Blog Post Categories

The following categories are represented in the blog posts. If you want a chronological listing encompassing all posts for any of the topics that interest you, simply click on a category and read to your heart’s delight.

Categories on the Blog

Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.

• Reminder! My Remote Book Event, This Thursday January 24, 2022
• The Maccabean Revolt January 23, 2022
• Special Live Event: What Book Should I Write Next? January 18, 2022
• A Particularly Intriguing Podcast Interview: Jesus, the Bible, and Early Christianity January 18, 2022
• Gold Q&A for January! January 11, 2022
• Jewish Indifference to Jesus and the Problems it Caused: Guest Post by Dan Kohanski January 8, 2022
• A New Course to Watch (Live!) Remotely: “In the Beginning” January 7, 2022
• Did you know that Gold Members can get the full audio feed in their favorite Podcast Player? January 6, 2022

• Did My Shift in Thinking Destroy my Own Views? Guest Video Post #4 by Kurt Jaros January 13, 2022
• Evangelical Support for Misquoting Jesus: Kurt Jaros, Guest Post #3 December 26, 2021
• An Evangelical Apologist Who *Supports* My Book Misquoting Jesus! December 8, 2021
• Do I Hold a Grudge against Bruce Metzger? October 31, 2021
• Why Would Later Scribes Be Interested In Having Jesus “Sweat Blood”? October 24, 2021
• Was Jesus in Agony Before His Arrest? The Unexpected Answer in Luke. October 20, 2021
• An Unexpected Argument Against Jesus’ “Sweating Blood” October 16, 2021
• Can We Reconstruct the New Testament from the Writings of the Early Church Fathers? October 12, 2021

• 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

• Why Cynics Thought Being Poor Was Ironically Better November 23, 2021
• A Humorous Take on Wealth From a Great Satire of Antiquity November 21, 2021
• Should You Give Up All Your Possessions to Be Happy? The Ancient Cynic View November 20, 2021
• Was Jesus Like One of the Pagan Fertility Gods? July 1, 2021
• The Divine Realm in Antiquity (Appropriately: A Pyramid!) March 3, 2021
• What Did Ancient People Think It Meant To Call Someone God? February 27, 2021
• Still Other Humans Who Became Gods: In Jesus’ Time! January 16, 2021
• Could a Human Become a God in the Ancient World? January 14, 2021

• Where Did the Apocalyptic Views of Jesus (and others) Come From? January 25, 2022
• The Prophets of Scripture: A Brief Summary of their Message and Mission January 20, 2022
• The Message of First Isaiah January 19, 2022
• Is the Book of Isaiah the Books of Three “Isaiahs”? January 16, 2022
• How Can We Understand the Prophets of the Hebrew Bible? Isaiah as a Case Study January 15, 2022
• Aren’t They Predicting the Future? More on the Prophets of the Old Testament January 12, 2022
• They Ain’t Who You Think: Prophets in the Old Testament January 11, 2022
• The Famous Short Stories about Daniel January 9, 2022

• Where Did the Apocalyptic Views of Jesus (and others) Come From? January 25, 2022
• Are the Gospels Too Early To Have Legends About Jesus? Platinum Guest Post by Bob Seidensticker January 23, 2022
• On Misreading The Gospels: Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller December 28, 2021
• Why Doesn’t Paul Say More about the Historical Jesus? Other Options. December 11, 2021
• But Why Doesn’t Paul Say More About the Historical Jesus? December 9, 2021
• What We KNOW about Jesus. Platinum guest post by Dan Kohanski December 6, 2021
• Did Paul Know What Jesus Taught? More Reflections December 5, 2021
• What Paul Says about Jesus’ Teachings December 1, 2021

• On Misreading The Gospels: Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller December 28, 2021
• Which King of the Jews Do You Prefer? Christmas Message, 2021 December 25, 2021
• Blog Platinum Webinar! For You Platinums Only! December 6, 2021
• Was Jesus in Agony Before His Arrest? The Unexpected Answer in Luke. October 20, 2021
• An Unexpected Argument Against Jesus’ “Sweating Blood” October 16, 2021
• What Do I Think of the New Revised Standard Version? October 2, 2021
• Jesus as a Healer: “First: Do No Harm” Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson August 18, 2021
• Jesus the Healer, Repossessed?  Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD August 10, 2021

• The Massive Diversity of Early Christianity. My Book: Lost Christianities November 6, 2021
• Why and When Did We Get This Canon of the New Testament? September 25, 2021
• An Impromptu FREEBIE. A Zoom Lecture Tomorrow Morning! September 20, 2021
• Then Who WAS the First Bishop of Rome (if not Peter)? September 19, 2021
• Pop Quiz on Early Christianity September 1, 2021
• Were Cephas and Peter Two Different People? A Blast from the Past July 29, 2021
• Two More Live Lectures this Sunday! April 14, 2021
• Modern Christians Who Follow Marcion (Unawares) March 25, 2021

• 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
• Are the Gospel and Epistles of John *Forgeries*?? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 12, 2020
• Was There One Author Behind the Four Johannine Writings? A Community? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 11, 2020
• WAS there a Community behind the Gospel and Letters of John? Guest Post by Hugo Mendez May 5, 2020

• God’s Mercy and Justice: The Opening of a Chapter in Journeys to Heaven and Hell November 10, 2021
• Was Peter Crucified Upside Down? September 21, 2021
• Blog Zoom Lecture This Saturday: Jesus as a Young Boy! June 2, 2021
• Was Paul Peter’s Enemy? May 4, 2021
• The Letter Jesus Wrote from the Cross (!) April 28, 2021
• Another Letter Written By Jesus? Stranger and Stranger… April 27, 2021
• Do We Have Any of Jesus’ Writings? (The Answer May Surprise You!) April 21, 2021
• Were Jesus and Christ Two Different Beings? March 31, 2021

• 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
• Is the Didache One Document or Three? December 23, 2017
• The Ethical Teachings of the Didache December 21, 2017

• 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
• Are God and Christ the SAME Person? April 8, 2021
• Were Jesus and Christ Two Different Beings? March 31, 2021
• What Is Gnosticism? A Video Introduction March 30, 2021

• 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
• Did the Council of Nicaea Take Away Reincarnation and Give us the Bible? January 8, 2017

• 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

• 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
• Pop Quiz on Early Christianity September 1, 2021
• My Syllabus for “The Birth of Christianity” August 31, 2021
• Two More Answers from My Pop Quiz September 2, 2020
• Does Basic Information about the NT *Matter*? My Pop Quiz August 30, 2020
• My Faux Pop Quiz this Semester August 26, 2020

• 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
• An Unusual Podcast Interview with a Muslim about How I Debate. Check This One Out! September 11, 2020
• Smith-Pettit Lecture – The History of Heaven and Hell August 21, 2020
• Reason and Theology – Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife July 7, 2020
• My Interview with Erstwhile-Evangelist-Now-Secular-Humanist Bart Campolo May 20, 2020

• What Is The Difference Between an Evangelical and a Fundamentalist? January 22, 2022
• My Pet Peeve: Simplistic Answers to Explain Suffering January 5, 2022
• Bart Behaving Badly: Podcasts on the Problem of Suffering January 2, 2022
• What I’m Reading These Days. You? December 29, 2021
• Which King of the Jews Do You Prefer? Christmas Message, 2021 December 25, 2021
• How I’ve Changed My Approach To Writing November 4, 2021
• Why I Prefer the NRSV November 2, 2021
• Must Jesus Divide Families? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson October 21, 2021