Early Christian Doctrine Archives - Page 2 of 8 - The Bart Ehrman Blog

“Redemptive Gifts”: Can Giving to Charity Save Your Soul?

In my previous post I began to show that after Jesus’ death, his followers started to soften his message that it was necessary for his followers to give up all their material goods. In fact, Christian leaders started seeing the virtue of wealth in their communities and began to claim that wealthy people who gave of their goods generously (without getting rid of them all) could help provide salvation for their souls. Such views become standard within the Christian tradition, creating two intriguing ironies for the religion, one related to the proclamation of Jesus during his life and other connected to the proclamation of the salvation he brought by his death. Jesus’ own views of wealth came to be reversed by his later followers, making it possible for them to increase their numbers in a world not at all likely to follow his example and message of voluntary poverty for the sake of the kingdom. On the other hand, precisely these missionary successes led subsequent generations of Christians to modify the original Christian understanding of [...]

BDEhrman2022-07-05T10:40:27-04:00July 14th, 2022|Early Christian Doctrine, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Does Luke Have Contradictory Views of the Atonement?

I return now to the seemingly simple but inordinately complicated question I received that has led to this short thread over the past week or so on Luke's understanding of why Jesus died. In the thread so far (in case you haven't read it) I've argued that Luke (author of both the Gospel and Acts) did not have a doctrine of atonement. He certainly thought that Jesus had to die: but Jesus' death is not what brought a reconciliation with God (= salvation) per se. It made people realize their personal guilt before God, leading them to repent. Because they repented, God then forgave them. Jesus' death, in other words, was a motivation to return to God, it was not a bloody sacrifice that took away sins. With that as background: here again is the question. QUESTION: Although the gospel of Luke doesn’t have an atonement message, what are your thoughts about Acts 20:28 [were Paul is recorded as saying:] Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit [...]

BDEhrman2022-06-20T18:37:49-04:00July 7th, 2022|Acts of the Apostles, Early Christian Doctrine|

If Jesus’ Death Was Not an Atonement: Why Did He Die??

I have been dealing with the question of Jesus’ death in the Gospel of Luke and have been arguing that Luke does not appear to have understood Jesus’ death to be an atonement for sins. He has eliminated the several indications from his source, the Gospel of Mark, that Jesus’ death was an atonement, and he never indicates in either his Gospel or the book of Acts that Jesus died “for” you or “for” others or “for” anyone. Then why did Jesus die? It is clear that Luke thought that Jesus had to die. For Luke it was all part of God’s plan. But why? What is the theological meaning of Jesus’ death for Luke, if it was not a sacrifice that brought about a right standing before God (which is what the term “atonement” means)? You get the clearest view of Luke’s understanding of Jesus’ death from the speeches delivered by the apostles in the book of Acts. As you probably know, Acts is about the spread of the Christian church throughout the Roman Empire after [...]

BDEhrman2022-06-20T18:30:27-04:00July 6th, 2022|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

Does Luke Get Rid of the Atonement?

In my previous post I tried to argue that the longer version of the account of Jesus’ Last Supper in Luke could have been created by a scribe who wanted to make the passage sound more like what is familiar from Matthew, Mark, and John, and to stress the point made in those other accounts as well, that Jesus’ broken body and shed blood are what bring redemption. The passage as you recall reads like this: 17 And he took a cup and gave thanks, and he said: “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you that from now on I will not drink from the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.” 19 And taking bread he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body that is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 Likewise after supper (he took) the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood that is shed for you. 21 [...]

BDEhrman2022-06-20T18:24:19-04:00July 5th, 2022|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts|

What Did Jesus Say at the Last Supper?

Here is a seemingly simple but inordinately complicated question I received from a read on the blog: QUESTION: Although the gospel of Luke doesn’t have an atonement message, what are your thoughts about Acts 20:28: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood”? This sure sounds like it has atonement implications. RESPONSE: When I got the question my idea was to give a direct and simple response. But I realized that would be neither easy nor satisfying. It would take a post. But then I realized that wouldn’t be enough either: it would take several posts. So, right – this will be a thread. I begin with some background. I have dealt with this particular question about Acts 20:28 only once in my life, to my recollection (never on the blog, I believe), in my book The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture. To set up that discussion I need to [...]

BDEhrman2022-06-20T18:14:34-04:00July 2nd, 2022|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine, New Testament Manuscripts|

Jesus’ View of Salvation: Who Can Have Eternal Life?

Jesus believed that destruction was coming for some people, and salvation for others. So did the author of Revelation. So what’s the difference? Big difference. In modern terms, Jesus' views of who would be saved were non-discriminatory. That is, they were not based on who a person was, but what she did. It did not matter if she was a she or a he; if she was a Jew or a gentile; if she believed one set of things or another; if she came from one nation/nationality or another. What mattered was how she lived. Other Jews at the time probably had similar views, but they are striking on the lips of Jesus. Salvation does not come necessarily to Jews by virtue of being the chosen ones. It comes to anyone who lives a life of love, caring for others, especially those in need. To see this, consider two passages from the Gospel of Luke. First note Eternal life? Seems important. Jesus' view? Especially important. Want to keep reading? Join the blog! Click here for membership [...]

BDEhrman2021-09-12T10:52:08-04:00September 15th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Historical Jesus|

The Trinity! A Final Summation

I would now like to wrap up this rather long thread on where the Trinity came from. When I started the thread, sometime back in the 19th century, I had imagined it would take three or four posts. But then I realized that it would give me an opportunity to talk about all sorts of important things: the early Christian idea of God, the divinity of Christ in relation to the Father, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and so on. But now I will try a one-post synopsis. The earliest Christians inherited a strict monotheism from Judaism. Not all Jews were monotheists. Over history, some worshiped other gods; others worshiped the one God of Israel but acknowledged other gods existed (making them henotheists or monolatrists) ; others said there was only one God and the other gods simply didn’t exist. Most Christians came to take that view – or at least to say that the other gods, if they existed, were demons. Jesus himself appears to have been a strict monotheist. As were [...]

BDEhrman2022-07-03T16:51:57-04:00June 10th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine|

Confusing Messages about Jesus and the Father: John 14

The Gospel of John is extremely important for understanding where the doctrine of the Trinity came from. I should stress: the Trinity does not appear in the Gospel – nowhere does the Gospel say that there are three persons, all distinct from one another, all of them equally God, and yet there is only one God. That, in a nutshell is the doctrine of the Trinity. But even though the Gospel does not express the doctrine (either does any other book of the NT), the book could later be mined by those who wanted to find support for it. To that end, no passage could be more important than John 14. In my previous post I explained a bit about the “Farewell Discourse,” the long five-chapter speech and then prayer of Jesus on his last evening, before his arrest. In chapter 14 Jesus hits on many of the key themes of the entire address (chs. 13-17; the longest speech of Jesus in the Gospels). He prepares his disciples by telling them that he will now [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-30T16:05:20-04:00June 8th, 2021|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

You Don’t Want To Blaspheme the Spirit! But What’s It Mean?

Since I've been posting now on the role of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, I've been getting a number of questions about what it means to "blaspheme the Holy Spirit." In some cases the question is urgent, from someone who fears she or he has committed the sin. That would be a problem. Jesus says that THAT sin is the only one that is unforgivable. Forever. Serious stuff. My view is that anyone who is concerned they've committed it almost by definition has not committed it. But that will take a bit of explaining. I looked it up and I have posted on this a couple of times over the years, including just a year ago -- but since it keeps reappearing as a question, I thought I should go over the topic again. So here's the deal. The earliest reference to the idea of the “unforgiveable sin” comes to us in the Gospel of Matthew (it is taken from the so-called Q source): “Therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will [...]

BDEhrman2021-06-07T17:51:08-04:00June 3rd, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Reader’s Questions|

The Spirit in the Life of Jesus

I have pointed out that the earliest Christians believed they were living at the end of time and that in fulfillment of the promises of Scripture, especially in the Old Testament prophet Joel, they (or at least many of them) believed God had sent his Spirit to guide and direct them in these final days before the Kingdom of God arrived. We find this idea in the letters of Paul (our first Christian author), in the book of Acts (e.g., on the Day of Pentecost in ch. 2), and elsewhere in the New Testament. In this post I want to point out that when later Christians told their stories about Jesus they took this belief that the Spirit had come upon them and applied it to the (earlier) life of Jesus, saying that the Spirit was particularly manifest in his life, since he was the one who inaugurated the end of time. You get some a whiff of that view already in the Gospel of Mark. When Jesus is baptized in the opening chapter, the [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-24T11:40:42-04:00June 2nd, 2021|Acts of the Apostles, Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Doctrine|

The Holy Spirit in Charge of the Church (?)

In my earlier posts I started to show the early Christians believed that because they were living at the very end of time. This was an interim period between the time when the resurrection of the dead began with Jesus being raised and was soon to culminate with the general resurrection, in which all who had ever died would be brought back to life to face judgment. Most important for our purposes here, these Christians thought God had sent the Spirit upon them in fulfillment of the prophecies of Scripture, especially Joel 2. The Spirit was both the sign of the end of time and a helper for those living in it. Since now God was closer to his people than ever, arguably since the Garden of Eden (as the End was beginning to be more like the Beginning), he communicated with them directly, as he had once upon a time. Now was the time that he gave dreams, visions, and prophesies directly to people, not just isolated prophets, in order to convey to them [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-06T10:57:50-04:00June 1st, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|

The Coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost

In a previous post I discussed the prophet Joel, who used a disaster that had struck as the occasion to make his proclamation about the will of God. A horrible plague of locusts had hit the land of Judah that had decimated the crops and food supply; Joel proclaimed that it was a warning from God that if his people did not return to him, matters would get worse – they would be invaded by a foreign army from the north (the Assyrians) and face massive destruction. This would be the “day of the LORD,” which was not to be seen as a happy prospect. But as with many prophets of coming destruction, Joel also indicated that God would have pity on his people if they would turn to him in repentance. After the horrible events to come, God would bring salvation to Judah, removing the foreign threat and restoring the earth; there would be abundant rain, plentiful crops, productive livestock. The years of drought, famine, and military invasion would end, and all would be [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-11T20:36:47-04:00May 29th, 2021|Acts of the Apostles, Early Christian Doctrine|

The Coming of the Spirit at the End of Time

Even though the Spirit of God shows up here and there throughout the Old Testament, starting of course already in Genesis 1:2, continuing on occasion through the narratives and in the prophets, it is not really a central narrational or theological theme. That contrasts with the New Testament. Here the Spirit of God is enormously important, on every level. The historical reason for that is that the earliest Christians believed that with the death and resurrection of Jesus they had entered into the End of the Ages. They were living at the end times. As we have seen, the resurrection of the dead – when God raised bodies back to live, some to face judgment and others to be given an eternal reward – was to transpire at the end of this age; in the Bible this future resurrection was first spoken of explicitly in Daniel 12:1-3, the last chapter of the final book of the Hebrew Bible to be written. But the idea of a future resurrection became a widely accepted theological notion in [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-11T20:15:59-04:00May 25th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Why the Spirit Mattered for the Earliest Christians

During the earlier parts of this thread on the Trinity, I kept thinking that by the time I got to the Holy Spirit there wouldn’t be much to say: it’s all about the Father and Son. And even as I started planning this final part on the Spirit, I thought I would do it in a post, maybe two. But now that I’m digging into it, I’m realizing that the one-or-two post thing doesn’t make sense without a lot of background. Now I’ve decided I need to take the long path to get there. Consider it the scenic route. I’ve been talking so far about the Spirit in the Hebrew Bible – from Genesis 1 up through the prophets. The Spirit is far more important for early Christianity, and hence for the New Testament, than for ancient Israelite religion (and hence the Old Testament), but I don’t believe I’ve ever articulated the reasons fully, either in writing or speaking. For a long time, I’ve thought it works like this, in a nutshell. (This may seem [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-03T11:15:40-04:00May 16th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|

How Did the Holy Spirit Get Into the Trinity? In the Beginning….

Since I started this thread on the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, I have received the same question over and over again: What about the Holy Spirit? As I’ve repeatedly answered, I can’t really deal with that question until I finish explaining how the “orthodox” view of the relationship of the Father and Son came to be settled. In fact, that view never was really settled. There were debates for a very long time. But I’ve taken us up through the major issues, up to the council of Nicea, where it was decided that Christ was not a subordinate divine being from eternity past who at some point long, long before the creation of the universe had been brought into being by God, but that he had always existed, along with the Father and was not subordinate to him but was equal to him in every way, “of the very same substance” as the Father. And so, we have two persons, completely equal, both fully God, distinct from one another, but in some [...]

BDEhrman2021-05-07T17:57:35-04:00May 5th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

The Council of Nicaea and The Resulting View of Christ

I have been discussing the Arian controversy over how to understand the relationship of the Father and the Son – the crucial element in establishing the doctrine of the Trinity. It led to the Council of Nicea. A lot could be, and has been, said about the Council. It is NOT when church Fathers decided which books would be in the New Testament and is NOT when they decided that Jesus was divine (even though that’s what you read in the Da Vinci Code !!). They did not discuss the first issue and everyone at the council already fully believed Christ was God. The question was: in what sense? Here is what I say about the Council in my book The Triumph of Christianity, in a chapter in which I deal with the emperor Constantine and his involvement with the church after his conversion. I begin by summarizing the two main positions in question – Arius’s view of Christ and his bishop Alexander’s view. ********************* Arius maintained that Christ, the Logos, could not be equal [...]

BDEhrman2021-04-16T12:00:32-04:00May 2nd, 2021|Constantine, Early Christian Doctrine, Fourth-Century Christianity|

You Call This a Heresy? The Views of Arius, In His Own Words

Here I resume my previous post about the biggest theological controversy in Christian history, which, to modern ears, sounds rather, well trivial. It certainly sounded that way to some of the people who were dealing with it at the time. Others thought it was a life and death matter. It had to do with who Christ was in relation to God. To refresh your memory, the presbyter Arius of Alexandria developed his understanding of Christ in the early fourth century. In a nutshell, he thought that Christ was created in God’s own image by God himself, and so bears the title God, but he is not the “true” God. Only God himself is. Christ’s divine nature was derived from the Father; he came into being at some point in the remote past before the universe was made; and so he is a creation or creature of God. In short, Christ was a kind of second-tier God, subordinate to God and inferior to God in every respect. Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, was not at all [...]

BDEhrman2021-04-06T20:50:33-04:00April 25th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine|

A Heresy that May Not Sound Heretical to You: Arius of Alexandria

I am getting far along now in my discussion of how the Trinity developed. A major development occurred in the fourth century that, remarkably, that many people still have heard about, seventeen hundred years later. Unfortunately *what* they typically hear about it is completely wrong. This is the “Arian controversy,” which was the dispute that let to the calling of the Council of Nicea in 325 CE by the Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. (After his conversion *every* Roman emperor was Christian except his nephew Julian, who ruled briefly – from 361-63 – before being killed in battle; his death was not mourned by the Christians. He had tried to stamp out Christianity and reinstate paganism as the state-approved religion. Who knows what would have happened if he had ruled for 33 years instead of 3….) Many people think that the Arian controversy was over the issue of whether Jesus was God or not. According to that inestimable authority of all things ancient, Dan Brown, in The Da Vinci Code, [...]

BDEhrman2021-04-08T19:10:53-04:00April 24th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine|

How Could Christ Be Both God and a Human — At Once? The Unusual View of Origen

In this long thread on the Trinity I have been trying to explain how Christians came to the view that Jesus was God but that he was separate from God the Father – that both were God, but they were two different persons, and yet there was only one God. I will have far less to say about the Spirit, since he/she/it got added to the mix more or less because Christ was already in it, as we will see. So far I have taken us up to the early third century, where one view had come to be widely rejected even though earlier it had been prominent: that Jesus actually *was* God the Father, come in the flesh (often called “modalism”). Now I want to look at a more sophisticated way of understanding the relationship of Christ to the Father. This one comes in the writings of Origen, one of the truly important Christian thinkers of the first three Christian centuries. Origen came from Alexandria and was exceptionally learned and unbelievably prolific. According to [...]

BDEhrman2021-04-06T17:48:02-04:00April 18th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

Nope Jesus is Not Yahweh
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Nope Jesus is Not Yahweh

Early Christian Doctrine, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

Nope Jesus is Not Yahweh

In my last post, I pointed out that some conservative evangelical Christians (maybe others? These are the ones I know about) claim that Jesus, in the Bible, is actually to be understood as Yahweh. Jesus is not Yahweh, and in this post, I want to explain why. Again, if someone knows better than I do, let me know. But I’ve never even heard the claim (let alone a discussion of it) until very recently. I wonder if there are any early Christian theologians who have this view. Or even later ones, prior to recent times? It is not the view of traditional Christian theology, at least as I learned it once upon a time. It was certainly not the view of the earliest Christians and is not a view set forth in the Bible. The Bible, of course, does not have the Trinity, but when Christianity formulated the doctrine of the trinity, the Father was Yahweh, and Christ was his son. At least that’s what Christians who read their Old Testament said. Of course, the [...]

BDEhrman2022-10-22T11:10:44-04:00April 17th, 2021|Early Christian Doctrine, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

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