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Putting Final Polish on a Bible Translation. Ouch.
In my previous post I mentioned how I started a full-time research position for the New Revised Standard Version in 1987-88. I had several roles to play in that position. Probably the most difficult involved trying to make sure that there was a consistency in the translation, from one biblical book, passage, and verse to another. How does one determine if a translation is internally consistent? It’s not easy. I had to work through the entire translation, and whenever I came across a key term in the Hebrew or Greek that had been rendered into English in one way in one passage, I had to check whether it was rendered similarly in other passages where the same word occurred. I should stress
January 7, 2024
Is Matthew Duplicitous in His Reading of Scripture?
In a month or so I’m going to be producing a new online course (not connected with the blog) on The Genius of Matthew: What Scholars Say about the First Gospel. I’m not sure if that’s the actual title we’ll be giving it, but it’s what’s in my head just now. (If you’re interested in my courses, go to http://www.bartehrman.com/courses/ . You won’t find this one there just now because we haven’t announced it yet.) It will be an eight-lecture course dealing with what I think are the most important aspects of Matthew’s Gospel — what it’s all about, what its leading themes/ideas/views are, how the author changed Mark’s account significantly to get his point across, how Matthew (in a striking way) insists Jesus fulfilled Scripture, whether Matthew urges his followers to keep the Jewish law strictly (instead of abandoning it), whether, even so, the Gospel can be seen as anti-Jewish. I’ll be looking at some depth at the Sermon on the Mount (widely misunderstood) and a number of the key parables. And I’ll be […]
January 9, 2024
What Does It Actually Mean to “Fulfill” Scripture?
I’ve begun a short thread dealing with how Matthew understood and interpreted and used Scripture. Here is a fuller exposition, the first part of which comes straight from my textbook on the NT and the second part straight from my noggin to the keyboard. ****************************** What is perhaps most striking about Matthew’s account is that
January 10, 2024
How Jesus “Fills” Scripture “Full” in Matthew
In the last post I indicated one way that Matthew understood Jesus to have fulfilled Scripture – a prophet predicted something about the messiah (to be born of a virgin; to be born in Bethlehem, etc.) and Jesus did or experienced what was predicted. There’s a second way as well, one with considerable implications for understanding Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus. Here’s how I talk about it in my textbook on the New Testament. ****************************** The second way in which Jesus “fulfills” Scripture is a little more complicated. Matthew portrays certain key events in the Jewish Bible as foreshadowings of what would happen when the messiah came. The meaning of these ancient events was not complete until
January 11, 2024
Our Commitment to Charity
My next book will be dealing with how the teachings of Jesus transformed the understanding of what it meant to live a good life and to be a good person in the Western world. One of the most important areas I’ll be focusing on is Jesus’ emphasis on going out of one’s way to help those in need — not just family and friends, but even complete strangers. What we think of as privately funded charities, governmental support of the needy, and individual assistance for those we hear about virtually didn’t exist in the pagan/polytheistic world of the Roman empire before then. It exists big time now, and it almost certainly would not have happened apart from the influence of Jesus’ followers, as Christianity became the dominant religion of the West and transformed culture, society, and government. And now this commitment to help others in need seems rooted in our DNA (well, obviously not in all of us!), whether we identify as Christian or not. The original motivation for the Bart Ehrman Blog was […]
January 13, 2024
The Origins of Altruism: My Next Book as It Stands Now
My book I’m working on now has gone through significant transformations since I first conceived of it a few years ago. I am at the stage now (finally!) where I really think I know what it’s going to be. It started out as a book dealing with the history of charitable giving, morphed into a book on the broader subject of ethics as taught by Jesus, moved onto the specific question of how the Christian concept of “love” differed in significant ways from what could be found generally in the Greek and Roman worlds, shifted to add a discussion of how the Christian idea of “forgiveness” also differed fron what was found elsewhere and … and ended up where it is now. It is really a book about altruism in the Christian tradition and its effect on the ethical views and practices of western culture. My tentative title is: The Origins of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Conscience of the West. As always, I have no idea if my publisher will go with it or […]
January 17, 2024
The Fate of Jesus’ Ethics after His Death
Did Jesus’ followers actually follow his teachings? In my previous post I pointed out that Jesus had a radical ethic, a view based on the teachings of Hebrew Scripture but radicalized because of his understanding of the apocalyptic event very soon to occur with the end of history as he knew it. As we know from history, those who expect the End soon can behave in extreme ways (sell the farm!). Jesus’ teachings, as I indicated, are, in shorthand, “prophetic ethics on apocalyptic steroids.” How did his followers carry on his teachings? That’s what I deal with here, as I continue to excerpt a sketch of my book that I myself wrote for me myself (I won’t start writing the book itself for some months probably. Still have work to do). Here I explain the book’s basic plotline, theses, and organization. ****************************** The ultimate argument of my book is that after Jesus’ death,
January 18, 2024
Is Christian Love Different from Love?
One of the most talked about and least understood teachings within Christianity is the idea of love. Do you want some evidence of the misunderstanding? Read 1 Corinthians 13, the “love chapter,” in its original context (coming between, well, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14! A little consideration almost no one has thought about!), and then consider it in relation to the 498 times you’ve heard it in weddings. I’m all for it’s being read at weddings! But, uh, is Paul talking about marital bliss? Uh, nope, not at *all*….. I am in the middle of a thread excerpting a sketch of my book (which I’m still researching; won’t start writing for a while). So far I’ve talked about what it’s about. Now I’m getting into some detail, by describing the book chapter by chapter — including the opening bit about Christian ethics and the opening section that deals with love in the Christian tradition. ****************************** The book will comprise
- Book Discussions
- Greco-Roman Religions and Culture
- Historical Jesus
- History of Christianity (100-300CE)
January 20, 2024
Love in Action: Christian Views of Charitable Giving
As I indicated in my previous post, the ethics of Christian love (and the very term used for it) differed from what could be found broadly in the Greek and Roman worlds. This different understanding of love had concrete practical implications, especially in how early Christians understood charitable giving. That will be the next part of my book, The Origins of Altruism, as I explain here as I continue to extract from the initial sketch of the book I’ve written for myself. ****************************** Part Three: Charitable Giving (chs. 6, on the Greco-Roman world, and 7, on Jesus and his later followers) Since love in the teachings of Jesus and then agapē in the early Christian movement was not an emotion, connected with personal feelings or passion but a kind of disinterested activity in relation to others, including strangers, its most concrete manifestation involved providing resources for those in need. In the broader Greek and Roman worlds, virtually all the discussion of personal resources (money and goods) focused on the very wealthy. Moral philosophy was written by elites […]
- Book Discussions
- Greco-Roman Religions and Culture
- Historical Jesus
- History of Christianity (100-300CE)
January 21, 2024
When Is Forgiveness not Forgiveness?
Does love really “mean never having to say I’m sorry”? Is “unconditional forgiveness” possible? Is it even Christian? Is forgiveness itself always possible, conceivable, feasible, expected, required, helpful? Actually, what is forgiveness? These are questions people often ask. When they ask what Jesus thought about the matter they usually get it wrong. And as it turns out, so did his own disciples. So I’ll be arguing in my book, tentatively titled The Origins of Altruism. Here’s another extract from my sketch of the book as it looks at this point in the pre-writing stage…. ****************************** Part Four: Interpersonal Forgiveness (ch. 6 on Greek and Roman World; ch. 7 on Jesus and his followers) Whereas “charity” is the manifestation of agapē principally to outsiders in need, “forgiveness” is its manifestation principally to
- Book Discussions
- Greco-Roman Religions and Culture
- Historical Jesus
- History of Christianity (100-300CE)
January 23, 2024
How’s the Christian World Doin’ These Days with the Ethics of Jesus?
Jesus had a distinctive ethical view, significantly different from the ethics propounded and followed by most people in his world. And, well, by most people in ours. Even some (many? most?) who claim to be Jesus’ followers. Or so it appears to me when I look at what Jesus actually teaches and observe what some (many?) modern Christians both do and say. I’ve spent the past five posts summarizing what I plan to cover in my book The Origins of Altruism: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Conscience of the West. If history holds the publisher will be giving it a different title, and at this point for me the title’s not the main thing. Writing it is! The foci are Jesus’ teachings on love, charitable giving, and forgiveness, how these teachings contrasted with those commonly followed in the Roman world at the time, how they were modified and softened by his own followers after his death, and how they nonetheless came to play an oversized role in the understanding of “how should we live” […]
January 24, 2024
I’m Going to the Greek Islands. Interested in Joining Me?
Another travel opportunity has come up for me this summer, a tour of some of the Greek Islands on June 10-20. These are some of my favorite places on planet earth. I’ll be giving lectures, enjoying the sites, and hanging out with the folk who come. Needless to say, this will be really good. If it’s in the range of your possibilites, check it out. Below you’ll see a brochure with all the details. Here’s what I say about it there: ************** We will be island-hopping to some of the most scenic sites in the world – stunningly gorgeous landscapes and seascapes, incredibly beautiful villages and towns, museums, monasteries, churches, and archaeological sites: some of the oldest remnants of western civilization. Some of the places we’ll be going will be new for me. For many years I’ve wanted to visit Andros, unusually dramatic and filled with interesting villages, monasteries, and churches. And Naxos (where Dionysus, the Greek god of wine was born. Take note!), boasting significant ancient remains, old Christian churches, and impressive Venetian architecture: […]
January 16, 2024
Making the Bible Benevolent: Guest Post by Jill Hicks-Keeton
Is the Bible “Good News” for everyone, or, does it just seem good to those who want it to be? And how do readers make it good in places that on any honest reading are not (think violence and the treatment of women and slaves). Jill Hicks-Keeton, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sourthern California, has recently published an intriguing book that is highly controversial in some circles (those who do what she describes) and a breath of fresh air in another, an analysis of how evangelical Christians work to make the Bible not just acceptable but good through and through. Her study is called The Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible To Save Themselves. (Available here: Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves: Hicks-Keeton, Jill: 9781506485850: Amazon.com: Books) I’ve asked Jill to talk about the book in a couple of posts on the blog. Here’s the first, with a teaser for the second! ****************************** Millions of Americans report understanding the Bible as the Word of […]
January 27, 2024
Reminder: My Course on the Gospel of Matthew. This Weekend!
I’m getting pumped about/for my new online course on the Gospel of Matthew, this coming weekend (Feb 3-4), and want to make sure you know about it before … well, the End is Near. I have the lectures all drawn up, the Powerpoints made, and now it’s just a bit of fine tuning before we go live. If you haven’t signed up, but think you might be interested, check it out here: https://ehrman.thrivecart.com/matthew/ The course will be eight lectures, four on Saturday and four on Sunday. I’ll be covering tons of stuff I’ve never discussed on the blog or, as it turns out, in any public lecture. Go figure. Those who sign up for the course will have life-time access to it (we’ll publish it with Suggestions for Further Reading, Questions for Reflection, and so on, and participants will receive it automatically). Please remember, you can get a discount on the course by using the code BLOG5. A portion of the proceeds of the course will be donated to the blog. Here are […]
January 19, 2024
February Gold Q&A: Ask Away!
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February 12, 2024
How To Make the New Testament Non-Patriarchal. Good Luck with *That* One. Guest post by Jill Hicks-Keeton
I’m very pleased to post this second contribution by Jill Hicks-Keeton, professor of religious studies at the University of Oklahoma, and an author who does not appreciate “experts” who try to explain away the problems of the Bible (e.g., with respect to women) and sees no need to pull her punches! This is an unusually effective and interesting instance; here she reveals the the flaws of a recent attempt by a New Testament scholar to make Paul patriarchally palatable. She names names. The post is an adaptation from her recently published Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves. ****************************** In my last post, I introduced the concept of Bible benevolence, which is the rhetorical and intellectual work that people do to make ancient texts in the Bible square with modern moral sensibilities. The Bible is not good by itself. People have to make it so. My recent book, Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves, uses white evangelical Protestants in the U.S. as a case study to illustrate […]
January 28, 2024
How to Sugarcoat Scripture but Seem Sophisticated. Final Guest Post by Jill Hicks-Keeton
It’s amazing how committed New Testament scholars often try to tame the Bible, making it upbeat and relevant for today when, on the surface, it affirms views that most of us, when we’re honest about it, simply can’t abide. And not just the Old Testament celebration of slaughter (those damn Canaanites) and execution (for, say, disobeying parents) but also the New Testament (and not just the grotesque torture and annihilations of Revelation). Jill Hicks-Keeton, professor of Religious Studies at Oklahoma, deals with how evangelical Christians (one could pick other groups!) try to whitewash the Bible in her book Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves. This now is Jill’s third and final guest post for us on the topic. Once again, she names names. Any comments? Bring ’em on! ****************************** The ancient people who wrote the texts that would become “the Bible” lived in patriarchal societies. Modern Bible readers who see these texts as scriptural and who also deem patriarchy an undesirable way to order society have a problem to solve: […]
January 30, 2024
In Support of Religious Studies at a Major University
How dispensible is Religious Studies to the mission of a modern university? To the mutual chagrin of the faculty colleagues in my department, we recently learned that the chancellor of one our affiliate schools, UNC Greensboro, was considering closing down their own very fine Department of Religious Studies ( the UNC “system” has 16 public universities, over which there is a President; each university has its own Chancellor as its chief executive officer). We have signed petitions in support of the department, and several of us have written letters to explain our support. I thought it might be interesting for blog readers to see mine, since it explains why I consier Religious Studies (as a discipline) significant for university education. There’s a lot more that I could say, of course, but that would take a book, not a letter. In any event, we are hopeful that the message gets through, since all of us understand how imporant the academic study of religion is, especially in our times. ****************************** January 23, 2024 Dear Chancellor […]
January 31, 2024
The Jesus Seminar and the Non-Apocalyptic Jesus. Hey, Why Not?
I have recently received several questions more or less out of the blue about what I think about the “Jesus Seminar” and its views of Jesus. I looked and it appears I’ve only had one brief posting on this issue, so I thought I should say a few things, first by explaining what the question means. The Seminar was made up of a group of about fifty New Testament scholars who, in the 1980s and 1990s, met twice a year to discuss the ancient Gospels (mainly the canonical Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas) to determine which traditions about Jesus were likely to be authentic, and which, as a corollary, were likely to have been later creations of the early church as they told stories about Jesus. The members of the seminar would then vote on each tradition – after extensive, learned discussion — and publish the results of their votes. The voting procedure proved to be controversial.
February 1, 2024
How the Gospels Transformed the Apocalyptic Jesus
Contrary to the claims of the “Jesus Seminar,” Jesus is best understood as delivering an apocalyptic message – or so I began to argue in my previous post, where I explained that all the earliest Gospel sources independently record Jesus delivering apocalyptic teachings. Equally interesting, some of the most clearly apocalyptic traditions come to be “toned down” as we move further away from Jesus’ life in the 20s to Gospel materials produced near the end of the first century. Sources closest to Jesus: apocalyptic; sources further removed in time (as the end doesn’t come) less apocalyptic. And then non-apocalyptic. Eventually
February 3, 2024