History of Christianity (100-300CE) Archives - The Bart Ehrman Blog

How Many of Those Early Christians Could Read?

How many Christians by near the end of the New Testament period – say, 100 CE – could read and write? In his intriguing article “Christian Number and Its Implications,” Roman historian Keith Hopkins tries to come up with some ballpark figures. As you may recall, he is assuming that there were Christian churches in about 100 communities in the world at the time (we have references to about 50 in our surviving texts, and he is supposing that maybe there were twice as many as we have any evidence for); and he agrees that if Christianity started out with about 1000 believers in the year 40 then with a growth rate of 3.4% per year, by the year 100 there would be just over 7000 Christians in the world. That would mean the 100 churches would have an average of 70 believers. (Some of course would be larger – think, Rome – others would be much smaller; we’re talking averages here. And if Rome did have, say 120 believers, they would be meeting [...]

BDEhrman2024-09-05T11:26:51-04:00September 10th, 2024|History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Women and Gender: Early Christianity in a Patriarchal World

Jesus and his earliest followers, including Paul, may have been unusually open to women playing an important role in the community of the faithful, but it was not long until women's voices and activities came to be suppressed. It is interesting to see both how that happened, historically, and how some women found alternative ways to find expression for their faith. This is one of the topics I cover in my book After the New Testament (2nd edition; Oxford University Press, 2014). As I've said, in some ways it may be the most useful book I've published. It is an anthology of passages from major Christian writings, both proto-orthodox and "heretical" of the second and third centuries, organized thematically, in modern English translations, with introductions both to the themes themselves and to the individual writings. Here is the introduction to the section where I provide excerpts of early Christian writings on women and gender. ****************************** Women played significant roles in the early Christian movement, starting with ministry of Jesus himself. In Gospel traditions both early and [...]

BDEhrman2024-08-09T09:33:41-04:00August 6th, 2024|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Women in Early Christianity|

Ancient Ways of Interpreting Scripture

Did the earliest Christians interpret texts the way people do today? I'm not asking if they always had the same interpretation; I'm asking if their approach to and methods of interpretation were the same. It's a surprising answer. In particular, the various ways texts got interpreted may not be expected. I deal with it in my book After the New Testament (2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2014), the anthology of early Christian texts that I discussed on the blog a week or so ago. The book presents modern translations of Christian writings from right after the New Testament roughly up to the conversion of Constantine (so, the second and third centuries, 100-300 CE). I organized them according to topics and for each topic I gave an explanatory introduction, then gave a brief introduction for each of the writings themselves as they occurred. Here is the introduction for the section dealing with how early Christians interpreted the Bible. Text and Meaning: The Interpretation of Scripture in Early Christianity The Bible was important from [...]

BDEhrman2024-07-26T11:09:59-04:00August 3rd, 2024|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

What If Another Christianity Had Won?

If only one form of early Christianity won the contest for domination, what were the results -- what the gains and losses from that "triumph"? And what would have happened to world history if things had gone in another direction? This is my third and final post on my book Lost Christianities, taken from its Introduction (Oxford Press, 2003). ******************************* The Stakes of the Conflict Before launching into the investigation, I should perhaps say a word about what is, or at least what was, at stake. Throughout the course of our study I will be asking the question: what if it had been otherwise? What if some other form of Christianity had become dominant, instead of the one that did?[1] In anticipation of these discussions, I can point out that if some other form of Christianity had won the early struggles for dominance, the familiar doctrines of Christianity may never have become the “standard” belief of millions of people around the world – including the belief that there is only one God, [...]

BDEhrman2024-07-17T12:33:37-04:00July 17th, 2024|Book Discussions, Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

More Lost Christianities
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More Lost Christianities

Book Discussions, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE)

More Lost Christianities

In my previous post I discussed the wide variety of early Christianities and their ranging views. Here I consider some aspects of the Scriptures known and used by these various groups. Again, this comes from the Introduction to my book Lost Christianities (Oxford Press, 2003). ****************************** The Lost Scriptures The Gospels that came to be included in the New Testament were all written anonymously: only at a later time were they called by the names of their reputed authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But at about the time these names were being associated with the Gospels, other Gospel books were becoming available, sacred texts that were read and revered by different Christian groups throughout the world: a Gospel, for example, claiming to be written by Jesus’ closest disciple, Simon Peter; another by his apostle Philip; a Gospel allegedly written by Jesus’ female disciple Mary Magdalen; another by his own twin brother, Didymus Judas Thomas.[1] Someone decided that four of these early Gospels, and no others, should be accepted as part of the canon [...]

BDEhrman2024-07-17T11:48:33-04:00July 16th, 2024|Book Discussions, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

The Arch-Heretic of Them All? Simon of Samaria — Guest Post From Dr. David Litwa
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The Arch-Heretic of Them All? Simon of Samaria — Guest Post From Dr. David Litwa

Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Public Forum

The Arch-Heretic of Them All? Simon of Samaria — Guest Post From Dr. David Litwa

This now is the final guest post by David Litwa, one of the most prolific scholars of New Testament and Early Christianity over the past ten years. David was a graduate student at Duke some years ago and took a couple of my PhD seminars over at UNC. He is now at Boston College. (See: M. David Litwa - School of Theology and Ministry - Boston College (bc.edu) All of these posts are tantalizing introductions to (three different) books he has written for a general audience. This one is about one of the most infamous figures from the early church. But is his infamy deserved? Let us know what you think! ****************************** With Simon of Samaria, we enter the maelstrom, a Charybdis of confused and cacophonous incriminations, slanderous stories, and inimical innuendo. It seems that the man Simon existed—as much as any other figure in recorded history—but he has long since been swallowed in the abyss of myth and countermyth. Anti-Simon stories and reports begin to appear in the early to mid-second century [...]

Diane2024-06-21T10:45:26-04:00June 25th, 2024|Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Public Forum|

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)|

An Early Christian Advocate of Licentious Living? Carpocrates — Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa

Here now is a second post on a, well, rather unusual and widely unknown Christian group, by guest blogger David Litwa, one of the most prolific scholars of New Testament and Early Christianity over the past ten years. David was a graduate student at Duke some years ago and took a couple of my PhD seminars over at UNC. He is now at Boston College. (See: M. David Litwa - School of Theology and Ministry - Boston College (bc.edu) Each of these posts is a tantalizing introduction to a (different) book he has written for a general audience. In this one he deals with a group, and its leader, with a steamy but, he argues, completely undeserved bad reputation in early Christianity. Let us know what you think! ****************************** Who was Carpocrates? Most early Christian writers depicted him as the founder of a licentious cult, a magician, and a practitioner of “pagan” rites. They said that his followers practiced indiscriminate sex at their communal dinners. Carpocrates, said his opponents, demanded that his followers engage in [...]

Diane2024-06-08T16:15:38-04:00June 18th, 2024|Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

A Bizarre “Gnostic” Religion: The Naassenes – Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa
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A Bizarre “Gnostic” Religion: The Naassenes – Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa

Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Public Forum

A Bizarre “Gnostic” Religion: The Naassenes – Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa

I'm pleased to publish three posts by guest blogger David Litwa, one of the most prolific scholars of New Testament and Early Christianity over the past ten years. David was a graduate student at Duke some years ago and took a couple of my PhD seminars over at UNC. He is now at Boston College. (See: M. David Litwa - School of Theology and Ministry - Boston College (bc.edu) Each of these posts is a tantalizing introduction to a (different) book he has written for a general audience. This one starts off with a blast! Let us know what you think! ****************************** It is the only Christian group in antiquity to be accused of homosexual sex, of worshipping a snake, and of attending the mysteries of the Great Mother (Cybele). They worshiped God as Human, explored the Phrygian deity Attis as a manifestation of Jesus, and directly called themselves “gnostics.” They are known through a gossamer thread of tradition, a report preserved only in a worm-eaten medieval manuscript tucked away on Mount Athos, where no [...]

Diane2024-06-10T11:33:36-04:00June 11th, 2024|Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Public Forum|

What We Knew about the Gospel of Peter Before We Had the Gospel of Peter

This is the second of my two posts on the Gospel of Peter. When the fragment that we now have was discovered by archaeologists in a cemetery in Egypt in 1886, it was almost immediately recognized as the Gospel of Peter, not because it had a title on it, but because it fit so well a description of the Gospel in the writings of Eusebius, the early church historian. In two places in his ten-volume history of Christianity (from Jesus to his own day around 300 CE) Eusebius mnentions the book twice as one of the writings not accepted by the church as Scripture (Church History, 3. 3. 2; 3. 25. 6). And on one other occasion, Eusebius discusses the book at some length, in order to show why it had been excluded from consideration from the canon. The story involves Serapion, a bishop of Antioch at the end of the second century. Based on an account he had read from Serapion’s own hand, Eusebius indicates that Serapion had first-hand knowledge of the [...]

BDEhrman2024-04-02T11:54:28-04:00April 6th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul
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The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul

Forgery in Antiquity, Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Paul and His Letters

The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul

Here I continue my discussion of Marcion, the arch-heretic of the second century, whose followers forged writings in the name of Paul to support their view that the God of the Old Testament was not the God of Jesus and Paul. Recall: Marcion argued that the God of the Old Testament was the Jewish God who created this world, chose Israel to be his people, and then gave them his law. He was a just, wrathful God: not evil, just ruthlessly judicial. The God of Jesus, on the other hand, was a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. This good God, superior to the God of the Jews, sent Jesus into the world in order to die for the sins of others, to save people from the wrathful God of the Old Testament. Salvation comes, then, by believing in Jesus’ death. To prove his point, Marcion pointed out the contradictions between the Old Testament God and the God of Jesus. The God of the Old Testament sent his prophets, one of whom was Elisha. One [...]

BDEhrman2024-03-04T11:06:28-05:00March 5th, 2024|Forgery in Antiquity, Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Paul and His Letters|

When Is Forgiveness not Forgiveness?

Does love really "mean never having to say I'm sorry"? Is "unconditional forgiveness" possible? Is it even Christian? Is forgiveness itself always possible, conceivable, feasible, expected, required, helpful? Actually, what is forgiveness? These are questions people often ask. When they ask what Jesus thought about the matter they usually get it wrong. And as it turns out, so did his own disciples. So I'll be arguing in my book, tentatively titled The Origins of Altruism. Here's another extract from my sketch of the book as it looks at this point in the pre-writing stage.... ****************************** Part Four: Interpersonal Forgiveness (ch. 6 on Greek and Roman World; ch. 7 on Jesus and his followers) Whereas “charity” is the manifestation of agapē principally to outsiders in need, “forgiveness” is its manifestation principally to those with whom one is in close contact. The importance of “forgoing anger” (a very broad and – as I’ll argue – somewhat problematic definition of forgiveness) was widely acknowledged in the Greek and Roman worlds. But the conditions under which it was possible [...]

BDEhrman2024-01-15T13:58:54-05:00January 23rd, 2024|Book Discussions, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Love in Action: Christian Views of Charitable Giving

As I indicated in my previous post, the ethics of Christian love (and the very term used for it) differed from what could be found broadly in the Greek and Roman worlds. This different understanding of love had concrete practical implications, especially in how early Christians understood charitable giving. That will be the next part of my book, The Origins of Altruism, as I explain here as I continue to extract from the initial sketch of the book I've written for myself. ****************************** Part Three: Charitable Giving (chs. 6, on the Greco-Roman world, and 7, on Jesus and his later followers) Since love in the teachings of Jesus and then agapē in the early Christian movement was not an emotion, connected with personal feelings or passion but a kind of disinterested activity in relation to others, including strangers, its most concrete manifestation involved providing resources for those in need. In the broader Greek and Roman worlds, virtually all the discussion of personal resources (money and goods) focused on the very wealthy. Moral philosophy was written by elites [...]

BDEhrman2024-01-15T13:58:45-05:00January 21st, 2024|Book Discussions, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Is Christian Love Different from Love?

One of the most talked about and least understood teachings within Christianity is the idea of love. Do you want some evidence of the misunderstanding? Read 1 Corinthians 13, the "love chapter," in its original context (coming between, well, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14! A little consideration almost no one has thought about!), and then consider it in relation to the 498 times you've heard it in weddings. I'm all for it's being read at weddings! But, uh, is Paul talking about marital bliss? Uh, nope, not at *all*..... I am in the middle of a thread excerpting a sketch of my book (which I'm still researching; won't start writing for a while). So far I've talked about what it's about. Now I'm getting into some detail, by describing the book chapter by chapter -- including the opening bit about Christian ethics and the opening section that deals with love in the Christian tradition. ****************************** The book will comprise an Introduction and four main parts containing two chapters each. Introduction (ch. 1) I’ll [...]

BDEhrman2024-01-15T13:58:37-05:00January 20th, 2024|Book Discussions, Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

The Fate of Jesus’ Ethics after His Death

Did Jesus' followers actually follow his teachings? In my previous post I pointed out that Jesus had a radical ethic, a view based on the teachings of Hebrew Scripture but radicalized because of his understanding of the apocalyptic event very soon to occur with the end of history as he knew it. As we know from history, those who expect the End soon can behave in extreme ways (sell the farm!). Jesus' teachings, as I indicated, are, in shorthand, "prophetic ethics on apocalyptic steroids." How did his followers carry on his teachings? That's what I deal with here, as I continue to excerpt a sketch of my book that I myself wrote for me myself (I won't start writing the book itself for some months probably. Still have work to do). Here I explain the book's basic plotline, theses, and organization. ****************************** The ultimate argument of my book is that after Jesus’ death, as Christianity expanded throughout the Roman world, eventually to conquer it, converts to the new faith naturally accepted and adopted [...]

BDEhrman2024-01-15T13:58:26-05:00January 18th, 2024|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

The Most Significant Study of Christian “Heresy” in Modern Times

In my last post I started discussing the terms “orthodoxy” and “heresy,” pointing out that their traditional/etymological meanings are not very helpful for historians. “Orthodoxy” literally means the “right belief” about God, Christ, the world and so on. That means it is a theological term about religious truth. But historians are not theologians who can tell you what is theologically true; they are scholars who try to establish what happened in the past. And so how can a historian, acting as a historian, say that one group of believers is right and that another is wrong? The problem with the two terms came to particular expression in a book written in 1934 by a German scholar named Walter Bauer. The book was auf Deutsch, but its English title is Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. For my money, this was the most important book on early Christianity written in the 20th century. It completely revolutionized how we are to understand the theological controversies that were wracking the Christian church in its early years. If you [...]

BDEhrman2023-11-06T14:11:47-05:00November 16th, 2023|Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

The Slippery Slope of Extreme DIAKRISIS (Discernment). A Platinum Post by Barry Haney

Here is a creative and imaginative Platinum guest post that explores key religious differences among various traditions in the early period of the church, through a plausible (fictional) conversation. So, in 200 CE, a pagan, a Jew, and a Christian come into a wine bar.... These are some intriguing reflections. What do you think? ****************************** I have a blog called, The Slippery Concept of Extreme Diakrisis. You might ask, what does diakrisis mean? Diakrisis is a Greek noun that occurs three times in the New Testament (Romans 14.1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, and Hebrews 5:14) and means distinction, explanation, discerning, or differentiation between good and bad. During my research of early Christianity, I imagined being a fly on the wall during an unlikely meeting between Bartholomew, a pagan, Serapion, a Christian, and Abraham, a Jew during the 2nd and third centuries CE, as they use the tool of diakrisis or discernment in their search for religious truth. My research led to me writing the following story, I will share with you. The Incredible Meeting! [...]

Diane2023-06-16T06:11:05-04:00June 19th, 2023|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Jews and Christians in Antiquity, Public Forum|

A Scandalous Discovery of a Scandalous Gospel?

Later scholars have sometimes claimed Morton Smith forged the Secret Gospel of Mark; he claimed he *discovered* it. Which is it? Here I continue with my account of how he said it all happened. In my previous post I indicated that in 1958 Smith was catagaloguing the books of the library of the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, when he found a book that had a text written into its final (blank) pages. It was allegedly a letter of Clement of Alexandria, a famous theologian and ethicist who lived and wrote around 200 CE. Smith immediately recognized that it was a letter we did not have before. And here is how I discuss what he did next, in my book Lost Christianities (Oxford University Press, 2003). ****************************** On the spot, Smith decided to photograph the three pages that contained the handwritten copy of Clement’s letter, but chose to hold off translating the entire text until later, reasoning that if some such treasure had turned up, there might be more where that came from; given [...]

BDEhrman2023-04-11T17:17:55-04:00April 25th, 2023|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

Is The Rapture in the New Testament?

This post is immediately relevant for me in two ways. My book on Revelation has now appeared (I kept *saying* it was "coming soon"!) AND I will be doing a lecture soon, April 15, on the idea of the "rapture," the belief that Jesus is soon to return to take his followers out of the world before the Antichrist arises and all hell breaks out on earth. You don't wanna be here for that. You don't want to be "Left Behind"! The lecture is not connected with the blog per se; you can find out more about it on my website, http://www.bartehrman.com/courses Here, to titillate your interest on both fronts, is a bit of what I say about the rapture in ch. 1 of my book (I say much more about it in a later section): ******************************** Almost everyone today thinks that Revelation provides a blueprint of what is to happen in the near future—at least those who think about it at all. There are, of course, some holdouts, even among conservative Christians, who maintain the [...]

BDEhrman2023-03-14T13:45:15-04:00March 23rd, 2023|Early Christian Doctrine, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Revelation of John|

Wait, Was Jesus Married? Guest Post by Kyle Smith

This is now the second guest post by Kyle Smith, scholar of early Christianity, on a hot topic related to his recently published book. Kyle is Associate Professor and Director of the History of Religions Program at the University of Toronto. An award-winning teacher, he is the author or coauthor of five books about Christian saints and martyrs, including Cult of the Dead: A Brief History of Christianity (University of California Press, 2022). You can find him on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and the Peloton @kylesmithTO. ****************************** Few characterizations of Jesus’s life have spurred as much intrigue (and outrage) as the idea that he might’ve been married. In 2012, before it was discredited as a forgery, a scrap of papyrus inscribed with a few lines of Coptic set off a media furor when reports emerged that it quoted Jesus as saying, “My wife …” Conveniently, the rest was cut off. Despite the abiding popularity of books like The Da Vinci Code, which might lead one to think otherwise, there is no scholarly debate over whether Jesus [...]

BDEhrman2023-02-13T11:29:18-05:00February 21st, 2023|Book Discussions, Canonical Gospels, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

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