable surprise that I read the beginning of his article. “I feel great pity for Bart Ehrman.” So, from someone I don’t know, that’s a bit of a shocker. I can understand why a friend of mine might feel some (but not great?) pity for me at some points of my life – when I had [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:11-04:00November 1st, 2014|Bart's Critics, Bart’s Biography, Public Forum|

What Is Different in My Textbook?

I have nearly finished making all the revisions for the sixth edition of my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. It has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would, much to my chagrin. But it is soon over. I hope to have it sent off next week. Several readers have asked what I’ve changed this time around. Here is (part of) my new Preface, that explains how I originally imagined the book and what I’ve done differently in this iteration. ********************************************************** Preface When I started doing research on the first edition of this textbook, twenty years ago now, I had very clear ideas about what I wanted it to be. First and foremost, I wanted to approach the New Testament from a rigorously historical perspective. It is not that I had any difficulties at the time, either professionally or personally, with introductions that were more geared toward theology, or exegesis, or literary criticism. But I wanted my book to be different. I wanted to situate the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:27:11-04:00October 27th, 2014|Book Discussions, Public Forum|

Can My Students Believe in the Inerrancy of the Bible?

QUESTION: Do you ever get a student in your class who doggedly insists upon the inerrancy of the Bible? If so, and if they write their term papers in support of Biblical inerrancy, is it possible for them to get a passing grade in your class? RESPONSE: HA! That’s a great question! So, part of the deal of teaching in the Bible Belt is that lots of my students – most of them? – have very conservative views about the Bible as the Word of God. A few years ago I used to start my class on the New Testament, with something like 300 students in it, by asking the students a series of questions, just for information. I would ask: How many of you in here would agree with the proposition that the Bible is the inspired Word of God (PHOOM! Almost everyone raises their hands) OK, great: Now, how many of you have read the Harry Potter series? (PHOOM! Again, almost everyone raises their hand). And now, how many of you have [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:56-04:00October 24th, 2014|Public Forum, Reader’s Questions, Teaching Christianity|

The Life of Brian & The Apocalyptic Jesus

On the blog some months ago I mentioned the "Jesus and Brian" conference in London this past summer, devoted to exploring the Historical Jesus in light of Monty Python's Life of Brian. The event was held at the King's College London, Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre, King’s Building, Strand, London WC2R 2LS on June 20-22nd, 2014. I gave one of the talks at the conference, and it is provided here thanks to the labors of the audio-video team at Kings College and our support person, Steven Ray who had to manipulate it to improve the quality. Further details about the event can be read here: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/events/jandb/about.aspx Following is the abstract that I gave of my paper, in advance: When the Life of Brian first came out, I was a gung-ho, born-again, evangelical Christian in seminary, studying for ministry. Even though I found parts of the film hilarious (I tried not to laugh), other parts – not. Some of these were predictably offensive to a pious sensitivity (“Always look on the bright side of life”!); but one was [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:56-04:00October 20th, 2014|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

The New Discussion Forum!!! Soon Up and Running.

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:56-04:00October 19th, 2014|Public Forum|

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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:55-04:00October 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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:39-04:00September 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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:39-04:00September 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:

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:25-04:00September 22nd, 2014|Christian Apocrypha, New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum, Video Media|

Letter from Urban Ministries of Durham
Gallery
Letter from Urban Ministries of Durham

Public Forum

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), [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:39-04:00September 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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:38-04:00September 16th, 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.

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:25-04:00September 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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:25-04:00September 2nd, 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.

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:25-04:00September 1st, 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 [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:26:24-04:00August 23rd, 2014|Public Forum|

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