Loading...Here are some of the intriguing questions I have recently received from blog members. The first one includes a reply to my response and my response to that reply. Enjoy!
QUESTION:
Have you considered the angle that Jesus may have been a revolutionary Essene? This would explain his outward orientation instead of inward. I mean he fits right in with being a disciple of John the Baptist and has a very Essene worldview. A good amount of his followers were also followers of John the Baptist. Most of the points he makes, eating with tax collectors and sinners, doing things on the Sabbath, not obsessing over ritual purity == all of these seems strangely specifically targeted towards the Essenes, which means he is very familiar and actively critiquing them.
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Among critical biblical scholars as a whole, what’s the rough breakdown (percentage-wise) between apocalyptic vs. non-apocalyptic views of Jesus?
What from I’ve read, I get the sense that most view Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet. But what does “most” here mean? Is it a slight edge, or a vast majority, or something in between?
If Borg, Crossan, Mack and their ilk are — despite their huge popularity as best-selling authors of books promoting a non-apocalyptic view of Jesus — actually a distinct minority within the scholarly field, how large (or small) is that minority, relatively speaking?
I mean, are we talking 60/40 here, or something more like 90/10? Or maybe 75/25, or what?
Yes, I’d say they are a minority, and were even when they (or at least Borg, quite publicly) was claiming to represent the majority view. I don’t have a percentage to give, but my sense is that a pretty large majority agree he was an apocalypticist. (Jesus, not Borg!)
I believe your next podcast may address my question, but it’s on my mind this morning. What is your opinion or take on Reza Aslan’s book “Zealot, the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth”? I read it and it caused quite a stir when it came out a few years ago. If I remember right, his take that Jesus was more of revolutionary, than a man of peace.
If you do a word search for “Aslan” you’ll see a long series of posts on the book soon after it came out. I disagree with his thesis, and try to show why it’s a problem; but I also discuss a number of the factual errors in the book.
Hello Bart,
When I started reading the Bible chronologically years ago, I automatically was struck by the mention of “the Lord” in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:8. Then, multiple times “an angel of the Lord” was physically there talking with people. Also, in Leviticus 10:1-2, it literally seems that “the Lord” has a flamethrower. The “cloud of the Lord” seems a flying object in which “the Lord” travels. All of that, made me understand why some people think that they were describing aliens.
It seems weird. I have never been interested in or looking for infos about UFOs, but have heard some stories along the years. What is weirder is that recently David Grush an ex Pentagon officer, for instance, testified about the presence of “non human pilots”. And Dr Gary Nolan, a scientific from Stanford, talks also about their presence in a video from today!
When I read the Bible, the simpliest answer about the presence of “the Lord”, “angels” (messengers of the Lord), the “cloud” etc is that they were describing exactly that: beings with advanced techologies, thus their power.
Why historians cannot take them at their words? Is it because of a lack of open-mindedness?
Hello Bart,
I’m back in your blog after 3 months, I wanted to answer your last reply (that I had read previously this summer) from my initial message above, but your answers (2 or 3), and mine in between have been suppressed since. Why?
They probably aren’t. If you “view post” you’ll probably find them. If not, click Help and ask Jen where they are.
I was confused by your answer about my previous replies which have disappeared, because they were written under this post of the 17th of July 2025. My first reply is here: 17 July 2025 at 8:15pm. Then, your answers and mine which followed, probably 6 messages, are gone. Instead, there is directly my message of the 19th of October 2025 at 6:37am, so you must see the same. Thus, I didn’t get what you meant by “If you “view post”.
Nonetheless, I followed your suggesion, cliked Help and asked Jen where they are. It’s been more than 2 weeks that I did that, and received no answer from her or anyone.
Could you tell me why our exchange has been removed from here? What is because of the subject: our disagreement about science whose scientists can’t find consensus, and/or the fact that multiple reknown scientists are talking about UFOs more and more, recently, and that you don’t take what they say into account?
Wow. I have no idea.
But no, I do not believe in UFO’s, if you mean by that, space-ships from other planets. If you mean literally objects that we can’t identify, then absolutely there are such things.
Can we talk about the Teacher of Righteousness? Who exactly was he?
He was an important figure for the Essene community connected wiht the Dead Sea Scrolls, a great teacher who understoo the will of God as expressed in Scripture when interpreted properly.
What was his name?
Unfortunately, we don’t know. He is never named in our sources.
(46) Jesus said, “Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist, there is no one so superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered (before him). Yet I have said, whichever one of you comes to be a child will be acquainted with the kingdom and will become superior to John.”
John become kingdom
Acquanited child
To of whichever
I Yet lowered
Should that John
So is the Adam of among
I’m rereading your “Triumph of Christianity.” From your other books I recognize how the original Christians’’ expectation of Jesus’s imminent return with the kingdom of God changed to a belief in a heavenly afterlife. My understanding is that, combined with their experience of the resurrection, the expectation of imminent return was a major reason/motivation for their faith in Jesus.
However, in “Triumph,” at least after Paul’s missionary activities—say, by mid-second century—the major reason for conversion was ( to simplify a much more complex argument) the miraculous. It seems odd that the reason/motivation for belief changed so much.
Is it correct though that, in your view, belief in the miraculous paved the way for belief in an afterlife in heaven or hell and in that way took the place took the place of belief in Jesus’s imminent return?
Josephus actually numbers the Essenes at 4,000 (Antiquities 18:1.5).
This is speculative, but I wonder whether JtB could be identified with the “Teacher of Righteousness,” Jesus the “Man of Lawlessness,” and Paul the “liar.”
Both Jesus and Qumran community openly criticized the religious establishment. After John’s death, Jesus thus absorbed many of his disciples. Interestingly, after Jesus’s death, the early Christians show patterns of communal living resembling Essene/Qumran practices.
The Gospels link the miraculous feeding with JtB’s death. The crowds are described as hungry after traveling a long distance—Qumran to Galilee? In John’s Gospel, many of these people abandon Jesus when he implies he’s greater than Moses (hence “Man of Lawlessness”). In the Synoptics, the crowd shrinks from 5,000 to 4,000—eerily identical to the 4,000 Essenes Josephus mentions.
There appears to be a semantic link between the terms “Essene,” “Ebionite,” and “the poor.” In the Gospels, Jesus blesses the poor; in Galatians, Paul is urged to remember the poor; the Epistle of James strongly emphasizes caring for the poor, and 1QM identifies the poor with the “perfect of the way.” Notably, “the way” is how both Acts and Qumran describe their movements! Not to mention the two-way philosophy in Didache and DSS.
Regarding the absence of letters being written by secretaries, this overlooks broader categories of authorship and delegation in antiquity. While it’s true that private correspondences rarely show extensive ghostwriting, this standard doesn’t necessarily apply to other genres, particularly legal or public declarations issued by figures of authority.
For instance, royal decrees, edicts, and proclamations—though attributed to kings or emperors—were often composed by scribes, legal advisors, or court officials. These documents went through editorial processes, employed standard bureaucratic/theological language, and were often written in languages the issuer may not have even spoken. A prime example is the Cyrus Cylinder. Though it presents itself as the words of Cyrus the Great, scholars widely agree it was composed by Babylonian scribes in Akkadian—Cyrus’s administrative language, but not his native tongue—using Mesopotamian theological and royal idioms to legitimize his rule.
This model of delegated authorship offers a more plausible ancient parallel for letters like 2 Thessalonians: messages that reflect the theological intent and authority of Paul but may have been drafted and shaped by close collaborators or scribes before receiving his final approval or signature. The distinction between authorship and composition was far more flexible in antiquity than modern notions of individual literary creation allow.
Good morning, Bart! I finished Armageddon this week, and my mother wants to read it next. I just wanted to drop you a line to remind you how deeply appreciated you are. There seems to be a movement among Christians to better understand and be more thoughtful about doctrines and beliefs. Just going to church doesn’t feel like enough for some anymore. You are helping people like me so much. All the best!
Hello Dr.Bart Erhman
It not virtually not possible for poor people like Peter to travel in the ancent world, i suppose he didnt travel like Paul or traveled not very much.