Page 192 – The Bart Ehrman Blog

Jesus and the Temple

Back to Aslan’s Zealot. I will not be going on forever, but I do want to make a few final posts. So far I have shown that the book is filled with mistakes, some of them important, about the ancient world, about the New Testament, and about early Christianity. These are simply errors, things (I tried to show) that Aslan just got wrong. After that I tried to show why the thesis itself was highly problematic by taking on his lead chapter and showing just why the claims he makes don’t “work” historically. And then, most recently, I’ve shown why scholars have widely opted for a solution that differs from Aslan’s view that Jesus is best seen as one totally zealous for the law and the land of Israel to the extent that he favored a military overthrow of the Roman empire as foreign occupiers. The alternative is that Jesus instead was a preacher of apocalyptic doom. It was not by military force that the enemy would be defeated, but by an act of God, [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:55-04:00January 4th, 2014|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

Looking Ahead to 2014 on the Blog

I’d like to take the opportunity of the New Year to look ahead with you on matters related to the blog. My idea for this post is to tell you what my goals for the coming year are and what challenges we are (or that I am) facing, and then to ask a couple of questions from you, the members, about how best to proceed. Goals and Challenges I have several different goals for the blog this coming year. Financial. This past year, as I indicated in my past post, we pulled in $61,000. That is a significant increase over the previous year. I would like to keep the increase going, and have as a target $70,000 for 2014. This will obviously mean acquiring significantly more members; keeping the members we have; and hopefully increasing the number of donations from people who are already members. On that final point, there are some people who generously give everything from $25 and up. I appreciate more than I can say, from each and every one of your [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00January 2nd, 2014|Public Forum|

End of the Year Blog Reflection

Here at the end of the year, on this New Year’s Eve, I’m reflecting on the blog and how it has gone over the past 12 months. I’d say this has been a fantastic year. Every now and then (like, every ten minutes) I wonder if it is really worth all the time and effort. I’ve continued to post five or six times a week (usually six), and each post is about 1000 words long. But in addition, I need to approve all the comments that come in, and respond to the ones that have asked for a response. Altogether it takes about an hour of my day. On one hand, that doesn’t seem like much – hey, it’s only an hour! On the other hand, I already don’t have enough hours in the day. We need longer days and more days in the week! I’ve often wished there could be some kind of trade-off system, where people who are bored with nothing to do, for whom the hours and days drag on and [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00January 1st, 2014|Public Forum|

More Evidence that Jesus was an Apocalypticist

I am not going to belabor the point much longer, that Jesus is best understood as a Jewish apocalypticist who anticipated that God was soon to enter into history to destroy the forces of evil and bring in his good kingdom; he was not a lestes, one who supported a military uprising against the Roman forces. Rather than subscribing to the idea of military violence, Jesus believed that the Son of Man was coming in judgment and that he would destroy all that was aligned against God. I’ll be giving more evidence for why Jesus was not a lestes later. For now, it is enough to stress that an alternative understanding accounts much better for the evidence that survives. I have already given fairly compelling reasons for thinking that Jesus was an apocalypticist. In this post I’ll give another kind of argument, which to me has always seemed like a slam dunk. In a nutshell, the argument is that we know beyond any reasonable doubt what happened at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 31st, 2013|Historical Jesus|

The Later De-apocalypticizing of Jesus

Yesterday I started mounting the case that rather than being a zealot interested in a military overthrow of the Romans to reclaim the land for God, Jesus was an apocalypticist who believed that God himself would intervene in history to destroy the forces of evil (presumably including the Romans; and certainly including the Jews who were not “on the right side”) to set up his kingdom. It is worth re-emphasizing that all over the map in our early sources Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God. He does not speak about the Kingdom of Israel, or about the use of military force (I’ll get to the scattered exceptions eventually), or about “retaking the land.” This is a key point because Aslan thinks that for Jesus it was all about getting rid of the Romans and taking the land back; but Jesus doesn’t talk about that in our earliest sources – even the ones that Aslan cites (as I showed in earlier posts: unlike zealots, Jesus told his followers that they *should* pay taxes to Rome!). [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 29th, 2013|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Back to Aslan’s Thesis. An Alternative View: Jesus the Apocalypticist

I have spent considerable time showing just how problematic Reza Aslan’s view of Jesus is, as he set it forth in his bestselling Zealot. But it is not enough to attack someone else’s position if you don’t agree with it. You also have to have an alternative that is more attractive. So it’s time to move into that realm. As I have repeatedly stated on this blog, the view of Jesus that has dominated scholarship since the classic of Albert Schweitzer in 1906, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (actually, it was in German, with the title, Von Reimarus zu Wrede, which, frankly, is not nearly as catchy….), is that Jesus is best understood to have been – as were many of his contemporaries – a Jewish apocalypticist, one who believed that God was soon to intervene in history in a spectacular and cosmic way to overthrow the forces of evil in a supernatural show of power, and bring in a good kingdom on earth in which there would be no more injustice and oppression [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 29th, 2013|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

Free Memberships All Claimed

I very much regret to report that all the free memberships that have been available by the generous donors who are already members on the blog have already been given out. So please do not send in a request if you have not received one. Hopefully we will be able to make more available in the future. Thanks again toall the donors. Your response was heartwarming. And to the recipients, I hope you enjoy the blog!!

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 29th, 2013|Public Forum|

Still a Few Free Memberships for those Who Need Them

There are still a few free memberships to the blog available to those who need them, thanks to the incredible generosity of others. These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year. I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment. Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected]. In your email, please: 1) Let me know your situation and; 2) Provide me with the following information: a) Your first and last name. b) Your preferred personal email. c) Your preferred user name (no spaces). d) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me sincerely thank them once again for such kind and generous donations to help others in [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 27th, 2013|Public Forum|

2009 Debate With Mike Licona: Can Historians Prove the Resurrection of Jesus?

I've decided to take a day or so off from my discussions of Reza Aslan's Zealot, both for my sanity and yours. Here, for a bit of variety, is a video of a debate that I had a few years ago with Mike Licona on the topic or whether historians can *prove* that Jesus was raised from the dead. Mike thinks the answer is "yes"; I think the answer is "no way." It's important to note: the debate was *not* about whether Jesus was raised from the dead. The debate was about whether historians can *prove* that he did (if he did). Mike Licona has burst onto the scene as a conservative Christian apologist. He did a master's degree at Liberty University (that's Jerry Falwell's place) and then a PhD in New Testament at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Someone may be able to correct me on this, but I *think* that is the kind of degree where instead of taking PhD seminars and so on, as at an American university, it [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:28-04:00December 26th, 2013|Bart's Debates, Historical Jesus, Public Forum, Video Media|

Free Memberships for those Who Need Them

Thanks to the incredible generosity of other members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available. These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year. I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment. Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected]. In your email, please: 1) Let me know your situation and 2) Provide me with the following information: a) Your first and last name. b) Your preferred personal email. c) Your preferred user name (no spaces). d) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donors will remain anonymous, but here let me publicly extend my heartfelt thanks for such kind and generous donations [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:43-04:00December 24th, 2013|Public Forum|

Response to My Holiday Request

I am deeply touched and highly appreciative of the response to my request for donations that would allow readers who very much want to be members of the blog, but who simply cannot afford the membership fees, to have a one-year subscription. The outpouring of support was very gratifying and humbling. We have received $1800 in this appeal – enough for 72 memberships. Fantastic. I am now about to announce the possibility in the public forum of the blog and on my facebook page. It will be very interesting indeed to see how many requests we receive. I will, necessarily, proceed on the honor system, asking people to be honest and tell me what their situation is that does not allow them to join otherwise. I will accept the first 72 applications I receive. And I’ll time the responses, to see how long it takes to reach 72 (if we reach it!). I will give you the full scoop when the data are in. Many, many, many thanks to all of you who donated [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 24th, 2013|Reflections and Ruminations|

Fundamental Problems with Aslan’s Thesis

In my post of yesterday I moved beyond the simple errors of Aslan’s Zealot to discuss more substantive issues, taking his chapter “Zeal for your House” as both central to his argument (as he himself maintains) and highly problematic. Within the seven pages of this key chapter, I indicated that there are, by my count, six major problems, two of which I dealt with yesterday and the other four I will deal with here. Not only are some of the “historical” events that Aslan describes in this chapter almost certainly not historical, at least as they are narrated, both in the NT Gospels and in Aslan’s summary (e.g., the Triumphal Entry and Jesus’ success in shutting down the entire Temple complex; this is my first problem); and not only does Aslan fill in the gaps of our knowledge with fictional narratives that he himself has made up (this is my second), there are the following four problems, that here I deal with seriatim: His reconstruction of events is riddled with internal inconsistencies that show [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 23rd, 2013|Historical Jesus|

Aslan’s Key Chapter

After his 70-page introduction to the history of first-century Palestine, which I enjoyed, even if it was skewed to set up his thesis of Jesus as another-one-of-those-zealots, Aslan sets the stage for his entire discussion of the historical Jesus, in Part II, with his Prologue, “Zeal for your House.” Aslan sees the set of stories relates in this chapter as paradigmatic for understanding Jesus’ message and mission. As he says, this story, “more than any other word or deed, helps reveal who Jesus was and what Jesus meant…. So revelatory is this single moment in Jesus’s brief life that it alone can be used to clarify his mission, his theology, his politics, his relationship to the Jewish authorities, his relationship to Judaism in general, and his attitude toward the Roman occupation” (p. 73). Wow. That’s a lot. The story he chooses is actually a collection of stories having to do with Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem: these stories include (a) The Triumphal Entry; (b) The Cleansing of the Temple; and (c) the Question about Paying [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 22nd, 2013|Historical Jesus|

Aslan Zealot: A Deeper Evaluation of the Thesis Itself

I have not completed my evaluation of Reza Aslan’s popular, interesting, and well-written account of Jesus, Zealot. To this point I have merely tried to show that despite his claims (e.g. in the Fox News interview) of being an expert who is qualified to write such a book, he is not an expert – in the ancient world, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, or in the historical Jesus. When I began this discussion I understand that a lot of readers thought that I was just being snooty and dismissive by pointing this out; but in my subsequent posts I’ve tried to show why being an expert really does matter. Someone who is not an expert makes mistakes – lots of mistakes, and often serious mistakes. And the problem is that the person doesn’t even know it. I don’t think Aslan knowingly wrote anything he didn’t think. The problem is that he doesn’t know the field well enough to know where there are gaps in his knowledge, or where he has accepted incorrect [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 21st, 2013|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

A Holiday Blog Idea

As many of you know, thanks to a couple of generous donors, I was able to give out some free memberships to people who very much wanted to be on the blog but because of personal circumstances, could not afford the membership fees. I put out the offer on my facebook page, and within twenty minutes I had thirty requests –all from people who were eager to join but simply did not have the means to do so otherwise. I had to shut down the offer nearly as soon as I made it. This has made me suspect that there are a lot more people out there like that. And so an idea has hit me. Why not do more of the same? Would any of you be willing to donate one or more memberships during this holiday season? Each new (year-long) membership would cost $24.95 – so let’s just say $25. You could donate to the blog any increment of $25 that you want – so if you want to give one [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 20th, 2013|Public Forum|

Mistakes about the New Testament in Aslan’s Zealot

In my previous two posts I detailed some of the historical errors in Aslan’s interesting and readable book Zealot. In this post I’ll say some things about mistakes he makes about the New Testament. I’m not sure which kind of mistake is more troubling – the book is dealing both with ancient history and with the accounts of Jesus in the NT, so both history and the Gospels are of central importance. In any event, here is a sampling of the latter. ************************************************************************* Aslan indicates that Mark is uninterested in both Jesus’ birth and “surprisingly, in Jesus’s resurrection as he writes nothing at all about either event” (p. 29). Of course it is true that Mark begins with Jesus’ adult life and says nothing about his birth. But it’s absolutely wrong to say that he says nothing about the resurrection. Quite the contrary, one need only read Mark 16:1-8 and it becomes clear that Mark both knows about the resurrection and considers it to be of utmost importance. In the narrative, Jesus is dead and [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 19th, 2013|Historical Jesus|

Free Memberships Already Taken

I very much regret to report that all the free memberships that have been available by a generous donor have already been given out. So please do not send in a request if you have not received one. Hopefully we will be able to make more available in the future. Thanks again to the anonymous donor: and to the recipients, I hope you enjoy the blog!!

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 18th, 2013|Public Forum|

A Limited Number of Free Memberships Available

Thanks to the incredible generosity of a member of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available. These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year. I will assign these memberships strictly on the honor system: if you truly cannot afford the membership fee, but very much want to have full access to the blog, then please contact me. Do NOT reply here, on the blog, as a comment. Send me a separate email, privately, at [email protected]. In your email, let me know your situation and provide me with the following information: 1) Your first and last name. 2) Your preferred personal email. 3) Your preferred user name (no spaces). 4) Your preferred password (should be 8 or more characters, no spaces). The donor wishes to remain anonymous, but here let me publicly extend my heartfelt thanks for such a kind and generous donation to help [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 18th, 2013|Public Forum|

More Historical Mistakes in Aslan’s Zealot

In this post I would like to continue with some of the historical mistakes in Aslan’s Zealot. When reading these, do bear in mind that I also had positive things to say about the book. As in the previous post, I would like this one to focus on historical errors, or historical claims that have no basis in either our ancient sources or modern scholarship. I will not be discussing, in this post, the mistakes Aslan has made about the New Testament. That will be my next post. ************************************************************************ Aslan wants to argue that John the Baptist may have been an Essene ( I think there’s no way that’s true, but the idea has been floated ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls; still, John’s baptism for remission of sins is completely different from what was going on among the Essenes, who believed in lengthy periods of ritual purification, not a one-time baptism in view of “repentance.” But thinking he was an Essene is not a flat-out mistake; it’s just a historical hypothesis. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 17th, 2013|Historical Jesus|

Aslan’s Zealot: Historical Mistakes

Yesterday I pointed out some of the features of Reza Aslan’s Zealot that I found to be commendable. In the next series of posts, starting with today’s, I’ll be pointing out the problems. There are lots of them. Some readers of the blog have objected to my (repeatedly, I’ll grant) pointing out that Aslan is not an expert. Now I’ll try to show why that is both obvious and unfortunate. There are mistakes scattered throughout the book. I’d say 1/3 to 1/2 of the pages in my copy have bright yellow large question marks on them, where (when highlighting) I found factual errors, misstatements, dubious claims, inconsistencies of logic, and so on. I obviously am not going to provide a full list here. In today’s post I’ll begin by mentioning some of the raw, factual mistakes. These are only from his Part I; I’ll probably provide some more in a subsequent post, from other Parts of the book in order to round out the picture a bit (There are other kinds of problems I’ll note [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:23:42-04:00December 15th, 2013|Historical Jesus|

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