Page 101 – The Bart Ehrman Blog

Why Is This Happening To Us?

It is very difficult to be a sentient human being just now and not wonder occasionally or, well, obsessively: “Why is this happening to us?” I’m not speaking of the scientific questions of how Covid began and spread, how it is like and unlike other viruses, how it works, how it spreads, how… well, there are a million scientific questions and we read about them every day. I don’t mean those, but the more existential question. How do we make sense of it all? It is is less of a problem for naturalists, who do not believe that there is anything beyond the physical universe (in any sense), any non-material superior being, for example, or any non-material thing at all, that has any dealings with it. For hardcore naturalists, the universe and everything in it, living or not, is all particles; sometimes the particles line up in ways that are not conducive for us to survive, let alone thrive. And so the existential “why” something happens, for many naturalists, is a pointless question. It’s only [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00July 8th, 2020|Reflections and Ruminations|

Reason and Theology – Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife

Here is the recording of an interesting on-line discussion I had on May 17, 2020 for a podcast called "Reason and Theology." It was a rather unusual experience for me. The three moderators were all extremely well-informed lay people who are deeply interested in and knowledgeable about Roman Catholic tradition and theology. We talked about my book "Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife," and we got into all sorts of things that I never would have expected. The podcast generally seeks to provide a wide range of in-depth interviews on theological, philosophical, and historical matters in a way that translates to the average person, to provide a platform for charitable round table discussions between opposing perspectives, and to facilitate formal debates in order to arrive at a better understanding of the truth. I'm not sure I helped to that end, but it was an interesting and at times lively discussion. Here it is. Please adjust gear icon for 1080p High-Definition:

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:09-04:00July 7th, 2020|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Video Media|

An Intriguing New Documentary: The Search – Manufacturing Belief

One of the most interesting interviews I've done in recent years was for a feature-length documentary that has now appeared and available for viewing (e.g., Amazon Prime) called "The Search - Manufacturing Belief." It was the brainchild of Patrick Payne, who also produced and directed it. This is how it is described on the Documentary Channel: Juxtaposing reason with mythology, philosophy with religion, and science with mysticism, filmmaker Patrick Payne interviews thought leaders from across this spectrum to build a penetrating, provocative and personal inquiry into the question of awe, objective truth and trust in the 21st Century. I thought it might be worthwhile to have a kind of personal introduction to the film, and so I asked Patrick to provide us with some insight into how it came into being and what it's about. Patrick is on the blog and he will be able to respond to any questions or comments you have. Here is what he has to say: ************************************************************************* The Search - Manufacturing Belief An exploration of the spiritual experience and the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00July 6th, 2020|Public Forum|

Are You Willing to Donate a Free Membership (or more) To Someone Who Needs It?

Over the past three months we have offered free temporary memberships to people who would like to belong to the blog but cannot afford a membership during this time of crisis. We have had nearly three thousand people take us up on that offer, and many have expressed real, heartfelt gratitude. I would like to implement a similar program now but, with a different approach. This may involve you. From the beginning, none of the money from blog membership fees or direct donations has gone into any of our pockets; it doesn't even pay for operating expenses. And it never will. Everything that comes in goes directly out to charities dealing with those in serious need. I would like to be able to continue providing free memberships but do so without affecting the blog’s revenue – or even better, to increase it. As many of you know, for a long time now, twice a year I have asked for donations for free one-year memberships for those who cannot afford one themselves. That has been terrifically [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00July 5th, 2020|Public Forum|

Do Matthew and Paul Agree on the Matter Most Important to them Both?

I was going through posts from many years ago and came across this one, on an issue I've always thought was unusually interesting: if the writer of the Gospel of Matthew (whoever that was) and the apostle Paul had been locked in a room and not allowed to emerge until they had hammered out a consensus statement on how one attains eternal life, would they still be in there, possibly with their skeletons locked in a mutual death grip? I didn't put it that way when I posted this so long ago, but I was younger and milder then I suppose. Here's how I expressed it then. What do you think? ***************************************************************** One of my major goals as a professor of New Testament is to get my students to understand that the NT is not a single entity with a solid and consistent message. There are numerous authors who were writing at different times, in different parts of the world, to different audiences, and with different – sometimes strikingly different – understandings about important issues. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00July 3rd, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Early Judaism, Paul and His Letters|

How Accurate are our Copies of the Hebrew Bible?

After my recent posts on the Dead Sea Scrolls a number of readers have asked me about the surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible. Is it true that Jewish scribes didn’t make copying errors and intentional alterations in the copies of the Hebrew Bible they produced, unlike the Christian scribes who made thousands? How many manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible do we have? How have the Dead Sea Scrolls affected our understanding of Jewish copying practices? All terrific questions – both interesting and important. I give an explanation of the situation in the second edition of my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction. Here it is: ************************************************************************* THE TEXT OF THE HEBREW BIBLE We have seen that the earliest writings of the Hebrew Bible were probably produced during the eighth century B.C.E. This is the date of the oldest prophets such as Amos and Isaiah of Jerusalem. When an ancient author produced a book, he obviously wrote it out by hand. And if anyone wanted a copy, he had to copy it [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00July 1st, 2020|Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Was Jesus Connected with the Dead Sea Scrolls Community?

In my previous post I talked about the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for understanding Jesus and the milieu out of which earliest Christianity grew. My basic point is that if Jesus was a Jew, then to understand him, you have to understand Jews in his world. And the Dead Sea Scrolls provide us valuable information to that end. I am not saying that the Dead Sea Scrolls are representative of what all or even most Jews thought at the time. They clearly are not. If the “Essene hypothesis” is right (that is, that the Scrolls were produced by members of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes) – and it is the view held by the vast majority of the experts (I am *not* an expert on the Scrolls) – then the Scrolls were produced by a Jewish sect that had very distinctive views of its own that were not, in many respects, shared by outsiders. In particular, this was a group of Jews who insisted that the coming apocalyptic judgment, soon to [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:48-04:00June 30th, 2020|Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Randy Alcorn’s Response to Some Blog Criticisms (part 2)

A few days ago I posted the first part of Randy Alcorn's explanation of his views, in response to a number of criticisms blog members leveled at his review of my book Heaven and Hell. In particular, a number of readers thought that he was unduly harsh and even "slandered" me. Here he provides a response. Feel free to make further comments, though Randy probably will not be responding directly. ******************************************************************************************************* From Randy Alcorn: I’ve changed my mind on various things, I assume Bart has too. In a few cases I wish I wouldn’t have cited info that at the time appeared accurate but turned out not to be (my publishers have sometimes cringed when I insist on another update and revision, as well as corrections that are sometimes expensive). To your charge of slander, Truncated, I don’t consider it slander to say that I believe someone appears to think he’s 100% right in certain areas when there are many people as smart and educated as he is that disagree. I do think at times Bart [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 29th, 2020|Bart's Critics, Fourth-Century Christianity|

The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Understanding Jesus: Readers’ Mailbag

A few posts ago I discussed, very briefly, the Dead Sea Scrolls. I received a number of questions about the post, one in particular with some frequency: how did the discovery of the Scrolls contribute to our understanding of Jesus and early Christianity? For me as a NT scholar, it is obviously an unusually important question. Let me stress that the Scrolls are *mainly* important for understanding early Judaism, and only secondarily for understanding early Christianity. But with that said, they are *really* important for Christianity as well, though not in ways you might suspect (especially if you acquire all your historical knowledge from random searches on the Internet!). As it turns out, I received virtually this same question seven years ago on the blog, and here is how I addressed it there. Question: Can you write a post on how the Dead Sea Scrolls advance our understanding of the birth of Christianity? Response: This is a question that can be answered in one sentence, or in a very long and dense book [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 28th, 2020|Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Historical Jesus|

Do You Have Advanced Training In any of the Blog’s Fields?

Every now and then I learn of someone on the blog who has a PhD or is ABD in one of the related fields, such as New Testament, Early Christian Studies, Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, Rabbinics, Roman Religion, Greek Religion, Ancient (Greek or Roman) History, Semitic Philology, etc. etc., and/or is teaching in one of those fields in a college or university. Are you one of them? If so, please send me an email, at [email protected]. I'm interested in knowing what your research is and/or has been, and I don't know how else to contact you, other than this!

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 26th, 2020|Public Forum|

Randy Alcorn Explains His Review In Light of Readers’ Comments

Some of you have expressed dismay that comments/questions you submitted on Randy Alcorn's book review of my book Heaven and Hell (from June 21) did not get posted. So sorry. There were some technical difficulties and problems on this end, and when they were resolved Randy found himself confronted with about a hundred comments, some of them with multiple points / questions, and it was more than a mere mortal could handle. Moreover, a number of the comments / questions were along the same lines. So, instead of responding to each comment / question individually he has written two additional posts to explain himself and his position. I will post these separately, though they are related to each other, the first one here today. I will also go ahead now and post your comments / questions that have come in from the beginning. Randy will not be able to respond directly to them, but he appreciates very much your concerns and questions. If you have questions / comments for me, instead of him, feel free to [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 26th, 2020|Public Forum|

Did You Register for the Webinar on Sunday?

I have contacted everyone that has registered for Sunday's webinar on "Do We Have The Original New Testament?" and sent an invitation to the Zoom webinar. If you did register, but did not get the email or invitation, both sent out today (Thursday 6.25.20), please zap me an email, with the subject line YOU MISSED ME!!!

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 26th, 2020|Public Forum|

How Do We Interpret the Beatitudes? Guest Post by Julius-Kei Kato

Julius-Kei Kato is a member of the blog, a PhD from Graduate Theological Union, an expert on the new Testament, and an Associate Professor in Religious Studies at King's University College at Western University. You can learn about him here: https://jkato.kingsfaculty.ca/about-jk-kato/?mobileFormat=false Prof. Kato has written a very interesting article for the blog as a guest post, on one of the most familiar and least understood passages in the New Testament, the Beatitudes. I can't say that I always agree with those who provide us with guest posts, but oh boy do I agree with this one. And for my money it gets especially interesting at the end, where he shows how Christians today should understand this most critical teaching of Jesus precisely in light of the fact that the apocalyptic end of the age that he predicted never happened. Even those of us who are not Christian should see the real merit and strength of this position -- it ends up endorsing precisely the vision that many of us have. Here is the post, in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 24th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

What Are The Dead Sea Scrolls?

Here's a topic I haven't discussed in a while! Just about every thinking human being in our context has heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, even if they have no clue what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how they were found. And it's no surprise they've heard of them. The Dead Sea Scrolls are by virtual consensus the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century, of major importance for understanding Judaism at the time of Jesus and, in some respects, the teachings of Jesus himself. Here is what I say about the scrolls in my New Testament textbook. I begin by talking about the Jewish group widely thought to have been responsible for producing, using, and eventually hiding the scrolls -- which remained hidden from 70 CE until 1947! The group is called the Essenes. ************************************************** The Essenes are the one Jewish sect not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. Ironically, they are also the group about which we are best informed. This is because ... THE REST OF THIS POST [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 23rd, 2020|Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Historical Jesus|

Blog Member Publications! 6.22.2020

Last week I invited Blog Members who had published something to tell all of the rest of us about it. Many have done so! If you, too, would like to make your written work known, please read very carefully the instructions in the original post: https://ehrmanblog.org/have-you-written-something-you-would-like-to-advertise-on-the-blog/ Today I publish the first batch. There are seven (a good biblical number) and of various kinds. I chose these on very scientific principles: they were the first seven I received! Each one includes the name of the work, the author’s name, a description of what the piece is, and a link that can show you how to get a copy. I will post these periodically in batches of about this size. ***************************************************************************** Manifest Insanity, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Think for Myself, by Diogenes of Mayberry (my author pseudonym; I am a member of the blog under my real name) https://www.amazon.com/Manifest-Insanity-Learned-Worrying-Myself-ebook/dp/B00GTJ3U3A/ref=la_B00GUB3ZEQ_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385104266&sr=1-1 An irreverent social commentary that traces the history of Judeo-Christian doctrines and how they have evolved over the centuries, impudently contradicting [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 22nd, 2020|Public Forum|

Bart’s Latest Attack on Christianity by Randy Alcorn
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Bart’s Latest Attack on Christianity by Randy Alcorn

Afterlife, Bart's Critics, Book Discussions

Bart’s Latest Attack on Christianity by Randy Alcorn

As you know, books on controversial topics get reviewed by all sorts of readers; some reviews are glowing and others are, well, nasty. About a month or so ago several reader sent me an online review of my book Heaven and Hell on patheos.com (check it out: it's a website dealing with issues connected with religious faith) by Randy Alcorn, a prominent evangelical author with a high public profile, who has written a number of books about Heaven from his faith perspective. You can check him out online: Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM) and the author of more than 55 books, including Heaven and If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil. More than 11 million copies of his books have been sold. They’ve also been translated into 70 languages. Randy's review was, shall we say, of the harsh variety. But now that I'm getting older and the body-joints aren't working as well as in the days of my youth, my knee doesn't seem [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:27-04:00June 21st, 2020|Afterlife, Bart's Critics, Book Discussions|

A Plea for Humility in the Face of the Universe

In this week’s Readers’ Mailbag we move away from the academic study of the New Testament to much broader and more important questions of relevance to us all, involving how we relate to others and live in the world. The question is about attitudes and responses to suffering. The question came in a comment about an earlier post I had done. QUESTION: You said ‘My ultimate view is that even if suffering may lead us away from a belief in God, as it did for me, it should at the same time lead us toward humility in the face of the universe and toward a more caring, loving attitude toward those who suffer.’ I guess I didn’t see in your article a clear explanation for why suffering should lead towards the things you mention. I do not think you are wrong, but it would be good to have it rationed out, as I think this is the only place you make a claim without any evidence. RESPONSE: Ah, I can see how my [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 19th, 2020|Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Reminder! A Webinar for You? Topic: Do We Have the Original New Testament?

Here's a reminder, for those who have not signed up yet. I will be holding a webinar on Sunday June 28 at 4:00 - 5:15 pm to raise money for the Bart Ehrman Blog. Anyone is welcome to join; the minimum donation is $10, the maximum is ... well, there is no maximum. Every penny that the webinar brings in will go directly to two of the blog’s charities, The Food Bank of Central/Eastern North Carolina and Doctors Without Borders, split equally between them. The topic of the seminar is “Do We Have the Original New Testament?” Among the issues to be covered are: How were the books of the New Testament copied in the years, decades and centuries after they were written? Who were the copyists? How many copies do we still have? How old are they? Why are there hundreds of thousands of differences among them? Are many of the differences significant? Is it possible we don't know what the authors originally wrote? In the webinar I will deliver a talk for about [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:47-04:00June 18th, 2020|New Testament Manuscripts, Public Forum|

Weren’t Jesus’ Followers Armed and Eager to Fight in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Did Jesus support a violent revolt against Rome? The one argument that probably gets used more than any other in support of that view is that when Jesus gets arrested in the Gospels, his followers pull out their swords to fight. What are they doing with swords? Why are they fighting? Since this is in all the Gospels (independently attested) and since it's not a story that later Christians would be likely to make up (since they would want to portray Jesus to their Roman audiences as peace-loving, not as a rabble-rouser) -- wouldn't that show that it's something that really happened? And if so, then clearly Jesus was interested in arming his followers and fighting the authorities. That's how the argument goes, and it's a very good one. But after some long reflection, I don't find it convincing. Here is how I discussed the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (the only book title that I deeply regret! No one knows what it's about but it's unusually important: it's about how memory [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:27-04:00June 17th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Doesn’t Jesus’ “Cleansing of the Temple” Show He Wanted a Military Uprising?

Did Jesus support of an armed uprising against Rome? Yesterday I re-posted some comments I had made years ago on the blog about Aslan's popular book Zealot, which advances that thesis. I won't be dealing with the entire book this time around: I'm just interested at this point in dealing with this vital question itself Now I want to show how two data that are crucial for the “zealot hypothesis” actually make better sense with this apocalyptic understanding of Jesus. The two data involve the temple cleansing and the crucifixion itself. If one wants to establish – as Aslan very much does want to do – that Jesus favored violence, there is no better scene to focus on than the disruption he caused in the Temple upon arriving in Jerusalem in the last week of his life. According to the earliest accounts, Jesus enters the temple, overturns the tables of those exchanging money, and drives out those who were selling sacrificial animals. In our first account, Mark’s, Jesus actually shuts down the operation of the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:49:27-04:00June 16th, 2020|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

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