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Galatians: For Further Reading
Here is an list of readings on Galatians, most of the books relevant to all the undisputed Pauline epistles, with a couple of commentaries specifically on Galatians. One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. I devote a fuller discussion of Galatians in my textbook, Bart Ehrman and Hugo Mendez, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 8th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2024), ch. 20. That’s a good place to start for a fuller exposition of what I have given here in my nutshell posts. If you have an earlier edition of the book, it will be pretty much the same, except for the expanded bibliography. Here is an annotated bibliography of books that will deal with Galatians ******************************
April 23, 2025
Is Paul One of Matthew’s Enemies?
In this “nutshell” series summarizing each book of the New Testament, I have now done both Matthew (the first book, canonically) and Galatians (the ninth). If you’ve paid heed to both sets of posts (or as I say to my students, “If you’ve been awake and sober this semester….”) you will notice they have, well, a slightly different take on whether followers of Jesus should keep the Jewish law. Slightly different? OK, well, let’s ask it this way: if the author of Matthew and Paul were locked in a room and not allowed to emerge until they hammered out a consensus statement about the relevance of the Jewish law for followers of Jesus, would they ever have emerged? Or would archaeologists discover their skeletons still in a joined in a death grip? To refresh your memories:
April 24, 2025
Key Questions about Paul
I continue to receive very good questions from blog readers and would like to devote a couple of posts to ones that I get repeatedly (in different words) for broader distribution. Here are three I’ve received recently and my posted responses to them, all on the apostle Paul. QUESTION: [This one will be about whether the Cephas, James and other apostles in Jerusalem agreed with Paul on every point when he went to visit them in the course of his missionary work] I was wondering how scholars look at situations like Galatians 2:6-10 , specially the part of the text that states “they added nothing to my message” or “all they asked is we should continue remembering the poor”. My primary question is do scholars like yourself believe that the early disciples & James/Jerusalem Church saw eye to eye with Paul on all matters? As a secondary, why does Paul go into disputes later in Galatians 2 if they agreed on everything as mentioned in Gal 2 earlier? The passage of “adding nothing to my […]
April 26, 2025
How Do We Know the Chronology of Paul’s Life and Letters?
In this nutshell series on the books of the New Testament, I’ve been discussing, in part, when each of Paul’s letters were written, and some readers have wanted to know, well, how we know? What kind of evidence do scholars look for? It seems like that ought to be an easy question to answer, a real softball. But it’s not; it’s a tough one, a hard curve. As I’ve pointed out (and I guess is rather obvious) different scholars have different likes and dislikes within their own fields. Most New Testament scholars, for example, do not enjoy doing textual criticism – the reconstruction of the oldest attainable form of the text based on our surviving manuscripts. In fact, most are not trained in it and want nothing to do with it. When I started in my career, on the other hand, that was the one thing I was completely passionate about. Different strokes for different folks. There are some scholars who want nothing to do with the Synoptic Problem, and others who have worked on […]
April 27, 2025
Christ’s Preexistence in Galatians (Was Jesus an Angel?)
I’ve been posting on Paul’s letter the Galatians, and thought that I might point out a way that the letter completely changed my understanding of Paul, years ago now when I was doing research for my book How Jesus Became God. I have to admit, that for many years I was puzzled by Paul’s Christology–his views of Christ. All the various things he said about it didn’t seem to add up to a coherent whole to me, even though I thought and thought and thought about it. But I finally found the piece that, when added to the puzzle, made it all fit together. I think now I can make sense of [pretty much] every Christological statement in Paul’s letters. This not because I myself finally figured it out, but because I finally read some discussions that actually made sense, and saw that they are almost certainly right. Here’s what I say about it in the book. ****************************** Many people no doubt have the same experience I do on occasion, of reading something numerous times, […]
April 29, 2025
Ephesians in a Nutshell
The goal of this long “nutshell” thread on the New Testament is to introduce each of the twenty-seven books and summarize its major themes and emphases; to discuss what we can know about who wrote it, when, and why; to provide suggestions for further reading for anyone who is interested; and to give an additional post or two on some specific interesting feature of it. We are now up to book # 10 (!), the Letter to the Ephesians; it is the fifth letter in the “Pauline corpus” (that is, the collection of NT writings attributed to the apostle Paul) and is the first that is widely considered among scholars to be pseudonymous – that is, even though it clearly claims to be written by Paul, it appears to have been written instead by one of his later followers. Today we would call that a forgery (few of us use the term “pseudonymous” these days), even though lots of people are reluctant to use that term for a book of Scripture. Fair enough. In the […]
April 30, 2025
Ephesians: Who Wrote the Letter, When, and Why?
Now that I have summarized the major themes and emphases of Ephesians (in the previous post), I can move to the issues of who wrote it, when, and why. The “Who” is the big question in this case, with the “when” and “why” depending on our answer. As I indicated in the earlier post, broadly speaking Ephesians sounds like something that Paul could have written, since it addresses a number of themes known from Paul’s seven undisputed letters: salvation coming by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the unity of Jew and gentile in the church, the need for strong ethical standards and behavior, etc. There would, of course, be differences with a letter of this sort, since unlike Paul’s other letters that are addressed to specific situations of specific churches, and this appears to be a circular letter in which the author addresses no specific problem, such as moral improprieties or false teachings, and therefore offers no specific resolutions. But even taking into account the different kind of letter it is, is it likely […]
May 1, 2025
Ephesians: For Further Reading
Here is an annotated list of books on Ephesians, most of them relevant to all the Deutero-Pauline epistles (that is, the letters that are assigned a “secondary” standing in the New Testament collection of Paul’s letters because scholars doubt they were actually composed by Paul himself) with a couple of commentaries specifically on Ephesians. One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. ******************************
May 7, 2025
Can We Trust You When You Say “Most Scholars” Think Something?
As I’ve pointed out, most critical scholars do not think that Paul actually wrote the letter to the Ephesians, even though the author claims to be Paul. We will see that is true for five other Pauline letters. I should stress: the fact that most critical scholars think something does not mean they are right. For millenia, “most scientists” agreed the sun revolved around the earth, but that was not evidence. Apart from whether scholarly views are right, why should you think that I myself am right when I say “most critical scholars” think one thing or another? Have I taken a survey? I dealt with a similar question on the blog years ago. This was in response to my similar claim that “most scholars” don’t think John the son of Zebedee wrote the Gospel of John. It was in response to a reader’s question and follow up. I’d say pretty much the same thing today, about Ephesians. Here’s what I said back then: ****************************** I have received a particularly interesting question that has led to a […]
May 3, 2025
Some Important Questions From Blog Readers
Here are some questions I have received recently from readers: QUESTION: I’m curious about when Paul’s letter were compiled and by whom? It seems almost miraculous that, in that time period, letters sent to various destinations around the Mediterranean could somehow be gathered up together in one place. What are the earliest fragments or complete copies we have? RESPONSE: It’s an unusually complicated issue, and it has vexed scholars for a very long time. But there is nothing miraculous about it per se. The letters of Ignatius (somewhat weirdly, we have seven of those too), were also collected at some point, and they too were sent to a wide range of places. But how it happened (in either case) is the tricky question. With respect to Paul, we already a references to his letters in 2 Peter 3:16, where the anonymous author (without telling us which ones he knows) calls them Scripture! And Ignatius himself, (around 110) mentions Paul’s letters. Our earliest relatively full manuscript of the letters (called P45) comes from later, around […]
May 6, 2025
Does a Different “Writing Style” Show (convincingly?) That Ephesians is a “Forgery”?
When I have talked about the “disputed” Pauline letters, the ones that scholars have argued were not written by Paul (even though the author claims to be Paul), I have pointed out that one reason for thinking so is that the writing style of, say Ephesians, is significantly different from what you find in Paul’s “undisputed” letters, such as Romans and 1 Corinthians. Some readers have asked whether this argument is compromised by the fact that so many of Paul’s letters claim to be “co-authored.” Colossians, for example, claims to be from Paul “and Timothy” but 1 Corinthians from Paul “and Sosthenes.” If they were jointly authored, wouldn’t we expect differences in writing style? So how convincing is this argument? Good question. I deal with it in my book Forgery and Counterforgery (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) pp. 212-13. The book is written for scholars, but this particular discussion is not particularly difficult. Here is what I say about the issue there. You’ll notice that I adopt a rather polemical tone! Ah, I was […]
May 4, 2025
Philippians in a Nutshell
In this thread summarizing each book of he New Testament, I come now to the book of Philippians, one of my favorite Pauline epistles since I first started reading the New Testament seriously when I was 17! The first biblical verse I memorized (apart from the Lord’s Prayer!) was Philippians 1:21: “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” I memorized it because it was oh, so short. But once I did that, I realized I could maybe memorize some other favorites from the NT. And started doing that. Philippians was the first book I memorized in its entirety (again, as a teenager). (It too is short!) I’ve never tried to summarize it in 50 words, so here’s my first attempt. If you know it well yourself, give it a shot. For now, here’s what I’ve come up with: Paul writes the gentile Christians in Philippi from prison (we don’t know where), thanking them for sending much needed funds, urging them to remain joyful in their faith whatever the circumstances, exhorting […]
May 10, 2025
Philippians: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?
Now that I have provided a nutshell summary of the letter to the Philippians in my previous post, I can move into the questions of authorship, date, and motivating purpose (who, when, and why). Philippians is almost always considered a Pauline letter, one of the seven “undisputed” epistles. There seems very little reason to doubt it. The letter is filled with Pauline themes and thoughts; it uses his typical kind of writing style; its concerns line up with what we find in others of his writings; and the presupposed historical circumstances are perfectly in line with what we would expect. As I’ve indicated, the letter claims to be written from prison, but we do not know where. The “where” matters a good bit for the “when,” since if it was written, as many have argued, from Rome, then it must be toward the end of Paul’s life (since he went there after all his other known journeys and was apparently martyred there), so in the early 60s. If it was written from somewhere else – […]
May 11, 2025
Matthew and Mark “At a Glance” with Controversial Questions
It occurred to me that another nice resource for this “Nutshell” Series might be some of the additional materials I present in my New Testament textbook for each of the books I discuss. Two separate items I provide there are (a) rapid fire summaries of each book that I call “At a Glance” and (b) a set of study questions that challenge students to take a position on key aspects of the book, that I call “Take a Stand.” I’ll present these on the blog in the same canonical sequence as I’ve provided the Nutshell posts. Here they are for the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.
May 8, 2025
Luke and John “At a Glance” and Controversial Questions
As I indicated a few posts ago, I have decided to add a feature to my discussion of each NT book some of the additional materials I present in my New Testament textbook the books I discuss. These are (a) rapid fire summaries of each book that I call “At a Glance” and (b) a set of study questions that challenge students to take a position on key aspects of the book, that I call “Take a Stand.” Here they are now for the Gospels of Luke and John. The Gospel of Luke AT A GLANCE: Luke was probably written around 80–85 c.e., by a Greek-speaking Christian living outside of Palestine.
May 14, 2025
Philippians: For Further Reading
Here is an list of readings on Philippians, most of the books relevant to all the undisputed Pauline epistles, with a couple of commentaries specifically on this significant, short letter. One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on. I devote a fuller discussion of Philippians in my textbook, Bart Ehrman and Hugo Mendez, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 8th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2024), ch. 20. That’s a good place to start for a fuller exposition of what I have given here in my nutshell posts. If you have an earlier edition of the book, it will be pretty much the same, except for the expanded bibliography. ******************************
May 13, 2025
The Most Widely Discussed Passage of Philippians
To conclude this mini-thread on Philippians, which is part of my maxi-thread Nutshell Summaries of each of the books of the New Testament, I would like to provide two posts on the passage of this small book that is discussed by scholars (far) more than any other, the “Christ-poem” of 2:6-11, where Paul indicates that Christ was first a divine being in the heavenly realm who then came to earth as a human to die for the sins of others, and then was exalted to an even higher position than before, when God made him the Lord of All. It’s a remarkable and much-debated passage. At the least one can say that it shows that Paul –even though he is our very earliest Christian writer — held to some kind of “incarnation” Christology. Christ was a divine being who became human. Before quoting the passage,
May 15, 2025
Is the “Christ Poem” of Philippians Really a Poem? When Did Jesus Really Become “Equal” With God?
This is my second and final post on the “Christ-poem” of Philippians 2. Many years ago when I talked about the poem, a reader (who apparently knew Greek!) objected that the poetic lines I suggested don’t actually work. Below I’ll give his question and my response. But then I’ll move on to an even more important issue: how the poem understands who Christ was before he became human and after his resurrection. If Christ was divine before the incarnation, how could he be made more divine afterward? First, the question I received about whether this is some kind of poem. Or rather, the objection that was raised? This ‘rhythmic structure’ just does not work in Greek. The first ‘stanza’ with three ‘lines’: Who, although he was in the form of God Did not regard equality with God Something to be grasped after; In Greek the ‘third line’ is only one word and it appears in the middle of the ‘second line’, after only the first word of the so-called second line. There are a few […]
May 17, 2025
Some Intriguing Questions about Paul’s Letters
QUESTION: I was wondering how scholars look at situations like Galatians 2:6-10 , specially the part of the text that states “they added nothing to my message” or “all they asked is we should continue remembering the poor”. My primary question is do scholars like yourself believe that the early disciples & James/Jerusalem Church saw eye to eye with Paul on all matters? As a secondary, why does Paul go into disputes later in Galatians 2 if they agreed on everything as mentioned in Gal 2 earlier? The passage of “adding nothing to my message” makes it seem like Paul had some gospel and read every single point to the disciples of which they agree with it all, large and small, and then lived happily ever after. What is the historical context? RESPONSE: We obviously have only Paul’s side of the story.
May 18, 2025
How Athens Made Me Rethink….
I am in Athens just now, heading out on a tour giving lectures on ancient Greek philosophers in relation to the teachings of Jesus and Paul. I came over a couple of days before the tour to spend some time looking around on my own, and had a lovely afternoon at the fantastic Acropolis Museum. Every time I come to Athens I think of my first time here, for several reasons, but one in particular. It was when I was struck by a realization about the relationship of the highly cultured, sophisticated Greek world and the rise of earliest Christianity, a realization that led to my book The Triumph of Christianity. In many ways it was a sad realization. I talk about it in the Afterword of the book. This is what I said there. ****************************** The idea for this book struck me twenty years ago during my first trip to Athens. For my trip I was particularly keen to explore the archaeological wonders of the city, and most especially the Agora and the Acropolis. In […]
May 20, 2025