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The Pastoral Epistle of 1 Timothy in a Nutshell

By |June 14th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|0 Comments

In this series providing summaries of each book of the New Testament “in a nutshell” I have dealt with three of the letters that claim to be written by Paul but probably were not: Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians.  We now come to the three letters that are grouped together and called the “Pastoral Epistles,” 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. For reasons we will see, there is a wide scholarly consensus that these books were not actually written by Paul.  Before addressing the issue of authorship, I’d like to note the ostensible distinctive themes and emphases of these books, [...]

In the Weeds with the Author of 2 Thessalonians

By |June 12th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|0 Comments

I thought it migh be interesting for readers who like on occasion to get down into the weeds of scholarship to see a more detailed argument for how the *similarity* of 2 Thessalonians to 1 Thessalonians suggests not that Paul wrote both of them but that a later author (of 2 Thessalonians) was imitating Paul's authentic letter (1 Thessalonians).  Here's how I express the case in my book Forgery and Counterforgery (Oxford University Press).  [Don't worry about the Greek: you can either just see the similar letters or look up the verses in your English translation]:   2 Thessalonians as a [...]

2 Thessalonians, The Modern State of Israel, World War III, and the Return of Jesus

By |June 11th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|0 Comments

An obscure verse in 2 Thessalonians may conceivably lead to World War III.  OK, it sounds sensational and implausible, but hear me out. The following is taken from my book Armageddon (Simon & Schuster, 2023), edited for this occasion. ****************************** Evangelical Christians historically have believed that the Bible predicts the future, that many prophecies are being fulfilled in our day, and that they will continue to be fulfilled until the end comes when Jesus returns from heaven in judgment on the living and the dead. One thing that needs to happen is that the Temple in Jerusalem needs to be rebuilt.  The [...]

2 Thessalonians: For Further Reading

By |June 10th, 2025|Public Forum|0 Comments

Here is an annotated list of books on 2 Thessalonians, most of them relevant to all the Deutero-Pauline epistles (that is, the letters that are assigned a “secondary” standing in the New Testament collection of Paul’s letters because scholars doubt they were actually composed by Paul himself) with a couple of commentaries that deal with 2 Thessalonians.  One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. ****************************** Beker, J. Christiaan. The Heirs of Paul: Paul’s Legacy in [...]

Time to Vote: Help Choose the Next Platinum Post!

By |June 9th, 2025|Public Forum|0 Comments

Dear Platinum Members, Let’s call this a humble moment of accountability: we’ve fallen behind on something important. As many of you know, one of the special privileges of Platinum membership is the opportunity to submit guest posts to the blog — and then, every four submissions, we open it up for a Platinum vote. The post that gets the most votes is published to the entire blog for all members to enjoy and comment on. In theory, this happens every time we get four new Platinum posts. In reality... we now have a backlog of over a dozen. That means [...]

2 Thessalonians: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?

By |June 8th, 2025|Forgery in Antiquity, Paul and His Letters|2 Comments

In my previous post I explained the major theses and emphases of 2 Thessalonians, and pointed out that in many ways it is very similar in its concerns and themes to 1 Thesssalonians.  But I also said that it is commonly considered by scholars to be "Deutero-Pauline," that is, written by a later author only *claiming* to be Paul.  How can we know?  As I said there, the problem from a historian’s point of view is that someone who had decided to imitate Paul would no doubt try to sound like Paul. If both Paul and an imitator of Paul [...]

2 Thessalonians in a Nutshell

By |June 7th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|0 Comments

In this series of “nutshell” overviews of each of the books of the New Testament, we move now to one of the most intriguing instances of a book that claims to be written by Paul, but was apparently, instead, written by someone else who wanted his readers to think he was the apostle. 2 Thessalonians is an intriguing case because the book certainly sounds a lot like Paul’s other letters and does indeed appear to be a kind of follow-up letter to 1 Thessalonians.  It also has numerous word-for-word similarities to 1 Thessalonians.  It too, for example, is written by [...]

Interesting Questions from Readers (5/27/2025)

By |June 5th, 2025|Reader’s Questions|7 Comments

Here are some particularly sticky questions I've gotten recently, with expanded answers to share with all of you:   QUESTION: Bart, what should we understand by “exousia” in I Cor 11.10?   RESPONSE: Ah, right. A woman is to have an "authority" (exousia) on her head. It’s a confusing verse in a confusing passage.  The verse: For this reason a woman ought to have authority over her head, because of the angels.  It's sometimes translated "veil" though it clearly does not mean veil, per se. But in the context Paul is talking about why women should wear head coverings in [...]

1 Thessalonians and the Coming Rapture

By |June 4th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|23 Comments

One of the most intriguing passages of 1 Thessalonians is also  both the most widely referred to (these days) and the most universally misread.  It is the passage that conservative Christians cite to support the idea of the coming “rapture,” when Jesus will allegedly arrive from heaven to take his followers out of the world before the appearance of the Anti-Christ and the horrendous period of disaster and “tribulation” that must take place for seven years before the Final Day of Judgement. The “rapture” is one of the firmest beliefs of conservative evangelicals.  And it is not found in the [...]

1 Thessalonians. For Further Reading

By |June 3rd, 2025|Paul and His Letters|4 Comments

Here is a list of readings on 1 Thessalonians, most of which are relevant to all the undisputed Pauline epistles, with a couple of commentaries specifically on this significant, short letter.  One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. I devote a fuller discussion of 1 Thessalonians (an entire chapter) in my textbook, Bart Ehrman and Hugo Mendez, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 8th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2024), ch. 20.  That’s [...]

1 Thessalonians: Who, When, and Why

By |June 1st, 2025|Paul and His Letters|9 Comments

Now that I have given an overview of the major themes and emphases of 1 Thessalonians, I can say a few more things about what we know about its authorship, when it was written, and why. The book, of course, is always called “Paul’s” first letter to the Thessalonians but as you’ll notice, the opening verse indicates that it comes from “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.”  And throughout the letter the first-person plural pronoun predominates “WE give thanks” “WE know” “OUR visit” and so on. So, was this a letter written by committee?  If so…how does that work exactly? [...]

1 Thessalonians in a Nutshell

By |May 31st, 2025|Paul and His Letters, Public Forum|14 Comments

I now move on in my “New Testament in a Nutshell” series to the letter of 1 Thessalonians, which for-roughly-ever has been one of my favorite books of the New Testament.  It is not one of the most widely read as a rule, but I think it is both unusually important and interesting.  For one thing, it is the first letter of Paul that we have and, therefore, the very first piece of Christian writing of any kind that we have.  That in itself makes it unusually significant in my view.  THE earliest words from any Christian!  Whoa. When I [...]

June 2025 Gold Q&A

By |May 30th, 2025|Public Forum|6 Comments

Hello Gold & Platinum Members, It’s that time again—Bart’s monthly Q&A is just around the corner! Have a burning question about the history of early Christianity? Curious about a blog post or topic we’ve covered recently? This is your chance to ask Bart directly. He’ll respond to as many member-submitted questions as possible during a one-hour, Gold & Platinum members-only recorded session. The next Q&A will be recorded live on Sunday, June 22 at 1pm ET. Can’t make it? No problem. A full recording will land in your inbox shortly afterward. To submit a question, just email Jen at [email protected] [...]

Interesting Questions from Readers

By |May 29th, 2025|Reader’s Questions|35 Comments

Here are three interesting questions I've recently received, and my attempts to answer....   QUESTION: I’ve been wondering about the passage in Romans where Paul expresses his fear about returning to Jerusalem on account of opposition because he wanted to take the money that he raised there before leaving for Spain. I used to couple this account with Paul’s final leg of his third mission out of Corinth back to Jerusalem, and there he indeed faces opposition Acts chapter 20 and then finds himself in Rome, in prison Acts 28? The passages seem to fit well together, but how? History, [...]

Colossians: For Further Reading

By |May 28th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|6 Comments

Here is an annotated list of books on Colossians, most of them relevant to all the Deutero-Pauline epistles (that is, the letters that are assigned a “secondary” standing in the New Testament collection of Paul’s letters because scholars doubt they were actually composed by Paul himself) with a couple of commentaries specifically on Colossians.  One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. ****************************** Beker, J. Christiaan. The Heirs of Paul: Paul’s Legacy in the New Testament [...]

The Book of Acts “At a Glance” and Controversial Questions

By |May 27th, 2025|Acts of the Apostles|6 Comments

In addition to my nutshell summaries of each book of the New Testament, I have been providing a post that gives additional materials I present in my New Testament textbook.  These are (a) rapid fire summaries of each book that I call “At a Glance” and (b) a set of study questions that challenge students to take a position on key aspects of the book, that I call “Take a Stand.” Here they are now for the book of Acts.  I hope the summary "at a glance" makes sense, and that you can nail the questions. BOX 17.8 The Book [...]

Did Paul Write That Letter? Getting Into the Weeds…

By |May 25th, 2025|Forgery in Antiquity, Paul and His Letters|16 Comments

A few days ago I published a post trying to show why many critical scholars do not think Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians even though its author claims to be Paul.  It's pretty easy to put the matter in simple, easy-to-understand terms for non-experts: all you have to say is that the writing style, theology, and presupposed historical circumstances don't match up with what we know about Paul otherwise.  But, well, that's really not very convincing.  It's just informative. So I provided a few of the details connected with writing style and theology, but tried to do it [...]

The Letter to the Colossians: Who, When, and Why?

By |May 24th, 2025|Forgery in Antiquity, Paul and His Letters|15 Comments

Now that I have summarized the major themes and emphases of Colossians, I can talk about who wrote it, when, and why.   The book, as we have seen, claims to be written by Paul.  But there are good reasons for doubting it. In a number of ways, this letter does look very much like those that Paul himself wrote. The prescript written in the names of both Paul and Timothy, the basic layout of the letter, and the closing all sound like Paul; and a number of important Pauline themes are sounded throughout: the importance of suffering in this [...]

The Letter to the Colossians, in a Nutshell

By |May 22nd, 2025|Paul and His Letters|7 Comments

We continue in this series that explains each book of the New Testament “in a nutshell” by turning to the letter to the Colossians.  This is a book that claims to be written by Paul, but as we will see in the next post, there are very good reasons for thinking Paul himself did not write it, but that it was written in his name by a later follower claiming to be Paul. For now, we are interested in the letter itself, it’s major themes and emphases. I begin by trying to explain the book in 50 words. The letter [...]

Some Interesting Questions of the Week

By |May 21st, 2025|Reader’s Questions|15 Comments

I've started posting questions and responses from readers.  Here's another set of particularly good ones.   QUESTION: I recently read your book Jesus Interrupted and have become interested in your work. In it you discussed the potential forgeries contained in the Pauline letters and New Testament but it didn’t seem to mention much about the Old Testament. I noticed you did say that the New Testament was your specialty but was wondering if there was any evidence you were aware of that the Old Testament contains similar situations and which books. RESPONSE: Yes, my book was just about the NT, [...]

How Athens Made Me Rethink….

By |May 20th, 2025|Reflections and Ruminations, Spread of Christianity|16 Comments

I am in Athens just now, heading out on a tour giving lectures on ancient Greek philosophers in relation to the teachings of Jesus and Paul.  I came over a couple of days before the tour to spend some time looking around on my own, and had a lovely afternoon at the fantastic Acropolis Museum. Every time I come to Athens I think of my first time here, for several reasons, but one in particular.  It was when I was struck by a realization about the relationship of the highly cultured, sophisticated Greek world and the rise of earliest Christianity, [...]

Some Intriguing Questions about Paul’s Letters

By |May 18th, 2025|Paul and His Letters|36 Comments

QUESTION: I was wondering how scholars look at situations like Galatians 2:6-10 , specially the part of the text that states “they added nothing to my message” or “all they asked is we should continue remembering the poor”. My primary question is do scholars like yourself believe that the early disciples & James/Jerusalem Church saw eye to eye with Paul on all matters? As a secondary, why does Paul go into disputes later in Galatians 2 if they agreed on everything as mentioned in Gal 2 earlier? The passage of “adding nothing to my message” makes it seem like Paul [...]

Is the “Christ Poem” of Philippians Really a Poem? When Did Jesus Really Become “Equal” With God?

By |May 17th, 2025|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|22 Comments

This is my second and final post on the "Christ-poem" of Philippians 2.   Many years ago when I talked about the poem, a reader (who apparently knew Greek!) objected that the poetic lines I suggested don't actually work. Below I'll give his question and my response.  But then I'll move on to an even more important issue: how the poem understands who Christ was before he became human and after his resurrection.  If Christ was divine before the incarnation, how could he be made more divine afterward?   First, the question I received about whether this is some kind of poem.  [...]

The Death and Afterlife of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction Part II – Guest Post by Platinum Member Mark Reichert

By |May 16th, 2025|Public Forum|5 Comments

Here now is Platinum blog member Mark Reichert's second part of his two-part reflections in which he offers his own reconstruction of what might have happened after the crucifixion. So what do I think really happened? There is no way to know for sure but I can put together a story that seems plausible and makes sense to me. I believe Jesus and his following traveled to Jerusalem for Passover during the governorship of Pontius Pilate. How large a following I do not know though enough for it to be considered a “following.” Once there, he came to the attention [...]

The Most Widely Discussed Passage of Philippians

By |May 15th, 2025|Early Christian Doctrine, Paul and His Letters|35 Comments

To conclude this mini-thread on Philippians, which is part of my maxi-thread Nutshell Summaries of each of the books of the New Testament, I would like to provide two posts on the passage of this small book that is discussed by scholars (far) more than any other, the "Christ-poem" of 2:6-11, where Paul indicates that Christ was first a divine being in the heavenly realm who then came to earth as a human to die for the sins of others, and then was exalted to an even higher position than before, when God made him the Lord of All. It's [...]

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