Because of the crisis, I will be teaching my course, Introduction to the New Testament, remotely this semester, by recording two lectures a week, starting Sunday, for my students to listen to during the week at their convenience. Last week for the heck of it I tried recording a lecture by myself in an empty room. It, uh, did not go well, to say the least. I need *someone* to talk to if I’m going to talk. Otherwise I just stumble over my words and forget everything I’m supposed to say. I would like an audience.
Which gave me an idea. Would any of you like to hear one or more of my lectures as I record them? There would be no charge per se, but I would like to ask for a (completely voluntary) donation to the blog.
Here is what I have in mind. We will try it out this Sunday (Jan 24) on Zoom. I will give two lectures, one at 2:00 and the other at 3:15. Each lecture will take about 50 minutes.
- The first will be “What Is the New Testament? The Early Christians and their Literature,” where I describe the basic organization, structure, and contents of the NT and deal with the question of why we have *these* twenty-seven books and not others.
- The second will be “The World of Early Christian Traditions,” where I explain why it is important to know about the historical, political, cultural, and religious context of the New Testament if we hope to understand it (focusing on the Hellenization of the Mediterranean, the Roman empire, etc.)
Anyone who wants to come is welcome. My suggested donation is a minimum $10 to listen to one of them and $15 to listen to both (there is no maximum donation ? ). After the second lecture I will take questions from three attendees for 20 minutes (which will not be included on the recording I send to the students). Which three? The three largest donors for the lecture(s). Everyone else, of course, is free to listen in. (To make things fair: if you bid a larger amount and are disappointed about not being one of the three, you are under no obligation: make your donation any amount you choose!)
All the donations would go directly to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
In case you wondered, I have no plans to make these lectures generally available. The recordings will be for my class only.
So, are you interested? All you need do is respond: NOT here on the blog and NOT to my personal email BUT: by sending an email to: [email protected] For the subject line of your email please put “Recorded Lecture 1.24.” In the text of the message itself, simply indicate the amount of the donation you are willing to make. If you prefer not to make a donation, just leave the text blank.
Everyone who responds by 11:00 am on Sunday morning will received a Zoom link by noon.
Any questions about how it will work, let me know.
I’m sure you thought of this already, but if you like lecturing to a live audience on Zoom, some professors will still hold their lecture live and record it, and allow students who cannot attend live to listen when they can during the week. Some students will always show up if it’s during a good time because they’ll have questions. I know alot of students don’t want to be recorded for privacy reasons, but you can turn off the recording at the end and answer some questions as an incentive to get people to attend the live lecture.
I would gladly pay to hear lectures on the ante-nicene authors or Augustine. I know almost nothing about them. Please continue to post your subject matter. I will respond when you get there.
Would we like to listen to a live lecture?
Were the canonical Gospels written in Greek!?
Hi Bart. Please could you clarify the times of the lectures. Is it 14:00 and 15:15 your/local time? I live in the UK so I need to convert to GMT/UTC to decide if I can attend. Thanks!
Yup, EST
What a terrific idea and all to help those less fortunate!
What a great opportunity, I look forward to joining from the UK.
I have wondered about the mechanics of your lectures for the Great Courses. Do you go to their facility and talk in front of their audience? Or do they send their crew where you are?
Normally speakers go up to lovely Chantilly VA (!) for a week and stay in a motel and film in the company’s studios. I’m doing a new course (finishing writing it now; recording in April) and they’re hiring out a local studio and crew so I don’t need to travel during the crisis.
Participating from Germany, it was sort of like inviting 91 virtual guests over for a New Testament party. Thanks so much! Great idea! Can’t think of a better way to spend lockdown!
Great! I’ll be partying again on Sunday.
Thank you so much for the lectures, it took me back 40 years to when I was at “Bible college”, but this time the only agenda was accuracy, fact and historical context. I feel quite emotional, most of my adult life was spent as a “missionary”, but I lost my faith along the way and gained a deep respect for the animist (pagan) culture in which I lived. When you mentioned, “pouring some of your drink out” as a pagan sacrificial act, I remembered seeing this for the first time and I still do it, not in a religious way, but as it was explained to me – an act of thankfulness that we should not take what we have for granted, but respect the environment and our blessings. Knowing that you were raising money for a charity from our donations is a far better way of respecting one another. We do not need the divine to enlighten us, we just need to respect each other and care for each other and the world in which we live. Damn, it sounds like I am preaching again! Sorry, I just wanted to say, thank you ?.
Sounds like you’ve had an unusually interesting life!
It was great, thanks Dr Ehrman!
Which of your textbooks do you use for this course?
Thanks
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 7th ed (2020).
Which of your textbooks do you use for this course?
Thanks
Oh, I missed this one, saw the post too late. If you plan to do this again in the future, I’d be very much interesting in attending.
This Sunday! Stay tuned.