Loading...Hey Blog Folk,
Quick reminder of an interesting lecture tomorrow evening (Thursday Oct. 18); it’s free even though we’re hoping for donations (not connected with the blog). Here’s the original annoucement in case you missed, misplaced, misconceived, or misconstrued it:
*********************************
Are you interested in the Creation account in Genesis 1? Did you know there are *other* creation accounts in the Hebrew Bible? Different ones? Want to hear about them? And about how they relate to other creation accounts in the ancient world?
On October 19, 8:00 pm, my colleague Joseph Lam, professor of Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East will be giving a remote public lecture: “Beyond Genesis: The Many Creation Stories of the Bible.”
Below you will find a short video that I did with Joseph to explain the event, and a link to sign up for it.
This lecture is NOT related to the blog, but it IS a fundraiser for my department (I’m mentioning it here on the blog only because many of you are interested in the topic). The donations will go to the departmental efforts to fund graduate students for research trips for their dissertations and professional conferences to present the results of their research.
Both are crucial features of a graduate education, unusually important for anyone who wants to land a teaching position after they finish their work. Our students are seriously underfunded, and so this kind of fundraiser can make an enormous difference in the future of our students’ lives and also in the future of the academic study of religion.
The event is FREE, but we are asking for a $20 donation from anyone who can afford it. If you can’t afford that much but afford something, we’ll welcome any amount. If you can afford anything at all, and if you can afford more than $20, I have some good news for you! PRIZES!!
The TOP DONOR for the event will receive a 30-minute remote one-on-one with any faculty member in the department of their choice to discuss anything they fancy (and let me tell you, we have some amazing faculty members doing unusually interesting work: see here: https://religion.unc.edu/_people/full-time-faculty/
The SECOND HIGHEST DONOR will receive a free signed copy of any book written by any of the faculty members in the department.
And ALL DONORS (at any level) will be entered into a drawing; the winning name that is drawn will be entitled to EITHER of the two options above.
Interested? Come! Donate!
Here here is the brief VIDEO that gives you a better low-down on the event. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhcaVIo_NLE&ab_channel=UNCReligiousStudies
Here is the link to the webinar itself: https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FKXnSdpRS72gBqOlWffXlA#/registration
Here is the link to DONATE in advance: https://give.unc.edu/donate?f=105550&p=asrs
(If you want to enter the contest to be highest or second hightest donor, MAKE the donation, WRITE an EMAIL to [email protected] Make your SUBJECT LINE : Lam Lecture Donation Prize. In the email just give your name and the amount you’re donating.)
I hope to see you there!
How can we access the lecture later if we can’t see it live?
It will be recorded and you will be able to access it from the department website.
Bart, concerning your upcoming class on Misquoting Jesus. I am wondering if you will be commenting on the accuracy of non-Greek, New Testament translations / transcriptions (Coptic, old Latin, Vulgate , Syriac, Armenian sources?). Would be interested in a big picture understanding if these other translations were transcribed any more accurately.
(Example, I heard someplace that Torah copying is extremely accurate due to checks; example word counts, the 1000th letter should be___ etc)
Or perhaps this could be a podcast topic. You’ve touched on it briefly, but I’d be interested in knowing the use of various translations to help get back to the original wording. Perhaps a few examples that have helped get to the original words?
I”ll be mentioning the early versions but won’t be delving deeply into them. But the answer is no, these various versions were also passed along in manuscripts that were ALSO widely changed over time. For some reason — this seems weird to many people — the Hebrew Scriptures and the Qur’an were both copied with rigorous precision over the years, as far back as we have evidence (for the Hebrew Bible, I’m afraid it’s only back to the 11th century); but the New Testament was not. Whoa — there are LOTS of accidental and intentional changes especially from the early centuries of its transmission, but in all the manuscripts of the other versions as well. The copying of the NT was not a top-down affair with Christian leaders setting up rules of copying to prevent mistakes. My guess is that hte copyists were too far scattered here there and everywhere for any kinds of top-down control to develop.
I loved the “New insights Into the New Testament Conference” You have so much expertise packed into this seminar it was uniquely informative!
Also, have you any videos concerning the Jewish, at least some Jews, perception that the scripture demands they live in Israel. I support their right to be there for many obvious reasons but if I were an orthodox Jew is there a compelling scriptural reason to live there?
Tnx, Ken
Oh yes, it’s all about the foundation of the nation of Israel after the Exodus. In the book of Genesis, God promises the land to Abraham and his descendants. He promises the same to Abrahams son, grandson, great grandson, and so on. Centuries later when the children of Israel escaped Egypt, the promises came to be fulfilled in the book of Joshua, where, again by military means (as in the modern period) they drove out the inhabitants and took over the land God had promised them. The religious justification for occupying the land today goes back to these promises and narratives. The social, cultural, political, and military issues in the modern period, of course, are related to all that but have much broader and deeper roots and issues.
Has Dr. Lam’s video been posted on the UNC website? I couldn’t find it there.
Not yet I think.
Hello Dr. Ehrman, I would like to ask you a question regarding contradictions in the New Testament. I saw in one of your videos you said in theory, nearly anything can be reconciled. If this is the case, how can we truly prove the bible has contradictions? For example, in this video you talked about how one of the contradictions is: Did Jairus come to Jesus before or after his daughter died? Online, I’ve found possible explanations for this contradiction such as different point of emphasis: The translation of the phrase “just died” in Matthew could also be translated “near death.” Or another solution such as Matthew didn’t record the first statement of Jairus. Matthew may have simply omitted the initial statement of Jairus and instead focused on the second one, which he alone recorded, although it is inferred from Luke 8:50. With explanations like these for verses that seem contradicting, how can we know that the bible actually has contradictions? Plausibility is a factor, but is there any plausible explanation for these two verses? Would it still then be a contradiction? I’m a high school student and hope to be a scholar like you one day.
Good question. YOu have to look at the explanations that solve a contradiction and see if they are truly satisfying and plausible or if they appear simply to make a contracition appear to be a non-contradiction. It helps in the case you’re talking about to know Greek. Mark’s account uses a *present* tense of a verb that means “to have” with an adverb that means “badly.” This is a common idiom in Greek for “She is sick” or even “She is very sick” (an English equivalent is “She is doing badly”). Matthew on the other hand uses an *aorist* tense of the verb “to die” (not a present tense of “being ill”) with the adverb that means “now” or “just now.” The aorist describes a completed action in the past, and so it means “My daughter has just now died.” It is not an ambiguous statement. The girl is now dead. (You’ll notice that Matthew leaves out the part in Mark that messengers come to say it’s too late, she’s dead now. That’s because in Matthew she’s already dead.”)
So I’m afraid the explanatoin doesn’t work. It probably works only for people who very much want it to work, and I guess in that sense you “can” explain a contradiction, even if the explanation doesn’t work.
I was in a coma for 6 weeks.
Relatively, there is an industry of what people saw after death & came back to write about what they experienced & saw [remind anyone of sAul road to Damascus that only he saw].
I”m sorry to hear that. It must have been traumatic for your family.
Yes, the Near Death Experience literature is indeed extensive, both the “personal experience” books and the scientific studies. Very interesting indeed, though it’s very sad that people have had to go through that (even if some are very happy they did….)
Thank you so much for responding to my previous comment, I’m a huge fan of your work. You say we must look at the explanations that solve a contradiction and see if they are truly satisfying and plausible or if they appear simply to make a contradiction appear to be a non-contradiction. Doesn’t that mean if someone comes up with any logical explanation for verses that appear contradictory, those verses no longer become contradictory? Or is it the case that the possible explanations purported are not plausible, for example in the case of Jairus? Basically, how can people tell if possible explanations for verses that appear contradictory actually solve a contradiction or if they only make it appear there is no contradiction?
No it doesn’t mean that, because many logical explanations are not satistfactory. If there is a flaw in the logic, as often happens (as in the case of Jairus’s daughter) then the contradiction has not been explained. To figure that out, you have to look very carefully at the explanation and take everything into account (which most people don’t do). Then you can decide. That doesn’t mean you’ll change their own mind. But what matters is what’s in *your* mind.