I’ve been excited about this coming weekend’s conference (New Insights into the New Testament) for eight months now.  If you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance.

You can sign up here:  https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024/

This annual conference is not directly connected with the blog per se, except to the extent that I do both and both are focused on spreading biblical scholarship to a wider non-scholarly audience.

We mean to do that in a big way at the conference.

  • The topic: Paul and His Letters
  • 10 of the best New Testament scholars in the world
  • Each giving a 50 minute lecture with 10-15 minutes live Q&A
  • Over the course of two days (Sat Sept. 21 and Sun Sept. 22)
  • We will transform it into a video course with additional materials for all who come.
  • And for all who purchase a ticket but choose not to come to the live lectures.
  • And additional features for all:
    • An Attendee Mixer for all who want to come, remotely, to see and talk with presenters (in break out rooms; you choose whom you hang out with) on Friday evening Sept. 20
    • My own play-by-play analysis of the presentations indicating what I thought (agreements and disagreements), on Tuesday Sept. 24
    • A Round-table discussion with several of the scholars on the question of whether Paul ever changed his mind about his theological views, on Thursday Sept 26
    • A Hot-Topic discussion between two of the scholars on the question of Paul’s sexual ethics (and whether they differed for Jews and Gentiles!)

 

Interested?  https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024/

Not sure if it’s up your alley?  Check out what some of the papers will be dealing with.

 

Dr. Jason Staples

Not by Faith Alone: Paul’s Gospel Wasn’t What You (Probably) Think

The apostle Paul is often interpreted as preaching a gospel of “salvation by faith alone,” a message of salvation through God’s forgiveness due to Jesus’ death on the cross opposed to the idea of salvation by works.  This view, however, badly misunderstands Paul’s message.

Far from preaching that people are saved “by faith alone” (a phrase that only appears once in the Bible, where it is preceded by the word “not”) and that works have nothing to do with salvation, Paul proclaims that everyone will be judged based on works, and only those who do what is right will be vindicated in that final judgment. The question then is how one becomes a doer of justice, and that is ultimately what Paul proclaims: a gospel of transformation through which previously unjust people can become doers of justice and thereby be saved in the end.

 

Dr. Joel Marcus

Reformer or Renegade? Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People

Paul was Jewish by birth, but did he remain Jewish in practice and conviction after converting to Christianity? And what was his attitude towards his fellow-Jews—both those who shared his Christian convictions and those who did not?

Did he think a Jew had to convert to Christianity to gain acceptance before God? What did he think the future of the Jewish people was? And did he think that there was any continuing role for the Torah = Law of Moses in Christian life? We will examine the somewhat mixed signals Paul sends on these topics, which have implications for contemporary Jewish-Christian relations.

 

Dr. Jenny Knust

The Apostle Paul’s Sexual Vocabulary

From “man-beds” and “soft men” to “prostitutes” and “virgins,” Paul had a lot to say about sex. What his words meant, however, is far from clear.

Revisiting the Apostle’s instructions to the Christ followers in Corinth regarding nature, celibacy, and the dangers of desire, we will reconsider what these words meant and then came to mean, especially in English.

 

Dr. Paula Fredriksen

Paul and Pagan Gods

Many gods lived in the Roman Empire. All ancient peoples, including Jews and, eventually, Christians knew this to be the case. Exploring the ways that Jews dealt with the gods of others while remaining loyal to their own.

Tthis lecture will concentrate particularly on the apostle Paul. If “monotheism” means “belief that only one god exists,” then Paul – like his contemporaries – was not a monotheist. Pagan gods in fact played an important role in Paul’s presentation of Jesus as God’s final warrior, the Davidic messiah.

 

Dr. James Tabor

Paul’s Greatest Idea and How it was Superseded

Paul’s idea of elevating humans to divine status, with the man Jesus as the firstborn of many glorified “children of God” to come, is at the very core of what he calls “his Gospel,” as reflected in his seven early letters.

It centers on “second Adam” Christology that was corporate and collective—focusing on the concept of “glorification” understood as metamorphosis. In subsequent writings attributed to Paul, Jesus is seen as a preexistent divine agent of Creation, and in the interests of a so-called “high Christology,” his glorification and exaltation were viewed as singular and unique, culminating in both Arian and Nicean perspectives.

 

Dr. Bart Ehrman

Visions of Grandeur: Paul and the Plan of God

Paul believed the death and resurrection of Christ were part of God’s eternal plan of salvation as predicted by the prophets of Scripture. The law of Moses had been given as an interim measure to guide Jews into righteousness but only the atoning sacrifice of his Son could bring true reconciliation. Paul maintained that since the law was not a means of salvation, redemption was available to all, law-observant Jews and non-observant gentiles alike.

More than that, Paul believed God had chosen him personally to take this message of universal salvation to “all the nations.” Christ had appeared to him after the resurrection and appointed him “the” apostle to the gentiles. Paul and his mission were thus also part of the eternal plan of God. In this lecture I will argue that Paul also saw himself as the one predicted by the prophets of in Scripture to be God’s ultimate messenger of redemption, described in Isaiah as the “light to the gentiles,” chosen to bring “salvation … to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). From the “foundations of the world,” God had planned to use Paul for the salvation of humankind.

 

I hope you can come!  https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024/