Recent Posts
A Major Forgery in the Hebrew Bible? Guest Post by Platinum Member Dennis Folds
Members of the blog at the Platinum level have the opportunity to publish posts (just) for other Platinums, and after a number of these appear, the members vote on which should be posted on the blog itself. Here is the most recent winner, an insightful and intriguing Platinum guest post by Dennis Folds, Many of you on the blog are interested in Christian pseudepigrapha (= forgeries), especially those in the New Testament. But what about the Old Testament? Now *here* is a bold thesis! Read it and remark! Being allowed to publish these posts is a very nice perk of [...]
What Serious Research Projects Can Undergraduates Do in Early Christianity?
Here I continue to discuss some of the things professors in the humanities do in research universities -- in part. I'm telling this from just my own perspective, but I'd say that most of what I say could be said by nearly anyone in a similar position. This is how I explained this aspect of it before. ****************************** In addition to my regular teaching, I often get asked to direct Independent studies – where an undergraduate student will pursue a research project of his or her own choosing, something that normally is not taught in a regular class that we [...]
What’s It Like to Teach at a Research University?
I continue here with my reflections on what a research scholar at a research university actually *does*. This post covers the most important part of the work. The main job of a professor, of course, is to teach. (!) Different colleges and universities have different requirements and expectations for their faculty. At many small colleges, professors teach four or even five courses a semester. Rarely can a person teach that much and still produce substantial (or much of any!) research, so that professors in those contexts are usually handicapped when it comes to publishing scholarship in the form of books [...]
Is Christianity Responsible for Gender Equality and Consent?
Is the reason women are treated better in today's society than virtually any time in human history (as often bad as it is now, oh boy was it worse in, say, 1950, or 950, or 50), because of the beneficent influence of true Christianity? That is the thesis of the recent work of an evangelical Christian named Glenn Schriver, and I had a remote debate with him about it. You can watch it here. It appeared on one of my favorite interview programs in the world (literally, since it's in London), Unbelievable hosted by Justin Brierley. Oh boy, that program [...]
How Useful Are Our Earliest New Testament Manuscripts?
It is interesting that as recently as twenty years ago almost *no one* outside a small cohort of textual geeks (like me) had much interest at all in the actual manuscripts of the New Testament. Even the majority of NT scholars (a very *large* majority) just weren't interested. And most non-NT scholars had never heard that there was even an issue / problem. That has changed a lot. Now it's something people seem to want to talk to me about all the time. I've long thought about the issues that are involved (starting when I was 17! Seriously). Here are [...]
The Problem: Not Enough Killing! Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson
I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying these Platinum posts -- posts by Platinum members for Platinum members with Platinum Content! Here is one that will take you aback--Doug Wadeson, grappling deeply with one of the most disturbing aspects of the Bible. ****************************** Recently we had lunch with a delightful Christian couple, very nice people. They mentioned how their grandchildren were getting such good teaching at their church, especially the Old Testament stories. I suggested, “That probably includes the story of Jericho?” (Joshua 6) “Sure.” “Do you think they were taught what the soldiers were to do when [...]
What is it Like to Supervise PhD Dissertations?
Few people among us who are seriously interested in the life of the mind are actually professional teachers; few professional teachers teach at colleges or universities; few college or university teachers are at research universities (a big difference from, say, liberal arts colleges -- not better or worse, just very different); and not all instructors at research universities direct PhD Dissertations. Those of us who do usually find it to be a sacred obligation (it is the final step for a graduate student to her PhD), an honor, a privilege, and an ungodly amount of work. When I first published [...]
What Do Professional Scholars Actually Do? Part 1: Introduction
I am constantly reminded (from emails and conversations ) that most people would have little way to know what professional scholars at research universities actually do. That’s not surprising. I, frankly, don’t really know (or much understand) what a hedge fund manager does, or a state lieutenant governor, or an industrial chemist. I was thinking about the issue (my position, not the ones I don't know about) last week and suddenly had a vague recollection that I discussed it at some point on the blog; I checked and, lo and behold, I devoted a number of posts to the matter [...]
Understanding the Gospels: Suggested Readings!
I frequently get asked what I would recommend for people to read if they are interested in the study of the New Testament. In my recent course on the Gospels (www.bartehrman.com/courses) I'm including as part of the supplement to the lectures an annotated list of suggested readings. The idea is to provide people with some guidance for important books, some to start with and some for more advanced readers. Here it is, for your perusing enjoyment! The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Annotated Suggestions for Further Reading Aune, David. The New Testament in Its Literary Environment. [...]
Big Questions for Studying the New Testament Gospels
In my previous posts I summarized the eight lectures that can be found on my new eight-lecture online course, “The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.” As I’ve indicated before, this course is not connected directly with the blog: it is a separate endeavor run off my personal website for the Bart Ehrman Professional Services. You can see it here. https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/. Included in the course packet are questions for reflection, meant to help listeners think through the issues I’ve discussed and reflect on them from their own perspective. I deal with each of these issues in some depth in [...]
Final Lectures in My Course “The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John”
This will be my final post providing summaries of my lectures for my new eight-lecture online course, “The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.” As I’ve indicated before, this course is not connected directly with the blog: it is a separate endeavor run off my personal website for the Bart Ehrman Professional Services. You can see it here. https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/. I am posting about the lectures simply because I know a number of blog members would be interested. If you are, check it out. If you’re not, don’t! Lecture Six: Embracing the Differences In this lecture I build on [...]
Why Paul Was Persecuted (Or Claimed He Was). Platinum Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski
I am pleased to publish this new Platinum post by Dan Kohanski, on an intriguing and important topic for understanding both the life (and writings) of Paul and the earliest history of the Christian movement. This post is by a Platinum member for other Platinum members. You too can make a post like this. Interested? Just write something up and send it along. It doesn't need to be high level scholarship. Just write up your views about something and get some feedback from others! In the meantime, Dan will be willing to address your feedback on this one. ****************************** (This [...]
More on My New Course: The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
I continue here with more summaries of my lectures for my new eight-lecture online course, “The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.” Again, this course is not connected directly with the blog: it is a separate endeavor run off my personal website for the Bart Ehrman Professional Services: you can see it here. https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/. I am posting about the lectures simply because I know a number of blog members would be interested. If you are, check it out. If you’re not, don’t! Lecture Three: What Are the Gospels? This lecture continues the story by explaining how scholarship developed [...]
My New Course: The Unknown Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
My new online course focusing on what scholars know about the four Gospels will soon be available on my personal website. Neither the course nor the website is part of the blog, but I am announcing it here because I know a number of blog members would be interested. The course is based on a set of remote lectures that some of you attended, and includes additional instructional materials. If you did not come but would like to know more about it, you can check it out here: https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/. It consists of eight thirty-minute (or so) lectures, with the title: [...]
Our Next Platinum Webinar! Tuesday September 27
We have scheduled our next Platinum-Only Webinar for Tuesday September 27! I hope you can make it: it's a hot topic. (If you can't make it, we'll be recording it and sending it out) (In fact, we'll be doing that even if you *can* make it) Topic: The Birth of the Trinity Issue: Most people don't actually know what the doctrine of the Trinity is (it's not just that there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...); fewer still have a good sense of where it came from, why it developed, and how. After this webinar, you will! Time: [...]
September Gold Q&A
Dear Gold Members, Here we go! Time for our monthly Gold Q&A. Have a question? Go for it. It can be anything related to the blog. To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] The DEADLINE for your question is this Saturday, September 24 midnight (whenever midnight is where you live). I will record the session soon thereafter and we'll get it released by Sept. 29 or so. Questions that are relatively short (a sentence or two) are more likely to be chosen. And feel free to come up with a stumper! Bart [...]
Did King David Actually Exist?
I am starting to do research for my next online course, to be given in November, dealing with the Hebrew Bible. I'll be calling it "Finding Moses" and it will be dealing with four of the books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) and what we can actually know, historically, about the exodus from Egypt (Is there any archaeological evidence? Any reference to it in other texts outside the Bible? Any reason to think it did, or reasons to think it did not, happen?) and about the law of Moses (Were Jews legalistic? Did they have to keep [...]
Why I Want to Write a Book on Christian Love
Over the past couple of weeks I have been explaining how I have reimagined my next trade book, written not for scholars but for general readers. As I've pointed out, my initial idea that I floated before readers of the blog was to have a book devoted to how Christianity revolutionized how people in the Roman world understood wealth and what to do with it. My argument was that as a Jew Jesus insisted that those with resources help those who were in need – a virtually unheard-of ethical principle in Greek and Roman antiquity. His followers were Jews as [...]
Is It Even Possible to Follow Jesus’ Teaching to “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
In my previous posts I've been talking about Jesus' "love commandment," arguing that it revolutionized ancient thinking about how people are to behave toward one another. ("Love thy neighbor as thyself"). Now I ask whether that revolution actually involved changing people's behavior in radical ways. Or not. Obviously, on the practical level, Jesus’ insistence on complete self-sacrifice did not come to dominate the world of late antiquity. People continued to live much as they had before. Conquerors still conquered. The first Christian emperor, Constantine, was one of the most bloodthirsty of them all; many of his ardent Christian successors (including [...]
Jesus’ Teachings on Love and Salvation
In my previous posts I have been explaining in brief terms how people thought about “ethics” in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, that is, how they decided what kinds of human activities were best for themselves and for their society, how they were to interact with one another, what values and virtues they should hold and what values and vices they should reject. Part of my thesis – which I hope to spell out in my next book – is that Christianity changed how people understood virtuous activity and the good life, how they urged people to behave, and [...]
Who Was The Last Non-Christian Emperor of Rome?
Most people know that Constantine was the first Christian emperor. Lots of other things they think about him are wrong -- for example, that he decided or helped to decide which books would be in the New Testament or that his conversion was just a political ploy. I deal with these in my book The Triumph of Christianity (Simon & Schuster, 2019). But this one's right. He was the first Christian emperor. It's also right that nearly all the emperors after Constantine were Christian. I say *nearly* because of one brief but highly noteworthy exception: his nephew Julian, most frequently [...]
A Funny Story about the Rapture
In my forthcoming book on Revelation (Title: Armaggedon: What the Bible Really Says About the End; to be published on March 21), I discuss how evangelical Christians in the 19th century came up with the idea of a "rapture" -- that Jesus was soon to return to heaven to take true believers out of it before the horrible seven-year "tribulation" began. Here is a funny story about belief in the rapture from my younger days. At the time I was still a churchgoing Christian. The church I was attending was evangelical, but I was moving away from a conservative theology and its [...]
Is There Anything “Religious” about “Ethics”?
It is true that ancient ethics did enjoin beneficent acts on family, friends, and acquaintances of one’s own status when they were in need. But normally such benefices were expected to produce gratitude and respect (elevating one’s status and social capital) and to bring a return; just as important, they were expected to be reciprocated if misfortune should strike the giver. That is, they were not acts of pure altruism, or arguably altruistic at all. Moreover, when social ethics entered into the picture – as they often did – they centered on matters of justice and piety (meaning something like [...]
Love. How I’ve Shifted the Focus of My Book on Charity.
As I've indicated, my plan is, or rather was, to write a book that argued that Christians radically changed the understandings of wealth and the practices of "giving" once they took over the empire. They, in effect, invented what we think of as "charity." As I have talked it over with my literary agent and the editors at Simon & Schuster, I have decided that my study needs to be placed in a broader cultural context. Rather than focusing exclusively on the transformation of ancient understandings of wealth and the concomitant social practices of giving in isolation from their larger [...]
Why Even Conservative Christians Should Accept Evolution: Blog Anniversary Guest Post by Michael Shermer (part 2)
For several months now I have been posting Guest Posts that were generoulsly provided by others in honor of the blog's tenth anniversary. These posts have been wide-ranging in their content and the intriguing , each pbased on the posters' unique backgrounds and expertise. This now is the final one in the series, the second of two posts by Michael Shermer, to continue what he was saying in his post of Sept. 3. This one is particularly significant. Why is it in conservative Christians' (and everyone else's) own best interest to accept evolution as a reality of the past? He [...]
Categories on the Blog
Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.
- Is Christianity Responsible for Gender Equality and Consent? October 2, 2022
- What Do Professional Scholars Actually Do? Part 1: Introduction September 28, 2022
- Why Paul Was Persecuted (Or Claimed He Was). Platinum Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski September 23, 2022
- Our Next Platinum Webinar! Tuesday September 27 September 20, 2022
- September Gold Q&A September 20, 2022
- Why Even Conservative Christians Should Accept Evolution: Blog Anniversary Guest Post by Michael Shermer (part 2) September 8, 2022
- I’m Thinking about Starting a Podcast. Your Opinion? September 6, 2022
- Why Christians and Conservatives Should Accept Evolution: Blog Anniversary Guest Post by Michael Shermer (part 1) September 3, 2022
- How Useful Are Our Earliest New Testament Manuscripts? October 1, 2022
- Specious Arguments for the Truth of the Bible July 24, 2022
- Does Luke Get Rid of the Atonement? July 5, 2022
- How Do You Decide What an Author Actually Wrote? The Last Supper July 3, 2022
- What Did Jesus Say at the Last Supper? July 2, 2022
- Teeth Will Be Provided April 10, 2022
- Do Textual Critics Have to be Radical Skeptics? Guest Post by Kurt Jaros March 31, 2022
- Faith and Inerrancy, In My Case — Did the “Young Ehrman” Get it Wrong? March 19, 2022
- Time Magazine Cover Story on Lost Christianities. Kind Of…. November 9, 2021
- The Remarkable Story of Masada: Guest Post by Jodi Magness May 27, 2020
- Academic Fraud at the Highest Levels May 24, 2020
- Startling and Disturbing Development Involving Manuscripts at the Museum of the Bible October 15, 2019
- Why Was the World Created in 4004 BC? July 1, 2019
- The Hobby Lobby, Biblical Manuscripts, and Academic Scandal June 25, 2019
- An Official Copy of Jesus’ Death Sentence: Another Forgery? May 27, 2019
- Homosexuality and the New Testament. Guest Post by Jeff Siker. March 4, 2019
- Jesus’ Teachings on Love and Salvation September 15, 2022
- Is There Anything “Religious” about “Ethics”? September 11, 2022
- Love. How I’ve Shifted the Focus of My Book on Charity. September 10, 2022
- Did the Apostles Use Secretaries to Write their Books? September 4, 2022
- The Invention of Charity: My Prospectus for the Book June 21, 2022
- An Even More Unusual Story of What Happens to the Rich… June 7, 2022
- What the Earliest *Christians* Thought About Wealth May 26, 2022
- Shouldn’t the Upper Classes Help the … Upper Classes? May 25, 2022
- A Major Forgery in the Hebrew Bible? Guest Post by Platinum Member Dennis Folds October 6, 2022
- The Problem: Not Enough Killing! Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson September 30, 2022
- Did King David Actually Exist? September 20, 2022
- A Major Forgery in the Hebrew Bible? Platinum Guest Post by Dennis Folds August 8, 2022
- What’s the Point? Hey, *IS* There a Point? The Book of Ecclesiastes June 30, 2022
- A Skeptical View of Life … From the Bible! June 28, 2022
- Onan the Barbarian: How an obscure Bible character affected reproductive rights. Platinum Guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD June 24, 2022
- Who Buried Moses? Platinum Guest Post by Lou Suarez May 31, 2022
- Why I Want to Write a Book on Christian Love September 18, 2022
- Is It Even Possible to Follow Jesus’ Teaching to “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” September 17, 2022
- Jesus’ Teachings on Love and Salvation September 15, 2022
- Is There Anything “Religious” about “Ethics”? September 11, 2022
- Did the Romans Stage Jesus’ Crucifixion? Platinum Guest Post by Ryan Fleming August 29, 2022
- Did Jesus Believe in Armed Resistance to the Romans? August 28, 2022
- Did Jesus Collaborate with the Romans to Produce His Movement? Platinum Guest Post by Ryan Fleming August 26, 2022
- Did the Romans Help Create the Jesus’ Movement? Platinum Guest Post by Ryan Fleming August 22, 2022
- Understanding the Gospels: Suggested Readings! September 27, 2022
- Big Questions for Studying the New Testament Gospels September 25, 2022
- Final Lectures in My Course “The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” September 24, 2022
- More on My New Course: The Unknown Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John September 22, 2022
- My New Course: The Unknown Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) September 21, 2022
- Problems in the Gospels–How do YOU Talk to Believers About Them? What Do You Think? August 21, 2022
- Writings of the Apostles in the Canon of the New Testament August 20, 2022
- The Birth of (the Messiah?) John the Baptist? Anniversary Guest Post by James F. McGrath August 18, 2022
- Why I Want to Write a Book on Christian Love September 18, 2022
- Is It Even Possible to Follow Jesus’ Teaching to “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” September 17, 2022
- The Canon of the New Testament: Why It Matters August 27, 2022
- When Did We Get the Final Canon of the New Testament? August 24, 2022
- How Did They Decide Which Books to Include in the New Testament Canon? August 23, 2022
- Writings of the Apostles in the Canon of the New Testament August 20, 2022
- Why Did Christians Even Need a Canon of Scripture? August 17, 2022
- Did Christians Invent Hospitals? July 21, 2022
- Did Ancient Writers Use Secretaries? September 1, 2022
- How Many People Were Literate in Antiquity? August 31, 2022
- You Don’t Think Peter Wrote 1 and 2 Peter? August 9, 2022
- A More Serious (Specific) Problem with the NRSV Translation October 3, 2021
- Was Christ So Divine That He Was Not Human? The “Antichrists” of 1 John March 16, 2021
- How the Trinity Got Into the New Testament: Part 2 January 9, 2021
- Did Some *One* Forge the Writings of “John”? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 19, 2020
- Problems with Thinking the “Letters of John” in the NT are Forgeries? Guest Post: Hugo Mendez May 18, 2020
- An Equally Strange View of the Crucifixion August 11, 2022
- The OTHER Apocalypse of Peter (Stranger still…) August 10, 2022
- Another Book by “Peter” That Could Have Become Scripture July 31, 2022
- A Book That Nearly Became Scripture: The Apocalypse of Peter July 28, 2022
- And Then My NEXT Book Project: How Did We Get the Canon of the NT? July 27, 2022
- A Christian NDE and the Problem with Being Filthy Rich June 1, 2022
- Thomas’s Trip to India and the Problem of Wealth May 31, 2022
- An Eyewitness Account of Jesus’ Crucifixion! March 16, 2022
- What Is the Didache & When Was the Didache Written May 1, 2022
- Platinum Webinar! March 8. Why Is the Apocalypse of Peter Not in the New Testament? February 25, 2022
- How I First Learned About the Gospel of Judas Iscariot July 20, 2020
- Slurs Against Religious Opponents and Makin’ Stuff Up July 15, 2020
- How Did We Get *These* 27 Books in the New Testament? October 4, 2019
- When Were Matthew and Mark First Seen as Scripture: Guest Post on Papias by Stephen Carlson June 10, 2019
- Papias and the Writers of the New Testament: Guest Post by Stephen Carlson April 25, 2019
- A Papias Mystery: What Was the Book He Wrote? Guest Post by Stephen Carlson April 12, 2019
- The OTHER Apocalypse of Peter (Stranger still…) August 10, 2022
- Did Heretics’ Texts Describe Their Incestuous Rituals? April 13, 2022
- Fabrication, Forgery, and Accusations of (Heretical) Christian Licentious Rituals! April 12, 2022
- The Massive Diversity of Early Christianity. My Book: Lost Christianities November 6, 2021
- Two Live Lectures on Sunday: The End is Near! April 20, 2021
- Was Marcion a Gnostic? April 13, 2021
- The Earliest Views of the Trinity (Long after the New Testament) April 11, 2021
- How Can the Father and the Son Be the SAME? Can Your Father Also Be Your Son? April 10, 2021
- Who Was The Last Non-Christian Emperor of Rome? September 14, 2022
- The Council of Nicaea and The Resulting View of Christ May 2, 2021
- Constantine and the Christian Faith: My Fourth Smithsonian Lecture May 2, 2019
- When Christianity Became the “Official” Religion of Rome May 2, 2018
- Making Rome Pagan Again May 1, 2018
- The Beginning of the End of Paganism April 30, 2018
- Did Constantine Outlaw the Pagan Religions? April 29, 2018
- The Conversion of Constantine February 12, 2018
- Bart Ehrman discusses the Apocalypticist July 27, 2016
- Violent Opposition to the Romans in the Days of Jesus (or Brian)? June 30, 2014
- Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Part 3 June 29, 2014
- Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Part 2 June 28, 2014
- Brian and the Apocalyptic Jesus Parts 1 June 27, 2014
- Day Two of Jesus and Brian June 25, 2014
- Day One of Jesus and Brian June 24, 2014
- The Life of Brian Conference June 23, 2014
- What Serious Research Projects Can Undergraduates Do in Early Christianity? October 5, 2022
- What’s It Like to Teach at a Research University? October 4, 2022
- What is it Like to Supervise PhD Dissertations? September 29, 2022
- Studying the New Testament in Graduate School August 30, 2022
- Why I Am Not A Christian: Is Bart Ehrman a Christian? April 2, 2022
- My Final Exam This Semester! The Birth of Christianity. November 28, 2021
- MORE Assignments on the Birth of Christianity September 5, 2021
- Student Papers for “The Birth of Christianity” September 4, 2021
- The Book of Genesis, the White Jesus, and Debating the Resurrection: Interview with Seth Andrews April 14, 2022
- An Intense Back and Forth on Key Issues March 8, 2022
- “In the Beginning” (Part 2) March 6, 2022
- In the Beginning: Myth, Legend, and History in the Book of Genesis (Part 1) March 5, 2022
- An Interview about Heaven and Hell: American Freethought Podcast July 21, 2021
- Where Did the Trinity Come From? The (Briefer) Video Version March 9, 2021
- My Interview About Jesus for “The Dagger Squad” February 23, 2021
- A Recording of My Webinar on Heaven and Hell January 24, 2021
- The Problem: Not Enough Killing! Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson September 30, 2022
- What is it Like to Supervise PhD Dissertations? September 29, 2022
- A Funny Story about the Rapture September 13, 2022
- Do You Need the Holy Spirit to Interpret the Bible? September 7, 2022
- Is That One a Difference or a Contradiction? August 16, 2022
- The Difference Between Differences and Contradictions August 14, 2022
- Critical Scholarship from a Sophisticated Faith Perspective. Blog Anniversary Guest Post by Judy Yates Siker August 13, 2022
- Why Do Some Smart People Just Not Think? August 7, 2022
