Loading...A post from 2012 that I had completely forgotten!
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A fascinating news item has appeared in the Smithsonian Magazine. At first it may not be obvious how it connects to Christianity in Antiquity. But I think it does. It is about a watch owned by Abraham Lincoln. Here is the link to the full story, with a photo:
So the deal is this, as described in the article:
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Thank you Dr Ehrman. A fascinating historical gem. My (Irish) wife is sceptical about it, though, as she says that ALL Irish people have excellent memories. She quoted an old saying that ‘the problem with the English is that they never remember and the problem with the Irish is that they never forget!’
For the record, my wife has a brilliant memory and can remember every word that I have ever uttered, in 40 years of marriage 😂.
Fascinating re Lincoln’s watch. BTW, I’m reading Jodi Magness’ book Jerusalem Through the Ages. A very fascinating book, and based on a ton of work to gather and discuss the work of many archaeologists and other scholars, plus putting it all in a readable and understandable framework.
April 13th? Why did he inscribe the wrong date?
I was actually thinking about something you said after a lecture several years ago. Why worry about the afterlife when we weren’t aware of all the billions of years before we were born? Something like that. So then I wondered if there were any people who had memories prior to being born, and the answer is—yes! Lots in fact. Even toddlers have made claims of prior existence according to their parents. They’re kind of like nde’s in reverse. I found it fascinating just how many people have memories of being sent to the womb, hovering in spirit form around the womb, choosing parents before they’re born, incarnating for the first time, incarnating multiple times, choosing experiences with pain, suffering, joy, etc… Some people feel they are new souls and some feel they are very old. The most interesting memories were the ones recalling the Big Bang as it happened. Some even claim they existed for billions of years in a state of equilibrium.
Memories can be misremembered, but the events being recalled are real. A core memory is there because something happened to be remembered.
Adding to that because I was at my limit—What do you think is the biggest error made by the NT authors in regard to misremembering Jesus?
That his goal was to die for the sins of the world and be raised from the dead.
Bart — thank you for your work. I’ve read several of your books and listen to your Misquoting Jesus podcast regularly.
Do you think Matthew 16:18-19 is something Jesus actually said? As we know, it’s essentially the lynchpin of the catholic claim to being the “one true church.” But incredibly, it’s not in any of the other gospels. And perhaps most notably, it’s not in Mark–the gospel where one might expect it to appear most (given that Peter’s testimony is thought to be the source material for Mark’s author (whoever that was)).
It also seems awfully convenient, and something that one might think an author would be motivated to add in after the fact. Perhaps it was used as a convenient tool to resolve (or get in front of?) any disagreements that may have arisen (or would arise) about the leadership, organization, etc of the early church that was forming. The ability to claim “we have the guy who Jesus appointed to have the infallible word” is a hard thing to fight…
I’d greatly appreciate any of your thoughts on this. And if you aren’t able to answer, thank you for your work anyways!
No, I don’t think there’s any way that Jesus spoke about the “church” that would arise after his death. I don’t think he even expected to die. The Kingdom was to come soon and he would be the ruler of it. The saying almost certainly arose after his death.
I worked in aviation safety for 30 years and attended all the aircraft accident investigation courses. The first thing they teach you in accident investigation is that eyewitness evidence is absolutely the worst form of evidence and is unreliable. The most common report of eyewitnesses to a plane crash is the airport exploded in the air, which almost never happens.
Excellent post, Bart! Interestingly, I read the post, then about 15 minutes later told my wife about it. About ten minutes after that, I actually READ a couple of key points to her, and what I had told her from my 15-minute-old memory was, at best, merely a close approximation of the actual words in the post.
Ha! And so it goes!!
the church I grew up in sang & preached that we were the generation that God was going to come again. I wondered in my preteen years what about those more fervent before before the 1960s; & now or 2021, what about those most fervent & devout Christians who prayed against the Pandemic whose prayers were unmet.
As Dr Ehrman spoke on [paraphrase] students’ “parents who sold the farm!”
Now my aunt [father’s sister]- we made a mistake! [paraphrased].
ME- BUT what about all the kids who wholly believed what was spouted!
As Pat Benatar sang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Is_for_Children
“d writing the song after reading a series of articles on child abuse in NYTimes. She was shocked to learn such things happen and wanted to write about it.”
yeah: thy kingdom come, thy will be done!