Dear Gold Members, It is time for our monthly Gold Q&A. Have a question? Ask it! Anything related to the blog! To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] DEADLINE for your question. Midnight EST this Friday, Feb. 25. I will make the recording that weekend, and it will be available, if all goes to plan, on Monday, Feb. 28. I'm looking forward to it! Bart
I'm pleased to publish this Platinum guest post by Dan Kohanski. I think I can *guarantee* that most of you will not have heard this information before! And it's really interesting, the kind of thing you might wonder about but not know who to ask. Dan will be happy to respond to your comments and questions. Do you have anything you want to post about? You don't have to do massive research or be a scholar in the field -- just have in interest in expressing your views, getting them out there, getting some feedback from kindly-disposed readers, your fellow Platinums! If you're interested, just let me know! For now, Here's Dan: ******************************* The first Christians were driven by the expectation of the immediate end of the world as it then existed. It was going to happen right now, or tomorrow, certainly within a few days, definitely within their generation, surely within their own lifetime. The disciples preached that Jesus had gone to heaven to get the kingdom moving, as it were, and [...]
Dear Platinum members, It's time to vote on another Platinum guest post, to determine which will be posted on the blog at large. Take a look -- they're all terrific. To vote, just send a quick note to Diane at [email protected] And remember -- you're always welcome to submit a post yourself. Anything connected to the blog that strikes your fancy that you'd like others to read about? Any ideas/thoughts you'd like to have disseminated and discussed? Here's your chance. Just zap me a note. But for now: here are the current options! August 18, 2021 Jesus as a Healer: First, Do No Harm Douglas Wadeson October 21, 2021 Must Jesus Divide Families? Douglas Wadeson December 7, 2021 What We KNOW about Jesus. Dan Kohanski December 28, 2021 On Misreading The Gospels Joel Scheller
Here is an interesting and important post by Platinum member Bob Seidensticker for the rest of you Platinums. In it he deals with a fundamental issue. Some Christian apologists who otherwise are smart people have made the odd claim that "legends" about Jesus could not have sprung up in the forty years between his life and the first Gospel accounts. There just wasn't enough time: forty years ain't enough! In one instance, apologist William Lane Craig claims that this view was put forward by a famous historian of ancient Rome, Sherwin-White. Is that true? Read and find out! Remember: you too can prepare a Platinum post. Just write up something connected with the blog, make it about 1000-1200 words, and send it to me; I'll put it in queue. But for now, read and enjoy Bob's post! And if you have comments for him, bring 'em on! Oral Tradition and the Game of Telephone: A. N. Sherwin-White’s Famous Quote The time from the death of Jesus to the writing of the first gospel was [...]
Dear Gold Members, It's a new year! And time for another Gold Q&A, our monthly audio for Gold members only. As always, you provide written questions, I try to answer them; the audio recording will be released to Gold members only. Have a question to ask? Anything connected with the blog, directly or remotely? Go for it. I will be recording the next Q&A on Saturday Jan 22 to be released Wednesday Jan 26. Send your question(s) to our blog COO, Diane Pittman, at [email protected]. The deadline is noon EST, Friday December 21. The best questions are only a sentence or two long at most. Send a zinger! Bart
Do you like controversy? Well HERE'S some controversy for you. Maybe Abraham actually went through with it and slew his son. What? Read on. Here's a scintillating guest post by Platinum member Doug Wadeson. I'm sure he'll answer your questions. I'm sure if I were you I'd have some! Remember: you too can submit a guest post as a Platinum member, for other Platinum members. And it has the potential of going out to the whole blog. You don't need to be a scholar of the Bible or an expert on early Christianity to do it. It can be on anything of relevance to the blog. Give it a shot, send it to me; I'm happy to give you feedback if you'd like. For now, here's Doug's post. ******************************* Most Jews and Christians are familiar with the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac and almost sacrificing him to God on Mount Moriah.[1] It is called "the Binding" or “Akedah.” The usual understanding is that God was testing Abraham’s faith, but that He stepped in [...]
Dear Platinum members, A number of you were able to come to our quarterly Platinum webinar a few days ago; and a number weren't! Whether there or not, you can see it here. I thought it was an unusually interesting topic, that I've never lectured on before: six different understandings from early Christianity of how Jesus came into the world . Enjoy! https://youtu.be/80q3Z5AYz4k
Dear Gold Members, Tis the Season! And time for another Gold Q&A, our monthly audio for gold members only. As always, if you provide written questions, I'll answer as many as I can the best I can, and I release the audio recording to gold members only. Have a question to ask? Anything connected with the blog, directly or remotely? Go for it. I will be recording the next Q&A on Thursday December 23 to be released Wednesday December 29. Send your question(s) to our blog COO, Diane Pittman, at [email protected]. The deadline is midnight (in whatever time zone you’re in) Wednesday December 22. The best questions are only a sentence or two long at most. I hope to hear from you! Bart
In case you forgot or misplaced the post! For Platinum blog members we have a special webinar, once every three months. And this Saturday, 12/18, noon ET, is the date for the final one of the year. And it's an intriguing topic that I would be my house you've never heard addressed this way before. Or at least I never have. Here's the topic, explanation, and Zoom link: The date: Saturday December 18; noon (Eastern Time). No need to register; just show up. The topic: Six Views of How Jesus Came Into the World: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, and Marcion. Here’s what it’s about: Every Christmas Christians celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world, and even non-Christians hear a good deal about it. What almost no one realizes is that Jesus’ appearance in the world is understood differently by our various early accounts. In this talk I’ll discuss the various ways of understanding Jesus’ appearance in the world. I will be trying to show that all four Gospels appear to have different understandings (either significantly [...]
Dear Platinum Members, It is time to vote for the next Platinum guest post to become a blog guest post. The winner's post will go to all blog members for reading and comment. All the winners so far have been a big success, with very interesting and postive feedback. Now it's the next round. Do you remember them? Wanna read them again? Willing to vote? Here are the four options. If you’re willing to vote, please remember: I am NOT asking which one you think is the most scholarly. They are all high quality. I’m asking: which did you find most interesting and, given what you know about the members of the blog, would best address the interests of most blog members? To vote, please send an email indicating your choice to my assistant Diane Pittman, at [email protected] . You will have until Monday midnight, December 20. We will tabulate the votes then I"ll announce the winner, place it in queue, nd let you know when it will appear. Here are the posts! July 29, [...]
I am pleased to post this offering from Dan Kohanski, who was inspired by my posts on Bill O'Reilly's book, Killing Jesus, to come up with a discussion of what historians can "actually* know about Jesus. What do you think? Things to add to his list? Not convinced by some? Would change some others? Feedback welcome. With this post the QUEUE IS EMPTY! Want to post something for fellow Platinums! Don't hold back -- go for it! Just write something up, say 600-1400 words, and zap it to me. But for now, Enjoy! ********************************* It often surprises people to learn that Jesus, who has long been one of the most recognizable names in history, was an obscure figure in his own lifetime. We have no contemporaneous record of him, and very little for decades afterwards other than writings from his followers. The oldest known sources about Jesus are the letters of Paul, written starting about two decades after Jesus’s death. Paul was not concerned with how Jesus lived, but with why he died. The first [...]
It's time for another Platinum webinar; as you know, this is a four-time a year event, for Platinum Members only. Given the season, I've decided to do a "Christmas topic" that I've never done before. The date: Saturday December 18; noon (Eastern Time). No need to register; just show up. The topic: Six Views of How Jesus Came Into the World: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, and Marcion. Here's what it's about: Every Christmas Christians celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world, and even non-Christians hear a good deal about it. What almost no one realizes is that Jesus' appearance in the world is understood differently by our various early accounts. In this talk I'll discuss the various ways of understanding Jesus' appearance in the world. I will be trying to show that all four Gospels appear to have different understandings (either significantly or somewhat different); and I will then look at two non-canonical accounts, a view allegedly written by Jesus' brother James, which had a big impact on how Christians have seen Jesus' [...]
This is the second of two posts by Doug Wadeson on a divisive aspect of Jesus' ministry; there are comments in the Gospels that he would divide families. How are we to understand that? Doug's first post o the matter was on October 21: Must Jesus Divide Families? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson | The Bart Ehrman Blog This is the wrap up. What do you think? Make some comments and he'll be happy to answer ************************* In the first part of this post we looked at some passages in which Jesus insisted that his followers love him more than their own families, and that he said he came to bring division into families. Did Jesus intend to divide families, or was he simply stating the reality that following him was likely to cause problems in families? I tend to think the latter. He spoke about the bond of marriage and against divorce (as in Matthew 19:3-9). He seemed to have genuine concern for children (Mark 9:36, 37). And many of his teachings emphasize [...]
Platinum members! As you know, one of the perks of your esteemed status is that you are allowed to write blog posts for other platinum members to read and interact with. Do you have anything you'd like to talk about, any views you'd like to put out there for feedback?? Send me a post! It can be any size up to 1400 words or so. On any topic we deal with on the blog. And if you choose (but only if you choose) it can become a candidate (chosen by Platinum members) to be posted to the entire Blog. So why not? Get your views out there. Send me a post! The following is the first of two posts by Douglas Wadeson on a controversial topic that most people don't know is controversial. Did Jesus actually believe in "family values" the way they are defined today -- and the way that many Christians simply assume? A close look at the Gospels can be very revealing. Here Doug begins to provide it. Your views/comments? Send them [...]
Dearly Beloved Platinum Members, Here is another round of Platinum posts to vote for, to see which is to appear on the blog itself. Take a look if you want. Vote if you want. Hey, it's all voluntary. But one lucky winner will have her or his views available broadly, including on my other social network channels. So which do you think you'd like to see out there? These are all very good. Make a choice, and send your vote to Diane Pittman at [email protected] . Diane will tabulate them and then I'll make the announcement and put the winner in the queue. What We Know Today About Religions and the Afterlife (in the US): Platinum Guest Post by Sharon Friedman The Reconstruction of Q: Platinum Guest Post by Steve Sutter Prophecies and Saints in the Book of Daniel. Platinum Guest Post by Daniel Kohanski Jesus the Healer: Those Darn Demons. Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD
Can We Reconstruct the New Testament from the Writings of the Early Church Fathers? Christian apologists sometimes say that the historical record for the New Testament is so robust that the New Testament could be recreated from the writings of the early church fathers alone. Does this popular claim hold up? For example, here are Norm Geisler and Frank Turek in I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, p. 228: The early church fathers—men of the second and third centuries such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, and others—quoted the New Testament so much (36,289 times, to be exact) that all but eleven verses of the New Testament can be reconstructed just from their quotations. There are 7957 verses in the New Testament, so “all but 11 verses” means that 99.9 percent could be reconstructed. And note the word “reconstructed.” They imagine recreating the original words or at least an identical meaning. These are bold claims. Let’s track down the evidence that supports this claim. As we do so, note the [...]
Dear Gold Members, First, many apologies. September got away from me; I was out of town for a third of it (lecturing for a UNC Alumni tour in northern Italy, suffering for the cause), and the rest of it just ate me alive. So I missed the Gold Q&A. But never fear: I am going to make it up to you. I'll be doing TWO this month. It will be the same as before, only double-duty this month. Just to remind you, as if you need reminding: as a perk of your elite status as a gold member of the blog you are provided an audio Q&A once a month (well....) for Gold members only. You provide written questions, I answer as many as I can, and I release the audio recording to Gold members only. Have a question to ask? The sky's the limit. Go for it. I will be recording the first Q&A on Sunday October 10, to be released Tuesday October 13. Send your question(s) to our blog COO, Diane Pittman, at [...]
Here now is another stimulating and learned post by Platinum member Dan Kohanski, on an unusually important topic. Any comments? He's happy to answer them. I'm running low on Platinum posts! Do you have something you'd like to offer? Let me know. ****************************** Why did only a fraction of one percent of all Jews in the empire or even in Judaea ever believe in the message of the Jesus Movement?[1] The answer starts with that message itself. The first members of the Movement were all Jews themselves, saw themselves as Jews, and argued that Jewish traditions and beliefs inevitably led to their version of Judaism. However, the way they used those traditions and beliefs to solve the dilemma of their founder’s crucifixion was too radical for most Jews to accept. I want to focus on three essential aspects of that solution that were particularly troublesome for Jews: belief in the individual resurrection of Jesus, belief in Jesus as the messiah after he had died, and belief in Jesus as necessary for salvation. Belief [...]
As a number of you pointed out, I rather inconveniently didn't include the link to our webinar in my post announcing the link to our webinar. Details. I've updated the post, but in case you're reading this one instead, here it is: https://youtu.be/ygmkj5OZXZA
Thanks to those of you who made it to the Platinum webinar on Saturday, on "The History of Biblical Scholarship." I enjoyed it very much -- I've never talked to a public audience about that. There's a lot more to be said, obviously, but I did try to hit the major points! If you weren't there, or even if you were, here's the talk. https://youtu.be/ygmkj5OZXZA To relieve your concerns, the talk itself doesn't go as long as the recording! A good chunk of it was Q&A. Watch as much or as little or as none as you like! I appreciate how you've been involved on the blog as Platinum members. If we can improve your experience, please let me know. Bart