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My Favorite Fragment of a Lost Gospel. Is It the Gospel of Peter??
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My Favorite Fragment of a Lost Gospel. Is It the Gospel of Peter??

Public Forum

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 fine. You'll still get this one. If you have read them, even finer! As I pointed out in the earlier , the "Gospel of Peter" that we have today, which was discovered in 1886, is, unfortunately, only a portion – the only surviving portion – of what was once a complete Gospel. But was it a complete Gospel? Or was it a passion Gospel (like the later Gospel of Nicodemus) that gave an account only [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 7th, 2024|Public Forum|

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 the church as Scripture (Church History, 3. 3. 2; 3. 25. 6). And on one other occasion, Eusebius discusses the book at some length, in order to show why it had been excluded from consideration from the canon. The story involves Serapion, a bishop of Antioch at the end of the second century. Based on an account he had read from Serapion’s own hand, Eusebius indicates that Serapion had first-hand knowledge of the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 6th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

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 say. I've talked about it on the blog several times, but have decided that I need to say something about it again, to make sense of the fragment that will be coming in a later post. And to talk about the Gospel of Peter itself will require a couple of posts. So here's the first. For my money, this is one of our most interesting ancient non-canonical Gospels. As I indicated, we [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 4th, 2024|Public Forum|

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 as the Diatessaron (I’ll explain below), which we are desperate to get our hands on but probably never will? (It has been completely lost; no manuscripts survive). Here's the tiny fragment of the something we have, with a discussion to follow: Both the translation (it’s mine) and the introduction (slightly edited) are taken from my book, done with Zlatko Pleše, The Other Gospels (Oxford University Press, 2014). There you can also find translations [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 3rd, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE)|

Was Jesus Opposed to Women and Childbirth? The Lost Gospel of the Egyptians
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Was Jesus Opposed to Women and Childbirth? The Lost Gospel of the Egyptians

Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Sex and Sexuality in the Bible, Women in Early Christianity

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 said, “Then I have done well not to bear children” (supposing that it was not necessary to give birth), the Lord responded, “Eat every herb, but not the one that is bitter.” (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3, 66, 1-2) And when the Savior said to Salome, “Death will last as long as women give birth,” he was not denigrating birth -- since it is, after all, necessary for the salvation of those who believe. (Clement [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 2nd, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), Sex and Sexuality in the Bible, Women in Early Christianity|

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 book its title; usually publishers do that). It was reviewed in the Christian Century (Dec. 30, 2008) (View PDF (christiancentury.org), by Will Willimon, a well-known preacher and a former Bishop of the United Methodist Church and Professor at Duke Divinity School. No need for me to comment on it. Read it for yourself: ****************************** Bart Ehrman has written another book that is probably destined to be a best seller. God’s Problem is a lively, though [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:42-04:00March 31st, 2024|Bart's Critics, Book Discussions|

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 he says. Ehrman’s major argument for the thesis that Jesus did not consider himself divine is that explicit statements of Jesus’ divine identity can be found only in the later fourth Gospel of John, whereas the three Synoptic Gospels, earlier and thus presumably more historically reliable, do not feature such statements from Jesus himself or the Gospel writers. This is so much nonsense. It is indeed the case that the most direct affirmations [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 30th, 2024|Bart's Critics, Canonical Gospels|

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. Or possibly knowing what I say? I sometimes genuinely do wonder if the reviewer actually bothered to read the book. In that context, I suddenly remembered that ten years ago I did a couple of blog posts after a reader alerted me to a published review of my book How Jesus Became God, by the Very Reverend Robert Barren. When I read the review I was a bit, well, outraged. I wrote two posts on [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 28th, 2024|Bart's Critics, Book Discussions, Canonical Gospels|

March 2024 Platinum webinar

https://vimeo.com/927998973/6a5cbc2b51?share=copy

Diane2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00March 27th, 2024|Public Forum|

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

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00March 27th, 2024|Public Forum|

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 as Paul was in his. I’ve always found the letter to the Galatians to be one of the most forceful, intriguing, and difficult letters of Paul. I’ve studied it for over forty years, and there are still verses that I don’t understand. My view is that most scholars don’t understand them either -- even the scholars who think they do! It is a packed and theologically dense letter in places. But the basic point is [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00March 27th, 2024|Public Forum|

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 week Tuesday March 26; 7:30 p.m. TOPIC: "Did Jesus Really Mean It? The Hard (Impossible?) Ethics of the Gospels" LINK: Click here to join on Tuesday March 26 We had a great time at the last one (though there's no record of it. So how do we *know*???). And this coming one is, for my money (none of which is going into it), even more interesting and historically important. (And for about 2 billion people [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00March 26th, 2024|Public Forum|

What Did Paul’s Christian Enemies Write About Him?
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What Did Paul’s Christian Enemies Write About Him?

Paul and His Letters

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 who were followers of Jesus before him. I get asked all the time if I think that Paul is the true founder of Christianity and whether we should call it Paulinanity instead of Christianity (and related questions). My answer is decidedly NO. One reason that seems obvious to me, but not apparently to everyone, is that Paul did not himself invent Christianity. He inherited it. It is difficult to establish a firm chronology of Paul’s [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 26th, 2024|Paul and His Letters|

A Self-Evaluation of My Self-Debate: Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable?

I have now completed my posts on the debate I had with myself in front of my New Testament class on the question of whether the New Testament book of Acts is historically reliable. If you want to see the whole debate, just read the posts in sequence: the affirmative speech arguing Acts is indeed reliable; the negative speech arguing that it is not; the negative rebuttal of what the affirmative side said; and finally the affirmative rebuttal of what the negative side said. In class I delivered the speeches one after the other. When “affirmative” I was wearing a sport coat, but no cap; when “negative” I was wearing a baseball cap but no sport coat – just so students would remember that it was a “different” speaker speaking. I have pointed out on the blog before that even though I do a lot of public debates, I often find them more than a little frustrating and frequently (in fact, almost always) ask myself, in the course of the debate, why I’m doing this [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 24th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|

Is the Book of Acts Reliable? The Affirmative REBUTTAL of the Negative Case

I have been discussing the debate that I had with myself in front of my New Testament class on the resolution, Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable. So far I have indicated what the Affirmative side argued in favor of the resolution; what the Negative side argued against the resolution; and what the Negative side said in its rebuttal to the first Affirmative speech. NOW, at last, I can indicate what the Affirmative side said in its rebuttal to the two Negative speeches. You can find the posts here: the affirmative speech arguing Acts is indeed reliable; the negative speech arguing that it is not; the negative rebuttal of what the affirmative side said Recall: in this post I’m not indicating what I really think; I’m indicating what I would argue if this were the side I was required to argue (and what I did argue in class). Here it is: ****************************** Despite what the negative side has maintained, we remain convinced that the New Testament book of Acts is historically reliable. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 23rd, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|

Is the Book of Acts Historically Reliable? The Negative REBUTTAL of the Affirmative Case

What follows is the “negative rebuttal” of the speech given by the “first affirmative” in its support of the resolution, “Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable.” If you need to refresh yourself on what the affirmative team argued, you can find it on the March 16 post, here: The Book of Acts IS HISTORICAL! The Affirmative Argument. In the first negative speech (yesterday’s post) the negative team argued its case, without direct reference to the affirmative side. This, now, is the negative response to what the affirmative said (the next post in the thread will be the affirmative rebuttal to the negative side) (recall: this was a debate I staged with myself in front of my New Testament class. I didn't read this speech: I winged it. But this is the essence of what I argued, on the negative side against the affirmative) ****************************** If you choose to go point by point through the affirmative team’s case that the book of Acts is historically reliable, you will find that they have advanced their [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 21st, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|

The Book of Acts is NOT RELIABLE! The Negative Case
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The Book of Acts is NOT RELIABLE! The Negative Case

Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates

The Book of Acts is NOT RELIABLE! The Negative Case

I have already devoted to a post to argue the AFFIRMATIVE side to the debate resolution: "Resolved: The Book of Acts is Historically Reliable" (see the post two days ago, and for an entire post devoted to showing a major irrelevancy in the affirmative case, see the one from three days ago). In this post I will lay out the NEGATIVE case, as well as I can in this amount of space, arguing that Acts is NOT reliable. Again, I am not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with this argument; I’m giving it as I would in a debate. ****************************** The New Testament book of Acts is not historically reliable. Before showing that to be the case, I want to make two preliminary remarks, both of them related to the question of what it means for an ostensibly historical account (a narrative of what allegedly happened in the past) to be reliable. First, when readers today want to know whether the book of Acts is reliable, they mean that they want to know whether the events [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 20th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Bart's Debates|

March Gold Q&A Video

https://vimeo.com/924638925/54b698ce64?share=copy

Diane2025-09-10T13:06:42-04:00March 19th, 2024|Public Forum|

ANOTHER March Platinum Webinar! Did Jesus Really Mean It?

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 week Tuesday March 26; 7:30 p.m. TOPIC: "Did Jesus Really Mean It? The Hard (Impossible?) Ethics of the Gospels" LINK: Click here to join on Tuesday March 26 We had a great time at the last one (though there's no record of it. So how do we *know*???). And this coming one is, for my money (none of which is going into it), even more interesting and historically important. (And for about 2 billion people in the world, personally important). Hope you can come! [Note from Diane: the technical difficulty was *ME* :-( ]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:42-04:00March 19th, 2024|Public Forum|

Announcing a FREE Course! “Did Peter Hate Paul?”

I am very pleased to announce a free, two-lecture course that I'll be doing on March 30, 2-4pm EST, called Did Peter Hate Paul? Check it out: bartehrman.com/peterandpaul This is part of my now two-year-old venture, Bart Ehrman Courses Online, which is not directly connected with the Blog, though it is indirectly connected to it by virtue of the facts that (a) these online courses cover the kinds of things y'all are almost certainly interested in (since you are, after all, members of a blog that deals with them all the time) and (b) I do 'em both. You can find a full list of all my courses at Online Courses by Dr. Bart Ehrman - 10% Off First Course! And note: you can get a discount on every course by using the code BLOG5 But no discount needed this time! Unlike most of my online courses, though, this one is FREE. Wanna come? You can join me live, no cost, for the two lectures, to be followed by a live Q&A. By coming, you'll [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:41-04:00March 19th, 2024|Public Forum|

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