Loading...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):
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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 book needs to be read another way. But the popular perception is that, whether absolutely right or terribly wrong, the book of Revelation tries to describe what is going to happen to us here in the twenty-first century.
Why does this seem to be the natural, commonsensical reading? Because the fundamentalists have won. It is not that fundamentalists have won over the great bulk of society to the entire panoply of their religious views. The vast majority of the human race decidedly does not think the Bible is completely inerrant in everything it says, that the world was created in six days some six thousand years or so ago, that there really was an Adam and Eve, and that . . . well, make your list. But fundamentalists have succeeded in convincing everyone (or at least those who are remotely interested) that Revelation describes what will happen in our own future, and probably soon. Possibly starting next year, or, well, next Thursday.
But here is a little-known factoid: The word “rapture” never appears in the Bible. Here’s another: Even apart from the actual word, the book of Revelation never says anything about the followers of Jesus being taken out of the world before it all goes up in flames. The idea of the rapture has not been taken from the Bible; it has been read into the Bible.
Here is an even more interesting factoid: No one had even thought of
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According to Wikipedia, John Nelson Darby is the founder of the Exclusive Brethren sect.
“—and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Since Paul did not tell the Thessalonians that the dead will rise first when he converted them, did he likely “make this up” to give them comfort and assurance regarding their loved ones who had died?
In other words, he had not thought about the question before and needed an answer for them as “the coming of the Lord” kept taking longer to happen and more people were going to die.
It’s possible. It’s also possible that since he spent so little dtime with them he didn’t get to that part. And it’s possible that he had developed that view after he left and came to realize some of the problems of claiming the end was “imminent” for believers.
Why do you think that Paul “spent so little time with the [Thessalonians]”?
Maybe according to Acts ,but Paul himself says in Philippians 4:16:
“for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid MORE THAN ONCE when I was in need”
If the philippians made the 100 miles trip “more than once” it seems that Paul remained in Thessaloniki for not such a short time.
My sense is that Paul stayed in each city as long as he needed to in order to get a relatively established church in place, and hten hurried on from there to the next place, so he could spread the Gospel “throughout the world” before Jesus came. For me the more surprisig thing is that he appears to have spent more time in a place like Corinth. Acts says 18 months but Paul doesn’t say anything like that. Still, the Corinthian church seems very large from what he says….
did he likely “make this up” to give them comfort and assurance regarding their loved ones who had died?
Yeeeep, I think Paul was making up all this stuff about the second coming, parts he learned from others before him an parts he himself invented, this one is very suspicious , it really seems as he wanted to ” give the Thessalonians comfort and assurance regarding their loved ones who had died” !!!
Hi Dr. Ehrman, I went to my neighborhood bookstore yesterday and bought your book! Started reading right away. I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness, so the fear of Armageddon was a constant presence in my younger years. I grew up in Germany in the 70s and 80s, when the destruction of WWII was still very present in people’s memory. I always imagined Armageddon would be like the war, with bombs raining down on cities and fire everywhere. I was terrified. I owe a great debt of gratitude to you and other scholars who write books and appear on blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos to explain the true historical context of the Bible, of antiquity and of Christianity. Thank you!
Thanks!
Hello. I am a new member here. My name is Samuel. Age: 41. Place: Utah
I think 19th century America was trying to use a word to describe the event in their minds. Rapture seems to be good word as to describe their hope of feeling.
I couldn’t help but notice the Strong’s concordance for the word used for “taken up together” or “caught away” has the nuance of being seized by force like a thief would. Paul used the same word when talking about his mystic experience in the 3rd heaven. The gospel writers use it to describe the actions of a thief, and I can’t help but think this is where they get the idea of the sudden eschatological events. 2 Peter 3 uses the thief language for the second coming too. But where did Paul get the idea?
I think the Book of Enoch is one place. The other place is “by the word of the Lord” in verse 15. Which either means by tradition or from one of his mystic experiences with Jesus when he was caught away.
I am just excited to participate.
Welcome to the blog!
You will love it!
Re: …the book of Revelation never says anything about the followers of Jesus being taken out of the world before it all goes up in flames…
Well the way it was explained to me was the Rapture was “prefigured” (whatever that means) in Rev 4:1-2.
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the spirit…
You’ll note that Jesus doesn’t come down and that only John goes up, not the Christians. It’s kinda like saying that Enoch and Elijah “prefigure” the rapture because they are taken up. You could assert that, but it’s not what the text says. Peole who say that have almost never read Jewish and Christian apocalypses, where this kind of thing is common. The prophet goes up to see the heavenly realm and understands what happens on earth in light of it.
Excellent article.
Hi Bart. I recently listened to a talk from a doctor describing Jesus’ passion. He gave some details about how crucifixion worked (that Jesus didn’t carry the whole cross all the way to the top of mount Golgotha, just the shorter end; that the longer mast would already be stuck to the ground, and people would be nailed to the horizontal mast on the ground and then lifted with some pulleys…) which I found surprising.
I recall you mentioning a few times that we know very little about the practice of crucifixion, so I wanted to ask: what do we know exactly?
Thanks!
I’m afraid to say We don’t have any description of how it was actually done from any ancient source, so any speculation about it is … speculation. But some speculation has some support — we have crucifixion nails that have survived; we have two skeletal remains, and so on. We don’t know how the crosses were made upright but pulleys is a good guess. We don’t know anything about uprights bein already in the ground, etc..
Is there any account of victims being impaled through the guts and propped up on pointed stakes? I think I had read that somewhere.
Some ancient cultures practiced that, and it appears to be presupposed in parts of the OT; but there’s no evidence that I know of that Romans did it
There have been a number of documentaries on this on the History channel, Discovery channel, National Geographic channel, etc. Of the few that I’ve seen, one of them have advocated an X-shaped cross and one of them did suggest Jesus crossbeam was nailed to a tree. If Jesus and his crossbeam were nailed to a tree then that would explain how the sign “King of the Jews” could be secured in the part of the tree above Jesus. I found these links about possible ways crucifixion occurred; they are kind of interesting.
https://www.quora.com/Was-Jesus-crucified-on-an-actual-tree
https://www.quora.com/Was-Jesus-crucified-on-an-X-shaped-cross
On my previous comment: I started reading Armageddon today … I realize that my comment was late to the party.
Professor Ehrman, in the Gospel According to Luke the writer tells us of a conversation that Jesus has with one of the criminals while they are on their crosses. Jesus tells the criminal “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Is the writer saying that Jesus will be in heaven the day of his death? If so, doesn’t this contradict what the early church taught, “He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.”? Also If I accept what the writer of Luke says then Jesus came down from heaven at his conception then went back to heaven after his death and then returned three days later. Wouldn’t that be his second coming?
Luke appears to believe that Jesus went straight to paradise at his death, and was there prior to his resurrectoin. That is found in no other NT author. It does appear to stand at odds with the later tradition that he went into Hades. One could consider Jesus’ resurrectoin the “second” coming no matter what view of resurrection one holds, but the term was not used to refer to resurrection, which was seen as the glorious ending of his first coming.
While I agree, the theology and concept of the Rapture isn’t in the Bible. I would argue the word itself “kinda” is considering the Latin Vulgate (a Bible used more than arguably any Bible) uses the Latin word “Rapture” or “Raptus” in 1st Thessalonians which translates to abducted or “Snatched up”.
So I assume when you say it’s not in the Bible, you are mainly referring to the Original Greek text.
Yes, teh Latin is a more or less literal translation of the Greek term for “to be seized/grapped/snatched/abducted/kidnapped” It is used in 2 Cor. 12:2, 4 to refer to Paul being snatched up to heaven. I was referring to the English word “rapture.” It doesn’t occur in the Bible. It’s not in the verses typically used to support the eschat0logical idea of the “rapture” and those passages do not actually describe what conservative Christians mean when they use the term “rapture”
Church Fathers – Pre-trib Rapture (NOT Darby)
“When in the end that church will suddenly be caught up from this, then it is said, ‘There will be tribulation such as not been since the beginning, nor will be.”
Irenaeus — Against Heresies c. 130 – c. 202 AD
For all the saints and elect of God are gathered, prior to the tribulation that is to come, and are taken to the Lord lest they see the confusion that will overwhelm the world because of our sins.
— Ephraem the Syrian c. 306 – 373
“His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit unto the end of the heaven: and there is no one hid from the HEAT thereof.” Psalm 19:6 64b
Pre-Trib Rapture
By the heat he means the conflagration. And Isaiah speaks thus: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chamber, and shut thy door: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation of the Lord be overpast.” Isaiah 26:20
— Hippolytus c. 170 – c. 235 AD
Quotes from: Dr. Ken Johnson – The End-Times by the Ancient Church Fathers
There are two more EARLY church fathers’ quotes, but I’m at the word limit
You need to read these quotations in their actual contexts. None of them is referring to a rapture. Read the entire passage of each and you’ll see. Ephraem, e.g., is talking about people who have died and gone to heaven.
I read Irenaeus in context and see that you are right– I believe Dr. Ken Johnson is wrong–Irenaeus is not pre-Trib. I also read Ephraem the Syrian and found quite a few clear pre-Trib passages.
I’d love to see what you found. I’ve read his work carefully and don’t believe he had any conception of a pre-trib rapture.
“No one had even thought of the idea of a “rapture” until the 1830s.”
Maybe Ephrem the Syrian (or whoever wrote the Ephraem Graecus texts) might have held a view similar to the 19th century fundamentalists?
Two Ephraem Graecus examples:
“For the elect shall be gathered prior to the tribulation, so they shall not see the confusion and the great tribulation coming upon the unrighteous world.” (from ‘Sermon on Repentance and Judgment and the Separation of the Soul From the Body’)
“the saints in glory flying off in light in the clouds of the air to meet Christ, the king of glory, but see ourselves in the great tribulation” (from ‘On the Fathers Who Have Completed Their Course’)
Translations from this online source:
https://soothkeep.info/ephraim-the-syrian-ten-undiscovered-pretribulation-rapture-passages/
You need to read these passages in Ephrem in context. They aren’t referring to the rapture, but to people who die and go to heaven.
I’ve posted a short book review (a “mention” with Amazon link) of Bart’s book, ARMAGGEDON, at my blog MeridaGOround.com, which keys off a century old parable titled “The Devil’s Auction”.
As an added detail, we watched a new film last night starring Bill Nighy titled LIVING. The film pairs well with Bart’s chapter 7, especially the portion headed “Jesus’ Views of Domination”. (The film reminds me a bit of Dicken’s “Christmas Carol”, earning 7.2 stars at IMDB.) The leading character learns an important lesson: SERVICE.