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Some of the Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther
Yesterday I answered briefly a question about the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. I’ve decided to go ahead and describe each of the ten. This will take several posts. These are very interesting books, well worth reading, and canonical Scripture for some parts of the Christian church. My summaries here are taken from my Introduction to the Bible. ********************************************************** Tobit Tobit is a work of historical fiction—by which I mean it is a fictional tale set within a real historical context. Originally the book was written in Aramaic, either in the late third century b.c.e. or the early second. The narrative is set in the eighth century b.c.e. in the city of Nineveh, where the hero of the story, Tobit, has been exiled from his town in Galilee during the conquests of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser. In other words, the account is allegedly taking place after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. The story involves two subplots that eventually come to be woven together. The first is about Tobit himself, who is […]
October 16, 2018
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 introduction to the Bible. 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. The book celebrates Wisdom as the greatest gift to humans and insists that it involves proper fear and adoration of God, which will lead to eternal reward. Those who lead ungodly lives, on the other hand “will be punished as their reasoning deserves” (5:10). The exaltation of wisdom recalls Proverbs 8, where Wisdom appears as a female consort with God at the beginning of all things. Here too Wisdom is said […]
October 17, 2018
More Apocrypha: A Letter of Jeremiah, (Fascinating) Additions to Daniel, and 1 Maccabees
Here is another installment on my discussion of the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books. The first of the three I discuss here is not well known, but the second and third are historically quite significant. ***************************************************** The Letter of Jeremiah This is one of the shortest books of Apocrypha—it is only one chapter long, and in the Latin tradition of the Roman Catholic Church it is included as the final chapter of the book of Baruch. The book is allegedly written by the prophet Jeremiah, sent to the Judeans bound for Babylonian exile. In exile they will be among people who worship other gods through idols. This book is nothing but an attack on pagan idolatry. The real historical context of the writing is a situation in which Jews around the world were surrounded by idol worship. It may have been produced in the aftermath of the Maccabean Revolt; it appears to have been composed in Hebrew or Aramaic. Much of the book consists of a mockery of … To learn more about these books, you’ll need to […]
October 19, 2018
The Digital Bible (by Jeff Siker)
I just finished the seventh edition of my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. I started working on it, for the first edition, in 1993 – so I’ve been at it for 25 years. Ouch. For this new revision, among other things, I’ve added an Excursus of particular relevance, on the “Digital Bible,” written, luckily for all involved, not by me, but by my scholar-friend Jeff Siker, who has published, just this past year, the definitive book on it. Here is what he says about it. (He is on the blog, so if anyone has any questions for him about it, or about anything else, ask away!) – Jeff Siker is also the author of Jesus, Sin, and Perfection in Early Christianity, Liquid Scripture: The Bible in the Digital World. **************************************************** The Digital Bible Jeffrey Siker The changing technology of writing and reading has always played a major role in the transmission and interpretation of the New Testament, from papyrus rolls to parchment codices to Gutenberg’s printing press, and, […]
October 21, 2018
Blog Dinner! Denver, November 15
On November 15 I will be in Denver in order to give a talk (the following morning) at the Biblical Archaeology Society Fest (see https://travelstudy.bib-arch.org/seminars/21st-annual-bible-and-archaeology-fest). Would anyone be interested in joining a “Blog Dinner” that evening (Thursday November 15)? It would be a chance to get to know each other and talk about matters of mutual interest. The only requirements for attendance 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. You don’t even have to feel obliged to say much! If you can and want to come, zap me a note – not here on the blog, but to my email [email protected]. Do so right away: if past experience is any guide, the table will fill rather quickly. I am looking for a minimum of three and maximum six people to come. If/when the table is filled, I will put another announcement on the blog; if I don’t get more than a […]
Yet Other Apocryphal Books
OK, this will be my last post for now on the apocrypha. Here is the final (and particularly intriguing) book accepted in the Roman Catholic church, and a few others accepted in Orthodox Christian circles. 2 Maccabees The book known as 2 Maccabees is another account of the history of the Maccabean Revolt. Its author did not have 1 Maccabees as a source but was writing independently of it. His interest is principally with the events that transpired under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, so that the book overlaps mainly with 1 Maccabees chapters 1–7. The author indicates that his work is in fact an abridgment of a much longer five-volume description of the revolt by someone named Jason of Cyrene. He has condensed Jason’s work into a single volume. Unlike 1 Maccabees, this account was originally composed in Greek. Whereas 1 Maccabees is a rather straightforward chronicle of what happened leading up to and during the revolt, 2 Maccabees takes a more impassioned … To see the rest of this post, you will […]
October 22, 2018
The New Edition of My New Testament Textbook
People have been asking when the new edition of the next Bart Ehrman Textbook will be available. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have finished editing my textbook on the New Testament for its seventh edition (title still: The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings). The book was first published in 1997 and has always been designed for college/university students taking a one-semester course on the New Testament. In it, I do not presuppose any knowledge of the topic but begin at ground zero. The Next Bart Ehrman Textbook When I started doing research on the first edition of this textbook back in the mid-90s, I had very clear ideas about what I wanted it to be. First and foremost, I wanted to approach the New Testament from a rigorously historical perspective. It is not that I had any difficulties at the time, either professionally or personally, with introductions that were more geared toward theology, exegesis, or literary criticism. But I wanted my book to be different. I wanted […]
October 23, 2018
Talking Dogs and Resurrected Slaves
As I indicated yesterday, for the next few days I have decided to post the new “boxes” that I am including in the seventh edition of my textbook The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Since these are relatively short – most of them 300-400 words – I will be doing two-posts-a-day. (I don’t want to combine two boxes into one post, since they are all on completely different topics from one another; but I want you to get your money’s worth on the blog and so don’t want to have very short posts each day. So, two a day.) ************************************************************** Another Glimpse into the Past Box 5.1 Talking Dogs and Resurrected Slaves When Christians were spreading their oral traditions, trying to convert pagans to the new faith, what did they say or do to convince them? The apostle Paul indicates that his great miracles made all the difference, as he himself did “signs, wonders, and miracles” among his converts (2 Corinthians 12:12). And in fact we have later oral […]
October 24, 2018
How Reliable are Oral Traditions?
Another box in my upcoming new edition of my textbook. ******************************** Something to Think About Box 5.3 How Reliable Are Oral Traditions? If stories of Jesus’ words and deeds were in oral circulation year after year before being written down, how do we know whether they were changed significantly over time? One way to answer the question is to see how “oral cultures” preserve their traditions generally. In written cultures, such as ours… The rest of this post is for blog members only. If you don’t belong yet, now’s your big chance!
Did Jesus Call Himself God?
Did Jesus call himself God? I am posting two brief posts a day giving the short boxes I include in the new edition of my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. This particular one deals with a topic I’ve addressed several times on the blog, in view of my book How Jesus Became God. What Do You Think – Did Jesus Declare Himself God? It is interesting to ask: “What did Jesus say about himself?” More specifically, you might ask: “Did Jesus ever call himself God?” As it turns out, it depends on which Gospel you read. In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus never says he is God. He does talk about himself as the Son of Man; he says he must be killed and raised from the dead, and he admits he is the messiah. But the vast bulk of his teaching in these Gospels is not about himself at all. It is about God, the coming Kingdom of God, and the way to […]
October 26, 2018
Jesus’ Apocalyptic Message in Matthew
Yet another “box” in the new edition of my textbook on the New Testament, this one a rather factual reflection dealing with the heightened apocalypticism found in the Gospel of Matthew. *********************************************************************** Another Glimpse Into the Past Box 8.3 Jesus’ Apocalyptic Message in Matthew As we will see in greater detail in Chapter 16, apocalypticism was a popular worldview among Jews in the first century. Apocalyptic Jews maintained that… The rest of this post is for blog members only. If you don’t belong yet, now’s your chance! Join!
My Own Translation of the New Testament?
Here’s a question I get on occasion, which I addressed fully six years ago on the blog. QUESTION: Do you have any plans to publish your own “best” version of the NT in English? From reading several of your books, it does seem as though you probably already have a translation sitting in a drawer somewhere. I have not been able to find scholarly reconstruction that was produced in the last three and a half decades. Most of the newer “translations” are theologically motivated and sound more like modern slang. Have any of your colleagues/ students produced a readable version you would recommend? (Thousands of footnotes do not make for a readable text!) I would very much like to see your translation/interpretation sitting on a bookshelf. RESPONSE: No, as it turns out, I have never written out a full translation of the New Testament. For several reasons. First, there are a number of excellent translations already available that have been done by some of the best NT scholars on the planet. My translation would be […]
October 28, 2018
The Difference Between Eschatology and Apocalypticism
QUESTION I have recently been reading John Meier’s books and he almost always calls Jesus (and John the Baptist), eschatological prophets (once stating Jesus having a “tinge of apocalypticism” or something to that effect). And you always refer to Jesus as an “apocalyptic prophet”. Do you make any distinction in the terms “eschatological” and “apocalyptic”? RESPONSE Ah, it’s a good question. These terms are an endless source of confusion for people – even scholars sometimes. I think the problem is that different scholars work with different definitions and often they have not thought through carefully the implications of their terminology. So let me explain how I work it all out, by defining/describing a set of terms that are all closely related but distinct (in my head): eschatology (and eschatological); apocalypticism; apocalyptic; and apocalypse. Eschatology. This is a broad term that simply means … To see the rest of this post, you will need to belong to the blog. If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for? Remember, the END IS NEAR!! Join […]
October 29, 2018
Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library and Some Crucial Missing Parts!
I have been making two-posts-a-day, giving the new “boxes” that I’ve written for the seventh edition of my textbook, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Today, as it turns out, the two boxes I was going to post are both about the Nag Hammadi Library (the so-called “Gnostic Gospels”). So I’ll simply include both of them in this one post. Happy reading! *********************************************************** Another Glimpse Into the Past 11.6 The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library The chance discovery of a cache of ancient Christian documents in a remote part of Upper Egypt — the Nag Hammadi library — is a story of serendipity, ineptitude, secrecy, ignorance, scholarly brilliance, murder, and blood revenge. Even now, after scholars have spent years trying to piece it all together, details of the find remain sketchy. We do know that it occurred around … To see the rest of this post you will need to belong to the blog. It doesn’t cost much to join, you get tons for your money, and every nickle […]
October 30, 2018
The Value of Eyewitness Testimony
The first of today’s two-short-posts from new “Boxes” in my New Testament textbook, on a matter of vital importance to anyone interested in knowing about the historical Jesus. ********************************************************************** What Do You Think? Box 13.3 The Value of Eyewitness Testimony If you want to know about something that happened in the past – whether in a criminal trial or just among your family and friends – you almost always prefer to learn what an eyewitness saw or heard. And so most of us unreflectively think an eyewitness report is highly reliable. But is that the case? Eyewitness testimony has been studied by legal experts and psychologists since the early twentieth century. The first important case study occurred in 1902. In a law school in Berlin, a well-known criminologist named von Liszt was delivering a lecture when an argument broke out. One student stood up and shouted that he wanted to show how the topic was related to Christian ethics. Another got up and yelled that he would not put up with that. The first […]
October 31, 2018
Jesus and Hell
The second of my two boxes today from the new edition of my textbook. This one of even more pressing importance: what did Jesus think of hell? ************************************************************* Another Glimpse Into the Past Box 15.8 Hell in the Teaching of Jesus Jesus sometimes indicates that on the Day of Judgment sinners will be cast, unburied, into the most unholy, repulsive, God-forsaken place that anyone in Israel could imagine, the valley known as “Gehenna.” He says, for example that it is better to gouge out your eye that sins or amputate your hand and enter the kingdom maimed than to be tossed into Gehenna with eye and hand intact (Matthew 5:29, 30) Gehenna is obviously serious. But what is it? The word is often mistranslated in English Bibles as “hell” (e.g., in the NIV and the NRSV; see Matthew 5:22, 29, 30). But, Gehenna is not “hell” in the modern sense of a place (inside the earth) where sinners are tormented forever. Then what is it? To find out, you will need to belong to the […]
Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s Churches
Another one of the new boxes in my textbook on the New Testament ********************************************************* Another Glimpse into the Past Box 21.2. Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s Churches The earliest Christians, immediately after Jesus’ resurrection, were obviously Jews: eleven of the apostles (minus Judas Iscariot) and a handful of women, including Mary Magdalene. Once these followers came to believe, they converted others they came into contact with – all of them, at first, Jews. But the Jewish Christian church was never a huge success. Later sources occasionally mention smallish Jewish groups of Christians, but apart from the church in Jerusalem, these never played a huge role in the ongoing life of the church in the early centuries. Jewish Christianity was almost always on the margins. It was probably heading to the margins by … To see the rest of this post you’ll need to belong to the blog. It takes little effort and not much money to join. And you’ll be so loaded up with important knowledge you won’t know what to do with yourself. […]
November 2, 2018
Miraculous Conversions in the Book of Acts
This new box in my New Testament Introduction deals with one of the fascinating and best documented phenomena from early Christianity — that the earliest followers of Jesus were believed to be able to do great miracles, leading to the conversion of outsiders to the new faith. This notion is recorded already in our earliest sources. Here is what I say about it from the book of Acts, our first account of the spread of Christianity. ************************************************************************ Another Glimpse Into the Past Box. 17.6 Miraculous Conversions in Acts We have seen that the earliest Christians spread their faith by telling tales of the great miracles done by both Jesus and his apostles (see Box xxx). We find such miracle stories in our earliest account of the first conversions to the Christian faith, in the book of Acts. The first episode occurs already in chapter 2, where the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, less than two months after Jesus’ death. When the Jewish crowds hear the Spirit-filled apostles preach in […]
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise?
Here is an interesting question I have received closely connected with the work I’ve been doing on the different views about the afterlife – what happens to us when we die? – in the early Christian tradition. It has to do with a key verse that has been much debated over the years, a verse found only in Luke’s Gospel, in which Jesus assures the “robber” being crucified with him, that he will that day awaken in paradise. Or *is* that what Jesus says? QUESTION Now that you mention about the differences in translations I would like to ask about how the Jehovah’s witnesses in their New World Translation bible Luke 23:43: And he said to him: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise.” They have inserted a comma after today because their bias is that the paradise is in the future not the day Jesus died. Besides their bias do you see any other indication that that rendition would be probable? RESPONSE: In my book I try […]
November 4, 2018
How Christianity Grew and Grew
This will be the final post on the new boxes in my Introduction to the New Testament; both of these are on a related topic, tied to my book The Triumph of Christianity, so I will include them both there. One has to do with how miracles allegedly led to conversions of pagans to the new faith; the other charts the rate of growth that it appears the Christian church experienced in the early years. ********************************************************** Another Glimpse Into the Past Box 26.4 Legendary Confrontations with Pagans As the Christian gospel spread throughout the Roman world, a number of legendary accounts appeared portraying the confrontations between Christian missionaries and their pagan opponents (see Box 9.6). In these accounts, the Christians’ miracles trump the power of the pagan Gods. One involves the apostle John in an apocryphal book called “The Acts of John.” John arrives at the magnificent temple of the great goddess of the Ephesians, Artemis, and confronts a large crowd of pagans celebrating the goddess’s birthday, challenging them to a kind of spiritual […]
November 5, 2018