Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 143

Pop Quiz on Early Christianity

For just about all of my undergraduate classes, I begin the semester, on the first day, after explaining the course, by giving students a pop quiz.  In my New Testament classes, students are often surprised at how little they know.  "Hey, I went to Sunday School my entire life!  Why don't I know this stuff?"  [...]

My Syllabus for “The Birth of Christianity”

Classes have now started at UNC, and I'm back in the classroom.  Last year it was all remote teaching (NOT fun for anyone, though my classes were terrific); this year we are starting out live, and desperately hoping we will be able to continue that way. For me, the most exciting part of the semester [...]

Platinum apologies: the LINK for the webinar

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

Recording of our Platinum Webinar: History of Biblical Scholarship

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 [...]

Does God Really Care How He Is Worshiped? The Book of Hosea.

I have been discussing the wrath of God in the Old Testament and have mentioned a point that here that I want to reemphasize, a point rarely observed by Bible readers (in fact I think I didn’t take much notice of it until recently).  In the Bible God sometimes punishes people because they misbehave toward [...]

Bruce Metzger and Me: Reminiscences on my Dissertation

I have been enjoying reposting these reminiscences of my relationship with Bruce Metzger, widely seen as the most learned and important textual scholar in North America in the 20th century.  I was privileged to study with him and honored to be his final student.  Here I reflect on his supervision of my dissertation. Different dissertation [...]

On Giving. Platinum Guest Post by Judith Coyle

I am unusually pleased to be able to publish this guest post by Judith Coyle, one of the most faithfully and deeply committed members of the blog.  Here is her lovely, heart-felt offering, for Platinum members only. ******************************** Even though I am outspokenly adamant against even a thought of trying to make this absolutely perfect [...]

Reminder: Fund Raiser for Afghanistan on Sunday

In case you didn't notice or inadvertently dropped it from memory  or l.. whatever:  I'd like to remind you about the fund raiser this Sunday (August 29).  I hope you can come!  Here's the announcement: ********************* Whatever our political positions, most of us are distraught about the situation in Afghanistan.  It will almost certainly get [...]

Sin and Divine Punishment As a Dominant Theme of Scripture

In this discussion of God’s wrath, I want to emphasize that it is not an isolated view of this or that biblical author in the Hebrew Bible.  It is a highly pervasive view.  God punishes those who disobey him, and he destroys anyone who might lead his people astray into disobedience. Here is how I [...]

Israel’s Conquest of the Promised Land: Did Any of That Happen?

I have been discussing the book of Joshua and its descriptions of violence inflicted on others on orders of the God of Israel -- massive military campaigns and massacres (is there any reason NOT to call it a genocide of the inhabitants of Canaan?).  I have wanted to cover this material as background to the [...]