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Loading...Preorder Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, and get significant perks!
The book will appear in book stores on February 13. But if you order it online before that, whether a member of the Bart Ehrman Blog or not, you can receive some hefty discounts.
FIRST: anyone who buys the book in advance online (e.g., at Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or wherever) who is NOT already a member of the Bart Ehrman Blog will be given a FREE one-month trial membership, with full access to the posts, past and present. SO, if you are not a member – go for it! If you are a member: tell everyone you know: a FREEBIE!
SECOND: for everyone, blog member or not: if you buy the book in advance online,, by special arrangement with the Great Courses (previously called The Teaching Company), you will be able to order any of my (eight) courses for an 80% discount. 80%!
These are the courses I’ve done for the Great Courses:
- The New Testament
- The Historical Jesus
- Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battle over Authentication
- After the New Testament: The Apostolic Fathers
- History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon
- From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity
- How Jesus Became God
- The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History (audio only)
In order to receive either (or both!) of these benefits, simply follow these steps:
- Order the book online, and keep the receipt you receive via email
- Go to this website: http://www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/triumphofchristianity/
- Fill out the form! Including:
- The name of the retailer you used (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).
- The receipt number
- SUBMIT!
It’s dead easy and a no brainer. If you have already pre-ordered the book, you can STILL use the form. So go for it.
Happy reading and listening!
Unfortunately I can get the audio versions of those courses for $9.99 through my monthly Audible membership, so 80% off the full price available from The Great Courses website still isn’t worth it… But I’m still going to buy the book!
Off-topic, but another technical question to add to the list for whenever you have time; no rush.
I was reading an evangelical website which was arguing in favour of the notion of “soul sleep” – the notion that there is no immaterial soul and no state of continued consciousness after death, but that the afterlife, so to speak, will come when the dead are bodily resurrected at some time in the future. This website acknowledges that Luke 23:43 appears to undercut this position, because Jesus appears to be telling the criminal that “today you will walk with me in Paradise”. However, the author relies on the work of E. W. Bullinger to argue that there should be a comma after “semeron” (today), on the basis that “semeron” modifies the verb before it, not the verb after it, unless it is followed by “hoti” (that) – Bullinger argues that this reflects the usage in the Septuagint. So it should read “Verily I tell you today, you will walk with me in Paradise” – “today” modifies “tell”, not “walk”.
This is a very technical argument and I don’t read Greek, so I don’t know if Bullinger is right or not. Do you agree with him? (Obviously I’m not asking a theological question about whether the Bible teaches soul sleep; as an atheist I don’t find that a relevant question. I’m just curious as to whether you think Bullinger’s reading of the Greek accords with what the author intended.)
Link to the website: http://rightreason.org/2010/luke-2343-and-soul-sleep/comment-page-1/
Ah, think I’ll post on this. (Spoiler: no, I don’t agree. It’s a bit technical: it has to do how to punctuate sentences in Luke that involve advervbs!)
Metzger briefly addressed this point in an article (available on line)
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS CONFRONTING BIBLE TRANSLATORS* (* This is article three in the four-part series, “Translating the Bible: An Ongoing Task,” delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 4-7, 1992.)
There he states:
“A theological point is involved in the placing of a comma in Luke 23:43. According to the traditional way of understanding the passage, the repentant robber asked Jesus on the cross to remember him when Jesus entered His kingdom. To this request Jesus responded, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” In the interest of supporting the doctrine of “soul sleep” held by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the translators of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures have moved the comma so that the verse reads, “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.” But surely here the robber knew that Jesus was speaking to him that day, and so the correct punctuation is that of traditional translations.”
Silver: But couldn’t Jesus be saying “today” as a kind of rhetorical emphasis, like MLK saying “I have a dream today”? (To be clear, I’m not saying he was: I’m not competent in Greek grammar and so have no opinion either way. But it doesn’t seem self-evidently impossible.)
The very idea of 3 men writhing in agony on crosses chatting each other up is completely absurd.
Oh, I am *not* saying it really happened. My question is about what *the author of Luke* wanted to convey with this sentence, not what Jesus might have actually said. (For that matter, I suppose there’s no reason to assume that Luke’s views on the afterlife were the same as the historical Jesus’ views.)
Done! Thanks
For those new to the blog, all 8 of the courses are great, but the most helpful ones to me were the one on the New Testament and the one on the making of the New Testament Canon. Somewhere in these two, Dr. Ehrman outlines the 8 reasons that the Gospels probably were not written by eyewitnesses. This was very clear and very helpful to me. It changed my whole view of the New Testament….
The real key to the Teaching Company courses is to order them when they are on sale.
But Bart…
What if you’ve already pre-ordered “Triumph of Christianity” (from Amazon, in November), are a member of the ‘blog (joined during the first month), and own all the Teaching Company courses??
😉
Then you are one lucky fellow!
Yes indeed, a very lucky fellow.
…and we haven’t even started discussing my book collection. 😉
Yes folks, spend money to read about Bart’s self promotion..
Hm.
Well, FedEx just delivered to me The Rise of Rome DVD from The Great Courses. I have watched your Great Courses – Jesus to Constantine. I like your Jesus, Interrupted book a lot but you have no DVD on that?
No, the closest thing would be my Great courses course on teh New Testament.
Fascinating that in that course you have a chapter “Luke – Jesus Savior of the World.” I would like to hear that lecture to see how Jesus is Savior of the World.
A book-based religion in the Roman world. What made Christians eager to read them?
The Jews, audience of the church of James, were not eager to read them???? The protagonist is Jewish, why wouldn’t we ask, What made Jews eager to read them?
(We have Paul trying to teach Jews in Rome about Jesus.)
I definitely look forward to your reply.
I”m not saying that *I* think Jesus was the Savior of the World, but that the author of Luke-Acts did.
I followed the link to Simon & Schuster but didn’t see the Table of Contents. Amazon dot com does not have the Table of Contents either.
Please direct us to the Table of Contents or reply with it. Thank you.
I guess they don’t release the Table of Contents until the book is published.
Done! Due to the discount on your book, I also ordered Immanuel Kant’s, “Religion within the Boundaries of Bare Reason” which I’ve been wanting to read for awhile. Breaking the $25 threshold qualified my order for free shipping. Pretty much a 2 for 1!
Goodness, Dr. Ehrman! Now we KNOW you love us. 🙂
Bart, Is the “story” of the beheading of John the Baptist described in Matt. 14:10 (with head delivered on a silver platter) an historical event? It sure opened the way to Jesus’ ministry, didn’t it?
Almost certainly legendary.
According to Josephus, John the Baptist was taken to the fort at Machaerus, which was as far south in Herod Antipas’ tetrarchy — and as far from Herod’s capital at Tiberias — as one could go, right on the border with Nabatea. And if John was at all executed it probably would have been there, quietly, in secret. If Josephus’ account is accurate then it suggests that Herod didn’t want to unnecessarily incite the crowds by killing John publicly.
Blog members! Which courses would you recommend I get first and second! I have The New Testament and have read all his books for the lay audience. Would love to hear your opinion too, Dr. Ehrman.
My best selling ones are NT and Lost Christianities. My personal favorite is How Jesus Became God.
The quick answer: If I had to get just one, I’d get the “New Testament” course, to make sure I had all the basic material.
…but that said:
If folks are considering buying one the courses, you *really* should consider signing up for their Great Courses Plus streaming service. For an annual fee you get unlimited access to the courses they have available.
Now, not all GC courses are available on GCPlus (the number is growing) but, for example, the following courses by Dr Ehrnan are currently available: ‘The New Testament”, “How Jesus Became God”, “The Making of the New Testament”, “The Historical Jesus”, and “Lost Christianities”.
Othe GCPlus courses that might be of interest to this list are Amy Jill Levine’s “Old Testament”; Gary Readsberg’s “Dead Sea Scrolls”; and David Brakke’s “Gnosticism”, and “The Apocryphal Jesus”. And even this list just scratches the surface of the Religion courses that GCPlus has available.
…and this don’t even mention the courses in Music, History, Fine Arts, Linguistics, [etc]
All in all Great Couses Plus is a great deal.
[P.S. To be clear, I’m speaking here only as a satisfied customer; I have no commercial interest in the tGC. I.e. I send them money, not the other what round….]
I was planning to order the online version of the book from Amazon for my Kindle? Does that count toward getting the perks?
Yup!
I’m on a Friends of the Library Board. We were trying to come up with a message for promotional T-shirts. I suggested “Friends don’t let Friends buy books.”
Thanks for noting this on the blog. I pre-ordered the book in December, but filled out the form, received the code, and ordered two of the great courses with the discount. Looking forward to the new book!
Does the 80% discount apply only to the original list price for the course? Or would it also apply to a course that is already on sale at the Great Courses site? In other words, can I get 80% off the sale price of the course?
No, it is 80% off the real price; so it’s a savings of 10% (the cost of the book!)