Loading...This Sunday, March 28, I will be giving TWO live Zoom lectures for anyone who wants to come. They will be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament and there will be a 30-minute Q & A to follow the second one.
There is no charge per se, but I would like to ask for a donation to the blog in exchange, if you can see your way clear to do it. If not, that’s fine – we all have our circumstances! But one of the main reasons I’m doing these lectures is to raise money for the Food Bank of North Carolina; as with all food banks right now, it is in desperate need. Your donation is completely tax deductible. To make a donation now, go to the blog home page and scroll to the bottom to find the blue “One-time Donation” button.
Here is the info you need:
- Time: Sunday, March 28, 2:00 pm and 3:15 pm (EST)
- The Lectures will last about 50 minutes, with Q&A to follow the second.
First Lecture: The Gospel according to Paul: The Letter to the Romans. The most influential letter Paul wrote was to the church in Rome, the only one of his letters sent to a church he did not himself found. In the letter he wants to inform the Romans of what it is he preached — apparently they had their doubts if he was on the up and up. And that means he laid out more systematically than anywhere else his Gospel message. Here, then, is where we have an exposition of his views. In important ways, they are not what modern readers typically think, as we will see in this lecture.
Second Lecture: Paul’s First Letter to Corinth: Christian Ethics in Context. The church that Paul founded in Corinth grew significantly after he left, and Christians there engaged in practices that Paul thought were immoral and accepted beliefs he thought were completely wrong. He wrote his first letter to the church to correct the problems, that included such inner divisions that some members were taking others to court, men visiting prostitutes and bragging about it in church, one fellow sleeping with his step-mother, chaotic church services that were completely out of control, and church leaders who claimed they were already so spiritually powerful that they had already experienced the full benefits of salvation — there was to be no future resurrection of the dead. In this lecture we consider how Paul dealt with this difficult situation, among those that he calls “the saints in Christ.” If these were the saints, what were the sinners like?
As you know, these lectures are meant to raise money for those in need (see below). Can you donate a bit? My suggested minimum donation is $10 for one of the lectures and $15 for both together (there is no maximum donation!).
Three participants will be allowed to ask the questions at the end. These will be the three highest donors.
In weeks past we have had a number of people donate $100; to be among the top three, you’ll probably need to go to about that level. Whatever you donate, if anything, is completely up to you. And everyone, donor or not, is absolutely welcome to hear the Q&A. The last few weeks we have heard some terrific questions. On these two I expect some toughees. Bring ’em on!
In case you wondered, I have no plans to make these lectures generally available. The recordings will be for my class only.
If you want to attend, all you need do is respond by letting us know, here: Register for my Sunday Lectures
New! As soon as you register, you will receive a Zoom link via email from [email protected].
If you have any questions about how it will work, let me know.
Incidentally, this article series may interest you. It’s a comparison of R.R.Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire’s nomads with real, actual nomads from our world. R.R.Martin’s claim that the Dothraki are an accurate description of nomadic life is about as true as Dan Brown’s claims about the accuracy of The DaVinci Code.
https://acoup.blog/2020/12/04/collections-that-dothraki-horde-part-i-barbarian-couture/
What effect did the revolt and destruction of the Temple 65 to 70 have on the history of Christianity? Did Paul try to convert God Fearers as well as pagans? How on earth did pagans understand what the hell Paul was talking about without a background in the Jewish faith?
By God Fearers do you mean gentiles attending synagogue? I don’t know, he doesn’t say. Paul would have had to convince pagans that the Jewish god was the only one, and explain how Christ fulfilled prophecies and then was raised from the dead. It’s weird, but taht appears to have been more successful than trying to convince Jews *only* that Jesus was the messiah….
His occasional letters seem to presuppose knowledge of the Jewish religion of the time.
Yes, he would have taught his converts the rudiments.
What sort of person do you think wrote Revelation?
It’s the topic of my next book. I’d say an apocalyptic visionary Christian who especially despised Rome and thought God was soon going to wipe it out….
This is my first look at the site, and my first post. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to join your lecture on Paul’s letter to the Romans – his most systematic exposition of what the gospel message is. I am deeply interested in this, particularly with regard to the Trinity doctrine. I am keen to find out if the claim that Christ had to be both God and man in order to achieve the purpose of his death (and assure his resurrection) forms the foundation of the gospel message, in Paul’s view, or in yours. Have you already dealt with this previously, on this site? If so, could you kindly give the links? And will points in your lecture be posted on here later? Hoping so!
Yes, Paul never addresses that issue that Christ had to be both God and man to die. In fact, none of the New Testament authors do. That was a much later formulation. I can’t recall it in any sources of the first three centuries — maybe someone else on the blog can think of a place.
Mr. Ehrman,
There is a passage in Corinthias 15:25 mentioning “…all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death…”. This passage is also mentioned by Papias. To put all the enemies under his feet seems a bit aggressive to me, different from what I would expect from a pacific Messiah. Couldn’t here Jesus be teaching something like we need to put our enemies (Romans) under our feet no matter of what death we will die? A teaching which would be in total accordance to Judas of Galileia sect, mentioned by Flavius Josephus? Could the real Jesus be a member of this sect of Judas?
Where does Papias mention that? In any event, it’s not a teaching of Jesus, so it would not have led to a charge of sedition.
This fragment quoting Papias is in Irenaeus, Haeresis, v. 36. https://biblehub.com/library/papias/fragments_of_papias/fragment_v.htm
Read the first footnote. Irenaeus does not attribute this line to Papias. That’s why it’s not included in most editions of Papias’s fragments. If you want to see a standard edition of them, see my edition and translation in the Loeb Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2.
Thank you!