Reader’s Questions Archives - Page 9 of 30 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

More Books of the Apocrypha: Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch

In this post I continue discussing the books of the Apocrypha, accepted as part of Scripture by Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. These are important books, historically and culturally – but hardly known among Protestant readers. Here are three more! Descriptions are taken from my introduction to the Bible. The Wisdom of Solomon The Wisdom of Solomon is a book of positive wisdom (recall Proverbs), which claims to be written by the great king of the United Monarchy. In fact it was written many centuries later, by a Jew in the Diaspora, possibly in the first century b.c.e. or the first century c.e. The book celebrates Wisdom as the greatest gift to humans and insists that it involves proper fear and adoration of God, which will lead to eternal reward. Those who lead ungodly lives, on the other hand “will be punished as their reasoning deserves” (5:10). The exaltation of wisdom recalls Proverbs 8, where Wisdom appears as a female consort with God at the beginning of all things. Here too Wisdom is said [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:43-04:00October 17th, 2018|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Reader’s Questions|

Some of the Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther

Yesterday I answered briefly a question about the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. I’ve decided to go ahead and describe each of the ten. This will take several posts. These are very interesting books, well worth reading, and canonical Scripture for some parts of the Christian church. My summaries here are taken from my Introduction to the Bible. ********************************************************** Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction—by which I mean it is a fictional tale set within a real historical context. Originally the book was written in Aramaic, either in the late third century b.c.e. or the early second. The narrative is set in the eighth century b.c.e. in the city of Nineveh, where the hero of the story, Tobit, has been exiled from his town in Galilee during the conquests of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. In other words, the account is allegedly taking place after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. The story involves two subplots that eventually come to be woven together. The first is about Tobit himself, who is [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:43-04:00October 16th, 2018|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Reader’s Questions|

What Is the Apocrypha (of the Old Testament)?

Here is a recent question I have received about the “Old Testament Apocrypha.” QUESTION Bart, I hope you won’t mind me asking a totally unrelated question: At the beginning of the Christian Era – how many books of the Hebrew Old Testament did the Greek Septuagint translation contain? RESPONSE: This is indeed an important topic, one usually overlooked completely by Protestant readers of the Bible. Here is what I say about the apocrypha in my textbook on the Bible: ************************************************************* In addition to the canonical books we have examined so far, there was other literature written by Jewish authors that cannot be found in the Hebrew Bible but that is of great importance for anyone interested in it. Of these other Jewish books, none is of greater historical significance than a collection of writings that can be found in some Christian versions of the Old Testament. These are the deuterocanonical writings, as they are called in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions; Protestants typically designate them as the Apocrypha. The term [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:43-04:00October 15th, 2018|Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Reader’s Questions|

Mapping the Diversity of Earliest Christianity

Here is a question I received recently. QUESTION: One of my favourite pieces on the blog is your post from 13 July 2015 titled ‘Earliest Christian Diversity’ on the work of Destro and Pesce. I find it fascinating and thought-provoking whenever I re-read it. It’s like new information hidden in plain sight.. Did you ever do any follow-up research or expansion on this topic? (Sorry if you did and I missed it.) RESPONSE: I have to admit, I had forgotten all about this post, and had to look it up. I agree! It's unusually interesting. Not because of anything I say, but because of an intriguing theory proposed by others. Really fascinating. And no, I haven't followed it up (having even forgotten about it.) But it's definitely worth posting again. Here it is! *********************************************************************** In keeping with the current topic of the diversity of early Christianity, I thought I could say something about a book that I just read that I found to be unusually interesting and enlightening. It is by two [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:28-04:00October 12th, 2018|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions, Spread of Christianity|

Studying the Bible as Theology and/or History

Here is an old question that I received that continues to be pressing -- something I think and talk about all the time! QUESTION: Would you please explain more on the differences between Biblical history and theology? Is it difficult as an historian to keep these separate in your personal beliefs? RESPONSE: I deal with this question in each of my three textbooks for undergraduates, since, for them, it is a confusing issue. How can you study the Bible as a historian without religious perspectives guiding your reading. Here is how I explain the issue in the Excursus to the first chapter of my Bible Intro. _________________________________________________________________________ EXCURSUS Most of the people who are deeply interested in the Bible in modern American culture are committed Jews or Christians who have been taught that this is a book of sacred texts, Scripture, unlike other books. For many of these – especially many Christian believers – the Bible is the inspired word of God. In communities of faith that hold such views, the Bible is usually [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:28-04:00September 24th, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations, Teaching Christianity|

How I Take Notes on What I Read for a Trade Book

Now that I have finished writing the draft of my book on the afterlife – which I’m tentatively titling “Heaven, Hell, and the Invention of the Afterlife (that will be the title until my publisher changes it!!) – I have received several questions from blog members about aspects of the writing itself. One reader wanted to know how I keep track of all the things that I read in preparation for writing a book like this (or like anything else). Here is how: When I decide what the next book is going to be, I start in on research by reading some of the most basic, thorough, and relatively recent discussions of the topic by competent scholars. I typically know already what those books are because, well, I’m a scholar in the field and one gets to know these things. Plus, if you want to write a book about something, you already know a good deal about it, including who has written what about it. From there I start compiling bibliography of everything of importance [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:28-04:00September 23rd, 2018|Book Discussions, Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

How Do We Know When the Gospels Were Written?

Here is an important question that I have recently received. It's a tricky one! But completely fundamental to the study of the New Testament. QUESTION: I now have your book “The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings”. Great book/text! Something I haven’t figured out is how do scholars know when the original Gospels (not copies) were written since apparently none survived? RESPONSE: This is a great question, and one that I get asked a lot. How do we actually know when the Gospels were written? It is actually a difficult question to answer, but I’ll start at the beginning, with some basics that I think everyone can agree on. (Well, OK, there is *nothing* that absolutely everyone agrees on, as I’ve learned with some chagrin over the years...) First, Jesus died around the year 30, so the Gospels were written after that. The first really convincing quotations of the Gospels (there are probable allusions earlier than this, but these are the most certain ones) come in the writings of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:27-04:00September 21st, 2018|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions|

A Peculiar Story of Peter’s Martyrdom

Now, in response to the question I started answering a few days ago, I discuss the earliest account we have of the martyrdom of Peter. It is an odd account, and not widely known. Here is what I say about it in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. ************************************************************************************* Peter as Martyr The death of Peter by execution is already alluded to in the Gospel of John – which evidently, then, had been written after the event occurred. As Jesus tells Peter after the resurrection: When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked wherever your wanted; but when you grow old, you will reach out your hands and another will bind you, and lead you where you do not want to g. (21:18) The author concludes this quotation by noting “He said this to signify the kind of death he would experience to glorify God.” It is clear that Peter is being told that he will be executed (he won’t die of natural causes), and that this will be the death of a [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:27-04:00September 19th, 2018|Christian Apocrypha, Reader’s Questions|

Who Was the First Bishop of Rome?
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Who Was the First Bishop of Rome?

History of Christianity (100-300CE), Reader’s Questions

Who Was the First Bishop of Rome?

Who was the first Bishop of Rome? I continue from my post of yesterday, in which a reader asked about whether Peter was really the first bishop in Rome (that is, the first Pope). In my next post I'll deal with the question, also asked, about if we have any solid information about how Peter died (crucified upside-down??) SO, Who was the First Bishop of Rome? According to the second-century Irenaeus, it was a man named Linus, who was appointed to the office by Peter and Paul (Against Heresies 3, 3, 3). In one place the father of church history, Eusebius, appears to agree with this, to some extent, when he says that “the first to be called bishop after the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul was Linus” (Church History, 3, 2); but here Linus is appointed not by Peter, but by someone else, after Peter’s death. And to confuse things even further, just a few paragraphs later Eusebius phrases the matter differently, saying that “Linus ... was the first after Peter to be [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:27-04:00September 17th, 2018|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Reader’s Questions|

Peter: First Bishop (Pope) in Rome?

Today I move on to something else (I’ll get to the after life after more life). Here’s an interesting question I received about Peter: the first bishop of Rome? QUESTION: Is there any historical evidence that the apostle Peter was the first Bishop of Rome and that he was martyred upside down on a cross? RESPONSE: Ah, I get asked this one (or these two) on occasion. I dealt with them both in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (which, by the way, was a blast to write). First I’ll deal with Peter in Rome – which will take a couple of posts; then the question of his martyrdom. Here is what I say about the first in my book ******************************************************************************* In some circles, Peter is best known as the first bishop of Rome, the first pope. In the period I’m interested in for this book, however, there is little evidence to support this view. On the contrary, several authors indicate that Peter was not the first leader of the church there [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:27-04:00September 16th, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Would the Disciples Die for A Lie? Proofs for the Resurrection.

Reminiscing about blogs of years gone by, I found this one from almost exactly six years ago. And it's still relevant for today. The disciples all died for their belief that Jesus was raised from the dead, right? So they must have *known* he was actually raised. No one would die for a lie. Right? Here's the question a blog member asked, and my response. I still hold to it! *********************************************************************************** QUESTION: Another very very popular evidence put forward for the resurrection is “the disciples would not have died for what they knew was a lie, therefore it must have happened.” I hear this all the time. You note that they really believed they saw Jesus after he died so they were not lying. However, is there evidence (historical or literary) that they were killed because of their belief in Jesus’ resurrection? RESPONSE: Ah yes, if I had a fiver for every time I’ve heard this comment over the years, I could retire to a country-home in Maine…. Several other people have responded [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:14-04:00September 13th, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Did My Loss of Faith Affect my Scholarship?

I ran across this blog post from six years ago that I think is particularly interesting. It's a question about my personal religious views and my scholarship, and I'm interested to see that now, all these years later, I would pretty much answer it the same! That's heartening... Here it is: ****************************************************************************** One question I received recently particularly struck me – as it caused me to think for a bit – was about how my loss of faith affected my scholarship. That’s a really good question. And now that I’ve thought it over a bit, I think the answer is a little surprising. To my knowledge, my loss of faith has had almost ZERO effect on my scholarship. That seems weird, since my scholarship is on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity, and you would think that if I were no longer a believer, that it would certainly change how I look at both the NT and the history of the early church. But in fact, I don’t think I have [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:42:13-04:00September 6th, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Is 1 Clement Older than Some Books of the New Testament?

This will be my final post on the book of 1 Clement. Now that I’ve summarized what the book is about and said something about its author, I can turn to the original question I was asked, about its date. The time of its writing is an important question, for a reason you might not suspect. It is almost always said – I myself regularly say this, as a kind of simple “short hand,” knowing that it’s probably not literally true, that the books of the New Testament are the “earliest” Christian writings we have. In fact, if, as is often thought, Revelation was written around 95 CE, and 2 Peter around 120, then a couple of other Christian books may have ante-dated them, including 1 Clement and the Didache, two of the apostolic fathers. So too, the letters of Ignatius of Antioch were almost certainly written around 110 CE. So, the big question here is: when did this anonymous author from Rome write the book of 1 Clement? This is how I discuss the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:58-04:00August 13th, 2018|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Reader’s Questions|

The Letter of First Clement: An Overview

I received a request recently about one of the “Apostolic Fathers.” This term does not refer to just any of the post-canonical writers of early Christianity, but to a specific group of ten (or eleven, depending on how you count) authors who were later considered “authoritative” in some sense by proto-orthodox thinkers, but were believed to have been writing after the NT period. They include letters by Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna, and texts called 1 and 2 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, the letter to Diognetus, and the fragments of Papias and Quadratus. This is one of the most understudied corpora of early Christianity, and I’ve been intensely interested in the texts for well over twenty years. About fifteen years ago I produced a new translation of them for the Loeb Classical Library (2 vols., Harvard University Press, 2004), including versions of the Greek (and a bit of Latin) texts, my translation, introductions, and a few notes. Many lay folk have never [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:58-04:00August 10th, 2018|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Reader’s Questions|

Is There Sarcasm in the New Testament?

Here is an unusually interesting question I have received: QUESTION: During the time that the New Testament was being written, especially during Paul’s time, did they have in society what we consider sarcasm? Sometimes certain sentences pop out to me as they could have meant them in a sarcastic tone. I know it is probably just me since I am a sarcastic person. RESPONSE: Now *that’s* an interesting question that I, literally, have never been asked before! But it’s something I’ve thought about a bit over the years, and I think the short answer to it is Yes. Let me start by giving a definition of sarcasm. You can find various definitions just on the Internet, but the basic idea is that sarcasm is a form of humor that used irony in order to mock another. It is difficult to identify sarcasm in ancient writings. In fact, as you’ve probably noticed, sometimes it’s hard to know if someone is being sarcastic when they are speaking directly to our face! The way we [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:57-04:00August 5th, 2018|Historical Jesus, Paul and His Letters, Reader’s Questions|

Did the Original Gospels Describe Jesus’ Miracles?

While I'm on the topic of miracles, here's a particularly interesting question I received a long time ago, and my response. QUESTION: I have looked up the content of all the papyri I'm aware of (off of links on wikipedia, so who knows if they're accurate). It is my understanding that although p52, p90, and p104 are dated around 125-150 AD, they contain fragments of John 18 and Matt 21 only, and that it's not until 200 AD that manuscripts emerge which actually contain accounts of supernatural actions by Jesus. So, it's possible that accounts of miracles existed in copies that got destroyed, but is it fair to say that the earliest available copies of accounts of Jesus's supernatural actions date from around 200 AD? In other words, assuming people on average had kids by age 20 back then, and thus 20 years counts as a generation, is it fair to say that the earliest available accounts of miracles by Jesus were written by the great, great, great, great, great, great, grandson of somebody who would have been [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:57-04:00August 2nd, 2018|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions|

My First Taste of Critical Scholarship

In this week’s mailbag I deal with an interesting question about how knowing about a topic is not the same as understanding the scholarship on it. The question begins by quoting something I said on the blog a while back QUESTION: Quoting me: “That’s because serious scholarship is itself hard. It’s not an easy read. It’s not like reading your favorite novel.” Can you recall the first book of serious scholarship that you had to read? Did you think, “Gosh. Maybe this course of study ain’t for me”?! RESPONSE Oh boy do I remember that! It happened my first semester in graduate school at Princeton Theological Seminary. I arrived on campus there pretty confident in my understanding of the Bible and most things connected with it. I had already spent three very intense years doing a diploma in Bible-Theology at Moody Bible Institute and two years at Wheaton College, among other things learning Greek and taking courses on the translation and interpretation of New Testament texts in Greek. I thought my training at [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:57-04:00July 29th, 2018|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Did Peter Use a Secretary for his Writings? A Blast from the Past

Looking through some posts of blogs-past I came across this interesting one from six years ago now! I think it's an intriguing question, and the answer is not what most people would probably think. QUESTION: What do you make of the author's reference to a Silvanus in 1 Peter 5:12? Could it be that this really is Peter saying he used a secretary to write this letter? I know you said there is little to no evidence that people used secretaries, but what do you make of this reference to a Silvanus? RESPONSE: Yes, this is a question that I deal with in my book Forged, and that I deal with at yet greater length in the book coming out in the fall, Forgery and Counterforgery. Several points are important to make about the question, but first a bit of background. FOR THE REST OF THIS POST, log in as a Member. Click here for membership options. If you don't belong yet, JOIN!! Background. Scholars have long noted that the book of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:57-04:00July 26th, 2018|Catholic Epistles, Forgery in Antiquity, Reader’s Questions|

How a Book Gets Its Title

As I am getting set to start writing my book on the Afterlife (the plan is to begin the first week of August), I am mulling over possible titles. And just as I have been in the midst of my muddling, I have received this question. QUESTION: Dr, Ehrman, can you explain a little how you go about choosing a title for your trade books ? Is it a collaborative effort between you and your agent or publisher? Can it be a difficult process where the title can change as the book progresses . And if so,, can you give just a couple examples when you had decided on a title (could you name the original title ) and changed the title to the book that finally appeared at our local book store ? RESPONSE: I’ve dealt with this issue on the blog before. Here is what I said about it four years ago, soon after publishing How Jesus Became God. ***************************************************************************** In my previous post I discussed the strategies behind giving [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:40-04:00July 22nd, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Visiting the Monastery at Mount Sinai: A Blast From the Past

A long-time reader has asked that I re-post one of her favorite bits from the blog archives, about my trip a few years ago to Saint Catherine's monastery at Mount Sinai. It was indeed an amazing trip with an interesting tale connected to it, involving one of the greatest biblical manuscript discoveries of the 19th century (or, actually, of all time). This will take two posts. ***************************************************************************************************** In my previous post I talked about Constantin von Tischendorf and his discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus in St. Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai peninsula in 1844 and then 1859. I have a personal anecdote to relate about the manuscript, one of the most interesting things every to happen to me on my various travels hither and yon. To make sense of the anecdote I need to provide some background information. As I indicated in my previous post, when Tischendorf discovered the codex Sinaiticus (as it was later called), he considered it to be the most ancient biblical manuscript then known to exist. He was right. It was. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:41:40-04:00July 14th, 2018|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

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