Recent Posts
Will I See Fido in Heaven? Webinar on the Afterlife of Animals with Me and Barbara Ambros
In case you missed the announcement, I'm doing a one-hour webinar on whether your beloved pet will be joining you in the heavenly realm when you've both passed of your respective mortal coils. It's this Sunday, March 23, 1:00, remote. All info below. It's a fundraiser for my department, to help grad students in their programs to be trained as researchers and teachers. A worthy cause! The Robert Miller Fund is one that I myself started some years ago, to provide assistance for grad students needing to present papers at conferences and similar needs. It's an increasingly important cause for [...]
A Major Milestone on the Blog! $3 Million Donated to Charity!!
We have just passed a major milestone on the blog in its efforts to raise money for charity, and I’d like us all to celebrate it! (See the Press Release we have just sent out, at the end of this post) As of this week, for the life of the blog, we have distributed over $3,000,000 (that would be three million dollars!) to our charities helping those I need.. Whoa. Who woulda thought? I certainly never did. For those of you who don’t know or at least remember, I started this little venture in April 2012. At the time, I [...]
New Course Announcement: The Other Doubting Thomases
I'm very excited to announce that I will be doing a new course on April 6, on the resurrection narratives of the New Testament, called "The Other Doubting Thomases: Did Jesus's Disciples All Believe in the Resurrection?" The course is not connected to the blog, but may well be of interest to all you blog members! For more information and registration, go to https://www.bartehrman.com/the-other-doubting-thomases/ Early bird pricing goes till March 23, and note: you can get a blog discount by using the code BLOG 5 Of course everyone assumes the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus did believe in the resurrection, [...]
Interested in Visiting the Greek Islands with Me? Spots Still Available!
In case you didn't catch this the first time, I'd like to invite anyone who is interested and able to come with me on an amazing trip this summer, in just two months. Space is limited – so if you’re interested, check out the brochure I provide below at the bottom of the post. It will give you all the details you would need to know, and I’m happy to address any questions you have. Here is what I say about the trip in the description. ************************* The Greek Islands are some of my favorite places on earth. I’ve [...]
Paul’s Letter to the Romans in a Nutshell
I will now move to a nutshell mini-thread on the individual Pauline letters in the New Testament. I will be covering them in canonical sequence, including both the so-called undisputed Pauline letters, which I’m saying are “so-called” simply because scholars in every field dispute flippin’ everything (well, almost everything), and the disputed epistles, which, as it turns out are undisputably disputed! The thirteen letters are arranged not in chronological (or alphabetical!) sequence, but by length: with Romans as the longest and Philemon the shortest. Note: in this arrangement, letters to the SAME audience (two each to the Corinthians and the [...]
Paul’s Life and Letters: For Further Reading
Now that I have provided nutshell summaries of Paul’s life, letters, and significance, I can provide some suggestions for further reading. Here is an annotated list of some of the books you may find useful. These are taken from my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (Oxford University Press) in which I devote six chapters to Paul. Another resource not listed in the textbook would be the (different!) six chapters I devote to discussing Paul's biography in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magadalene (HarperOne). ****************************** Aune, David. The New Testament [...]
The Life of Paul in a Nutshell
Now that I have provided an overview of the significance of Paul and his letters (my previous post) I can summarize what we can know about his life. I begin by trying to give a fifty-word version: Paul, originally a zealous Greek-speaking Jew, vigorously opposed early Christians before having a vision of the resurrected Jesus that convinced him that the crucifixion was God’s plan of salvation for both Jew and gentile, leading him to spread his law-free gospel to gentiles in major urban areas of the Mediterranean. Now I can provide a fuller summary of what we can know of [...]
The Significance and Letters of Paul, in a Nutshell
Now that I have covered the Gospels and Acts in this “Nutshell” series, it is time to move on to the writings of Paul. Rather than start with his first letter in the New Testament, Romans, I’ve decided to devote a couple of posts to Paul himself, one to his significance and surviving letters and one to a biographical sketch. I start by giving a 50 word summary his writings, the “seven undisputed letters” in a nutshell: Paul wrote seven of the letters attributed to him, addressing problems of churches he had established (five letters), of a church he planned [...]
Personal Update: My Book on the Ethics of Jesus
I am happy to report that I have now, finally, finished my manuscript on the ethics of Jesus and have sent it in to my editor for her to peruse and suggest edits. Phew!! This one seems to have been a “Slow Train Coming.” Huge relief. I’ve changed the title I’ve been giving it for the past couple of years. I very much liked what I had: “The Origins of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West,” but my editors in the end weren’t thrilled with it. They liked the subtitle, but didn’t think [...]
Dating Manuscripts and Understanding Mark: Readers’ Questions
How much historical information about Jesus does the Gospel of Mark present? How do you date an ancient manuscript? Why does Mark have a "messianic secret"? These are among the very good questions I've received recently, and here is how I've tried to answer them succinctly. ****************************** QUESTION: How much of the historical Jesus does Mark capture, either purposefully or accidentally? RESPONSE: Well, it's impossible to put a percentage on it. For one thing, if it’s correct that Jesus' lived for, say, 30-33 years (who knows?), it’s worth noting that Mark's Gospel takes roughly two hours to read/recite. Necessarily he [...]
The Gospel of Mark: Are You Interested in a More Extended Discussion?
These "In a Nutshell" posts on the books of the New Testament are obviously meant to provide quick, concise, and accurate information about each of the books of the New Testament. Many of you may be interested in longer expositions. To that end, you may be interested in the far more extensive discussions that I give in the various lecture courses that I've done on some of them for the venture I started a couple of years ago, Paths in Biblical Studies (unconnected with the blog). I particularly enjoyed the eight-lecture one I did on the Gospel of Mark (50 [...]
Join Me on a Cruise from Athens to Venice This Summer!
I'm going on a cruise this summer and it looks like a complete winner. I've made a video explaining it and inviting people to consider coming, including where to call/email to get more info. Hope some of you can consider it! https://vimeo.com/1060335268/95523b1f33?share=copy
March 2025 Gold Q&A
Gold & Platinum Members, Our monthly Gold Q&A is here—your opportunity to submit your burning questions and have Bart answer them. What have you always wanted to know? Send in your questions at: [email protected] (Don’t ask them in the comments of this post – they won’t be included!) Remember, short, to-the-point questions will be given preference. We have limited time for Q&A, so do what you can to keep things concise. The March Q&A will take place on Sunday March 30th at 2pm EDT. If you can’t make the live recording, the session will be recorded as usual. We will [...]
Webinar Announcement: The Afterlife of Animals with Barbara Ambros
Register: https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9Oxg0DBJQ_2WiyHKO7Elsw Donate: https://give.unc.edu/donate?f=105550&p=aasf https://vimeo.com/1063322255/1f0e8c4faa?share=copy Will I See Fido in Heaven? The Afterlife of Animals in Buddhism and Christianity Do our pets go to heaven? Do they have souls? Can we talk about the salvation of a pet? What about reincarnation, can our pets come back as other animals, or even as people? This new webinar from UNC Chapel Hill explores these questions by bringing together experts on Christianity and Buddhism to compare how these religions view animals. Please join us for a conversation about the religious lives of the most beloved members of our households, our pets (and other animals, [...]
Did Jesus BECOME the Son of God? The Christology of Acts
In broad terms, there were two major kinds of Christology in the early church. One of them could be called an "incarnation" Christology, since it maintains that Christ was a pre-existent divine being who became a human, as explicitly stated in John 1:1-18 and Philippians 2:6-11. That's the view, of course, that most Christians have always held, and is often referred to as a "high" Christology, where Christ starts out up above, with God, as divine himself. The other could be called an “exaltation” Christology , sometimes called a “low” Christology or a Christology from below, where Jesus started out [...]
The Acts of the Apostles: For Further Reading
Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of the book of Acts – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide some suggestions for further reading, important works written by scholars for non-scholars. I have given brief annotations for each book to give you a sense of what it’s about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while. I have divided the list into three sections: Books that provide important discussion of [...]
The Acts of the Apostles: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?
Now that I have discussed the major themes and emphases of the Acts of the Apostles, I can summarize what (I think) we can know about its author, when he wrote, and why. As I’ve indicated, Acts is the second volume of a two-volume work by the anonynmous author of the Gospel of Luke. In my discussion of the Gospel I’ve show why the traditional view that the author was Luke the gentile physician, a traveling companion of Paul, is probably not right. In case you want to read/reread the post, it is here: https://ehrmanblog.org/the-gospel-of-luke-who-wrote-it-when-and-why/ There I point out what [...]
The Book of Acts in a Nutshell
Acts in a Nutshell The book of Acts is a truly important book for anyone interested in knowing how Christianity began: it is our only narrative of the spread of the faith in its first thirty years. Acts is a relatively long book – about the size of its companion volume the Gospel of Luke – and there is a lot going on in it. Have you ever read it all the way through? Do you know much about it? If not, this is the post for you. If so, then try to summarize the major themes and emphases of [...]
More Interesting Questions from Blog Readers
The intriguing questions keep coming. Here are some more that I've received. And BTW, if you're not a Gold Member on the blog you might consider moving up to that level: one of the perks is that I do a live Q&A every month with Gold Members, which is recorded and then distributed to them. It's a terrifically fun event and I get very good questions to address. But for now, here's some that I've addressed in writing: QUESTION This question is about the understanding of atonement across the gospels. Specifically why do Matthew and John think Jesus specifically HAD [...]
The Gospel of Matthew. Are You Interested in a More Extended Discussion?
It has just occurred to me (duh) that some blog readers who are enjoying these "In a Nutshell" posts on the books of the New Testament may like to see a more extended exposition of the various issues I address, and I've devoted entire lectures courses for some of these books (and will be doing more). You might be interested in them. One of the first I did was on the Gospel of Matthew, an eight-lecture course (50 minutes or so each; with two Q&A's; and additional materials provided). You can find it here. https://courses.bartehrman.com/matthew Blog members get a discount [...]
The God Hypothesis. What Do You Think?
I don’t think you can disprove the existence of God. And I don’t think you can prove it. There are some things that by their very nature are not susceptible of proof, at least at this stage of our knowledge, including some things that theoretically exist or not. If you want to insist that one of the universes within the multiverse is an exact replica of ours down to the very molecule – so that my cosmic double is typing these very words the moment I am – I have no way of proving it or disproving it. (some will [...]
All Four Gospels in One Nutshell
So far in this thread on “The New Testament in a Nutshell” I’ve covered the four Gospels, each in four posts. The first always begins with a 50-sentence summary of the major themes and emphases of the book. In this post I want to make things easily accessible for anyone interested in the broad similarities and contrasts of the Gospels, by putting all four sentences in one place. But before that, it would be useful to have a fifty-word summary of all four Gospels as a whole. Give it a try yourself. What can you come up with? A statement [...]
John Versus the Synoptics: How Does Jesus Raise the Dead?
I've discussed how John differs strikingly from the Synoptics, especially considering the stories and sayings/discourses in each. I've also indicated that they differ strikingly even when they tell the same *kind* of story, but I haven't been able to illustrate that yet. Here is one of my favorite examples. How does Jesus raise from the dead? In Mark 5 Jesus raises an unnamed young girl, the daughter of Jairus, from the dead; in John 11 he raises a (young?) man from the dead, Lazarus, sister of Mary and Martha. How do these stories compare and contrast? The following discussion is [...]
The Gospel of John: For Your Further Reading
I have devoted two posts to major features of the Gospel of John, one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why. Now I can provide some suggestions for further reading, important works written by scholars for non-scholars. The list is annotated to give you a sense of what each book is about and so help you decide which, if any, might be worth your while. I have divided the list into three sections: Books that provide important discussion of John in general or with respect to a particularly [...]
The Gospel of John: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?
Now that I’ve summarized the major themes and emphases of the Gospel of John, I can turn to the historical questions of who wrote it, when, and why. In this case, the biggest mystery is Who? To start with, the Gospel is anonymous – the author chose never to name himself. The first author to attribute it to John the son of Zebedee is Irenaeus (around 185 CE). Later readers found hints in the text to confirm this identification. The matter may seem a bit convoluted at first, but there is a clear logic to it. It was thought that [...]
Categories on the Blog
Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.
- Will I See Fido in Heaven? Webinar on the Afterlife of Animals with Me and Barbara Ambros March 21, 2025
- A Major Milestone on the Blog! $3 Million Donated to Charity!! March 20, 2025
- New Course Announcement: The Other Doubting Thomases March 19, 2025
- Interested in Visiting the Greek Islands with Me? Spots Still Available! March 18, 2025
- The Life of Paul in a Nutshell March 15, 2025
- Personal Update: My Book on the Ethics of Jesus March 12, 2025
- The Gospel of Mark: Are You Interested in a More Extended Discussion? March 9, 2025
- Join Me on a Cruise from Athens to Venice This Summer! March 8, 2025
- The Gospel of Matthew: For Further Reading January 19, 2025
- The Hobby Lobby, the Museum of the Bible, and Incredible Academic Fraud December 11, 2024
- The Low-Down on That First-Century Gospel of Mark December 10, 2024
- Final Reflections on Mummy Masks and Manuscripts December 8, 2024
- A True Expert Speaks About Mummy Masks and Papyri December 7, 2024
- Can We Defend Destroying Mummy Masks? December 5, 2024
- Destroying Mummy Masks December 4, 2024
- Misquoting Jesus and My Fall From Fundamentalism August 11, 2024
- When Modern Christians Came to Think “The End is Near” December 10, 2023
- American Support of Israel: A (Widely) Unknown Part of the History December 9, 2023
- Armageddon in Biden and the Bible October 23, 2022
- When Did Jesus Die? Dating Jesus’ Death by the Earthquake October 9, 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
- Did Christians Invent the Idea of “Atonement” / “Vicarious Suffering”? January 7, 2025
- How to be Content with Life Even When It’s Rotten: The Stoic View November 26, 2024
- How Not To Be Bothered When Bad Things Happen: The Stoics November 24, 2024
- Does this World Make Any Sense? The Ancient Stoics November 23, 2024
- Isn’t It Good Enough to Help Family, Friends, and Community? November 20, 2024
- How Can We Be Happy? An Age-Old Question. November 19, 2024
- What Do You Really Want in Life? And How is that Related to Altruism? November 17, 2024
- Were Matthew and Luke Plagiarists? February 13, 2024
- Could Moses Have Been Thutmose, the Overseer of Borderlands? Platinum Post by Serene November 11, 2024
- And Yet Other Apocrypha: 2 Maccabees and Others, Including Psalm 151! October 13, 2024
- Still More Books of the Apocrypha: Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch October 12, 2024
- Some More of the OT Apocrypha: the Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel, and 1 Maccabees October 10, 2024
- Some of the Old Testament Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther October 9, 2024
- Introducing the Old Testament Apocrypha October 8, 2024
- Major Contradictions (and Other Problems) in the Old Testament September 15, 2024
- Two KINDS of Originals. How Do We Know We Have Either? May 8, 2024
- Another Reason for Thinking Jesus Called Himself the Messiah November 12, 2024
- Why Should We Think Jesus Called Himself the Messiah? November 10, 2024
- Albert Schweitzer and the Apocalyptic Jesus November 9, 2024
- What Would an Apocalyptic Jew (Jesus!) Mean By Calling Himself Messiah? November 7, 2024
- Can We Know What Jesus Said About Himself? November 6, 2024
- Would the Resurrection Make Anyone Believe Jesus Was the Messiah? November 2, 2024
- More About My Book “Did Jesus Exist” September 25, 2024
- My Book “Did Jesus Exist” (an answer to the mythicists) September 24, 2024
- Dating Manuscripts and Understanding Mark: Readers’ Questions March 11, 2025
- The Gospel of Matthew. Are You Interested in a More Extended Discussion? February 27, 2025
- All Four Gospels in One Nutshell February 25, 2025
- John Versus the Synoptics: How Does Jesus Raise the Dead? February 23, 2025
- The Gospel of John: For Your Further Reading February 22, 2025
- The Gospel of John: Who Wrote It, When, and Why? February 20, 2025
- The Gospel of John in a Nutshell February 19, 2025
- For Further Reading on the Synoptic Problem and Its Possible Solutions February 16, 2025
- How Many of Those Early Christians Could Read? September 10, 2024
- Women and Gender: Early Christianity in a Patriarchal World August 6, 2024
- Ancient Ways of Interpreting Scripture August 3, 2024
- What If Another Christianity Had Won? July 17, 2024
- More Lost Christianities July 16, 2024
- The Arch-Heretic of Them All? Simon of Samaria — Guest Post From Dr. David Litwa June 25, 2024
- The New Book I’m Writing About Altruism: Putting It In a Nutshell June 22, 2024
- An Early Christian Advocate of Licentious Living? Carpocrates — Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa June 18, 2024
- Proof That Historical Narratives (not just myths) Constantly Change in Oral Cultures February 18, 2024
- Religion and the Wrecking Ball of Truth November 22, 2022
- Can’t We Just Get Rid of Some of the Books of the Bible? October 25, 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
- Was the Apocalypse of Peter Originally Considered Part of the New Testament? October 6, 2024
- My Book on Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene August 17, 2024
- Lost Christianities July 14, 2024
- More Lost Scriptures July 13, 2024
- Lost Scriptures July 11, 2024
- Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus April 13, 2024
- Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus? April 11, 2024
- What We Knew about the Gospel of Peter Before We Had the Gospel of Peter April 6, 2024
- Do Church Fathers Show What the Authors of the NT Actually Wrote? November 8, 2022
- How Serendipity Changed My Life: The Apostolic Fathers October 12, 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
- Competing Interpretations of Scripture in the Early Church August 4, 2024
- What If Another Christianity Had Won? July 17, 2024
- Lost Christianities July 14, 2024
- The Arch-Heretic of Them All? Simon of Samaria — Guest Post From Dr. David Litwa June 25, 2024
- An Early Christian Advocate of Licentious Living? Carpocrates — Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa June 18, 2024
- A Bizarre “Gnostic” Religion: The Naassenes – Guest Post by Dr. David Litwa June 11, 2024
- Paul’s *THIRD* Letter to the Corinthians? A Very Interesting Forgery March 6, 2024
- The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul March 5, 2024
- The Conversion of the Emperor Constantine August 27, 2024
- Was Christianity Bound to Take Over the Ancient World? August 24, 2024
- 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
- The Gospel according to Mel (Gibson) September 21, 2023
- The Life of Brian and Jesus: Was Jesus Really Buried on the Day of the Crucifixion? July 11, 2023
- More on the Life of Brian and the Historical Jesus July 9, 2023
- The Life of Brian and the Historical Jesus July 8, 2023
- 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
- Trying to Make Scholarship Interesting November 2, 2022
- More Interesting Topics in New Testament Studies. Other Writing Assignments for my Undergrads October 18, 2022
- Interesting Topics in New Testament. My Weekly Writing Assignments for Undergrads October 16, 2022
- Publishing in Academic Journals October 15, 2022
- Getting the PhD in New Testament Studies October 13, 2022
- What’s It Like to Teach PhD Seminars? October 11, 2022
- 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
- Jesus, the Law, and a New Covenant (Lecture) September 18, 2024
- A Debate with Peter Williams on Textual Variants June 16, 2024
- Jesus in Illuminated Manuscripts and Legends: Video Post December 7, 2023
- The Life of Brian and Jesus: Was Jesus Really Buried on the Day of the Crucifixion? July 11, 2023
- The Life of Brian and the Historical Jesus July 8, 2023
- Don’t Wanna Be Left Behind? An Upcoming Lecture on the Rapture! April 10, 2023
- 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
- The Flukes of Life: How I Almost Never Became a Professor January 22, 2025
- Rambling Meditations on What It Means to Exist…. What Do You Think? January 15, 2025
- Did Jesus Come to Bring Peace? December 30, 2024
- Being Consistently Critical (In the Good Sense) December 28, 2024
- How to be Content with Life Even When It’s Rotten: The Stoic View November 26, 2024
- How Not To Be Bothered When Bad Things Happen: The Stoics November 24, 2024
- Isn’t It Good Enough to Help Family, Friends, and Community? November 20, 2024
- How Can We Be Happy? An Age-Old Question. November 19, 2024
