(7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
Loading...It has just occurred to me (duh) that some blog readers who are enjoying these “In a Nutshell” posts on the books of the New Testament may like to see a more extended exposition of the various issues I address, and I’ve devoted entire lectures courses for some of these books (and will be doing more). You might be interested in them.
One of the first I did was on the Gospel of Matthew, an eight-lecture course (50 minutes or so each; with two Q&A’s; and additional materials provided). You can find it here. https://courses.bartehrman.com/matthew Blog members get a discount with the code Blog5.
Whether you want to get the course or not, I thought it would be valuable to explain what I cover there, lecture by lecture. And so here is a summary!
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“… just occurred to me (duh)” happens to me almost every time I read or listen to something you said.
Matthew the “Jewish” Gospel, the Epistle of James the Jewish book in the canon, and the Didache together confirm the Jewish origins of the religion known as Christianity. I would like more about this history.
Do you mean the history of how Christianity emerged out of Judaism? I suppose most any book on the history of ealriest Christianity would cover that You might check out the recent one by Paula Fredriksen, Ancient Christianities.
Yes, I’m very interested in these lectures.
From 1 PETER
12 Through Silvanus, whom I consider a faithful brother, I have written this
short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God.
Stand fast in it. 13 Your sister church [34] in Babylon, chosen together with
you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark. 14 Greet one another
with a kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
Please answer the off-topic question.
A friend assures me that this means that Peter as the first Pope and his son Mark send greetings from the church in Rome. Supposedly, Babylon was a synonym for Rome to the Christians of that time?
What is the true meaning of these verses?
Thank you!
The term “Babylon” came to be applied to Rome after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE, precisely because Babylon was the first to destroy Jerusalem, wipe out much of its population, and destroy the temple (and Rome was the second). It gets called this in the book of Revelation distinctively. That means that 1 Peter was almost certainly written after 70 CE. Peter would have been dead by then; usually he is thought to have died around 64 CE. So it was not actually written by Peter. (I talk about this in my book Forged.) The author is using the name Peter to provide special authority for his book, even though it was put in circulation long after his day.
Thank you !
When I read Matthew, I get a sense that the emphasis of author is trying to prove to, I guess Jewish readers in particular, by providing something that Jesus did then bringing something up in what we refer to as the Old Testament and connecting the two for the readers in an effort to prove to them that Jesus was their messiah.
I am sorry but This is very hard for me to explain properly, but even the Greek that is used, is the same exact Greek words used in the LXX. There just seems to be this emphasis of using Old Testament stories comparing them to what Jesus did in an effort to convince his contemporary Jewish audience of Jesus being the Messiah. ?Almost like an updated version of the Septuagint that includes the Messiah? Am I reading into this sense incorrectly?
Matthew is definitely using Scripture to show Jesus really is the messiah as predicted by the prophets, and he often does apply scriptures to the messiah that were not taken by most Jews as messianic (“out of Egypt I have called my son” e.g.). It’s not clear to me that Matthew is trying to convince Jews of this; on the contrary, I’m pretty sure he was writing for his own Christian community, preaching to the choir as it were.
Dear Dr Ehrman:
I saw my 2 2nd aunts today & unlike when I swathed in the past I could talk credibly that I know the scriptures & what is wrong with their prudishness.
One aunt who I last saw in HK 9.5years ago, knows in my 2.5h daily devotional how impt you are to that.
Thank you!