Recent Posts
What’s It Like in Sheol?
In the previous post I began discussing the intriguing story of 1 Samuel 28, where the king of Israel, Saul, illicitly consults a medium in an attempt to communicate with his now-dead advisor and predecessor, the prophet Samuel. This is the only case of necromancy in the entire Bible. In this post I want to consider what the author of the passage seems to think about those who go to Sheol after death. I have taken much of what follows from my book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Simon and Schuster, 2020). ****************************** In the account, King [...]
We Need An Experienced Fundraiser!
Do you have fundraising experience? Are you a fan of the mission of this blog--to disseminate scholarly knowledge of the New Testament and the earliest periods of the Christian church to a non-scholarly audience, and (most importantly) to raise funds for charity? The blog has raised over $2,000,000 for our charities (The Urban Ministries of Durham, Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, The Durham Literacy Center, CARE, and Doctors Without Borders). You can read more about each of them here. But we want to do more. We're looking for a volunteer with experience in fundraising for nonprofits to [...]
What About People Who Come Back From the Dead in the Hebrew Bible?
In thinking about Sheol and death in the Hebrew Bible, it is worth reflecting on passages where the dead come back to life or are contacted by the living. This does not happen much at all – a couple of instances of resuscitation and one of necromancy. Probably the most famous resuscitation – the bringing back to life of a dead person – involves the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17:17-24. Elijah has been helping an unnamed widow from the town of Zarephath, miraculously providing her and her son with food during a divinely-mandated drought/famine (which the prophet brought to [...]
More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place?
The Jewish scriptures contain a variety of different views about what happens to a person at death. Most commonly, a person who dies is simply said to have gone to “death” – a term used some thousand times in the Bible. Better known, but far less frequent, a person’s ultimate destination is sometimes called “Sheol,” a term whose meaning and etymology are debated. It occurs over sixty times in the Hebrew Bible, and there is unanimity among critical scholars that in no case does Sheol mean “hell,” in the sense people mean today. There is no place of eternal punishment [...]
Could Moses be Thutmose, the Overseer of the Borderlands? – Platinum Post from Serene
Here's a provocative post by your fellow Platinum member, Serene: can Moses be identified with another known figure from history, the Egyptian overseer of the Borderlands, Thutmose? Read her case and let us know what you think! ****************************** Could Moses be Thutmose, Overseer of Foreign Lands and Frontier Lands? “…he changed his name and called himself Moses” — Josephus in Against Apion, quoting 3rd C BCE Egyptian historian Manetho. Hi Platies! Thank you for the kind reception to my first post, “Jesus, the Half-Nabataean Prince. The question I’m asking today is, “Could Santa Claus be Nicholas, [...]
What Is Sheol in the Hebrew Bible?
I was recently asked what the Old Testament teaches about "hell" and whether that's what "Sheol" refers to. If not (or if so), what it the view of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible? This is a topic I dealt with in my book Heaven and Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020) and I posted on it some years ago on the blog. This is what I said. ****************************** When trying to figure out where the Christian ideas of heaven and hell came from, an obvious place to start is with the Hebrew Bible. Jesus himself held to the authority of [...]
Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus
Here are now some more “agrapha” (sayings of Jesus not found in any of the surviving Gospels; I say more about "agrapha" in the previous post). These ones are found in writings of church fathers, who appear to have had access to Gospels unavailable to us, or at least to have heard non-canonical sayings of Jesus in some other way. (You will be able to find info on each church father/writing mentioned pretty easily online) ***************************** Papias (according to Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 33. 3-4) Thus the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, remembered [...]
April Gold Q&A: Ask Away!
Hey Gold and Platinum members, Time to jump in on the April Gold Q&A; my plan is to record it some time next weekend. If you have a question -- and I bet you do -- send it along! To do so, do NOT reply on a comment here, but zap an email to Diane at [email protected]. DEADLINE: Please get your question in by next Friday (04/19/2024) at midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). Shorter and to-the-pointer questions are more likely to be picked. Ask accordingly.
Did People Have Time for Jesus? – a Platinum Post from Doug Wadeson, MD.
There is nothing better than a guest blog post that flat-out disagrees with me! And here we have one. Is it plausible that Jesus could have had large crowds gathering together to hear his preaching in rural Galilee? I say: Not really. Platinum blog member Doug Wadeson says: Oh yes! Here's his post. What do you think? ****************************** On those few occasions when I have challenged something Dr. Ehrman has said he can usually shoot me down pretty quickly based on his range and depth of knowledge. But I am going to try again. Dr. Ehrman has suggested that [...]
Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus?
To my surprise, I've never talked about the "agrapha" of Jesus before on the blog. It's about time I did! This is an intriguing topic connected with the teachings of Jesus known to almost precisely No One!! (I'd bet a case of fine French wine that your pastor -- if you've ever had one, in any kind of church whatsoever -- wouldn't be able to tell you what it's all about! Welcome to the world of the insiders. Here is what I say about the agrapha (plural of agraphon) in the book I published with my colleague Zlatko Pleše, The Other [...]
Is the Paul of Acts at Odds with the Paul of His Own Letters?
Here I continue my few remarks on the differences between Paul’s proclamation as recorded in the speeches he gives in the book of Acts and the views he sets forth in his own letters. Again, this is taken from my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (Oxford, 2006). ****************************** Further contrasts between what Paul says about his proclamation and what Acts says about it can be seen in the first major speech Paul delivers in Acts, on the first of his three missionary journeys in the book, in the town of Antioch, Pisidia (central Asia Minor). Paul [...]
Is the Message of Paul in Acts the Same as the Message of Paul According to Paul?
In September I'm going to be hosting an online conference of Bible scholars discussing their work for laypeople at a level that most anyone will be able to follow easily. This will be the second of our conferences, "New Insights into the New Testament" (if you don't know about the first one from this past year, focused on the Gospels, you can learn about it here: New Insights into the New Testament Conference). The topic will be The Life, Letters, and Legends of Paul, and we'll have 8 or 10 scholars making presentations with Q&A for each. We'll be announcing [...]
My Favorite Fragment of a Lost Gospel. Is It the Gospel of Peter??
One of the most captivating tiny fragments of a lost Gospel discovered in modern times came from a trash heap excavated from the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, one of many thousands of manuscript fragments found there, some of them Christian but most of them non-Christian (most of which were non-literary texts, that is, personal letters, land deeds, divorce certificates, bills of sale, etc.). Did this fragment come from Gospel of Peter? I've taken two posts to explain what the Gospel of Peter is, in order to set up this particular post. If you haven't read the earlier posts, that's [...]
What We Knew about the Gospel of Peter Before We Had the Gospel of Peter
This is the second of my two posts on the Gospel of Peter. When the fragment that we now have was discovered by archaeologists in a cemetery in Egypt in 1886, it was almost immediately recognized as the Gospel of Peter, not because it had a title on it, but because it fit so well a description of the Gospel in the writings of Eusebius, the early church historian. In two places in his ten-volume history of Christianity (from Jesus to his own day around 300 CE) Eusebius mnentions the book twice as one of the writings not accepted by [...]
An Unusually Large “Fragment” of a Lost Gospel: The Gospel of Peter
I've been doing a thread on Lost Gospels as these are represented by fragments of manuscripts that have been discovered and by quotations in the writings of church fathers. I was getting ready to post my favorite one today and then I wondered: Have I talked about that one before on the blog? Turns out, yes! Some years ago. It is a fragment that MAY be a lost portion of the also otherwise also lost Gospel of Peter. The Gospel of Peter is not *completely* lost: we have a chunk of it. But how large a chunk, we can't really [...]
Is That a Portion of a Famous Lost Gospel?
Here is an intriguing and mysterious fragment of an ancient Gospel (that is to say: the manuscript of this book was entirely lost, EXCEPT for this little bit that just happened to turn up). I’ll bet my bottom dollar (but none of my other dollars) that you will think it is a fragment of one of the Gospels of the New Testament. WRONG! It is a clever combination of various Gospel accounts into one narrative, a “Gospel Harmony.” Scholars have long debated: is it a portion of the most famous ancient Gospel Harmony of them all, the massive work known [...]
Was Jesus Opposed to Women and Childbirth? The Lost Gospel of the Egyptians
Now here are some conversations between Jesus and one of his women followers I bet you’ve never seen before! When Salome asked, “How long will death prevail?” the Lord replied “For as long as you women bear children.” But he did not say this because life is evil or the creation wicked; instead he was teaching the natural succession of things; for everything degenerates after coming into being. (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3, 45, 3) Why do those who adhere more to everything other than the true gospel rule not cite the following words spoken to Salome? For when she [...]
A Really Scathing Review of My Book on Suffering
I’ve devoted my past couple of posts to a review of one of my books that the reviewer (really) didn’t like, and doing so reminded me of the most scathing review that, to my knowledge, I ever received, that at the time (sixteen years ago) I thought was outrageous, and now find rather humorous…. I’m a believer in letting the “other side” have its say, so I thought I’d post it here. The book under review was God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Explain our Most important Question – Why We Suffer. (As is usual, I didn’t give the [...]
Making the Gospels Say What You WANT Them To Say
Here is the second post on the Very Reverend Robert Barron’s curious critiques of my book How Jesus Became God. I will not be doing a point-by-point assessment of everything he says; I frankly found none of his criticisms very convincing, largely because, as I indicated in the previous post, he does not appear to have read my book very carefully, but at best skimmed it to find what he was expecting to find. But I thought I would deal at least with his opening counter-argument, over whether Jesus saw himself or proclaimed himself to be God. Here is what [...]
Dealing With Reviews of My Books By People Who (Apparently) Haven’t Read Them
As I am inching closer to writing my next book, on how the ethics of Jesus transformed the moral conscience of the West, I have started thinking, possibly not unnaturally, about how some of my earlier books were critiqued in published reviews. I really don't mind if someone understands what I write and has reasoned disagreements with it; and I'm happy to make vigorous counter-arguments in response. But unless the reviewer misrepresents what I say, I'm generally not irritated. I do get irritated, though, by reviewers who go for the jugular without seriously understanding (or caring) what I actually say. [...]
March 2024 Platinum webinar
https://vimeo.com/927998973/6a5cbc2b51?share=copy
Public Lecture at Wake Forest University: April 2
In case any of you is around Winston Salem NC next Tuesday, April 2 -- I'll be giving a public lecture at Wake Forest. This'll be the first event I've done like this since before Covid! I'll be talking about the real-life effects of the Christian view that the End is Near, based on my book Armageddon. The event is free, and you can find out more about it and register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-public-lecture-bart-ehrman-armageddon-in-america-visions-of-the-end-tickets-777270646427
Among Paul’s Enemies….
In my previous post I indicated that among the lost writings of early Christianity, one batch that I would especially like to see discovered would be those produced by Paul’s enemies among the Christians. I don’t know how many of his opponents were writing-literate, but possibly some of them were, and their own attacks on him and defenses of their own positions would be fascinating and eye-opening. Among these, I would especially love to see what his opponents in Galatia had to say for themselves. My hunch is that they were every bit as aggressive and confident in their views [...]
Reminder! Platinum Webinar This Evening (Tuesday, March 26)! Did Jesus Really Mean It?
Reminder of the Platinum webinar this evening! Here's the original post from last week. I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on this section of my (soon to be written) (we hope) book. ******************* Hey Platinums, I'm afraid I have bad news and happy I have good news. Bad news: We had a technical difficulty during our webinar last week on "Ethics without God," and it did not get recorded. Ugh. Welcome to the modern age. But sorry 'bout that. STILL: I have good news as well. To compensate for our loss, I'll be doing a SECOND Platinum webinar, next [...]
What Did Paul’s Christian Enemies Write About Him?
In my upcoming course I'll be talking about whether Peter and Paul were at odds. That might seem like a strange and implausible idea to some people. But from a historical perspective, there is nothing at all unlikely about it. We know that Paul had enemies (among the Christians!) all over the place. Some of these anti-Pauline Christians were surely authors. It would be absolutely fantastic if we were to discover some of the letters of Paul’s opponents. Let me put this into a wider historical context. In BROAD terms Paul appears to have agreed in major ways with those [...]
Categories on the Blog
Click on a category for the full archive, arranged by date.
- What’s It Like in Sheol? April 18, 2024
- We Need An Experienced Fundraiser! April 17, 2024
- Could Moses be Thutmose, the Overseer of the Borderlands? – Platinum Post from Serene April 15, 2024
- April Gold Q&A: Ask Away! April 12, 2024
- Did People Have Time for Jesus? – a Platinum Post from Doug Wadeson, MD. April 12, 2024
- My Favorite Fragment of a Lost Gospel. Is It the Gospel of Peter?? April 7, 2024
- An Unusually Large “Fragment” of a Lost Gospel: The Gospel of Peter April 4, 2024
- March 2024 Platinum webinar March 27, 2024
- No Virgin Birth? Was Jesus ADOPTED by God to be His Son? December 13, 2023
- A Hugely Memorable Moment: When I Saw Codex Sinaiticus September 7, 2023
- My Trip to Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai: Discovery Site of Codex Sinaiticus September 6, 2023
- The Discovery of Codex Sinaiticus: One of the Most Important Manuscripts of the New Testament September 5, 2023
- Why Do Some (Many?) Scholars Not Treat the Bible Like Other Ancient Sources? August 26, 2023
- An Intriguing Anti-Jewish Variant: Did Jesus Pray “Father forgive them”? February 9, 2023
- Anti-Jewish Alterations of the New Testament Writings? February 8, 2023
- New Testament Manuscripts That Reveal Later Theological Controversies February 7, 2023
- 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
- Were Matthew and Luke Plagiarists? February 13, 2024
- Plagiarism! Was It Condemned in the Ancient World? (Is Matthew Guilty of It?) February 11, 2024
- When Is Forgiveness not Forgiveness? January 23, 2024
- Love in Action: Christian Views of Charitable Giving January 21, 2024
- Is Christian Love Different from Love? January 20, 2024
- The Origins of Altruism: My Next Book as It Stands Now January 17, 2024
- Is Christ *Merely* the “Adopted” Son of God? October 8, 2023
- Is It Better to Follow Christ or to Live a Contented Life? Paul vs. Epicurus September 20, 2023
- What About People Who Come Back From the Dead in the Hebrew Bible? April 17, 2024
- More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place? April 16, 2024
- What Is Sheol in the Hebrew Bible? April 14, 2024
- How Do You Translate the Bible? My Work for the New Revised Standard Version Committee December 28, 2023
- Hark, the Herald Angels What Now? Guest Post by Esther J. Hamori December 19, 2023
- Biblical Monsters and Their Violent God! Guest Post by Esther Hamori December 17, 2023
- Reminder: Interesting Lecture on Thursday Oct. 19: Creation Stories not in Genesis! October 18, 2023
- The Creation Stories in the Hebrew Bible (outside of Genesis!). A Lecture You May Be Interested In October 2, 2023
- Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus April 13, 2024
- Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus? April 11, 2024
- Jesus and Mary Magdalene Seen Kissing?? February 25, 2024
- When Did Mary Magdalene Become a Prostitute? February 24, 2024
- Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? February 22, 2024
- Changing the Past in Light of the Present February 20, 2024
- Proof That Historical Narratives (not just myths) Constantly Change in Oral Cultures February 18, 2024
- When is “The Same” Memory/Tradition/Story Not Actually “The Same”? February 17, 2024
- Making the Gospels Say What You WANT Them To Say March 30, 2024
- Dealing With Reviews of My Books By People Who (Apparently) Haven’t Read Them March 28, 2024
- How Much Fact, How Much Fiction? The Life of Peter February 28, 2024
- The Disciple Peter in History and Legend February 27, 2024
- When Did Mary Magdalene Become a Prostitute? February 24, 2024
- Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? February 22, 2024
- Changing the Past in Light of the Present February 20, 2024
- When is “The Same” Memory/Tradition/Story Not Actually “The Same”? February 17, 2024
- What We Knew about the Gospel of Peter Before We Had the Gospel of Peter April 6, 2024
- The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul March 5, 2024
- When Is Forgiveness not Forgiveness? January 23, 2024
- Love in Action: Christian Views of Charitable Giving January 21, 2024
- Is Christian Love Different from Love? January 20, 2024
- The Fate of Jesus’ Ethics after His Death January 18, 2024
- The Most Significant Study of Christian “Heresy” in Modern Times November 16, 2023
- The Slippery Slope of Extreme DIAKRISIS (Discernment). A Platinum Post by Barry Haney June 19, 2023
- 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
- 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
- Is That a Portion of a Famous Lost Gospel? April 3, 2024
- Was Jesus Opposed to Women and Childbirth? The Lost Gospel of the Egyptians April 2, 2024
- Did Paul Exchange Letters with the Greatest Roman Philosopher of His Day?? March 9, 2024
- Paul’s Letter to the … Laodiceans? Long Thought to be Part of the New Testament! March 7, 2024
- Paul’s *THIRD* Letter to the Corinthians? A Very Interesting Forgery March 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
- 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
- Interpreting a Text to Make It Seem Orthodox: Luke and Its View of Jesus December 20, 2023
- How Did Early Christians Make Unorthodox Texts Seem Orthodox? December 16, 2023
- Why Would an Editor ADD the Virgin Birth to Luke? December 14, 2023
- Did Luke’s Gospel Originally Contain a Virgin Birth? December 12, 2023
- An Intriguing and Unusual Demonstration of Early Christian Differences… November 25, 2023
- How Paul’s Own Writings Show the Earliest Church Was Split Over “Orthodoxy” and “Heresy” November 24, 2023
- 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
- 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 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
- “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
- Some Random Reflections on Our Significance February 21, 2024
- Making the Bible Benevolent: Guest Post by Jill Hicks-Keeton January 27, 2024
- How’s the Christian World Doin’ These Days with the Ethics of Jesus? January 24, 2024
- Putting Final Polish on a Bible Translation. Ouch. January 7, 2024
- My (Backstage) Work for the New Revised Standard Version Translation January 6, 2024
- A Sensible Approach to Inclusive Language in Bible Translation? January 2, 2024
- Is There Any Sarcasm in the New Testament? November 29, 2023
- What’s the Best Way to Read a Non-Fiction Book? November 14, 2023
