Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 133

Reminder! Platinum Webinar on Saturday. You Platinums Only!

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.  [...]

Terrific or Terrible? What’s Your View of Christmas?

Of all the holidays we celebrate in the U.S., Christmas evokes the most extreme emotional reactions.  Where do you line up? Many of us grew up thinking Christmas was the most sacred time of the year, a time to remember and celebrate the most wonderful, touching, and humbling event in human history, the entrance of [...]

Vote for your Favorite Platinum Guest Post!

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 [...]

Strawmanning Ehrman: Guest Post by Kurt Jaros

This now is the next post by Kurt Jaros, who himself is a Christian theologian and apologist but who explains how other conservative apologists have misrepresented me.  For the record, I swear, I ain’t payin’ him to say this! Kurt will be happy to respond to your comments or questions.  Enjoy!    Misquoting Ehrman – [...]

A Suggestive Story in the Book of Ruth

In my previous post I talked about the book of Ruth, a gem of a short-story in the Hebrew Bible.   Now that I’ve explained how the plot works, I’d like to make just a couple of points about what it is trying to teach, starting with a comment about an episode that many readers over [...]

Do You Want (and Need) a Free Membership to the Blog? Gift Offer 2021

Thanks to the incredible ongoing generosity of members of the blog, I am happy to announce that there are a limited number of free one-year memberships available.   These have been donated for a single purpose: to allow those who cannot afford the annual membership fee to participate on the blog for a year.   I will [...]

A Great Short Story in Scripture: The Book of Ruth

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted much of anything on the Old Testament, and it’s high time I did so!  As I have announced recently, in February I’ll be publishing a six-lecture course on the Pentateuch (the first five books) – one of the most influential collection of books in the history of [...]

Why Doesn’t Paul Say More about the Historical Jesus? Other Options.

In my last post I started giving the principal options, as I see them, for why Paul did not mention more about the historical Jesus.  Below are two other leading options.  As I’ve indicated, there are probably others, and if some occur to you, feel free to comment! ****************************** Option Two: Paul knew more of [...]

But Why Doesn’t Paul Say More About the Historical Jesus?

To this point I have enumerated everything that Paul explicitly says about what Jesus said, did, and experienced during his earthly life.  The driving question is the one that I turn to now and in the next post.  Why didn’t Paul tell us *more*?  I’ve long been fascinated by this question, and even though I’ve [...]

An Evangelical Apologist Who *Supports* My Book Misquoting Jesus!

In  October 2019 I was invited to a Christian apologetics conference in Chicago to give a talk. (click the link to see my post about it).  As you may know, "apologetics" is big in evangelical Christian circles; it is the attempt to demonstrate the intellectual reasonableness of the faith, to "defend" the truth of Christian [...]