Page 50 – The Bart Ehrman Blog

The Events Leading up to the Death of Jesus: What Can We Know and Not Know?

Now I’d like the rubber to meet the road. If we think we can know a good bit of the gist of Jesus’ life, what can we say with relative certainly about how it ended? What do scholars who look at all the evidence basically agree on? And what (and how much!) is basically up for grabs? Here’s how I discuss it in Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne 2016). ****************************** Gist Memories of Jesus’ Death One of my purposes in this book is to examine later traditions about Jesus recorded in our Gospels, written between forty and sixty-five years after his death, to see if any of them include distorted memories, either in whole or in part. In this chapter I will focus on traditions involving the death of Jesus; in the next chapter, after exploring the question of whether oral cultures are likely to remember the past more accurately than literary ones, I will explore traditions involving the earlier life and ministry of Jesus. I want to begin with stories surrounding Jesus’ last days [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 11th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies, Public Forum|

If We Can Know the “Gist” of What Jesus Said and Did … What’s the Gist?

I’m going to be discussing soon some of the things that appear to be “misremembered” about Jesus in our early sources, but first it’s important to emphasize some of the hugely critical positive things about memory – like, that most of the time we get it basically right. Depending, of course, on what “basically” means! Here’s how I discuss the matter in Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ******************* Remembering the Gist? Let me make a point that may not be clear from what I have said so far about the psychology of memory. In stressing the fact – which appears to be a fact – that memories are always constructed and therefore prone to error, even when they are quite vivid, I am not, I am decidedly not, saying that all of our memories are faulty or wrong. Most of the time we remember pretty well, at least in broad outline. Presumably, so too did eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. As did the person who heard a story from an eyewitness may well [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 10th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Were Jesus’ Most Amazing Deeds the Ones Most Likely to be Remembered?

Here I continue thinking about memory in relation to Jesus by dealing with an obvious objection to the idea that Jesus' followers, and those who heard the stories about him, were prone to misremember what they saw and heard -- these were SPECTACULAR events. Aren't spectacular events and stories far more likely to be remembered accurately than the everyday stuff we forget all the time? Here's how I discuss the issue in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** One of the scary things about memory is not not simply that we forget things over time or don’t quite remember things correctly. Sometimes we actually have “distorted memories,” that is, recollections – often quite vivid – of things that did not happen. One of the fairly recent discoveries in the field is that distorted memories can be implanted in people’s minds, for example, by hearing distorted information about a past event and then remembering it as part of the event. That can happen even with respect to events of one’s own personal history. [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 8th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Vote for Your Favorite Platinum Post

Hey Platinum Members, Time to vote on your favorite platinum guest post from relatively recent times. Here are four to choose from, all of them interesting and important! Pick one and name your preference, not as a comment here but by letting Diane know at [email protected] She'll tally the votes and then we'll annouce the winner, and I'll post the post. So... what are yiur druthers? April 10, 2023 The Quest for the Legendary Jesus. Robert Droney April 14, 2023 Baptism and the Macbeth Effect Douglas Wadeson April 28, 2023 Is 2 Thessalonians a Forgery? From 132 CE? Omar Robb May 3, 2023 Did The Twelve Become Only Three? Doug Wadeson

admin2025-07-16T17:42:34-04:00June 7th, 2023|Public Forum|

Eyewitness Testimony: The Importance of Actual Expertise

It is flat-out amazing to me how many New Testament scholars talk about the importance of eyewitness testimony to the life of Jesus without having read a single piece of scholarship on what experts know about eyewitness testimony. Some (well-known) scholars in recent years have written entire books on the topic, basing their views on an exceedingly paltry amount of research into the matter. Quite astounding, really. But they appear to have gone into their work confident that they know about how eyewitness testimony works, and didn’t read the masses of scholarship that shows they simply aren’t right about it. Here's how I begin to talk about eyewitness scholarship in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** In the history of memory studies an important event occurred in 1902.[1] In Berlin, a well-known criminologist named von Liszt was delivering a lecture when an argument broke out. One student stood up and shouted that he wanted to show how the topic was related to Christian ethics. Another got up and yelled that he [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 7th, 2023|Memory Studies|

Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy
Gallery
Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy

Historical Jesus, Memory Studies

Eyewitnesses and Guaranteed Accuracy

In my book Jesus Before the Gospels, I discuss how “memories” of a famous person based on eyewitness testimony can be easily distorted. Among other examples I use, is a famous miracle-working holy-person from outside the Christian tradition that is in many ways strikingly similar to the situation with Jesus (there are obviously big differences as well). Here is what I say about it in my book: ****************************** To sum up the situation, consider the words of one of the world’s leading experts on false memory, Daniel Schacter: “Numerous experiments have demonstrated ways in which imagining events can lead to the development of false memories for those events.”[1] Does such research have any bearing on the memories about Jesus, a great teacher and miracle worker, by eyewitnesses or by those who later were told stories by eyewitnesses – or even those told stories by people who were not eyewitnesses? Can imagining that a great religious leader said and did something make someone remember that he really did say and do these things? It might be [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 6th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

“You Have Heard His Blasphemy!” But Did They? A Platinum post by Daniel Kohanski

I'm pleased to present this well-researched Platinum post by Dan Kohanski, on one of the most intriguing (at least for me) questions about the Passion narrative. It's a highly controversial passage and Dan makes a highly controversial suggestion! He makes a good case! What do you think? Remember: you too can make a Platinum guest post for other Platinum members. It doesn't have to be highly learned and sophisticated -- just something you're thinking about connected with the stuff we do on the blog. If you have something, send it along to Diane at [email protected]. ****************************** “You Have Heard His Blasphemy!” Said the High Priest—But Did They? The trial of Jesus as described in the gospel of Mark, and particularly the part where the high priest charges Jesus with blasphemy, is one of the most hotly debated stories in the New Testament. Here is the heart of the passage: Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said, “I am; and ‘you will see the [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:02:37-04:00June 5th, 2023|Public Forum|

Being Realistic about How Stories about Jesus Spread before the Gospels

In my previous post I showed how Christian missionaries – the vast majority of them not companions of Jesus or eyewitnesses to his life – were telling stories about Jesus as they moved around in the empire spreading the gospel in the early decades, before the Gospels were written (think Paul and his missionary companions, Timothy, Silvanus, etc – none of them from Israel, none of them having laid eyes on Jesus before his death). The problems of word-of-mouth traditions are even more complicated than I’ve so far discussed, however. Here is how I go on to discuss the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** It was not only these missionaries who were converting others, however. The converts they made were themselves converting people. Take another hypothetical but completely plausible situation: suppose I’m a worshiper of the traditional Roman gods, living in the town of Colossae in, say, the year 50 CE. The missionary Epaphras comes to town and I meet him at his place of business. I’m a highly [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 4th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Who Was Spreading the Stories about Jesus Before the Gospels?

Here I continue my reflections on how stories about Jesus were floating around the Mediterranean world *before* the Gospel writers wrote their accounts (based on these stories). I pick up here with the final paragraph of yesterday's post, again taken from my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2016). ****************************** In other words, a story does not have to be written in the newspaper or broadcast on the evening news or even on modern social media to get around, very widely and very quickly. Moreover, the vast majority of the people telling the story – just within three days – are people who were not eyewitnesses and did not get their information from eyewitnesses. What do you suppose happens to stories when they are told, remembered, retold, and then remembered again, just within three days? Or three years? Or, as in the case of Jesus, 40-65 years? How many changes would be made in them? One important issue, of course, involves the storytellers themselves. Who was actually telling the stories about Jesus? To [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00June 3rd, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

The 3rd Rail – A Critique of Jesus. Platinum Post by Steve Clark

A Platinum post for Platinum members from Platinum member Steve Clark: ****************************** It was a cold winter morning, the exciting music of the 1970’s was in my head. I was learning to play guitar and learning to be cool. Mostly failing at both but kept trying. What else was a young man to do in the 70’s? I was walking around Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta (my friends called it the concrete campus) and had a spring in my step as I stepped into Philosophy 101 class. In the days to come we were assigned materials to read and one of them was Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell. Like many in the South grew up in a conservative Southern Baptist environment. And like many had never heard anyone criticize Jesus. Ever. Why would they and what would there be to criticize? The short portion of the lecture Russell pens (and pins) directly on Jesus is extremely mild. He appears borderline apologetic about it. For me though, fitting with the [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:02:36-04:00June 2nd, 2023|Public Forum|

Jesus, Eyewitnesses, and Stories Floating Around….

I return now to questions about how early Christians “remembered” Jesus as they told and retold stories about him. People often claim that the Gospels must be accurate because they are based on eyewitness testimony that was carefully guarded to ensure its accuracy. But let’s think about that for a bit in realistic terms. Here is how I discuss the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (Harper One: 2016). ****************************** If during the 40-65 years separating Jesus’ life and the surviving Gospels, his sayings and deeds of Jesus were not memorized by his followers and then passed down, verbatim, through the church, and if they were not circulated accurately within informally controlled settings, how were they being told and retold? One obvious point to stress, which has not occurred to everybody, is this: stories about Jesus were circulating even during his lifetime. Moreover, even then they were not being told only by eyewitnesses. When someone who saw Jesus do or say something then and told someone else who wasn’t there, it is impossible [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:56-04:00June 1st, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

May Gold Q&A Video

Folks, our May Gold Q&A ended up in two parts. Make sure you scroll down to see Part 2:

Diane2025-09-10T13:07:57-04:00May 31st, 2023|Public Forum|

More on Secret Mark as a Forgery (by Morton Smith?)

Here now is the second of my two posts on reasons for suspecting that Morton Smith himself may have been the one who forged the “letter of Clement” that discusses the “Secret Gospel of Mark” (see my post from yesterday). Again taken from my article, “Hedrick’s Consensus on the Secret Gospel of Mark,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (2003) pp. 155-64. ****************************** (2) Several things that are hard to explain about the “discovery.” For those who want to show the letter is authentic (i.e. really written by Clement of Alexandria), these are the issues to address. I leave off several other matters that some have raised, such as why the letter is never mentioned by Clement or any other heresiologist who opposed the Carpocratians otherwise: (a) Why does this letter contradict in content what Clement says elsewhere? For one thing the attitude toward true gnosis in this letter is completely at odds with what is found elsewhere in Clement, as Eric Osborne trenchantly noted. Never for Clement is true knowledge a matter [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:56-04:00May 31st, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Biblical Scholarship|

Did Morton Smith Forge the Secret Gospel of Mark?
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Did Morton Smith Forge the Secret Gospel of Mark?

Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Biblical Scholarship, Public Forum

Did Morton Smith Forge the Secret Gospel of Mark?

Last month (April 2023) I published a thread of blog posts on the intriguing and controversial Secret Gospel of Mark, allegedly discovered by Columbia University scholar Morton Smith in the library of the Greek orthodox monastery Mar Saba twelve miles southeast of Jerusalem. He did not actually discover the Gospel itself, but (allegedly) discovered a letter that described and quoted it, allegedly written by the church father Clement of Alexandria (200 CE or so), allegedly copied by a scribe of the eighteenth century in the back blank pages of a seventeenth-century book otherwise (actually) containing the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (110 CE or so), in which Clement allegedly discusses a potentially scandalous edition of Mark’s Gospel allegedly used by a nefarious Gnostic group called the Carpocratians. Confused yet? Read the posts, starting with this one from April 12: https://ehrmanblog.org/do-scholars-ever-forge-gospels In my posts I did not give any evidence to show that this “alleged” discovery might not have been a discovery but a forgery, possibly by Smith himself, even though from the outset some (many?) [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:56-04:00May 30th, 2023|Canonical Gospels, Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Biblical Scholarship, Public Forum|

Blog Dinner in London on Monday June 12. Interested?

I'm heading over the pond this week, for most of the summer, and would like to do a blog dinner on Monday, June 12, 2023. Possibly a pint in advance. Somewhere in central London. You interested? If we can get 3-4 folk, and no more than 7, people together, I'd be happy to do it. If more then 7 reply, I'll take the first 7! And then I'll schedule another one later, probably in Wimbledon (which I may do anyway). No obligations other than: Being a blog member Showing up Talking Paying for whatever you ingest. Whatever you exgest is free. If you're interested, do NOT reply here as a comment. Send me an email at [email protected]. Hope it happens!

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:59:48-04:00May 29th, 2023|Public Forum|

Was Jesus a Simplistic Person or an Extraordinary One? A Platinum Post by Omar Abur-Robb

****************************** Was Jesus a simplistic person or an extraordinary one? Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com Suppose you were in a hill overseeing a large lake, and suddenly you noticed a wave propagating quickly outward. You will instinctively realize that this wave has originated from its center, and you can probably pinpoint this center with ease by looking at the wave. However, your eyes will open wildly in astonishment and your scientific mind will turn upside down when you see the wave reaching the shore then jumping to the next lake and start propagating there. This is going to be a very weird phenomenon. But this exact phenomenon needs to be included in our explanatory models for the expansion of Christianity: The point of propagation for Christianity was the point of establishment at 30AD, and in less than 20 years, the teaching of Jesus managed to propagate outside its local domain to many foreign domains. This is an extraordinary phenomenon. Notice that the Greek Christians were very serious in their faith to the point that many [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:02:37-04:00May 29th, 2023|Public Forum|

Are Groups of Story Tellers (Think: Ancient Followers of Jesus) More Likely to Preserve Traditions Accurately than Individuals?

This post will conclude my mini-thread trying to show that modern practices of story telling in the Middle East, during a community ritual called the haflar samar, in which groups of knowledgeable people ensure that stories are never significantly changed, has no bearing on the question of whether ancient stories told about Jesus were preserved accurately over time. Here I take on a bigger question, as addressed in in my book Jesus Before the Gospels: Does this group context for telling the stories ensure that they are accurate? Actually, modern psychological studies suggest that just the opposite is normally the case. Cognitive psychologists have studied the phenomenon of “group memory” and have reached several very important conclusions that might be surprising. One is that when a group “collectively remembers” something they have all heard or experienced, the “whole” is less than the sum of the “parts.” That is to say, if you have ten individuals who have all experienced an event, and you interview the ten separately, you will learn a good deal about what [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:56-04:00May 28th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Back in the Saddle Again…

I am now, alas, back from my two-weeks in Galapagos. Whoa.... And I'm getting back to business on the blog. Before leaving I placed a number of posts in queue and these have been published promptly. I'm now starting to deal with the comments that came in during my absence. This'll take a couple of days, but I will get caught up soon. For those of you who are Gold members, I've recorded the monthly hour-long Gold Q&A, soon to be released for your viewing/listening pleasure. For those of you who are not Gold members: this is one of the perks at that level. Take a look at your options and think about it! Register - The Bart Ehrman Blog All other blog things should be flyin' along as usual. If you have any problems, concerns, suggestions, or briefcases of small unmarked bills, let me/us know...

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:57-04:00May 27th, 2023|Public Forum|

Do Modern Mideastern Story Tellers Show How the Ancient Traditions of Jesus Were Circulated?

In my previous post I discussed a seemingly-plausible explanation for how modern ways of telling stories in small communities in the Middle East today can show that the Gospels may well represent literal word-for-word depictions of what Jesus said and did. Here I show why in fact the theory does not work, as laid out in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (Harper, 2016) ****************************** As we have seen, Bailey argued that modern tellers in the Middle East today work in a small community context, where the stories of a village's past (its key figures, its main events) are circulated in group meetings in the presence of others who observed the events as well and make sure to correct what a particular story teller says when he gets a detail awry. That, Baily argues, is what happened in the ancient world as well -- so stories about Jesus were preserved intact through the presence of others who knew them and could provide checks and balances for accuracy. The problem is that this claim (whether or [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T13:02:56-04:00May 27th, 2023|Historical Jesus, Memory Studies|

Did Jesus Believe The End Would Come Within His Lifetime? Platinum Post by Rizwan Ahmed

A post for Platinum members only from Rizwan Ahmed ****************************** “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened” (Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:32) A little over a century ago, Albert Schweitzer, through his famous book “The Quest of the Historical Jesus”, revolutionized and reshaped our understanding of the historical figure of Jesus. He convincingly argued that Jesus should be best understood as an apocalyptic Jewish prophet. That is, a prophet who heralded the coming end of the world, in which God would intervene in history and finally bring about absolute justice and righteousness to the world. A tremendous event in which all who ever lived would be raised from the dead and judged. The good would be rewarded with eternal life while the wicked would suffer eternal punishment. This was a popular concept within Jewish thought even prior to Jesus and continued to be so during his days. While the Synoptic Gospels make it clear that Jesus espoused such views, the question arises as to when this [...]

Diane2025-09-10T13:02:36-04:00May 26th, 2023|Public Forum|

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