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The Historical Jesus

Did Jesus Exist? Why I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Mythicists

I’ve been doing some reading in preparation for a two-lecture on-line course called “Did Jesus Really Exist” scheduled for July 19. You can find out about it here: https://courses.bartehrman.com/did-jesus-really-exist. It’s a freebie, so, well, feel free to get it for free! Even though I'm pumped to do this course, and I don’t really much enjoy reading about it (that is, reading the work books that argue Jesus did not exist). I once did, back when I wrote my book Did Jesus Exist. But unlike most issues I deal with, I don’t find it very interesting or intellectually challenging. Still it’s a topic that comes up a lot among lay people, especially over the past 20 years or so, and so I feel a need to address it, and will do so with vigor. In preparation, Ive been rereading some of the work of one of the leading spokespersons among the “mythicists." In this view, it’s not just that Jesus did not do and say a number of things recorded of him in [...]

BDEhrman2025-07-12T09:28:37-04:00July 12th, 2025|Historical Jesus, Mythicism, Public Forum|

Another Reason for Thinking Jesus Called Himself the Messiah
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Another Reason for Thinking Jesus Called Himself the Messiah

Historical Jesus

Another Reason for Thinking Jesus Called Himself the Messiah

I now can mount a second argument for why Jesus almost certainly called himself the messiah during his lifetime. Remember: by that I do not mean that Jesus wanted to lead a military rebellion against the Romans to establish himself as king. On the contrary, I think Jesus was not a supporter of a “military solution.” Jesus was an apocalypticist who believed that God himself would take action and do what was needed – overthrow the evil ruling authorities in a cataclysmic show of power and destroy all that was opposed to himself, and so bring in a good, utopian kingdom on earth. And Jesus would be made the king. I don’t need here to give the extensive reasons for thinking that Jesus held to this kind of apocalyptic view in general – I’ve talked about it at length both in a number of my books and on the blog. The question here is the more narrow one: did Jesus think he would be the king of the coming kingdom? I have given one strong [...]

BDEhrman2024-11-11T11:04:02-05:00November 12th, 2024|Historical Jesus|

Why Should We Think Jesus Called Himself the Messiah?

This thread is about whether Jesus considered himself to be the Jewish messiah. My view is that Yes, he did. But he meant something very specific by that, and it is not what most people (Christians and non-Christians) today mean by it. Recall what I have tried to show thus far. There were various expectations of what the messiah would be like among Jews of Jesus’ day – a political ruler over Israel, a great priest who ruled God’s people through God’s law, a cosmic judge of the earth who would destroy God’s enemies in a cataclysmic act of judgment. All these views had one thing in common: the future messiah would be a figure of grandeur and might who would come with the authority and power of God. And who was Jesus? For most people of his day, Jesus was just the opposite – an itinerant Jewish preacher from the backwaters of rural Galilee who ended up on the wrong side of the law and was tortured and executed for his efforts. [...]

BDEhrman2024-11-05T22:04:13-05:00November 10th, 2024|Historical Jesus|

Albert Schweitzer and the Apocalyptic Jesus
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Albert Schweitzer and the Apocalyptic Jesus

Historical Jesus

Albert Schweitzer and the Apocalyptic Jesus

In the current thread I’m trying to establish that Jesus believed he was the messiah. I have pointed out that his followers would not have considered him the messiah because they believed he had been raised from the dead (since the messiah was not supposed to die and rise again) unless they had already considered him the messiah prior to his death. But that, of course, does not mean that Jesus *himself* thought he was the messiah. And so we have to look for evidence from Jesus’ life that indicates that this is what he thought about himself, and my argument is going to be that there are several pieces of evidence that strongly suggest it is, of which my plan is to stress two. As background, in my previous post, I laid out the world view that Jesus himself almost certainly subscribed to, a view that scholars have called Jewish apocalypticism. I need to develop these thoughts a bit in this post; and the next; after that I’ll lay out in (very) summary fashion [...]

BDEhrman2024-11-06T11:11:10-05:00November 9th, 2024|Historical Jesus|

What Would an Apocalyptic Jew (Jesus!) Mean By Calling Himself Messiah?

In this thread I am trying to argue that Jesus understood himself to be the messiah. So far I have made one of my two main arguments, with the understanding that *both* arguments have to be considered in order to have a compelling case. So the first prong doesn’t prove much on its own. But in combination with the second argument, it makes a strong case. The first argument is that Jesus’ followers would not have understood him as the messiah after his death (as they did) unless they believed him to be the messiah before his death – even if they came to believe he had been raised from the dead, that would not have made them think he was the messiah. I’ve explained why in my previous post. The second second involves showing that it was not only the disciples who understood Jesus to be the messiah before his death, but that Jesus himself did. This is even harder to show, but I think there is really compelling evidence. There are [...]

BDEhrman2024-11-05T22:02:15-05:00November 7th, 2024|Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Can We Know What Jesus Said About Himself?

Do we know what Jesus said about himself? Yesterday I started my two-prong argument for why Jesus probably considered himself the messiah. The first prong is that Jesus must have been called the messiah during his lifetime, or it makes no sense that he would be called messiah after his death. Even if there were Jews who believed that Jesus was raised from the dead after he was crucified (as indeed there were! Otherwise we wouldn’t have Christianity), the resurrection of a dead person would never lead anyone to say “Ah, he’s the messiah!”. No one expected the messiah to be a resurrected person. So Jesus was being called the messiah before his death. Otherwise, we can’t make sense of the fact that he was called the messiah after his (believed-in) resurrection. Do We Know What Jesus Said About Himself? Several readers have pointed out that this does not mean that Jesus *himself* thought of himself as the messiah. It simply means that some of his followers did. That is absolutely right. [...]

BDEhrman2024-11-05T22:00:45-05:00November 6th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Would the Resurrection Make Anyone Believe Jesus Was the Messiah?

I have been talking about the early Christian understandings of Jesus as the messiah. Not just the messiah, but the “crucified messiah,” a concept that would have seemed not just unusual or bizarre to most Jewish ears in the first century, but absolutely mind-boggling and self-contradictory. I’ve been arguing that it was precisely the contradictory nature of the claim that led almost all Jews to reject the Christian claims about Jesus. Several readers have asked me whether I think Jesus understood himself to be the messiah. Probably those who know a little bit about my work and my general views of things would think that my answer would be Absolutely Not. But, well.... I think Jesus did consider himself the messiah. But not the to-be-crucified-messiah. The key to understanding Jesus’ view of himself is to recognize what he *meant* by considering himself the messiah. I will get to that in a later post. For now I want to give the evidence that Jesus thought that in *some* sense (a sense distinctive to Jesus) [...]

BDEhrman2024-10-25T11:01:09-04:00November 2nd, 2024|Historical Jesus|

More About My Book “Did Jesus Exist”

I think what surprised me the most about the vitriolic response I received from (some) mythicists to my book "Did Jesus Exist" was that when I actually spoke or corresponded with them, it became very clear that many knew almost nothing about the Bible, let alone biblical scholarship. I was at a social event for mythicists some years ago now, after I wrote my book. Even though a lot (most?) of the people there thought I was completely out to lunch, everyone was extremely friendly and affable in person and I had some very pleasant conversations. But often, after small talk and a few jokes, when we'd get to issues or questions, it would be clear that the person I was talking with literally had almost no idea about basic information about the New Testament -- for example what was actually in the Gospels, when they are usually dated in relation to the time of Jesus, what we can say about their authors, what sources lie behind them, and so on -- most [...]

BDEhrman2024-09-19T09:38:15-04:00September 25th, 2024|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus, Mythicism|

My Book “Did Jesus Exist” (an answer to the mythicists)

Is there actually any evidence that Jesus existed? Are there reasons for thinking he was completely made up? That Jesus of Nazareth is actually a myth? I have been providing a series of posts connected with the various books I’ve written for general audiences over the years and now I’ve arrived at my book Did Jesus Exist (HarperOne: 2011). I wrote the book when “mythicism” was still kind of taking off and most people hadn’t heard about it. I suppose most still haven’t heard about it, but lots of agnostics, atheists, skeptics, and general-internet-junkies have. It was so unheard of at the time that my publisher (Harper) was not interested in publishing the book. They wanted it to come out only digitally, since they were pretty sure that as many people would buy it as would buy a book that mounted the evidence that there really was a successful landing on the moon. But after I wrote the book they decided it would be worth putting into print. In the end, it got a lot [...]

BDEhrman2024-09-23T10:51:43-04:00September 24th, 2024|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus, Mythicism|

Jesus, the Law, and a New Covenant (Lecture)

For some reason I don't understand (maybe someone can explain it to me), one of the most frequently watched lectures I've ever given was on "Jesus, the Law, and the New Covenant." This was keynote address for the Mendenhall Symposium, in honor of the eminent scholar of the Hebrew Bible, George Mendenhall, on October 6, 2016 at the University of Michigan. The symposium focused on issues on the law and covenant in the the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew Bible, and second-temple Judaism, with prominent scholars in these fields presenting papers on key aspects of the subject. This is not a topic I normally talk about (I never had lectured on it before and, now that I think of it, have never done so since) and ... and well, it's not one I would have guessed would be widely viewed. But anyway, it is. If you haven't seen it, here it is. And if you have seen it, well, here it is again.

BDEhrman2024-09-16T11:56:32-04:00September 18th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

Did Jesus Have Secret Disciples Among the Elite?

Here's an intriguing question I got a while back, with my response. QUESTION: What do you think of the idea symbolized by the Joseph of Arimathea character that there may have been closeted sympathizers or even fellow travelers of the Jesus movement among members of the Sanhedrin? RESPONSE: It’s a good question. My sense is that it is virtually inconceivable that there were followers of Jesus, closeted or otherwise, in the Sanhedrin. For a lot of reasons. The main one is that according to our earliest accounts, Jesus’ entire public ministry was spent teaching in Galilee. He was unknown in Jerusalem (I know that John puts him there earlier on several occasions, but that’s a later conceit). I think the first time anyone in Jerusalem had ever even heard of Jesus was when he caused the ruckus in the Temple the last week of his life. So he almost certainly had no followers among the aristocratic elite there. In addition to that, I think the later Christians who told stories about Jesus wanted [...]

BDEhrman2024-08-20T16:30:27-04:00August 21st, 2024|Historical Jesus|

A (Modern-Discovered) Gospel That Shows Jesus Was Married With Children?
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A (Modern-Discovered) Gospel That Shows Jesus Was Married With Children?

Historical Jesus, Public Forum

A (Modern-Discovered) Gospel That Shows Jesus Was Married With Children?

Recently I've talked about "recently discovered Gospels" (e.g.,The Secret Gospel of Mark); and just now I remembered a tempest-in-a-tea-pot breathless announcement made ten years ago about a "new Gospel" that had been discovered that showed Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married with children. This is NOT the gnostic Gospel of Philip I've talked a number of times before (where Jesus is kissing Mary somehow, someway, and somewhere or other). Here's a post I published on it when the "news" first broke. It's still pretty interesting... ****************************** I have been repeatedly asked about the brand new news story, that a new Gospel has been discovered that shows that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had children. If this sounds like (bad) fiction to you (think Da Vinci Code) (or for movies: think “Last Temptation of Christ”), it is. The claim is completely bogus. This “new” Gospel is not a Gospel, but a text that scholars have known for roughly forever. It’s not a text about Jesus: it’s about Joseph (as in the [...]

BDEhrman2024-08-20T16:29:20-04:00August 20th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

My First Trade Book: Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet

I have started a thread discussing the books I've written for broader audiences. My first actual "trade book" was Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford University Press, 1999) (uh, that would be 25 years ago!). Here is how I explain the book and it's raison d'etre in the Preface. In case you wonder -- I still hold the same basic views of Jesus now that I did then, and still find the arguments I adduce convincing. ****************************** Preface When anyone has asked me why I’m writing a book about the historical Jesus, I’ve usually replied, “Well, it’s about time someone did.” Actually, at last count there were something like eight zillion books written about Jesus. And those are just the ones written by scholars. A good number of these, mainly the lesser known ones, are written by scholars for scholars to promote scholarship; others are written by scholars to popularize scholarly views. The present book is one of the latter kind. I really don’t have a lot to say to scholars who [...]

BDEhrman2024-07-08T11:50:00-04:00July 10th, 2024|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

The New Book I’m Writing About Altruism: Putting It In a Nutshell

As I've been writing my new book, tentatively called "The Invention of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Conscience of the West," I've been thinking about how I might summarize the basic argument. Here's what I've got to this point. I'd be happy to hear your reactions. ****************************** Most people I know are moved by news of tragedy. A terrible earthquake, a drought, a famine, a flood, displaced people, innocent victims of military aggression, -- we feel pity for those who pointlessly suffer and sense a desire, even an obligation, to help, for example by donating to disaster relief. Almost never do we know the people in need; they are complete strangers, often in far-off lands, whom we will never meet and possibly wouldn’t like if we did. Yet we – at least multitudes of us – want to help. This sense of moral obligation to strangers in need is unnatural. It is not written into the human DNA nor did it exist in the ancient roots of our Western cultural [...]

BDEhrman2024-06-17T11:55:48-04:00June 22nd, 2024|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Women in the World of Jesus

In my previous post I talked about the traditions that indicated that Jesus associated with women publicly during his ministry – in an attempt to use established historical criteria to know whether the prominence of women in the earliest Christian communities may have had precedence in the life of Jesus himself. What about the contextual credibility of these traditions? It is true that women were generally viewed as inferior by men in the ancient world (see below). But there *were* exceptions: philosophical schools like the Epicureans and the Cynics, for example, advocated equality for women. Of course, there were not many Epicureans or Cynics in Jesus' immediate environment of Palestine, and our limited sources suggest that women, as a rule, were generally even more restricted in that part of the empire with respect to their abilities to engage in social activities outside the home and away from the authority of their fathers or husbands. Is it credible, then, that a Jewish teacher would have encouraged and promoted such activities? We have no solid [...]

BDEhrman2024-05-10T11:13:58-04:00May 4th, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Women in Early Christianity|

Jesus and Women

In my previous post I tried to show that women – contrary to what one might think – were quite prominent in the ministry and churches established by Paul. One naturally wonders why that might be, given the fact that women came to be silenced in later Christian traditions (continuing on in some rather notable circles today). One answer for why women played important roles in the life of the early church is that they may have played an important role in the life of the historical Jesus. As readers of this blog know, it is not an easy matter establishing what actually happened in Jesus’ life. Historians need to apply historical criteria to all of the traditions that survive about Jesus: independent attestation (if a tradition is independently attested in multiple sources, it is more likely to be authentic); dissimilarity (if a tradition cuts against the grain of what Christians would have wanted to say about Jesus, it is more likely authentic); and contextual coherence (any tradition that cannot make sense in [...]

BDEhrman2024-04-30T23:14:11-04:00May 2nd, 2024|Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Women in Early Christianity|

Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus

Here are now some more “agrapha” (sayings of Jesus not found in any of the surviving Gospels; I say more about "agrapha" in the previous post). These ones are found in writings of church fathers, who appear to have had access to Gospels unavailable to us, or at least to have heard non-canonical sayings of Jesus in some other way. (You will be able to find info on each church father/writing mentioned pretty easily online) ***************************** Papias (according to Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 33. 3-4) Thus the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, remembered hearing him say how the Lord used to teach about those times, saying: “The days are coming when vines will come forth, each with ten thousand boughs; and on a single bough will be ten thousand branches. And indeed, on a single branch will be ten thousand shoots and on every shoot ten thousand clusters; and in every cluster will be ten thousand grapes, and every grape, when pressed, will yield twenty-five measures of wine. [...]

BDEhrman2024-04-04T10:07:39-04:00April 13th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Historical Jesus|

Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus?

To my surprise, I've never talked about the "agrapha" of Jesus before on the blog. It's about time I did! This is an intriguing topic connected with the teachings of Jesus known to almost precisely No One!! (I'd bet a case of fine French wine that your pastor -- if you've ever had one, in any kind of church whatsoever -- wouldn't be able to tell you what it's all about! Welcome to the world of the insiders. Here is what I say about the agrapha (plural of agraphon) in the book I published with my colleague Zlatko Pleše, The Other Gospels (Oxford, 2014). ****************************** The term “agrapha” has traditionally been applied to a group of “unrecorded” sayings allegedly delivered by the historical Jesus. The term is not altogether apt, since technically speaking these sayings have indeed been recorded--otherwise we would have no access to them. And so the term is more normally taken to mean sayings of Jesus that are not found in the canonical Gospels. Even this definition is problematic however, since it privileges [...]

BDEhrman2024-04-04T10:35:46-04:00April 11th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Historical Jesus|

Jesus and Mary Magdalene Seen Kissing??

While I'm on the "Jesus and Mary Magdalene" question (see my earlier posts), what about the claims that some (lots) of people have heard, that there is a story in a later Gospel that talk about them kissing? The later Gospel in question is the Gospel of Philip, one of the "Gnostic Gospels" discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi Egypt. Does it actually talk about this moment (or repeated moments) of intimacy? I have a reasonably full discussion of the relevant issues in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (Oxford University Press 2006). In the book I put the discussion in the context of that one-time-source-for-all-things-bibical, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Back 20 years ago, (nearly) everyone had read it and (most of them) thought the fictional account was, as Brown himself claimed at the outset, based on historically factual information. Sigh.... In any event, here's what I say about it all in my book: ****************************** Some of the historical claims about the non-canonical Gospels in the Da Vinci Code have struck [...]

BDEhrman2024-02-23T09:58:46-05:00February 25th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Historical Jesus, Women in Early Christianity|

When Did Mary Magdalene Become a Prostitute?

Mary Magdalene has become one of the most talked about figures from the life of Jesus, even though she hardly ever shows up in the Gospel accounts about him (during his public ministry, just in one verse, total!, Luke 8:2). (She shows up only at the crucifixion and, most important, the empty tomb). In my last post I began to explore the tradition -- not found in the New Testament -- that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Here I pick up the thread where I left it off. I had mentioned a number of passages that people read *AS IF* they were talking about Mary Magdalene, even though her name does not occur in them. Here I'll show that none of these passages is about her. And then I'll explain why everyone today thinks she is a prostitute and where that idea came from. Spoiler alert: a sixth-century Pope! Once again, this comes from my book on Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (Oxford University Press, 2006) ****************************** None of these New Testament stories, however, deals [...]

BDEhrman2024-02-19T18:41:34-05:00February 24th, 2024|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Women in Early Christianity|

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