(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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I am taking a moment out from a hectic life (who *doesn’t* have a hectic life?!?) to think a bit about the blog, and how it is going. Here are just a few reflections.
- We got it up and running at the beginning of April, so we have been at it now for just over five months.
- My goals at the outset were to disseminate knowledge about the New Testament and early Christianity as much as was within my abilities, and to raise money for charities dealing with hunger and homelessness.
- As I’ve stated frankly before, it was the charity that drove the idea at the outset, and that keeps me going now as we are well into things. As much as I enjoy answering questions and dealing with hard (and not so hard) historical and literary issues involving early Christianity and its literature, if it weren’t for the charity angle, I simply wouldn’t be doing this. It’s too much work!
- In terms of the work, I think I’ve been averaging about 6 posts a week (I haven’t gone to the bother of actually adding them all up, but my sense is that I on average miss only about once a week, usually when I simply don’t have the time because of other commitments), and they tend to be from about 700-1100 words each time. I would guess that we’re talking about 5000-6000 words a week. Thank the gods that I type fast….
- In terms of the ultimate goal (mine, if no one else’s), the charity: my hope was to raise about $20,000 the first year. At this stage we are on track to make that happen.
- For the past several months, we have been averaging about $50 a day new income. If that keeps up, and people renew their subscriptions, so that what we keep adding is more and more (not replacement funds) then if we keep this going, it could eventually be *really* significant, which is my goal. I’m hoping that over time it will snowball, as word gets out more and more.
- We have over 860 people who have subscribed. My goal was to have 1000 within six months. That’s not going to happen, but the goal was really just a blind guess with a round number. I think things on the whole are actually going very well, and again, one can always hope and work for snowballs.
- I very much enjoy the interactions with everyone on the blog. And I hope the posts are to your satisfaction.
- Feedback is always welcome, even if I am not able to reply directly to every email I get (no way on gods’ good earth that I could, I’m sorry to say). But I welcome all suggestions, even if I can’t implement them all. So please make them!
- I have a long and growing longer list of questions to answer, and I get to them as I can. Feel free to keep asking.
- And more important, if there are any kinds of “series” of posts that you would especially like to see (I’ve done a number on a number of topics, most recently my relationship with Bruce Metzger, for example), let me know.
- And most important, please tell your family and friends and acquaintances and co-workers and ex-spouses and grandchildren and favorite high school teachers from yesteryear and neighbors and everyone you can think of about the blog. My sense is that people who pay the subscription fees are pleased with what they’re getting, and I want very much to get the word out as much as I can.
- Most especially, thanks to all of you who are on the blog, for supporting it and the causes that have motivated it from the beginning.
Bart,
I’m really enjoying the blog and I am really impressed over the time and effort that you are putting into it.
Thank you for your time and your kind heart. Love the blog and I will continue to renew for as long as you continue to blog. Thank you!
Bart, keep up the great work! I’ll definitely be renewing once my subscription is up.
Thank you so much for doing this. I know how difficult it is to fit the time in. It means so much to all of us though. I appreciate it more than I can tell. I’m glad that there has been money earned for your charities. That is the most important, of course, as the Bible tells us. I’m looking forward to “your” NT interpretation. I know it would be monumental, but it’s like it’s hit and miss for us trying to figure out what is and what is not authentic. Your books help very much, but still I need color coding or something. Would love to be in your classes, but alas, at 69 I’m a little oldish and very far away in Colorado. Sigh.
Who are the “gods” you keep referring to?
The divine beings that populate the cosmos!
Thank you for the tireless consistency!
Hi Bart, I really like your blog! But I think that you (just like M. Tabor) are simply blogging too much … how about 2 or 3 posts a week? Wouldn’t that be enough? Who can read all of this content anyway!? Just my two cents 😉
Interesting. Maybe I’ll ask everyone what they think. I’m certainly not doing it for my health!
I read them all and love every one of them; but, it would be fine with me if you had to cut down during the school year to two or three a week for your sake.
Yes, that might be a good idea! Personally I just can’t keep up, time-wise, with everything you post here … which is a shame but a day only has 24 hours!!
Oh gracious, may I fervently disagree with wanting less blog posts! I was concerned that I wouldn’t get my monies worth, and that there would be only a few posts here and there, but you have provided absolute “bang for the buck”; thank you for that!
3 a week is enough.
After your initial post, I have to say, I am surprised by how many posts you have done. I assumed it would be a one-to-two post every other week type of blog. I love the detail in the blogs.
Also, even though some of your readers would get most of their answers if they would just buy your books (not me), its nice that you take the time with them to answer their questions anyway. Thanks for being a professional. Keep up the good work. Some of us depend on your scholarship and opinion, more than you probably know.
May I suggest that you request amazon to put a sentence on the page of all your popular books, pointing them to this site?
Well, at least you have got a good and decent heart…Well, it proves that one can be an agnostic or an atheist/ Humanist etc….and still have a better heart than a “religious person”.
I enjoy the blog. I would prefer less on your own politics, etc. Also, less use of “amazing.”
Politics? Really? I thought I was being unbelievably circumspect! (I don’t recall saying anything at all political; I must be blinded to it. Because trust me, I have really *wanted* to make political postings!)
Bart, I agree with you. In my assessment, you hardly mention politics, and when you do, it’s in a very vague way. Perhaps the other blog member is seeing something I’m not seeing, but as of now, I’m just not seeing it. Again, you’re doing a great job, and keep up the good work.
Thanks for your work with this blog. You don’t have to write so many blogs if the work is wearing you out. I would rather read fewer blogs than have you quit the blog exhausted.
Today, I saw an interview of you on the Colbert show in 2009. What an experience that must have been.
Yeah, it was a scream. He’s tough!
Professor, please keep us up to date on the progress of your latest work, “From Jesus to God”, I believe you intend to title it. I hope some of it will be devoted to the subject of the very earliest migration of Christianity. I am amazed that within a generation of Jesus’ death there were groups of “Christians” not established by Paul adhering to one of the several varieties of Christianity of which we are aware. How any philosophy could develop and move so far in so short a time (and pick up adherents along the way) has to make a fascinating study.
i am feeling sorry for you now – why don’t you write every 2 weeks or so?
Hello Dr. Ehrman
I am new to you web site but enjoy reading your blog and the comments that are added by others.
One of my favorite authors is Bishop John Shelby Spong – maybe you know of him. After reading several of his books I was ready to read something written by another author, when I happened to come across your book “Misquoting Jesus”, and I found it to be a wonderful compliment to the other books I have read. I really want to thank you for writing this book, and also for this web site which I find very interesting. For me right living has always been more important than right believing, and the Bart Ehrman Foundation says a lot of nice things about you!
Yes, I know Jack Spong (we’ve done some speaking gigs together). Very interesting person and writer! Has many of the views I do, but remains a Christian.
I kind of suspected that you would know Bishop Spong and agree that you and he do share many of the same views. I am so pleased to have read his books and yours; it rounds out my frame of reference. You mention doing speaking gigs together, are any of them at You Tube or on the FORA web site?
I don’t know! They were the sort of thing where he gave a talk and then I gave a talk; we have never shared the stage, to my recollection.
In the book, Jesus, Interrupted, is it not an error on p. 71, under the section Differences in Content, the third line: Should it not be “Luke and Matthew”, NOT “Luke and Mark” regarding Jesus being born in Bethlehem to a virgin?
Yes, it’s a scribal corruption of the text.