Loading...Here we are at the end of the year. What a year. We thought we would see the end of the pandemic and the good times would roll. Well, not exactly. They sure seemed about to roll but, nope, just when we thought the thing was ending … hello Omicron! I hope you have come through it OK so far, and that you can keep safe as we move forward.
Not for all, but for some there have been bright spots through the darkness, and we should certainly celebrate them. It’s been a very good year for the blog – the best ever – and so that part’s good. We started this blog venture in April of 2012, so this is the conclusion of the ninth calendar year. We now head into year 10! Who woulda thought? Certainly not me….
As you know, I have had two goals for the blog from Day 1, and have never wavered on them.
I’d say we’ve done unusually well this year in achieving our goals for the blog, raising money for charity and disseminating scholarly knowledge of the New Testament and early Christianity. Here are some of the gratifying numbers:
- The charity side of the blog has done exceedingly well, much better than ever. This year we distributed $360,000 to our charities. That’s some serious change. And it’s worth thinking about in comparative terms. In our first full year, 2013, we raised $54,000. Things then progressed nicely. Two years ago, 2019, we had grown it to 144,000; that jumped last year, 2020, to $246,000. So each of the past two years in we have raised our proceeds by over $100,000. May it continue!!
We have plans for making it do so, and I’m sanguine. The plans won’t affect any of the quality experiences you’ve been having (though hopefully if there are things below quality we will fix them: let us know!). They will mainly work to bring more people onboard, to increase membership, so more can benefit from what we do, and we can therefore raise more funds.
In addition to our own plans, you too can help – and be the chief engine of growth. Do you know anyone who might be interested in what we do? Tell them about the blog! Encourage them to take a look. Offer them a bribe.
- Disseminating scholarship for general readers (or, as I say, for normal people, as opposed to abnormal scholars).
- This past year I continued to post 5-6 times a week – as I have done every week of every year since we started. It’s a lot of posts – and all of them are available to you no matter which membership tier you are on (Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. This year we came in at over 330 posts, including some fantastic guest posts. For the life of the blog, now, we have 2800 posts. All of them available on our archives. Line your shelves with them.
- As you know, blog members at the Silver tier or higher are allowed to make comments on the blog. This past year we have had 16,000 comments; over the life of the blog we have had 120,000; 40,000 of those are mine in response to questions. To my knowledge, I have answered every question I have received. Except the ones I couldn’t answer. Keep the zingers comin’!
I would like to conclude by thanking the other people who work for the blog and have massively contributed to its success. We have developed the administrative structure enough that I can write the posts, reply to comments, and oversee the operation. We now have two employees who do a ton of work that I can’t do.
Ben Porter: Chief Technology Officer. Ben runs the entire technical end of the blog, virtually everything that involves the site, its upkeep, its bugs, its improvements; produces and publishes the audio posts (for Gold and Platinum members) and on and on and on. We’d be sunk in 20 minutes without him.
Diane Pittman: Chief Operations Officer. Diane is my personal assistant who does everything Ben and I don’t do: runs membership services, proofreads my posts; organizes webinars and fund raising events; keeps my calendar; keeps trying to make me observe my calendar; brainstorms with me on everything connected with the blog; and most everything else. She’s saved my skin on a regular basis throughout the year.
I’ve decided that given their titles, I should be Chief Heresy Officer, so the three of us can be the Chief HOT Officers.
A good deal of our recent success is also due to the Volunteers who do various tasks for the blog. We have had over a dozen Volunteers working for us over the past year, and we deeply appreciate what they do.
John Mueller: My first volunteer, who imagined and faithfully runs the Bart Ehrman Blog.
Dave Bohn: Our devoted Business Manager
John Paul Middlesworth: Our long-standing reader of audio posts
C. W. Weeks: Reader of Audio Posts
Sam Devis: Reader of Audio Posts
Petra Ortiz: Reader of Audio Posts
Chris Huntley: Provider of Social Marketing strategies
Robert Gilbert: Director of the Blog Forum (do you know the Forum? Check it out!)
Vanessa Porter: Runs the Social Media
Lance Boyer: Coordinator of the Blog Book Club
Glenn Siepert: Graphic designer for social media
Doug Wadeson: Working on Structural organization of the site.
In short, it has been a very good year for the blog. We’re looking forward to 2022 being an even better one. If there’s anything we can do to improve your experience, let me know. And if you like what you find here, please spread the word!
Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives
Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he’ll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he’s astray
Keeps on going anyway…
Happy to have been a (very small) part of the amazing growth of the blog in 2021. Enjoying the posts so far and glad my membership goes to a good cause.
I’ve been listening to the podcast on Spotify for some time now, and decided it was time to give something back (while also getting the member benefits).
Thank you Dr. Ehrman and all who make the blog possible!
Hi Dr Ehrman!
Thank you, and the whole team, for running this invaluable resource! (Like seriously invaluable- I mean, Q and A with a world expert on a daily basis! Are you kidding!!!)
Looking forward to year 10🥳
Thank you so much!
I love the incredible combination of education & fun this blog delivers! Bart Ehrman is the most badass scholar on earth! I joined this blog due to his generosity and it’s been a blast ever since! Here’s to another 9 amazing years!
Thank you everyone for the hard work and it’s great success!!
…and to help finish out the year, I’ll add one more submission by that noted New Testament scholar John Prine on “Jesus: The Missing Years”
https://youtu.be/suoJ6mLVBlU
Be safe and be well, ol’ net-buddies.
Terrific! Prine was a genius. It was sad to see him go. (For a while I thought he was riffing on Guy Clark’s Let it Roll, but now I”m not so sure)
Thanks! I never heard that one. Clearly Bart’s *How Jesus Became God* will need an update.
Many thanks to you, Bart, and to your support staff for bringing this interesting and educational blog to me and the other members, and for so strongly supporting worthy charities. A Happy New Year to all of you!
I am so very very proud FOR you, Professor Ehrman. It’s quite a privilege to be a member of this
wonderful blog!
Kudos on providing food for thought and food for the hungry!
Dr. Ehrman, Congratulations on the growing success of the blog. I have been a member for a little over a year and I have learned so much. Thank you for the work you do toward imparting factual information to the masses. It’s a hard job, I know and you make it look easy.
Thank you all!
I just finished, The Triumph of Christianity. Excellent course, you did a great job on it. I’m following it with Lost Christianities.
Hi Dr Ehrman!
Gamble states in his book on the canon that “the fixation of a canon by Marcion did not in fact lead to an immediate or concerted effort in the church to delimit its own authoritative literature, and the number of writings valued continued for a long time to be large and fluid”
1. What is meant here by delimit? (Since I would think canonization means to put a limit)
2. How important do you think Marcion was in the formation of the canon?
1. He means that it didn’t compel the proto-orthodox to establish a closed and final canon right away. (You can have a canon of Scripture without saying that no other books will be allowed in). 2. Very important. But not the only factor by far.
I’ve decided that given their titles, I should be Chief Heresy Officer, so the three of us can be the Chief HOT Officers.
EXCELLENT! 🙂 Especially your title, which is why I do appreciate you so much. While a recognized critic, you also have a great sense of humor.
Happy New Year!
Yes, you have done amazingly well at answering questions.
“To my knowledge, I have answered every question I have received. Except the ones I couldn’t answer.”
Not quite. I asked three times whether, for the sake of argument, you see the Lucius of Rom 16:21 as a prominent co-worker of Paul or a minor one. You did not answer the question or address the larger argument, but closed the comments.
$360,000 is a tremendous achievement. Thank you!
Kudos to the entire team.
A special note of thanks to you – Prof Ehrman, its really amazing the lives you are touching with the blog – both the one in pursuit of religious knowledge and most importantly, the suffering and the less privileged who can barely make a good meal a week. I have been following on hunger and homelessness in parts of the world and its really such a great cause for concern. And the millions with no access to good health care. I must say it really made me appreciate the lives you are touching with your immense scholarship via this blog.
Equally grateful to the entire support team and fellow blog members as well. Looking forward for better days ahead in the upcoming year.
Thanks again Prof Ehrman. May you continue to find strength and good health to continue blessing the world.
P.S.: Mr. Ehrman, actually I do have a suggestion for the blog. It just came to my attention that there are some new amazing interviews/discussions/debates of yours on YouTube that were uploaded just a couple of weeks ago.
I think you should have a separate section on the blog where you could neatly place all of your content on YouTube. And every time there’s a new video featuring you, this section would get updated. Because, every now and then, a new video of yours comes up and it’s a shame for people to miss it or find it weeks or even months later. After all, personally I discovered you on YouTube, and I believe a lot of people also have discovered you there. I think this would raise the quality of your blog.
(All this given the fact that in your channel on YouTube you won’t find every video featuring you.)
Thanks. Good idea. Uh, which youtubes were added a few weeks ago? On my own channel?
No, on Blogging Theology! There are gems like that that show up here and there on YouTube, and it’s a pity that members of the blog, who are practically fans of your work, miss them. Because there are millions of videos over there and it’s impossible to keep track of all of your appearances. So it would be nice if there was a link somewhere on this (blog) site that would show all of your (most recent) activity on YouTube.
Ah, no problem. Yup, the Blogging THeology one is already in the queue for the blog. I usually post the interesitng ones. (I’m only posting one of the two from there though). If there are others that you’ve noitcd that you think should be put up, let me know!
They are both really interesting, but if you have to pick just one, I think you should go with the one that contains the immortal quote:
“I’m so grateful those children are starving to death, because it just makes me really appreciate the fact that I’ve got a lot of food in my refrigerator.”
I am a “normal” person as you wish to call us 🙂 and a Muslim. I have listened to some of your interviews and I would like to thank you for what you do because in Islam, searching for the realty of what has happened and being honest in showing the truth and reality is a very honorable quality of a person’s character in Islam and the prophet Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, (peace be upon him) was known to be the most honest and the trustworthy by all the people surrounding him even among the non-believers.
A lot of what you say is appealing to a large population of Muslims because a lot of what you say is similar to the Muslims views especially when it comes to the person of Jesus (peace be upon him) and I wish there are translations of your work to other languages.
I am wondering if you have ever read the Quran?
I wanted to ask if you know what the Quran say about Jesus and if you have ever tried to find out if it is historically true?
I am also wondering if you have read about the prophet Muhammad and what you think of him?
Yes, I’m familiar with what the Quran says about Jesus; my view is that most of these accounts came from Christian sources (e.g, the young Jesus making the clay birds, which is earlier attested in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas), and that some of them have been modified (e.g., that he did not die of crucifixion). I am not an expert on the historical Muhammad and so do not have a particularly well informed opinion about him as an actual historial figure. I do know what Muslims (at least the ones I’ve read and heard) say about him, of course. Since I am an atheist I don’t personally believe he was a prophet of God (in a literal sense, any more than the Moses and Jesus, the first two, were)
I have always heard that Islam does not have a tradition of textual criticism or historical scrutiny of Muhammad and the Quran. Is there a blog member (Du3a?) who can recommend any studies in this area? I have read from Tom Holland that there is even some scholarship (not sure of its quality) that questions the standard histories of Muhammad, even to the point of questioning his existence. It seems mythicists may not be limited to Christianity critics.
I’d suggest checking out the books of Stephen Shoemaker, an expert on both early Christianity and early Islam, and who has applied methods of biblical criticsm to issues connected with Muhammad and the Qur’an.
Since I was a small child, I’ve wondered very much about the very things you write about.
I heard you on a blog interview with someone whose name Ive forgotten ( no offense) but he appears from time to time with Richard Dawkins.
Keep up the very good work.
Dr. Ehrman, thanks for writing so many fascinating posts over the years! I know you have no surplus of free time, and you’re doing this mainly as a way to raise money for the less fortunate. But I can’t think of a time when I’ve personally enjoyed someone else’s charity work so much. 🙂
Also, it’s good to see Diane Pittman’s work recognized. Earlier in 2021 I had some problems with my membership, and Diane was consistently helpful (and cheerful!), turning what could have been a frustrating experience into a positive one. Cheers to all blog-workers on the new year!
I try to check the blog every day. It’s fabulous!! I really dig it!!
Thank you for making it happen!
Hi Dr Ehrman!
Metzger states in his NT canon book that:
“The question whether the Church’s canon preceded or followed Marcion’s canon continues to be debated. According to the Church Fathers, Marcion rejected certain books, and selected others for his canon out of a more comprehensive Church canon.”
While it seems evident that the church didn’t directly follow Marcion’s lead in forming their own canon (since that process had already semi started by the 2nd century) I thought that Marcion was definitely the first to publicize a canon?
Yes, Metzger was pretty conservative on those kinds of views; he was reluctant to think that the idea of a canon came only at the end of the second century.
Hi Dr Ehrman!
Metzger states that:
“ the process of fixing the Church’s canon, a process that had already begun in the first half of the second century.”
Just to clarify, did this process precede the publication of Marcion’s canon?
In his opinion, yes. In my opinion, no. There was no fixing of the canon until much later.
Reader of audio posts?
I understand listener of audio posts.
Maybe a reader reads the posts before they are audio-recorded?
Isn’t there a proofreader of the written posts and the written posts are audio-recorded?
Please explain.
Yes, we don’t need volunteers to listen to the posts; we need someone to read the posts so they can be recorded. And yes, Diane proof-reads the posts.
HI DR. EHRMAN,
I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER FOR ABOUT A YEAR. I HAVE READ AND AM READING YOUR BOOKS. I AM WORKING ON A METHODIST SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON ON THE LIFE OF MARY, THE STORY. A LOT OF HER STORY APPEARS TO HAVE COME FROM THE GOSPEL OF JAMES. IT DIDN’T MAKE THE CANON, BUT SOME OF HER TRADITION PERHAPS DID COME FROM THAT GOSPEL. I AM STARTING WITH THE FIRST CHAPTER OF LUKE BECAUSE IT HAS REFERENCES THAT LEAD ME TO THESE OTHER SOURCES. YOUR WORKS ON LUKE HAVE BEEN VERY HELPFUL. I HAVE BECOME MORE AWARE OF THE PROTESTANT REJECTION OF MARY. LUKE 1:46-49 MAKES IT SO CLEAR THAT CHRISTIANS SHOULD RECOGNIZE MARY. ALSO, IT SEEMS CLEAR TO ME THAT REFERRING TO GOD AS HER SAVIOR CONFIRMS THE OTHER STORIES ABOUT GOD’S WORK AT HER CONCEPTION. SOME BAPTISTS BELIEVE “HER SAVIOR” REFERS TO JESUS. I KNOW MY CLASS WILL BE SURPRISED ABOUT ALL THIS AND THAT THE “CATHOLIC HAIL MARY” IS RIGHT THERE IN LUKE 1. DO YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT COVERS THE STORY OF MARY?
Thanks. I wouldn’t say Protestants reject Mary; they definitely think she was special before God. But she wasn’t conceived without sin or taken up to heaven at the end of her life. I’ve never written much about Mary (just the other one); there are good books out there by fine scholars, though. You might start with the one by Beverly Gaventa.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone who makes this remarkable experience happen !!!!!!
Dr. Ehrman
Historically after Jesus was crucified how many of his followers do you think left the movement and never retuned even after some of his followers were saying he was resurrected?
I’m afraid we have no way of knowing.
‘We’ll tak a right gude-willie waught for Auld Lang Syne.’ And I suppose you’d have a cigar as well? Happy New Year Bart from Scotland. You should maybe check out ‘The New Testament in Scots’ by the Scottish scholar William H. Lorimer, even for someone who lives there it’s quite a challenging read but it has an earthiness and directness to it which suits the Gospel narratives.
Belyve a Samâritan wuman cam tae draw watter. “Rax me a drap watter, will ye?” Jesus said til her. His disciples hed gane awà tae the toun tae buy vívers. The wuman answert, “What! A Jew like ye seekin a drink o a Samâritan like mysel?” The Jews hes nae trokins wi the Samâritans. Jesus answert, “Gin ye kent what God hes tae gíe, an wha it is at is seekin a drink o ye, ye wad socht o him, an he wad gíen ye, lívin watter.”
Terrific!
Dr. Ehrman (or as I like to call you, Bart),
Thank you for this blog and the way you are using it to help the less fortunate. I don’t think there are too many places where a layperson can interact with a world-class scholar on a regular and continuing basis.
Personally, I am in awe that you manage to teach classes at UNC, author numerous books, and write the blog in your spare time!
You’ve mentioned many times that every penny we donate to access the blog goes to the charities that the blog supports. You’ve mentioned less often (if at all) that the reason this is true is that you cover the expenses and overhead of the blog out of your own pocket. I just wanted to point that out and to thank you not only for your interesting articles and for answering our questions, but for the financial support you give that makes all this possible.
Thanks! Over the past year or two the expenses have gotten more than I could handle just by myself, and so I’ve set up a completely separate fund raising arm of the blog to help with expenses, to keep all membership fees and regular donations going to the charities. That’s working well, and allowing us to expand in ways that were never possible before. We hope for better and better!
Hi Bart,
Apologies for the off-topic question and I have looked searched for the answer on the site.
This year I read James Tabor’s ‘Paul and Jesus’ where he strongly asserts that the gospels are strongly influenced by Paul, something I haven’t heard you claim. Is this true in your opinion? From my uneducated perspective, this seems problematic as Paul’s letters contain very little of the gospels’ content.
And another question if I may: very briefly in a talk I heard you give via YouTube, you said that Mark was likely not Jewish. For some reason, I thought that the only non-Jewish writer was Luke.
Happy new year!
I’d say there is little direct influence (surprisingly little with Luke), but possibly some indirect, especially with Mark. Matthew can be seen as countering a Pauline view, but whether that means he actually knew Paul’s writings is a different question, impossible to resolve, I think.
Hi Dr Ehrman!
Would you say that this is a fair summation of Marcion’s effect on the NT canon?
The effect of Marcion’s canon on the development of the NT canon is contentious. Marcion’s is the first known canon to have been produced, however, it should not be assumed that the NT canon was developed as a direct response to Marcion. Since Marcionism made proponents of proto-orthodoxy more anxious to establish the outline of their own Christianity, it is instead fair to say that Marcion’s canon accelerated the orthodox canonisation of the NT which many scholars believe would have occurred anyway. More conservative scholars believe that this process had already begun.
Thank you!
Yup, that’s pretty good! Is this yours? Great! Make sure you use strong verbs instead of passives. E.g., in the second sentence: rephrase it to make it active, and avoid “is” if possible; e.g., it coudl say “Marcion produced the first canon of Scripture, so far as we know…” — or something like that.
You have the makings of a good scholar!
Ah! That really means a lot to me. Thank you for all of the help Dr Ehrman!
I have a question regarding depictions of Jesus (art) most famous paintings are what appear to be from the medieval period. You see pics of Jesus on books , internet, magazines ect ect. I often hear skeptical claims & backlash that the Artists intent was something conspiratorial. (As if the artist was trying to say that Jesus was a European with blonde hair blue eyes ect..) I certainly don’t think the artists were trying to do anything dishonest. It’s Art , I just think they are painting pictures of Jesus to fit the context of their day. Have you ever done any research on folk art or religious art that led you to believe that the artist was trying to mislead people in their work (as in the DaVinci code) ect…? Hehe…
No, there’s nothing like that that I know of. As you might imagie,there is a sizeable amount of scholarship on Christian art. If you’re interested in the earliest materials, you might want to look at the work of Robin Jensen.
Bart,
Quick Question – would you agree with the following statement and if not what objections would you have?
The earliest definitely known form of Christianity was a Judeo-Hellenistic mystery religion.
Thanks for your time and Happy New Year!
Steve Clark
Not really. I think it’s too simple and also too problematic. For one thing, earliest Christianity was born in a form of Judaism that was not Hellenistic by most traditional standards; and to call it a mystery religion suggets those strong Hellenistic connections. As you probably know, most mystery religions really are a mystery — so it is hard to compare something elsee to them. But, there certainly were close *connections* to the mysteriy religions we come to know about as Christianity started to develop and spread throughout the pagan world (*after* it started).