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Announcement: Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? Upcoming All-Day Event! (VIDEO)
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Announcement: Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? Upcoming All-Day Event! (VIDEO)

Historical Jesus, Public Forum

Announcement: Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? Upcoming All-Day Event! (VIDEO)

Christmas is upon us already, and I have decided to do a tis-the-season all-day webinar on Sunday, December 5: “Did the Christmas Story Really Happen?” The webinar will not be connected with the blog per se, except to the extent that I’ll be doing it and that some of you might be interested in coming. >> You can register by clicking here. It will be a full and unusually intriguing day, four lectures each with Q&A: two in the morning, a break for lunch, then two more. The talks will each be around 50 minutes with 20-25 minutes Q&A (each). Whoa! Topics: The topics will focus on different aspects of the birth of Jesus in popular imagination, the biblical tradition, legendary materials, and … and what we can say historically. There are lots of intriguing issues here: Why is Jesus’ birth – the “virgin birth,” in “Bethlehem,” to “Joseph and Mary” etc. – mentioned in only two of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament? In particular, why is it not mentioned in two [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:56:08-04:00November 18th, 2021|Historical Jesus, Public Forum|

Jesus the First-Century Tea Partier

This is the final post I made years ago on Bill O'Reilly's bestselling book (listed as nonfiction) about Jesus. ****************************** I have decided not to provide a full and detailed review of O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus. It doesn’t really deserve it, and it mainly contains more of what I have indicated before – on which see my previous posts. I will say that the book is extremely well written and easy on the eyes. It is entertaining. A lot of human-interest material, which is both its strength and its very great weakness, as almost all of this, as I’ve mentioned before, is simply MADE UP, even though it is presented as if were historical fact. There is page after page after page of that kind of thing. This is not a research book written by a scholar and his writing buddy -- with, for example, footnotes indicating where they got their information from. It can’t be that, since almost all of the details didn’t come from ancient sources but from their own fertile imaginations. And since [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:54-04:00November 17th, 2021|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

Really Riled By O’Reilly

Here I continue my rather, uh, aggressive critique of Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus. ****************************** OK, I know I promised to read and review Killing Jesus. But I’m not sure I can do it. It’s just so aggravating. Pointing out its flaws is like shooting fish in a barrel. I’ll make one general comment in this post and in the next one mention one of the leading themes of the book to show why its so problematic and then, unless I have a complete change of heart or people ask me pointed questions, I think I’ll just let it go. For now, a general comment. I was one of the 4893 people who wrote a book *about* the Da Vinci Code (Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, 2004). The other 4892 people, so far as I know, were religious – usually religious scholars – who were afraid that Dan Brown might lead the faithful astray by his wild claims, and for religious [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:54-04:00November 16th, 2021|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

Killing Jesus Is Killing Me……

Here is my second post on Bill O'Reilly's Killing Jesus from many years ago. As you'll see, I was no happier about the book once I started reading it than when I was anticipating doing so. But here at least I give some reasons that show my fears were starting to be confirmed. Confirmation bias? Yeah, maybe. But well, in this case, I don't think so.... I will say, though, I was much feistier eight years ago when I wrote this thing.... ****************************** I received my copy of Killing Jesus in the mail today and started to glance at it. I know I said I would read it, but I’m just not sure I can bring myself to do it. The opening “Note to Readers” makes one’s heart sink. We are told that this will be a “fact-based book.” Oh, that’s good, the reader thinks: it won’t be biased but will be objective, based only on facts. Until you begin to read the opening page of ch. 1 “Heavily armed solders from the capital city [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:54-04:00November 13th, 2021|Public Forum|

Bill O’Reilly, Expert on the Historical Jesus!

Since I posted a bit on my book Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, several people have asked me if I've ever written an evaluation of Bill O’Reilly’s blockbuster hit, Killing Jesus. It turns out, I did so, here on the blog, right after it came out in 2013. I call it a blockbuster because it was: it rose to become the #1 book (in the world!) on Amazon, and had a long run at the top of the New York Times bestseller list -- staying on the list for a full 52 weeks! I've looked over my posts back then, and think they are still useful. Here is the first of my posts. I wrote it before I had actually starting reading the book. As you'll see, it's horribly elitist while explaining why it's not elitist. I used to write posts about that on the blog. It was one of my endearing qualities that I seem to have tempered a bit. Still, I get a laugh out of thinking about my knee jerking the whole [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 11th, 2021|Book Discussions, Historical Jesus|

God’s Mercy and Justice: The Opening of a Chapter in Journeys to Heaven and Hell

Do the early Christians think God is more just and determined to punish or more merciful and determined to forgive? I deal with the matter in one of the chapters in my next scholarly book, Journeys to Heaven and Hell: Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition, coming out in April with Yale University Press. The book has been done for months now, and I am right now reading through the final page proofs sent to me by the press – making final corrections of typos before it heads into production. (It’s a very long process: usually a book doesn’t get published for about a year after the author has finished writing it and sent it to the publisher. This always reminds me of the famous poem of John Donne, “Hymn to God the Father,” with its celebrated refrain (about God forgiving sin): “When thou has done, thou hast not done, for I have more.”). The book is written for scholars, but with a few helps non-scholars will be able to get the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 10th, 2021|Afterlife, Book Discussions, Christian Apocrypha|

Gold Q&A for November!

Dear Gold Members, The time has rolled onward and here we are again. Time to enjoy one of the perks of your elevated status as a gold member of the blog: Our monthly Gold Q&A, for gold members only. You provide written questions, I answer as many as I can, and I release the audio recording to gold members only. Have a question to ask? Anything connected with the blog, directly or remotely? Go for it. I will be recording the next Q&A on Saturday November 20 to be released Tuesday November 23. Just to give us something even more to be thankful for before the turkey. Send your question(s) to our blog COO, Diane Pittman, at [email protected]. The deadline is midnight (in whatever time zone you're in) Friday November 19. The best questions are only a sentence of two long at most. I hope to hear from you! Bart

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:54-04:00November 9th, 2021|Public Forum|

Time Magazine Cover Story on Lost Christianities. Kind Of….

When I wrote a post about Lost Christianities yesterday, a funny anecdote occurred to me and I wondered if I had ever written a post on it. Yup, in 2012! It's worth repeating. It has to do with Time Magazine (though it starts with Newsweek). This was back when people used to actually get these things in the mail, in the Pleistocene Age, and they were therefore a bit of a bigger deal. Here's the post, from nine years ago. ****************************** Yesterday I learned that a story I wrote for Newsweek on the birth of Jesus was made the cover story this week. It’s kind of a goofy cover, but hey, I had nothing to do with that! The issue is now available. Get ‘em while they’re hot. I want to reflect for a second on the cover story of a news magazine. I never realized it before getting involved with that (very strange) world, although it makes good sense once you think about it, but they really can’t decide on what goes on the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 9th, 2021|Book Discussions, Religion in the News|

Webinar of Interest? Dune and Islam! How To Understand the Movie.

This announcement is not directly related to the blog -- but some of you may be interested. My long-time colleague (of nearly 30 years!) Carl Ernst, one of the leading experts on Islam in North America, will be holding a remote webinar for my Department of Religious Studies, along with another expert (a PhD from our program) on how Islam influenced "Dune" -- both the book (which I *loved* in college!) and the movie (which does look amazing). It will be Saturday November 13. Interested? You don't have to have read the book or seen the movie for the discussion to be extremely enlightening. Here's the info! Webinar on Dune and Islam: How To Understand the Movie Frank Herbert’s Dune is inspired by themes from the history of Islam that are both direct and subtle. Carl Ernst and Michael Muhammad Knight will discuss the new film and the book it is based on and explore how Islam is part of its foundation on November 13, 2021 on Zoom and YouTube Live. Register here. The webinar is free. $10 suggested donation: https://go.unc.edu/PeckFundDonation Carl Ernst is a leading [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 7th, 2021|Public Forum|

The Massive Diversity of Early Christianity. My Book: Lost Christianities

In my previous post I mentioned my second trade book, Lost Christianities (Oxford University Press, 2003). I just now looked at the beginning of the book; I hadn’t read it in years. It made me want to read it again! I do know there are things I would change if I did the book now: my understanding of Gnosticism and the Gospel of Thomas are different, for example. But on the whole, I still rather like it. But books are like that. They’re like your children. Each one is near and dear to your heart. Here is how Lost Christianities starts. Chapter One Recouping Our Losses It may be difficult to imagine a religious phenomenon more diverse than modern-day Christianity. There are Roman Catholic missionaries in developing countries, who devote themselves to voluntary poverty for the sake of others, and evangelical televangelists with twelve-step programs to assure financial success and prosperity. There are New England Presbyterians and Appalachian snake handlers. There are Greek orthodox priests committed to the liturgical service of God, replete with set prayers, [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 6th, 2021|Book Discussions, Heresy and Orthodoxy, History of Christianity (100-300CE)|

How I’ve Changed My Approach To Writing

In a previous email I mentioned that I had started writing my trade book on Revelation, tentatively titled Expecting Armaggedon. Over the past couple of months I have been reflecting on how my approach to writing books like this has changed over time. I talked about my basic procedure a few years ago on the blog: https://ehrmanblog.org/how-i-write-the-crucial-phase/ The basic line is that I typically spend a couple of years doing the research and making very detailed outlines of the book, chapter by chapter, and then a short amount of time writing it. The process I described there still holds for the most part (it’s a process that I’ve tried to convince every single graduate student I’ve ever had to follow, and every single one of them has decided not to!) (to their advantage, often...) But I've changed my approach to the writing itself. As I recently mentioned, my first trade book was Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Once that was finished, I decided (again) to move back to hard-core scholarly writing. But a [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 4th, 2021|Book Discussions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Those Darn Demons! Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson

Here is an intriguing guest post! And a controversial one. Did Jesus actually heal people? As you know, blog members who are at the Platinum level can submit posts for other Platinum members. Would you be interested in doing so? Move up to Platinum! Every month or so, Platinum members can vote on a recent post to appear on the entire blog. This is the current WINNER. Our guest poster is Doug Wadeson, himself a medical doctor with (obviously) a lifelong interest in healing but also a keen interest in the historical study of the NT Gospels. In this series he combines these two interests and provides some some unusually interesting reflections. ****************************** The Gospels portray Jesus as performing amazing miracles. Some of them have to do with nature, such as calming a storm or turning water into wine. Most have to do with healing a variety of afflictions, including leprosy and possibly other infectious diseases (like Peter’s mother-in-law, and maybe Jairus’ daughter?), blindness, being mute and deaf, paralysis (or some form of crippling [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00November 3rd, 2021|Public Forum|

Why I Prefer the NRSV

In my various posts recently I've talked about problems I have with the NRSV; some people have asked why, then, it is my preferred translation. And even more commonly (a few times a month) I get asked if there are ANY translations out there that try to give the original form of the text instead of the one(s) altered by scribes. I've dealt with both questions in the past, and here will, in short order, explain my overall strong preference for the NRSV, all things considered. This is a post from aeons ago. ****************************** A number of people have responded to some of my recent comments by asking what my preferred Bible translation is. I get asked the question a lot – especially since my book Misquoting Jesus, where I talk about the changes scribes made in the manuscripts they copied over the years. A number of readers were alarmed and wondered whether I should let scholars know about these problems. In every case I responded that yes, indeed, scholars – all scholars of the [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:39-04:00November 2nd, 2021|Public Forum, Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations|

Do I Hold a Grudge against Bruce Metzger?

I'll end this set of reflections on my relationship with Bruce Metzger with a surprising question about my relationship with him, and my response. (My sense is that those who have been reading this thread will not be surprised by what I say) ****************************** QUESTION: A more personal question: did you have a grudge against Dr. Bruce Metzger? I have always seen conservative textual critics and scholars pit you against Dr. Metzger's views. RESPONSE: When I first read this question I was very surprised indeed. A grudge against Bruce Metzger??? Metzger, as many readers of this blog know, was my teacher and mentor, and I never had anything but the most profound and utmost respect for him, from the moment I first had the privilege of meeting him until the time of his death – and still today. I don’t think there’s anyone in the known universe who would disagree that Bruce Metzger was the greatest NT textual scholar ever to come out of North America. I first heard about him when I was [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:39-04:00October 31st, 2021|Bart’s Biography, New Testament Manuscripts|

What Do YOU Think? Does Biblical Scholarship Change, Damage, or Destroy the Claims of Faith?

I have talked a lot on the blog about my understanding of how biblical scholarship relates to Christian faith claims. Since the early 19th century critical scholars have dug deeply into the Bible and discovered discrepancies, contradictions, historical errors, geographical mistakes, anachronisms, and claims that make no sense in light of what we know about the world today from biology, geology, astronomy, physics, anthropology, and … and well the list goes on. Different people draw different faith conclusions from this kind of scholarship. Some think it’s irrelevant to their faith; others think it requires them to change what they believe, possibly radically; yet others think that it negates the possibility of faith altogether -- either confirming the atheism they already hold or driving them to abandon their faith and become non-believers. Is any of these a sensible option? Is any of them the obvious and necessary option? What about the obstacles that stand in the way of change, unrelated to biblical scholarship, such as not being able to leave a conservative evangelical community because of [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:52-04:00October 30th, 2021|Public Forum|

Announcement: Did Jesus Call Himself God? LIVE Webinar on Nov. 7th, 2021 (VIDEO)

Soon after Jesus’ death, his disciples claimed that he was God. What did they mean by that? Did they think he was God *before* he died, during his public ministry? Did they think he had always been God? Did they think he Was he the One and Only God, Yahweh? More important still: Did Jesus himself think he was God? To find an answer, we have to explore two issues: does Jesus actually ever call himself God in the Gospels, or give any other indication that he thought he was God? If so, given the problems with the Gospels -- can we know if they are accurate on this point? Can we show what the historical figure of Jesus actually said about himself? These are terrifically important questions. Traditional Christianity, as it has come down over all the centuries, has always claimed Jesus himself is a divine being. Did that teaching start with Jesus himself? Announcing a Webinar on the Topic! I will be doing a webinar on the topic on Sunday, November 7. I [...]

Chrishuntley2025-09-10T12:55:53-04:00October 28th, 2021|Public Forum|

Change the Context, Change the Meaning: The Apocalypse!

I've been writing my book on the Revelation of John. Among other things, I'll be insisting that if you refuse to understand how its genre ("apocalypse") works, you will misunderstand the book. Here is how I begin that particular discussion (this is just a first draft, not rethought or polished) ****************************** While in office President Ronald Reagan made weekly radio addresses to the nation. One of the most memorable occurred on August 11, 1984. Before the official text of the address began, Reagan announced: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." You might think that Armageddon was about to begin, but no, Reagan was simply joking with the recording engineers, think the mic was dead. Bad mistake. The comment was not broadcast, but it was recorded by rebroadcasters around the world. Word soon got out and the Soviets took it to show that the Reagan administration’s was completely insincere over efforts to improve relations. Still, it was [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:39-04:00October 28th, 2021|Book Discussions, Revelation of John|

A Solution to a Major Anomaly in the Study of Paul: Guest Post by Richard Fellows

Here is our final guest post from Richard Fellows, based on his article in an international journal of biblical studies: “Paul, Timothy, Jerusalem and the Confusion in Galatia” Biblica 99.4 (2018) 544-566. He has some bold and controversial claims. Check them out! He'll be happy to respond to your comments. ****************************** The identity of Titus and the historicity of Acts This is the last of three guest posts on the background of Galatians. In the earlier two posts I (Richard Fellows) argued that some activists had convinced Galatian Christians 1) that Paul himself believed in the need for circumcision, and 2) that it was only to please the Jerusalem apostles that Paul continued to speak against circumcision. In this post we will explore the identity of Titus and the events that created this confusion that Galatians was written to correct. Titus has been described as the most enigmatic character in the New Testament. In the undisputed letters the name “Titus” appears at Gal 2:1,3 and 2 Cor 2:13; 7:6,13,14; 8:6,16,23; 12:18,18, yet it is strangely absent [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:38-04:00October 27th, 2021|Paul and His Letters|

How Yahweh of the Israelites Became God of All: Guest Post by Dan Kohanski
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How Yahweh of the Israelites Became God of All: Guest Post by Dan Kohanski

Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

How Yahweh of the Israelites Became God of All: Guest Post by Dan Kohanski

As you may know, members who join the blog at the Platinum level are allowed to write posts for Platinum members, and the members periodically vote on one of the submissions to go on the blog at large -- and on all my social media. It's a great way to get your views widely disseminated. Are you interested? Check out the perks of the Platinum level (click on Join and see the various tiers and what each entails). Our most recent winner in this endeavor was Platinum member Dan Kohanski, who has written on an intriguing and, well, rather world-shattering/history-changing topic! Please feel free to make comments! **************************** The early Israelites were polytheists — worshipers of many gods — just as all the nations of the Ancient Near East were, though their pantheon may have been smaller than some. We know of El, Yahweh, Astarte (Asherah), and Baal for certain. Possibly the oldest god in the Israelite pantheon was El — the very name "Israel" can be translated as "he who strives with (the god) [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:38-04:00October 26th, 2021|Early Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament|

Why Would Later Scribes Be Interested In Having Jesus “Sweat Blood”?

I have explained why it is almost certain that Luke did not himself write the passage describing Jesus “sweating blood” in Luke 22:43-44; the passage is not found in some of our oldest and best manuscripts, it intrudes in a context that otherwise is structured as a clear chiasmus, and it presents a view of Jesus going to his death precisely at odds with what Luke has produced otherwise. Whereas Luke goes out of his way to portray Jesus as calm and in control in the face of death – evidently to provide a model to his readers about how they too suffer when they experience persecution – these verses show him in deep anguish to the point of needing heavenly support by an angel, as he sweats great drops as of blood. But if the verses were not originally in Luke, why were they added by scribes? The key to answering the question comes from considering two data points. First, when were the verses added to the text? And second, how were they first [...]

BDEhrman2025-09-10T12:55:39-04:00October 24th, 2021|New Testament Manuscripts|

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