Page 46 – The Bart Ehrman Blog

Does Jesus Call Himself God in His Trial Before the Sanhedrin and the High Priest Caiaphas?

I was recently asked about my claim that Jesus never calls himself God/a divine being in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some people have asked me about what they think might be an exception: his trial before the Sanhedrin headed by the high priest Caiaphas in Mark 14, where he is accused of blasphemy. Isn't the accusation proof that he claimed to be God? In our *first* Gospel, Mark? There’s a lot to say about this most intriguing of passages (Mark 14:53-62; if you're a real blog nerd: read it!), but here are the key points. The first point to stress is that the question is not whether Jesus in the passage claims to be a divine being, but whether Jesus himself did, the actual man in history. There is no question that Jesus in the Gospels claims to be divine. You don’t need Mark 14 for that – just read the Gospel of John (John 8:58; 10:30; 14:5; etc. etc.) The fact that the Gospels claim that Jesus called himself a divine being doesn’t mean [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:12-04:00August 19th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus|

Was “King of the Jews” Really the Charge Against Jesus, Leading to his Crucifixion?

Why did the Romans kill Jesus? Was it really because he was calling himself "King of the Jews"? Was that really what he was calling himself? How would we know? I've been asked these questions several times in connection with my posts about Jesus' (death and) burial. Here is what I've said about the matter before, in reference to whether Jesus considered himself the "messiah" (i.e., the future king): ****************************** One of the main reasons I think Jesus called himself the future messiah is that this best explains the best attested event of his entire life: his crucifixion by the Romans. There are a few things we can say with virtual certainty about Jesus. For example: he was a Jewish preacher from rural Galilee who made a fateful trip to Jerusalem and was crucified by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. There are, of course, lots of other things that we can say, without quite so much certainty (see my book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium). But that much is certain. So why did [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:12-04:00August 17th, 2023|Public Forum|

Pontius Pilate, Intransigent Governor, Crucifier of Jesus

To make the best sense of this post it is important to keep in mind what I said in the previous one. In his response to my views of in How Jesus Became God – that Jesus most likely was not given a decent burial on the day of his crucifixion by Joseph of Arimathea – Craig Evans has maintained, among other things, that Pilate was not the kind of governor who would ignore Jewish sensitivities. For Craig, Pilate started his rule by making a big mistake of bringing into Jerusalem the Roman standards that bore on them the image of the emperor. But once he realized that the Jewish populace was offended, he backed down and from then on he showed that he had learned his lesson. For that reason, Craig finds it “hard to believe” that at a later time Pilate would do something so opposed to Jewish custom as allow a body unburied on the day of a person’s death. This view strikes me as extremely problematic, for several reasons. To start [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:12-04:00August 16th, 2023|Bart's Critics, Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Did Pilate Allow Jesus to be Buried Because He Had “Learned his Lesson”?

I think there is almost no historical figure that Craig and I disagree on more than the Roman governor of Judea at the time of Jesus’ death, Pontius Pilate. I see him as a cruel, vicious, hard-headed, insensitive, and brutal ruler; Craig portrays him as an efficient but wise and rather sensitive aristocrat who could learn from his lessons and who would go out of his way not to offend Jewish sensibilities. A lot hangs on which view (if either) is right, since it was Pilate – we agree on this! – who ordered Jesus’ crucifixion. Moreover, if Jesus was given a decent burial (Craig’s view) or was left to hang on the cross for some time in accordance with standard Roman practice (my view), it was, in either case, Pilate’s decision. Craig’s view is that Pilate’s sensitive decision not to allow crucified victims to hang on their crosses after their deaths is what allowed him to keep “the nation at peace” (the phrase comes from the Jewish historian Josephus, whom I will be dealing [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 15th, 2023|Bart's Critics, Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Gold Q&A for August!

Dear Goldies, It's time for another Gold Q&A. You ask the questions, I answer them. My plan is to record the event this coming weekend; if I'm able to do it at a decent time (other things are hanging fire), I'll announce it a bit in advance so people can come and listen in if they want. For me to do that, I NEED QUESTIONS! Got any? Anything related to the blog is AOK. Remember that long and involved questions are far less likely to be chosen than relatively succinct to-the-point ones (if something in the question needs explaining, I'll explain it). DO NOT ask a question in a comment to this post (well, don't ask if you want me to answer it; if you don't want an answer, ask away!). INSTEAD, submit your question to [email protected] DEADLINE for your question submission: this Friday, August 18, midnight your time. I'm looking forward to it, as always!

admin2025-07-16T17:43:44-04:00August 14th, 2023|Public Forum|

How Accurate Are Orally-Transmitted Reports? A Platinum Post From Imran M. Usmani

In this guest post, Imran Usmani challenges my views about distortions in oral traditions, basing his contrary perspective on the work of an ninth-century Muslim scholar tracing the reports in circlation about the prophet Muhammad. Take a look! What do you think? Do you find it convincing? Why or why not? Let us know! ****************************** In his book Jesus Before the Gospels, Bart Ehrman argues that the earliest Christians possessed distorted memories of Jesus. Ehrman draws on modern psychological studies, which have shown that human memories are sometimes wholly unreliable. However, Ehrman accepts that the gist of a memory is often reliable even if the details are incorrect. Using this principle, Ehrman proceeds to critically appraise the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In my opinion, a weakness in Ehrman’s thesis is that it does not consider the work of the Hadith collector Muhammad bin Ismail Bukhari, who died in 870 CE. Bukhari spent his life studying and verifying orally transmitted reports about the Prophet Muhammad. His methods and results are very [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:03:16-04:00August 14th, 2023|Public Forum|

Was Pilate Sensitive to Jews and their Customs (such that he would allow decent burials for crucified victims)?

When I was in high school I was active on the debate team, and really loved it. The team as a whole was really good, but I was nowhere near being the best member. My colleague and another fellow on the team ended up debating together in college and won the national championship as sophomores. These guys were terrific. One of the decisions we constantly had to make when arguing the negative side of a resolution was how to go about attacking the claims of the affirmative side. There were two general approaches: one was what we called the “shotgun” approach. This involved leveling lots and lots of arguments (like buckshot) and hoping that the other side could not respond to them all, thereby making the judge of the debate think that some of the arguments stuck, even if not all of them were that good. The problem with the shotgun approach was that if a bunch of the arguments weren’t very good, the affirmative side could knock them down fairly easily, and by the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 13th, 2023|Bart's Critics, Early Judaism, Historical Jesus|

Why Critical Scholarship on the Gospels Helps *Believers* in the Bible!
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Why Critical Scholarship on the Gospels Helps *Believers* in the Bible!

Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship

Why Critical Scholarship on the Gospels Helps Believers in the Bible!

In my two previous posts I’ve been trying to explain that the historical-critical view of the Gospels, in which they are recognized not always to represent historically accurate information about Jesus, is not necessarily a view that “trashes” them. Instead, it is a view that tries to understand what they really are instead of insisting that they are something else. Accepting them for what they are is surely a good thing; making them into something they are not can’t be good. In this post I want to do something highly unusual for me. I want to explain, for those of you who are Christians (or for anyone else who is interested), why this critical view of the Gospels is in fact *theologically* valuable, far more theologically valuable than a view that would insist that the Gospels have no discrepancies between them or errors of any kind, but are historically accurate accounts of what happened in the life of Jesus. When I was a Christian, once I came to the conclusion that the Gospels in fact [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 12th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship|

We Have Crucifixion Nails! Isn’t that Evidence for Jesus’ Burial?

I have mentioned a couple of times that at the end of this thread I will be discussing the two arguments that Craig Evans marshals that strike me as interesting and to be taken seriously. These are (1) the general claims in a couple of passages of Josephus and (2) the discovery of the skeletal remains of a crucified victim. Even though these are, in my opinion, good arguments, I will explain why I do not find them persuasive. Up till now I have been dealing with the arguments that Craig advances that I do not find at all convincing -- for example, that Roman governors on rare occasions showed clemency for lower level crimes and that Pilate was not the kind of person to offend Jewish sensitivities. I have one more argument of this sort to deal with. It is one that may sound highly convincing to someone who has only Craig’s summary at hand but who does not know the facts of case. This argument does not involve historical literary sources (Philo or [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:12-04:00August 12th, 2023|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus|

Serious Discount on my Book!
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Serious Discount on my Book!

Public Forum

Serious Discount on my Book!

I'm pleased to announce that it is now possible to purchase a hardback copy of my recent book Armaggedon: What the Bible Really Says about the End at half price from Barnes & Noble, either in a store or online, as part of their annual Book Haul promotion. The sale goes till Sept. 4. Interested? Know anyone else who might be? Go here and check it out: Armageddon | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:12-04:00August 11th, 2023|Public Forum|

A Proposition That Ramesses-the-Sixth (Ramesses VI) Was the Pharaoh of the Exodus by Omar Robb

Another Platinum Post from Omar Robb--as always, intriguing! ****************************** Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com I did discuss this subject in some comments here in the blog, but I prefer to put it in a formal post. We are going here to argue that the non-metaphysical data related to the exodus can be fit with the history of Egypt between Ramesses-the-Third (III, died 1155BC) and Ramesses-the-Sixth (VI, died 1136BC). Also, we will argue that Israel/Yisrael is unlikely to be the name mentioned in the Stele of Merneptah. 1# We will discuss this subject from a scientific historical perspective in which we will exclude all metaphysical data. So, if we looked at the Quran and the Old Testament (OT) and just extracted the non-metaphysical data (i.e. the viable data that doesn’t contradict with science and normality) then the summary of this data can be: The Israelite were a foreign tribe in Egypt, and they were oppressed there, but managed (gradually or swiftly) to immigrate to Arabia under the leadership of a man whose name was Moses. Now ... Quran [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:03:54-04:00August 11th, 2023|Public Forum|

Is Critical Biblical Scholarship Valid? What the New Testament Itself Indicates!

In my previous post I argued that critical scholars who insist that the Gospels are not historically accurate accounts of what happened in the life of Jesus – even though they do contain some historically accurate information, which needs to be carefully and cautiously ferreted out of their narratives – are not trashing the Gospels. They are trashing unfounded fundamentalist assumptions about the Gospels. In this post I’d like to argue that this view -- that the Gospels are not sacrosanct-historically-accurate-to-the-very-detail accounts of what really happened in the life of Jesus -- is not merely a modern notion that emerged during the Enlightenment. It is that, to be sure; but it’s not merely that. In fact, I would argue that this is the earliest attested view of the Gospels from earliest Christianity. Let’s assume for this argument a view that most scholars hold and that I could demonstrate if I wanted to spend a lot of time doing so (for example here and here), that Mark was the first of our Gospels and that Matthew [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 10th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, History of Biblical Scholarship|

Hey, Stop Trashing the Gospels!

I am going to take a brief break from my response to Craig Evans’s critique of my view of Jesus’ burial. There are more things that I need to say – and I have not yet gotten to what I think are his two best arguments. But my sense is that some people are getting a little tired of a steady dose of posts on the burial stories, so… I’m going to break to deal with something else of more general interest. Over the years some people have responded to my argument that Jesus was not really buried by Joseph of Arimathea on the day of his crucifixion by asking me: Why are you trashing the Gospels? It’s a fair question, and deserves a fair answer. The short story is that I’m not intending or trying to trash the Gospels. In my view, what I’m doing is showing what the Gospels really are and what they really are not. And that is not a matter of trashing them. It’s a matter of revealing their true [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 9th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Creating the Qu’ran: Where Did the Scripture of Islam Really Come From? Guest post by Stephen Shoemaker

Here now is the third and final post on the Qur'an by scholar of Early Islam and Ancient Christianity Stephen Shoemaker, Professor at the University of Oregon. Stephen is an internationally-known scholar and his first two posts are highly informed and have been controversial among some of our blog members--as one would expect for someone whose research leads to conclusions different from what everyone has always said and assumed to be true! In this post he addresses the question many of us have long had: when was the Qur'an actually produced and could the traditions it contains have been changed over the years before it was written? ****************************** Creating the Qur’an: The Formation of the Last Ancient Scripture Hi again. Welcome to my final post, and I’d like to thank Bart for the opportunity to engage this lively forum and also all of its members for reading and considering my thoughts. In my two previous posts, you will recall, I noted some significant problems with prevailing understandings of how the Qur’an as [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:03:55-04:00August 8th, 2023|Public Forum|

Were Roman Leaders Told to Provide Decent Burials for Crucified Victims? (Really?)

In my previous post I tried to show why Craig’s argument that Roman governors on (widely!) isolated occasions showed clemency to prisoners (those not sentenced to death) has no relevance to the question of whether Jesus, condemned to crucifixion for treason against the Roman state, would have been allowed a decent burial, contrary to Roman practice. The “clemency” argument – even in the sources that Craig himself cites, only seems to show that in cases that were completely unlike that of Jesus himself, Roman governors could on rare occasions be merciful and/or bribed. Craig goes on to say that this clemency was extended to the burial of executed criminals. Now in theory, this should be relevant to the question of whether Pilate showed mercy on Jesus by allowing his body to be buried on the day of his execution. But when you actually look at the evidence, once again it is not just irrelevant to Craig's argument, it actually supports the *opposite* view that is opposite to the one Craig wants to argue. See for [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:03:55-04:00August 6th, 2023|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus|

Did Romans Show Clemency to Crucified Criminals?

In my previous post I began to discuss Craig Evan’s essay “Getting the Burial Traditions and Evidences Right,” which was his attempt to show that the views I set forth in How Jesus Became God were flawed. In his view, the New Testament portrayal of Jesus’ burial is almost certainly historical: Jesus really was buried, in a known tomb, on the afternoon of his death, immediately after he expired, by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin who had, the night before, called for his execution. My view is that this is entirely unlikely, that Jesus was probably left on his cross to suffer the ravages of time and, possibly, scavenging animals, as was the practice of Romans for crucified victims. In no instance was this practice more constant than in the case of “enemies of the state,” anyone, for example, who was involved in an insurrection or who threatened a violent opposition to Roman rule (or was thought to have threatened). Jesus himself, of course, was executed on just this charge, of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:03:55-04:00August 5th, 2023|Greco-Roman Religions and Culture, Historical Jesus|

Want to Watch Our Tár Movie Review With Maestra Gisele Ben-Dor?

A while ago we had an unusually intriguing Movie Club event on the blog as a fundraiser. The movie Tár with an absolutely stellar performance by Cate Blanchett was nominated for six academy awards; as you probably know, it was about the downfall of a brilliant woman who is an orchestra conductor. As it turns out, an active member of the blog is an internationally known orchestra conductor, Gisele Ben-Dor (see: Gisele Ben-Dor Conductor – A champion of Latin American music ), and we asked her if she would lead a discussion on the movie from her vast experience. It was terrifically interesting! We recorded it and are now offering it for those who make a donation to the blog. What about it? The donations are tax deductible and you'll find it a great experience! To give it a shot: First, go to the Blog Home page and scroll to the bottom to find the donation buttons. Then, grab your invoice number from the email the blog just sent you, and head to the Tár [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:03:54-04:00August 3rd, 2023|Public Forum|

Time to Vote for Your Favorite Platinum Post

Dear Platinum members, That time again — an opportunity for you to vote on one of our Platinum guest posts, to see which one will be posted on the blog at large. Take a look — they’re all terrific. To vote, just send a quick note to Diane at [email protected] Your deadline: this Saturday, June 18, midnight your time. And remember — you’re always welcome to submit a post yourself. Anything connected to the blog that strikes your fancy that you’d like others to read about? Any ideas/thoughts you’d like to have disseminated and discussed? Here’s your chance. Just zap Diane a note at [email protected]. May 22, 2023 Was Jesus Literate or Illiterate? Omar Robb May 26, 2023 Did Jesus Believe The End Would Come Within His Lifetime? Rizwan Ahmed May 29, 2023 Was Jesus a Simplistic Person or an Extraordinary One? Omar Robb June 2, 2023 The 3rd Rail - A Critique of Jesus. Steve Clark

Diane2025-09-10T13:04:11-04:00August 2nd, 2023|Public Forum|

Preparing for that “Final Trip” (outta here). What Do You Think?

On the questions of mortality and moving on.... A couple of weeks ago, as I was preparing for my recent course "Why I Am Not a Christian," I was reminded of one of my favorite modern novels, The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, which won the Booker Prize in 2011. What a terrific book. Short but completely compelling. Beautifully written. Moving. Thought provoking. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I won’t give up the plot, but, well, it’s about life, death, getting older, memory, and remorse. Two lines really struck me. The first is spoken by one of the characters in a history class in school in his upper sixth (that’s the year English students prepare for university; it’s a lot more rigorous than our senior years in high school) (mine anyway; and I went to an unusually good high school!). When asked, at the end of the term, what history is (looking back at all they had studied), he responds: “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:03:54-04:00August 2nd, 2023|Public Forum, Reflections and Ruminations|

My Interview With Glenn Siepert

I recently did an interview with Glenn Siepert for his program "The What If Project," on my book Armageddon, What the Bible Really Says about the End. His new book, "Emerging From the Rubble: Thirty Stories About Grief, Broken Dreams, Shattered Relationships, and Finding the Courage to Keep Going," just came out, as well. Glenn asks very good questions, and we got into some unusually interesting topics. I hope you enjoy it! *****************************

Diane2025-09-10T13:03:53-04:00August 1st, 2023|Public Forum, Revelation of John|

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