Loading...In my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (now in the 8th ed., co-authored with Hugo Mendez), another feature I rather like are several “excursuses” on key issues I chose not to deal with in the text itself. A couple of these were written by other scholars in the field, including this important one on Digital Bibles by my friend and occasional blog-contributor Jeff Siker.
Jeff is on the blog, and will be willing to answer any questions you have.
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The changing technology of writing and reading has always played a major role in the transmission and interpretation of the New Testament; from papyrus rolls to parchment codices to Gutenberg’s printing press; and, finally, to our modern digital age. We are still learning how a digital screen, rather than a printed book, affects the way we read and understand. This applies to the Bible more than any other book, since no other has held (and continues to hold) the special place of the Bible within Christian tradition and Western culture in general. Indeed, the very word for “book” in Greek (biblion) is the root word for Bible.
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Professor Ehrman, I compared the two genealogies of Joseph from Abraham to King David assuming that they would match. As you well know they didn’t. Matthew’s is the same as 1 Chronicles 2:9-10, so I assume he had access to a Hebrew Bible (Septuagint). Luke’s matches for the most part except for Arni and Admin. I would guess that Luke also had access to the Septuagint. What is your best assessment as to why Luke’s is different than Matthew’s?
Yes, for the biblical parts of the genealogy they’d be dependent on the Septuagint, which they would have had in different manuscripts. Maybe that’s why? The BIG difference, of course, is David to Joseph (mary’s husband).
Question for Bart. Somewhere in my background, I had heard or read that only clergy or priests in the Catholic Church were allowed to read and interpret the Bible. Layman weren’t allowed to try to read or interpret the Bible. The King James Bible was suppose to change all that and make it more accessible to the average Christian who could read. it was considered heresy by the Catholic Church.
Have I got that right?
Your discussion of only a few of the population were able to read in the early days of Christianity, makes me believe this was the foundation of the Catholic belief of only clergy being able to interpret the Bible.
I assume you mean before the REformation? Yes, reading of Scripture was mainly for trained clergy. Starting with Luther Protestants wanted to change that. There were English translations before the KJV, going back to William Tyndale (who was executed for his efforts), and the KJV is closely connected with its predecessors. James I wanted a translation that could be authorized for widespread use and so worked to get a community of scholars to do it.
Hey guys! Question about “Bible in 1 year” plans. I attempt every year by breaking it down mathematically but I always lose steam around Leviticus/Numbers… Any resources or really engaging plans? I have a Bible.com account but I also have physical copies.
YOu and roughly a billioibn other people… I’d suggest a different approach! Maybe start with Genesis up to Exodus 20; then read Joshua and Judges; read some of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and bits of Proverbs. Go for some of the prophets (Isaiah, Amos are two early ones). And intersperse all that with books from the NT, maybe starting with the Gospels. Eventually you can return to other books you haven’t tackled yet.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on the topic.
In what ways do you think digital Bibles might influence the development of personal and communal theology compared to traditional reading methods?
Do you see any long-term implications for hermeneutics as more people rely on digital tools for Bible study?
I think digital Bibles could have less of an impact than traditional print Bibles. In part this is because we tend to give less authority to screens than we do to print. Screens also don’t hold our attention in the same way printed books do. The result is that people may take digital Bibles less seriously. The canonical boundaries of the Bible are more slippery on screens, since there is no real canonical shape to digital Bibles. Ironically, the digital tools for Bible study have never been better for deep analysis (Logos, Accordance).
I like reading the printed and online pdf versions
Hello Bart. Had a question about epistle of Hebrews. I know you agree that Paul thought Jesus was pre-existent in contrast to your colleague James Tabor who says that Paul didn’t think Jesus was pre-existent.
James Tabor however concedes that epistle of Hebrews think Jesus was pre-existent and agrees with the scholarly consensus as far I’ve found. But I was wondering if you know of anybody which argues that the epistle of Hebrews do not consider Jesus pre-existent or god and that Hebrews 1:2 and 1:10 are talking about the future creation in the kingdom or perhaps and allude to Hebrews 2:5 and reference to Jesus being made lower than angels for a little while in some translations of Hebrews 2:9 along with references to Jesus being appointed as evidence of this . Maybe you take this position.
So far I’ve only seen this claim among Unitarians (an obviously biased bunch) but would curious if you know of any more scholars or work which argues this since you know the literature far better than i do. Mostly I just wanna hear somebody take on a contrarian position as devil’s advocate so any help is appreciated.
Thanks for any help.
I’m not aware of anyone who thinks Hebrews does not hold to a pre-existent Christ, though of course you can find someone who will say most anything! But Hebrews 1:2-3 seems pretty definitive. If Christ was the one through whom God created the aeons / ages/ world, it’s hard to see how that might be a future event (the verb is aorist — a past completed action).