Page 35 – The Bart Ehrman Blog

More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place?
Gallery
More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place?

Afterlife, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

More on Sheol: Was it an Actual Place?

The Jewish scriptures contain a variety of different views about what happens to a person at death. Most commonly, a person who dies is simply said to have gone to “death” – a term used some thousand times in the Bible. Better known, but far less frequent, a person’s ultimate destination is sometimes called “Sheol,” a term whose meaning and etymology are debated. It occurs over sixty times in the Hebrew Bible, and there is unanimity among critical scholars that in no case does Sheol mean “hell,” in the sense people mean today. There is no place of eternal punishment in any passage of the entire Old Testament. In fact – as comes as a surprise to many people – nowhere in the entire Hebrew Bible is there any discussion at all of heaven and hell as places of rewards and punishments for those who have died. Probably most people who read the Bible think of Sheol as a Jewish kind of Hades, a shadowy place where everyone goes and all are treated [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:58-04:00April 16th, 2024|Afterlife, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Could Moses be Thutmose, the Overseer of the Borderlands? – Platinum Post from Serene

Here's a provocative post by your fellow Platinum member, Serene: can Moses be identified with another known figure from history, the Egyptian overseer of the Borderlands, Thutmose? Read her case and let us know what you think! ****************************** Could Moses be Thutmose, Overseer of Foreign Lands and Frontier Lands? “…he changed his name and called himself Moses” — Josephus in Against Apion, quoting 3rd C BCE Egyptian historian Manetho. Hi Platies! Thank you for the kind reception to my first post, “Jesus, the Half-Nabataean Prince. The question I’m asking today is, “Could Santa Claus be Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra?” Ok, that one’s solved already — he is. It’s just easier to base something on something pre-existing. Like the historical basis for Moses. Manetho claimed that Moses governed from an Egyptian city called Avaris. And archaeologists agree that the Exodus’ Land of Goshen was the area around Avaris. Well, Ancient Egypt’s records have only one Moses-like name that governed from Avaris (that I can find) — and that’s Overseer Thutmose. [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:06:56-04:00April 15th, 2024|Public Forum|

What Is Sheol in the Hebrew Bible?

I was recently asked what the Old Testament teaches about "hell" and whether that's what "Sheol" refers to. If not (or if so), what it the view of the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible? This is a topic I dealt with in my book Heaven and Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020) and I posted on it some years ago on the blog. This is what I said. ****************************** When trying to figure out where the Christian ideas of heaven and hell came from, an obvious place to start is with the Hebrew Bible. Jesus himself held to the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures. To be sure, there was not a completely fixed canon in his day, which all Jews everywhere agreed to. But virtually all Jews we know of ascribed to the high authority (and Mosaic authorship) of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy); and most Jews – including Jesus – also considered the prophets authoritative; Jesus also accepted the authority of the book of Psalms and a probably number of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:58-04:00April 14th, 2024|Afterlife, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus

Here are now some more “agrapha” (sayings of Jesus not found in any of the surviving Gospels; I say more about "agrapha" in the previous post). These ones are found in writings of church fathers, who appear to have had access to Gospels unavailable to us, or at least to have heard non-canonical sayings of Jesus in some other way. (You will be able to find info on each church father/writing mentioned pretty easily online) ***************************** Papias (according to Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 33. 3-4) Thus the elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, remembered hearing him say how the Lord used to teach about those times, saying: “The days are coming when vines will come forth, each with ten thousand boughs; and on a single bough will be ten thousand branches. And indeed, on a single branch will be ten thousand shoots and on every shoot ten thousand clusters; and in every cluster will be ten thousand grapes, and every grape, when pressed, will yield twenty-five measures of wine. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:56-04:00April 13th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Historical Jesus|

April Gold Q&A: Ask Away!

Hey Gold and Platinum members, Time to jump in on the April Gold Q&A; my plan is to record it some time next weekend. If you have a question -- and I bet you do -- send it along! To do so, do NOT reply on a comment here, but zap an email to Diane at [email protected]. DEADLINE: Please get your question in by next Friday (04/19/2024) at midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). Shorter and to-the-pointer questions are more likely to be picked. Ask accordingly.

Diane2025-09-10T13:07:13-04:00April 12th, 2024|Public Forum|

Did People Have Time for Jesus? – a Platinum Post from Doug Wadeson, MD.

There is nothing better than a guest blog post that flat-out disagrees with me! And here we have one. Is it plausible that Jesus could have had large crowds gathering together to hear his preaching in rural Galilee? I say: Not really. Platinum blog member Doug Wadeson says: Oh yes! Here's his post. What do you think? ****************************** On those few occasions when I have challenged something Dr. Ehrman has said he can usually shoot me down pretty quickly based on his range and depth of knowledge. But I am going to try again. Dr. Ehrman has suggested that one reason the stories of Jesus attracting and preaching to large crowds are unrealistic is because most people were too busy during the day eking out a living to be able to spend time listening to his sermons. I have also heard him suggest that Jesus would have been too busy working as a laborer in Nazareth to have the time to travel to the city of Sepphoris, about 4 miles from Nazareth. The significance [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:06:56-04:00April 12th, 2024|Public Forum|

Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus?

To my surprise, I've never talked about the "agrapha" of Jesus before on the blog. It's about time I did! This is an intriguing topic connected with the teachings of Jesus known to almost precisely No One!! (I'd bet a case of fine French wine that your pastor -- if you've ever had one, in any kind of church whatsoever -- wouldn't be able to tell you what it's all about! Welcome to the world of the insiders. Here is what I say about the agrapha (plural of agraphon) in the book I published with my colleague Zlatko Pleše, The Other Gospels (Oxford, 2014). ****************************** The term “agrapha” has traditionally been applied to a group of “unrecorded” sayings allegedly delivered by the historical Jesus. The term is not altogether apt, since technically speaking these sayings have indeed been recorded--otherwise we would have no access to them. And so the term is more normally taken to mean sayings of Jesus that are not found in the canonical Gospels. Even this definition is problematic however, since it privileges [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:56-04:00April 11th, 2024|Christian Apocrypha, Historical Jesus|

Is the Paul of Acts at Odds with the Paul of His Own Letters?

Here I continue my few remarks on the differences between Paul’s proclamation as recorded in the speeches he gives in the book of Acts and the views he sets forth in his own letters. Again, this is taken from my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (Oxford, 2006). ****************************** Further contrasts between what Paul says about his proclamation and what Acts says about it can be seen in the first major speech Paul delivers in Acts, on the first of his three missionary journeys in the book, in the town of Antioch, Pisidia (central Asia Minor). Paul and his companion Barnabas arrive in town, and on the Sabbath they go to the synagogue for worship with their fellow Jews. As outside guests, they are asked if they have anything to say to the congregation. Paul stands up and delivers a long sermon (Acts 13:16-42). He addresses his hearers as “Israelites,” and gives them a brief summary of the history of the Jewish people, down to the time of King David. He then [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:56-04:00April 10th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters|

Is the Message of Paul in Acts the Same as the Message of Paul According to Paul?
Gallery
Is the Message of Paul in Acts the Same as the Message of Paul According to Paul?

Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters

Is the Message of Paul in Acts the Same as the Message of Paul According to Paul?

In September I'm going to be hosting an online conference of Bible scholars discussing their work for laypeople at a level that most anyone will be able to follow easily. This will be the second of our conferences, "New Insights into the New Testament" (if you don't know about the first one from this past year, focused on the Gospels, you can learn about it here: New Insights into the New Testament Conference). The topic will be The Life, Letters, and Legends of Paul, and we'll have 8 or 10 scholars making presentations with Q&A for each. We'll be announcing the course later (date, etc.), but just now as I've started thinking about it, I've been reflecting on some of the issues involved with trying to figure out what Paul actually preached. In addition to his hints and statements in his surviving letters, we have actual speeches allegedly delivered by him in the book of Acts in the NT. But do these accurately reflect what he really said? I've addressed the question on and off [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:06:55-04:00April 9th, 2024|Acts of the Apostles, Paul and His Letters|

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

Previous 1···343536···218 Next