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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

After I posted the story of the mother who called me about her daughter's failing my class (and then not), a reader of the blog asked me to repeat a post from years ago, of the best excuse I've ever received from a student for missing an exam.   I dug around and found it.  It begins with my apologies for not getting to my Mailbag as much as I should, as it grows longer and longer.  The apologies still apply!  And the excuse remains the best I've ever gotten.  Here's the post: **************************************************************************** My sincere apologies to any- and every-one who has asked me a direct question that I have said I would devote a post or more to.   The list of questions that I need to address is as long as my arm, and in many cases I suppose people forgot that they even asked!  But if you asked and are waiting – apologies.   I still have the questions and I will get to them, slowly.  But I find that once I start answering [...]

Here is an interesting question that I sometimes get asked, which brought to mind one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me in my now 34 years of teaching at the university level.   QUESTION: As you teach your students the material, how do you handle those students with an evangelical or fundamentalist background that refuse to accept your findings?   RESPONSE: This is a great question, and I was all set to answer it directly, when it suddenly brought to mind a *related* question that I’ll address first.  (I’ll save this specific question to answer in a later post.)  This other question is whether I’ve ever had parents of students from evangelical or fundamentalist background call me to complain about what I was teaching their children.   That must happen a lot, right? As it turns out, the answer is no.  It never happens. Ssince I started teaching in 1984, I have never ever had a parent call to complain about what I teach -- or about misleading their child, or promoting [...]