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Could Most People Write in Antiquity?
I am ready now to discuss in a couple of posts the issue of whether Jesus’ brother James actually wrote the book of James, or if it was someone else wanting his readers to *think* it was him. To make sense of what I want to say about it at the outset (it will take a couple of posts), I’ve decided I need to re-post an old post on a broader and even more interesting question: who actually *could* write back then? Today most anyone can (just, well, check out the Internet!). But who could in, say, first-century Palestine. It seems so counter-intuitive that many people simply, without looking at any of the evidence, intuitively don’t believe it. But the answer is, very, very few people indeed. A tiny slice of a minority. Here is what I said about the matter in the original post (devoted specifically to the question of whether Jesus’ disciple Peter could have written 1 Peter). ************************************************************************************* In his now-classic study of ancient literacy, William Harris gave compelling reasons for thinking […]
July 22, 2019
How Could Torture Not Hurt?? Guest Post by Stephanie Cobb
Here now is the second of three posts by Stephanie Cobb on her recent book about early Christian accounts of the martyrs. As you’ll see, she makes some rather astonishing and counter-intuitive claims. But I think she’s completely right. This is fascinating material…. – Stephanie Cobb’s most popular books are Dying to Be Men and Divine Deliverance. ********************************************************* In the previous post, I detailed the reasons martyr texts ought to focus on the suffering and pain of early Christians experiencing torture and being executed for their faith. I also, though, noted that despite those reasons, the texts exhibit an interest in protecting the Christian body from the experience of pain. In this post, we’ll look at some of the ways Christian authors accomplish their goals of illustrating Christian insensitivity to pain. But first, a quick caveat: in my work, I focus on rhetoric and narrative—not history per se. That is, I am not arguing that torture does not hurt. In fact, I am certain that torture hurts and to deny that is a […]
July 23, 2019
The Brother of Jesus and the Book of James
Finally I get to explaining reasons why the brother of Jesus, in my judgment, almost certainly did not write the book of James. The explanation will come in two parts, or possibly three. In this one I build on my last post, by arguing that it seems completely implausible that James *could* have written the letter. (For those of you inclined to think he used a “secretary” to do it for him — I’ve posted on this a bunch in the past, to show why that didn’t happen; just search for “secretary” on the blog). In my next post or two I’ll give additional reasons, for those of you not completely enthralled with questions of who could read and write in antiquity. Both discussions are edited versions of what I say in my book Forgery and Counterforgery. *********************************************************** There are solid reasons for thinking that whoever wrote this letter, it was not James, the brother of Jesus. The first, as already mentioned, is that James of Nazareth could almost certainly not write. Whoever produced this […]
July 24, 2019
Does the Book of James Have the Same Concerns as the Historical James?
I continue now with my discussion of whether the book of James was actually written, as it implicitly claims, by the historical James, the brother of Jesus. The issue is much bigger than whether James could write (a topic I discussed in my earlier posts). Are the issues/concerns/interests of this book at all consonant with what we know about James himself? The question is rarely asked, but it’s absolutely key. Here is what I say in my book about it: ********************************************************************* Other arguments support the claim that James the brother of Jesus almost certainly did not write the letter. Of key importance is the fact that precisely what we know about James of Jerusalem otherwise is what we do not find in this letter. The earliest accounts of James – one of them from a contemporary – indicate that he was especially known as an advocate for the view that Jewish followers of Jesus should maintain their Jewish identity by following the Jewish Law. This seems to be the clear indication of Gal. 2:12 in […]
July 26, 2019
Does James (the Book) Have the Same Concerns as James (the Man)? Part 2
This will be my last post mounting the case that the brother of Jesus, James, did not write the letter of James. Here I get into some of the most substantive issues: what does this author consider to be the most important aspects of his Christian faith, and how does this stack up against what we know otherwise of James of Jerusalem? And are there indications that in fact he is addressing issues that simply do not appear relevant to Christianity in its earliest stages? ***************************************************** In light of the previous post, it is interesting to notice which sins and failures occupy the author of the letter of James (given the dominant interest of James of Jerusalem, so far as we can know, on the importance of strict Torah observance). They are by and large not explicit violations of the Torah but moral shortcomings such as showing favoritism, not controlling one’s speech, and failing to help those in need. So too, what is “true religion” for this author? It has little to do with specific […]
July 28, 2019
My Current Research Projects, 7/2019
I often get asked what I’m doing in my personal research – both long term and, well, what is it I actually do during the day? It’s all related to the blog, so I thought I’d devote a single post to it, just a kind of overview of the kinds of things I’m working on. Right now, as it turns out, it’s a wide range. Tomorrow I’m off to Marburg Germany (I’ve been in London for most of the summer, so it’s a short flight) for an international conference of New Testament scholars, called the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas – i.e., Society for New Testament Studies. It’s an annual affair, mainly of Europeans and Americans, that takes place over four days, with major lectures, less major lectures, and seminar papers. The latter involves small groups of anywhere, I suppose, from five to twenty scholars discussing papers written in advance for an hour and a half each. I’m presenting a paper I’ve been working on for about a month now on and off, on the Katabasis […]
July 29, 2019
But WHY Doesn’t Torture Hurt?? Guest Post by Stephanie Cobb
This now is the final of Stephanie Cobb’s posts on the painlessness of martyrdom, as explained more fully in her recent book. And now we get to the heart of the matter: if it doesn’t hurt, uh, why is that??? Again, Stephanie has graciously agreed to answer your questions — so ask away. – Stephanie Cobb has written Dying to Be Men and Divine Deliverance. If you were a member of the blog, you would get access to all the posts, five times a week, instead of just one occasionally. It’s terrific value for your money, and every penny goes to charity. So join already…. ************************************************************************************ In my first two posts, I asked “Does martyrdom hurt?” and explored reasons why early Christian martyr texts might reasonably answer “yes!” but then detailed the ways in which these texts actually make the counterintuitive argument: “No! Martyrdom doesn’t hurt.” In this—my last—post on Divine Deliverance: Pain and Painlessness in Early Christian Martyr Texts, I want to explore a slightly different question: “Why doesn’t martyrdom hurt?” To read a […]
July 30, 2019
Is James Responding to Paul?
I now begin to explain why someone might have wanted to (falsely) claim to be James the brother of Jesus when writing the letter attributed to him in the NT. My basic argument is that the letter is being written to oppose the writings of Paul (at least as they were being *interpreted*: whether Paul himself would have agreed with the interpretation of his views that they oppose is a completely different question), and the author needed someone of the stature of James in order to make the refutation convincing, both because James was the head of the Jerusalem church and because it was widely thought that he was at loggerheads with Paul. I have taken this again from my book Forgery and Counterforgery. It’s written for scholars, but I’ve tried to make it accessible by explaining the terms I use and translating the Greek. This will take a few posts, so here’s the start, where I lay the groundwork: the letter of James does seem to be responding to the writings of Paul. ************************************************************** […]
July 31, 2019
The Close Connections of James and Paul
I continue here my comparison of the wording of the book of James to the writing of Paul, in order to establish the point that whoever wrote James, it was someone who was directly responding to the letters of Paul (because he imitates Paul’s wording while refuting his views.) This will lead then to my argument – not yet made – that the author of James is in fact writing a “counter-forgery” – that is he is writing a forgery in order to counter later writings forged in the name of Paul. (I know this can be confusing: but I’m not saying he’s writing directly against Paul. He may *think* he is, but my argument is that he will be opposed to later writings claiming to be Paul; that argument will start in my next post.) Here now is the second example of the borrowing of Pauline writings: ************************************************** James 2:24 and Gal. 2:16 and Rohhhm. 3:28 James 2:24: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone Gal. 2:16: […]
August 2, 2019
Scribes Who Changed Their Texts on Purpose
I’ve been browsing through some old posts and came upon this one from years ago, about this time. It’s an interesting topic that people on the blog frequently ask me about: did scribes really change the texts of the NT on purpose, and how can we know? The answers are simply: almost certainly yes and it’s difficult! Here’s an example I talked about back then, one of the most intriguing instances in the Gospel of Mark, where the scribes who changed the text ended up having almost NO effect on Bible translations today; most translators agree on the “original” form of the text. But the change is really interesting, and can show the sorts of reasons scribes were doing this kind of thing. Here’s the original post, slightly edited. ************************************************************* I have started giving some instances of what appear to be “intentional” changes made by scribes, as opposed to simple, accidental, slips of the pen. Here’s another instance of the phenomenon I stress that these alterations “appear” to be intentional since, technically speaking, we […]
August 4, 2019
Is the Author of James Rejecting Paul Himself?
I have been talking about how the letter of James appears to refer to Paul’s letters in order to contradict them (as has long been thought by scholars — going back at least to Martin Luther). But as it turns out, I don’t think it’s actually that simple. I briefly mentioned this in an earlier post, but here is the fuller scoop. This again is taken from my book Forgery and Counterforgery. I should remind you what I mean by those terms, “forgery” and “counterforgery.” The term “forgery” is a technical term for a book that claims to be written by a famous person who in fact did not write it. (So “forgery” does NOT mean, in this context, something like “a made-up story.” It refers specifically to the claim by an author — either explicit or implicit — to be someone other than he is.) A “counter-forgery” is a kind of forgery — it refers to a forgery written in order to contradict the views found precisely in someone else’s forgery (whether or not […]
August 5, 2019
Blog Dinner, Washington DC. September 6, 2019
On Friday, September 6, 2019, at 7:00 pm, I will be hosting a Blog Dinner for blog members (members only, I’m afraid) at the Bistro Bis at the George Hotel in Washington D.C. The table is limited to eight. I’m one of them. That means that seven spots are available. First come first served: please do NOT response here on the blog, but send me a private email, at [email protected]. The occasion is the Smithsonian Associates Seminar I’m doing the next day, four lectures on “More Controversies in Early Christianity”: Here’s the website. https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/more-great-controversies-in-early-christianity-bart-ehrman-ponders-four-new-questions?utm_source=RAad&utm_medium=OAtsa&utm_content=mwX&utm_campaign=MayWe Please note: you do NOT need to be attending the seminar to attend the dinner. The dinner is designed simply to allow us to have a chance to get to know each other and talk about matters of mutual interest. The only requirements for attendance to the dinner would be that (a) you be a blog member; (b) you pay your own way – both getting to the event and your meal itself. Otherwise, there is no expense and no requirement. […]
Why Did the Author of James Claim to be James in Particular?
This will be my last post on the epistle of James in the New Testament as “counter”-forgery, that is, as a forgery (a book written by someone falsely claiming to be a famous person) that is written against another book that is itself a forgery (written by someone claiming to be some *other* famous person). In this case, the author is claiming to be James, the actual brother of Jesus, and he is writing to counter views of Paul – but not views Paul himself endorsed (exactly), but later developments of Paul’s views by an author (or authors) who wrote books, after Paul’s death, while *claiming* to be Paul. All a bit confusing! But here I finish by explaining why I think this author of the epistle of James claimed to be James in particular. Why did he choose that name? Why not some other? We will never know for sure, of course, but here are my thoughts about it. (This again is taken from my book Forgery and Counterforgery; I’ve added a couple of […]
August 6, 2019
Some Very Strange Journeys to Heaven and Hell
This post is free for everyone, but most posts come only to blog members. Joining the blog is easy and it gives you access to tons of material for very little expense. All the money goes to charity. so why not join. Last week I was in Marburg, Germany for the annual conference for the Society of New Testament Studies. This is an international society at the top tier of NT scholars in the world, a closed society that no one can actually *join*. You have to be nominated and voted in, and there are strict academic guidelines (in terms of qualifications and numbers of books and articles published, etc.). I’m not saying I’m in favor of that system, but as we say these days (or at least were saying a year or so ago) it is what it is. I’ve been a member since the 1990s but actually haven’t been to one of the meetings since 1995. But I went to this one because I was asked to read a paper and I’m really […]
August 7, 2019
Who Is The Enemy?
This will be a very personal post, about being an enemy of the Christian faith. I’ve long been amazed, surprised, and perplexed about how, when it comes to religion, comments made in one context are completely non-problematic but when the (exact) same comments are made in another context, they are heinous and threatening. Some of it almost certainly has to do with tone and general attitude. But I wonder if it isn’t actually much broader than that. One of the ways I’ve seen this over the years is in the use of humor. When I was a conservative evangelical Christian at Moody Bible Institute there were all sorts of jokes we would tell about the faith or about our commitments or communities: just about Moody, we would call it Moody Instant Bibletute; or say we went to Moody, where Bible is our middle name. Or someone would say (with respect to the view that the “rapture” would occur prior to, not after, the millennium – something we were very big on indeed!) that he was […]
August 9, 2019
Blog Dinner in D.C.: Full!
I am pleased and regret (at the same time) to say that the table for the blog dinner in D.C. in September is now full. I have a waiting list that I have started, and have notified everyone who contacted me (both those at the table and those on the waiting list.) But I’ll be doing others this coming year in a few other places! Hopefully others can come to these
A Christian Forger Caught in the Act
Next month I will be giving a keynote address at a conference dealing with ancient pseudepigrapha at the University of Laval, in Quebec City. I have recently been discussing the topic (of ancient authors falsely claiming to be a famous person) on the blog in relation to the letter of James, and as you know, it was the subject of my monography Forgery and Counterforgery ten years ago, and my spin-off popular account Forged. I haven’t worked seriously on the problem since then. But now, because of this upcoming lecture, I’m having to think about it long and hard again, a decade later. Lots of scholars simply don’t (or can’t?) believe that ancient people — especially Christians, but others as well — would lie about their identities. It’s not that these scholars doubt that there are lots and lots of pseudepigrapha out there, Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian. There are. But these scholars don’t think that the authors were doing anything duplicitous. There are different ways scholars have made this argument, but the basic line […]
August 11, 2019
An Ancient Author Trying to Justify His Deceit
Yesterday I talked about one Christian forger who got caught red handed who had to explain himself. Well, justify himself. Well, bend over backwards to make himself look innocent. We’ve been seeing a lot of that these days. It goes way back. Humans are humans. Here is my assessment of the situation, not in terms of our own front-page news but in terms of this obscure little controversy, which highlights my obscure little academic point: in the ancient world, readers simply did not *like* it when they found out someone had written a book claiming to a be a famous person. They condemned it. That should be borne in mine when thinking of other instances of the phenomenon, such as those found in far more familiar books from the early Christian tradition. (And this is the point the riles a number of my scholar friends, who just can’t *believe* ancient authors would do something deceitful….) I’ll start this post with a bit from the end of the previous one, to remind you about it. If […]
August 12, 2019
Last Minute (well, sort of): Another Blog Dinner Option. NYC, August 27
OK, this is a bit unexpected. But I’m going to be in New York (Midtown Manhattan) for a few days (that part was expected) and it turns out I’ll have an evening free, August 27. And so if anyone’s interested I can do a blog dinner. Given the location, it might be kind of pricey, but … well, if you’re interested, wanna come? As per my custom: the table will be limited to eight, of which I will be one. That means seven spots are available. First come first served: please do NOT response here on the blog, but send me a private email, at [email protected]. No agenda from my end, other than simply to have some of us to have a chance to meet and talk about matters of mutual interest. The only requirements for attendance to the dinner are that (a) you are a blog member; (b) you pay your own way – both getting to the event and your meal itself. Otherwise, there is no expense and no requirement. You don’t even […]
Who Has The Answer For a Happy Afterlife?
A few days ago I gave the opening part of the paper I read at a conference of New Testament scholars a couple of weeks ago, on the accounts of the afterlife in the Christian apocryphal book called Acts of Thomas (an account of Thomas’s missionary adventures in India), one of them involving a near death experienced that revealed the glories of heaven and the other a near death experience of the horrors of hell. Most of the paper involved contrasting those two visions with comparable journeys to the underworld in earlier, more famous accounts, Homer’s description of Odysseus’s vision of the underworld in Odyssey book 11; Plato’s account of the near death experience of a soldier named Er in the Republic book 10; and Virgil’s discussion of Aeneas’s travels to the realms below in the Aeneid book 6. I don’t need to describe these other accounts in detail here, since I’ve talked about them already on the blog some months ago; if you want to refresh your memory, they are here: https://ehrmanblog.org/an-early-otherworldly-journey/ https://ehrmanblog.org/did-ancient-greeks-invent-heaven-and-hell/ […]
August 13, 2019