Professor Ehrman,

In your works you often refer to what Jesus thought of Himself, and what Disciples thought of Jesus after the Resurrection. 

In the late 20th century Jesus Seminar, this came to be known as the “Pre-Easter Jesus” and the “Post-Easter Jesus.”

The basic idea is that Jesus did not think of Himself as God (Pre-Easter Jesus) but the Disciples later came to believe that Jesus was God (Post-Easter Jesus).   I gather that you generally sympathize with such an interpretation of the New Testament.

Yet there are two scholars (both from the historical tradition) who have challenged that 20th century interpretation.  I speak of the well-known Morton Smith (Jesus the Magician, 1970) and also the lesser-known Mark Matson (In Dialogue with Another Gospel?, 2002).

Briefly — Morton Smith argues that Jesus probably thought of Himself as Divine insofar as: (1) he could heal by his charisma; (2) healing in Judaism entailed forgiveness of sins; (3) nobody could forgive sins but God; and (4) even great men in the first century lived in a mythological universe, e.g. Josephus and Vespasian.

Briefly — Mark Matson argues that the Gospel of John influenced the Gospel of Luke, so that John cannot be as late as the 19th and 20th century scholars had argued.   His evidence is more than 100 texts where John and Luke agree against Mark and Matthew.   As only one example, John and Luke have the risen Jesus say, “Meet me in Jerusalem,” where Mark and Matthew have the risen Jesus say, “Meet me in Galilee.”

I find these arguments — both from very different perspectives — to be persuasive.  Do you have an opinion about them?

Thank you,

–Paul Trejo