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Loading...Two months ago I did a three-part lecture series on Zoom as a fundraiser to help defray the expenses of the blog. I recorded the lectures and have now decided to make them available — still as a fundraiser — to anyone who would wants to hear them. For details how to get access to them, see further below.
The lectures all discussed stories involving Jesus that are not widely known to the world at large. Or to *Christians* at large. Or to *Blog Members* at large. I’m pretty sure you didn’t hear *these* growing up…. Want to hear them? These are the titles and topics:
Lecture One. Jesus and the Other Divine Men
Jesus may be the only miracle-working Son of God people know about today, but in antiquity there were others – “Divine men” who were miraculously born, who could do miracles, and then, at the end of life, ascended to heaven to live with the gods. How could anyone think such things of mere mortals? And is there anything that makes Jesus unique? Was he just one of many?
Lecture Two. Jesus the Wunderkind. The Divine Child in Christian Legend
The New Testament Gospels provide us with precious little information about Jesus as a boy. But what was he like? What did he do? Did he already have supernatural powers? Was he mature enough to control them? Later Christians told stories that still survive, both entertaining and instructive, intriguing accounts of Jesus the Wunderkind.
Lecture Three. The Missing Days: Where was Jesus Between His Death and Resurrection?
In the Gospels Jesus was crucified and buried on a Friday afternoon but was not raised from the dead until Sunday morning. Where was he in the meantime? Did he simply cease to exist? Did he go down to Hades like everyone else? If so, what was he doing there? Later Christians described those fateful days in books that did not make it into the New Testament, but that were highly influential on Christian thinking for centuries. Ever hear of the Harrowing of Hell? You will in *this* lecture!
If you do want to take the plunge, below is a link that will give instructions about how to get access to the lectures. In exchange, we are asking for a donation of $15. Every bit of that money will go the overhead costs for the blog. We have never taken any overhead out of the membership fees for those who join the blog — every nickel of that money goes to the charities we support. For operating expenses we do separate separate fundraising events, and this is one of them. (BTW, in terms of overhead, I don’t get a penny of the overhead fees myself.) (But if you want to mail me a number of small unmarked bills, that would be fine.)
Here is the link for access: https://forms.gle/HmjkNKDbVuM2GoqH8 PLEASE NOTE: You will need to make your donation before filling out the access form. To do so is dead easy: Go to the blog site and at the bottom of the landing page and you will find two donation options: PayPal or Stripe (the latter is for credit cards).
Easy schmeazy. We’re obviously on the honors system here. But since we are talking about the NT , you know what happens to those who cheat. If you don’t, read Acts 5:1-11. 😉
Your lectures are always awesome! I wish you teached in a Greek university, so I could enjoy them live!
These lectures are all excellent. If you read this blog and you haven’t heard them yet, they’re well worth it.
Lol! Speaking of Acts 5:1-11, what is considered the reason for this story? For members of the community to sell all and give all? Or to sell, give and be honest? To put the fear of god in the people so they will sell and give?
It appears to be more the matter of honesty. Hey, don’t lie to an apostle. Very bad idea.
Did this community appear to be a commune?
Hi Dr.Ehrman!
What are your thoughts on the reliability of N T Wright and John Shelby Spong for scholarship and dissemination of information about Christianity? Thank you!
N. T. Wright is a leading scholar of the NT and very erudite. He and I tend to agree on very little. 🙂 Spong is not a scholar but he popularizes the work of otehr in a very important way, speaking as a kind of skeptic of biblical accuracy but within the church. Sometimes he does promote views that are not widely held, but again it is not so much because of his own scholarship as his reading of others.
Thank you!!
Alas, my slender grasp of technology has missed out on zoom; I would be delighted to watch them provided it doesn’t involve me appearing, or talking, on screen. My legendary ability to press completely the wrong buttons at completely the wrong times needs no further supporting evidence and I really don’t want to mess up the experience of others!
I think you will give us a chance to cheat with some mercy 😎.
As for the acts narrative, Yeshua [Jesus] had a Marxist radical approach of socialism to solve the sufferings of the people at his time.
This approach which was implemented literally by his deluded pupils [disciples] was doomed to fail [& will always fail] because it is against the natural laws of survival. It is a story to illustrate one of many Yeshua teaching fallacies.
Hey Bart! I was wondering if you have any readings or articles of yours citing the origin of the name yahweh and how it got into the Bible? It seems to me that it predates biblical times and it being the “divinely revealed” name is contradictory in it self if pagan origin is present. Thanks again professor.
I”ve written on it occasionally. It is usually traced to Exodus 3, where God tells Moses his name “I am.” In Hebrew the spelling is close to Yahweh, and so often it is understood to be a popular etymology of the name. But I tihnik you’re right that it probably is the name of a Canaanite divinity that came to be THE God of this particular group (so that the Exodus 3 passage is meant to explain the name widely in use).
I”ve written on it occasionally. It is usually traced to Exodus 3, where God tells Moses his name “I am.” In Hebrew the spelling is close to Yahweh, and so often it is understood to be a popular etymology of the name. But I tihnik you’re right that it probably is the name of a Canaanite divinity that came to be THE God of this particular group (so that the Exodus 3 passage is meant to explain the name widely in use).
Its amazing How The Glad tidings of jesus peace be upon him The Kingdom of God (Islam)that came Revived the early teachings of Jesus peace be upon him.
the book below shows what was revived
https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single2/en_Islams_Revival_of_Jesus_Teachings.pdf
I’m confused about how you are separating/accounting for the fundraising. I don’t see a separate button or any way to indicate that the donation is intended to help cover operating expenses of the blog rather than to the funds that flow through into the other charities.
Sorry — I’m not quite sure what you’re saying. The donations that come from this effort go directly to charity. There’s not a separate button because you will be telling us if you make the donation, and so we will know (you won’t be able to receive the link to the lectures unless you tell us). The money that comes in from those donations goes to our expenses account. All membership fees and regular donations go to the charities. Does that make sense?
Early Christians were first century apocalyptic preppers consisting of pre-AD70 Jews and non-Jewish descendants of the tribes of Israel. Everyone after AD70 was part of a separate personality cult of faux Christians. There was no unbroken progression of Christianity from before AD70 to after AD70. After Israel’s redemptive narrative ended in AD70, Greek cultured people began misappropriating bits and pieces of Israel’s story, widened the scope of ‘salvation’ to include people who were never under the law and who weren’t in danger of an end of the age judgement…people who never heard of or needed Jesus. It’s been a chaotic mess ever since.