Search
Advanced search
Special Gold Members Event: A Live AMA (Ask Me Anything)
You are unauthorized to view this page. Username Password Remember Me Forgot Password
September 9, 2024
New Insights Into Paul! Conference this Weekend! Wanna Come??
I’ve been excited about this coming weekend’s conference (New Insights into the New Testament) for eight months now. If you haven’t signed up yet, here’s your chance. You can sign up here: https://www.bartehrman.com/new-insights-into-the-new-testament-conference-2024/ This annual conference is not directly connected with the blog per se, except to the extent that I do both and both are focused on spreading biblical scholarship to a wider non-scholarly audience. We mean to do that in a big way at the conference. The topic: Paul and His Letters 10 of the best New Testament scholars in the world Each giving a 50 minute lecture with 10-15 minutes live Q&A Over the course of two days (Sat Sept. 21 and Sun Sept. 22) We will transform it into a video course with additional materials for all who come. And for all who purchase a ticket but choose not to come to the live lectures. And additional features for all: An Attendee Mixer for all who want to come, remotely, to see and talk with presenters (in break out rooms; you […]
September 16, 2024
My Book “Did Jesus Exist” (an answer to the mythicists)
Is there actually any evidence that Jesus existed? Are there reasons for thinking he was completely made up? That Jesus of Nazareth is actually a myth? I have been providing a series of posts connected with the various books I’ve written for general audiences over the years and now I’ve arrived at my book Did Jesus Exist (HarperOne: 2011). I wrote the book when “mythicism” was still kind of taking off and most people hadn’t heard about it. I suppose most still haven’t heard about it, but lots of agnostics, atheists, skeptics, and general-internet-junkies have. It was so unheard of at the time that my publisher (Harper) was not interested in publishing the book. They wanted it to come out only digitally, since they were pretty sure that as many people would buy it as would buy a book that mounted the evidence that there really was a successful landing on the moon. But after I wrote the book they decided it would be worth putting into print. In the end, it got a lot […]
September 24, 2024
More About My Book “Did Jesus Exist”
I think what surprised me the most about the vitriolic response I received from (some) mythicists to my book “Did Jesus Exist” was that when I actually spoke or corresponded with them, it became very clear that many knew almost nothing about the Bible, let alone biblical scholarship. I was at a social event for mythicists some years ago now, after I wrote my book. Even though a lot (most?) of the people there thought I was completely out to lunch, everyone was extremely friendly and affable in person and I had some very pleasant conversations. But often, after small talk and a few jokes, when we’d get to issues or questions, it would be clear that the person I was talking with literally
September 25, 2024
A PROOF of the Resurrection of Jesus. What Do YOU Think?
Do you yourself think there can be empirical proof that Jesus was raised from the dead? There’s not a right answer – I’m just asking, so you can express your opinion. Last week I held a live Q&A for the Gold Members of the blog (if you’re not familiar with the perks that go along with being a Gold member, check the options out here: https://ehrmanblog.org/register/ ) There were lots of intriguing questions on a range of topics. One that I found particularly, well, intriguing was about an argument sometimes used to show that Jesus must have been raised from the dead and that the Christian claims are therefore demonstrably true. The questioner asked what I thought of the argument made by William Lane Craig that the amazing expanse of Christianity, as it began to grow into the world’s largest religion, shows that the resurrection of Jesus must have happened. How else would one explain the incredible success of the Christian claims? It must have
September 26, 2024
Some Interesting Random Questions
I’ve recently answered some queries from readers and thought that the questions were too good not to post for all to see. They are all on different topics, but interesting ones, and they required different lengths of answer. Here they are, four of them, a blog Q&A. Question One: I am writing a blog about how Christians defend biblical inerrancy and I came across an on-line article with this quote. “You have searched the Scriptures, which are true and given by the Holy Spirit. You know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them.” —Clement of Rome, letter to the Corinthians, first century Two questions: Was there really a Pope in the first century? What kind of “scripture” could he possibly be referring to in the last decade of the first century?
September 28, 2024
ALL the Christian Writings of the First Hundred Years
In 1996 I was struck by the thought that it would be really useful for professors of New Testament to have an anthology of ALL the Christian books written in the first century of the religion, not just a translation of the NT itself. I looked around and couldn’t find one. I told my editor at Oxford Press, and he couldn’t believe it. But lo and behold. So we agreed I should produce one. I decided that it should be all the surviving books written by Christians during its first hundred years, so 30-130 CE (though the first surviving book was probably not written till 20 years after Jesus’ death), that I would use the NRSV translation for the NT (with permission), and then include all the other books that could be plausibly dated to the period. The idea is that the New Testament contains *some* of the earliest Christian literature, not all of it. And if anyone is interested in a historical study of the NT, they need to read it in light of […]
September 29, 2024
Why Were Some of the Earliest Christian Books Left OUT of the NT?
How did church leaders decide which books would be included in the New Testament canon? Why were some let in, but others left out? Here I continue my discussion as excerpted from the Introduction in my anthology: The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader, 2nd ed. 2004 (Oxford University Press.) ****************************** The literature that was produced by early Christians served to bind the various Christian communities together. Leaders and groups from one congregation wrote to others; books written in one place for one purpose were taken to another place, copied there, and read by Christians completely unknown to the author and his or her own community. This earliest Christian literature thus provided spiritual, intellectual, and emotional cohesion for communities that were geographically separated. The literature that was produced by early Christians served to bind the various Christian communities together. Leaders and groups from one congregation wrote to others; books written in one place for one purpose were taken to another place, copied there, and read by Christians completely unknown to the author […]
October 1, 2024
Finding All the Earliest Christian Texts in One Place
How does one decide which books should belong to a collection of ALL the surviving early Christian writings of the first hundred years of the church? Here I explain my procedure when producing my set of translations with introductions, The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader, 2nd ed. 2004 (Oxford University Press), and explain the other features of book. This follows on my earlier posts and again is taken from the Introduction to the volume. ****************************** In sum,
October 2, 2024
Was the New Testament Canon Really Closed in 367 CE?
If we are talking about the earliest Christian writings — the subject of my previous three posts — we naturally want to know when decisions were made about WHEN church father settled on our 27-book canon of the New Testament. Many people — including tons of scholars — set a precise date: 367 CE, in the decision written by the famous theologian Athanasius of Alexandria. Is that right? My first academic publication addressed this question and answered: NO. Here’s how I have talked about the issue and my attempt to overturn the widely held view, from long ago! ****************************** My first semester in the PhD program at Princeton Theological Seminary I had a seminar on the “Canon of the New Testament” with Bruce Metzger. This was a class that focused on the questions surrounding how we ended up with the twenty-seven books in the New Testament. Who decided that it would be these twenty-seven books, and no others? What was motivating these people? What were the grounds for their decisions? And when did they make […]
October 3, 2024
The First Ancient Christian List of the Books (allegedly) of the New Testament
The first church father to name Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the four Gospels in the New Testament is Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons in Gaul (i.e., the ancient forerunner of Lyon, France), in his five-volume work, “Against Heresies” in 180 CE. He spent significant time in Rome itself before his appointment in Gaul, and he considered the Roman church to be the center of Christendom at his time, but there are no Roman authors before him who say anything about it. The important teacher / philosopher Justin (who acquired the epithet “Martyr”), from whom we have three surviving writings about Jesus, Scripture, and the truth of Christianity, quotes the Gospels but never indicates who wrote them. There is another (apparent) witness
October 5, 2024
Was the Apocalypse of Peter Originally Considered Part of the New Testament?
In my previous post I pointed out that our earliest list of which books should be considered Christian Scripture (that is, parts of the New Testament), the Muratorian Fragment from the 180s CE, lists the Apocalypse of Peter as a book that was accepted by some Christians. I’ve talked about the book on the blog before. It’s extraordinarily interesting. It is the first Christian account we have of a journey to the realms of the damned and the blessed, where Peter himself is shown by Christ
October 6, 2024
Introducing the Old Testament Apocrypha
Lots of people on the blog seem to be really interested in early Christian apocrypha — other Gospels, Acts, epistles, apocalypses that did not make it into the New Testament. It’s a major area of fascination for me as well. But many folk talk about them as “the Apocrypha” and probably that’s not quite right — that is a designation usually reserved for the “Old Testament Apocrypha,” which are not Christian books but Jewish. Many years ago I explained what these books are on the blog, and since I still get asked about them by members, I thought it would be helpful to over that ground again. I begin with a basic overview taken from my textbook on the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction, 2nd. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). ****************************** In addition to the canonical books in the Hebrew Bible, there was other literature written by other Jewish authors that cannot be found there, but that is of great importance for anyone interested in it. […]
October 8, 2024
Some of the Old Testament Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther
In my previous post I began to describe the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. In the several posts that follow I will describe the ones commonly accepted by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. These are very interesting books, well worth reading, and, as I’ve said, canonical Scripture for some parts of the Christian church. My summaries here are taken from my book, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford, 2018) ****************************** Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction
October 9, 2024
Some More of the OT Apocrypha: the Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel, and 1 Maccabees
The OT Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books are truly fascinating, even if not widely read. Few people outside of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions knows about the first one; the other two here though are better known and, in fact, historically significant. Some descriptions from my book The New Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction. ****************************** The Letter of Jeremiah This is
October 10, 2024
Still More Books of the Apocrypha: Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch
In this post I continue discussing the books of the Apocrypha, accepted as part of Scripture by Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. These are important books, historically and culturally – but hardly known among Protestant readers. Here are three more! Descriptions are taken from my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction. The Wisdom of Solomon The Wisdom of Solomon is a book of positive wisdom (recall Proverbs), which claims to be written by the great king of the United Monarchy. In fact it was written many centuries later, by a Jew in the Diaspora, possibly in the first century b.c.e. or the first century c.e.
October 12, 2024
And Yet Other Apocrypha: 2 Maccabees and Others, Including Psalm 151!
This will be my final post for now on the Old Testament apocrypha. In it I discuss the final (and particularly intriguing) book accepted in the Roman Catholic church, and a few others accepted in Orthodox Christian circles. Again this all comes from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford, 2018). 2 Maccabees The book known as 2 Maccabees
October 13, 2024
Hurricanes, Suffering, And My Loss of Faith
Two weeks ago I gave a fundraising webinar for the victims of Hurricane Helene, on the topic: Why Do Disasters Strike: The Bible’s Views. In preparing for the talk I decided to re-read the opening section of my book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question: Why We Suffer (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008). I hadn’t read it for years, and while I was reading it I realized anew just how important the topic is and how glad I am that I addressed it. I’ve decided to excerpt the opening bit from the first chapter and the beginning of the second to give you a sense of the book. If you’re interested in more, check it out. It is definitely different from all the others I’ve written, and now that I’ve re-read it, I think it’s the one I’m most proud of personally, not because of the author but because of the topic and its perennial importance. ALSO, if you would like to listen to the webinar (with Q&A) and have […]
October 15, 2024
How Can We Imagine That God is Active in Our World? (A genuine, not rhetorical, question)
Are there moments when you wonder not just why things are going badly for you, or why they are very badly for others, but more comprehensively about why there needs to be suffering at all? I certainly have, and I am now doing a thread of posts that explain some of my reflections through excerpts of the opening sections of my book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Explain our Most Important Problem – Why We Suffer (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008). In my previous post I explained how these issues eventually led me to leave the faith. Now I continue by reflecting on a subsequent moment, long after I was no longer a believer, when I was particularly floored by
October 16, 2024
The Problem of Suffering? So What’s the Problem?
The “problem of suffering” is especially a problem in the monotheistic religions. In ancient Greek and Roman religions, with their many, many gods, it wasn’t an intellectual puzzle. If there’s suffering, it’s because some or all of the gods are ticked off and out to get you. There are some bad ones up there as well as good ones. Just the way it is. But if there’s only one God, why is there suffering? Many people have very simply solutions and they don’t see a problem. But there is a problem. It just has to be explained. Here I continue by showing why it’s a problem and to motivate some thinking by trying to explain how deep thinkers have expressed the problem and tried to address it. Again, this is excerpted from my book God’s Problem (HarperOne, 2008). Just before this excerpt
October 17, 2024