Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 145

The Essence of Religious Literacy: A Christian Perspective. Guest Post by Fredrick Ackun

As you probably know, Platinum members of the blog receive several additional perks -- a quarterly webinar with me, a chance to provide a "guest post" for Platinum members only, and so on.  After several of the guest posts have been posted, the Platinum members vote on one of them to be posted on the [...]

Is This a God You Want to Worship? Some Horrors of Scripture.

Parts of the Hebrew Bible insist on the absolute purity of the Israelites – they are to have no contact with outside influences that might compromise their devotion to Yahweh, the God of Israel, in any way whatsoever.  If they do come to be influenced by outsiders, God punishes them severely; and sometimes, as a [...]

A Blog Event! Want to Join a three-week Blog Book Club??

Are you interested in joining a Blog Book Club (the BBC)?  We’re going to give one a try!  This will function as a fund-raiser for the blog.  This first BBC will involve three meetings over the course of three weeks, discussing one of my books and a published (unfavorable!) response to it. I will be [...]

Why God Had to Destroy the Outsiders…

As I pointed out in my previous post, the “purity” of Israel was seen as massively important to most of the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures, including the various sources that eventually came to make up the Pentateuch and the other books (Joshua – 2 Kings) that describe the history of ancient Israel.  Nowhere can [...]

Platinum Webinar for August!

It's time for another Platinum webinar; as you know, this is a four-time year event, and our last was in the spring,  so time to go again.  It is on an intriguing topic that I've never give a public talk on before (see below). The date:  August 28; 4-5:15 (Eastern Time).   No need to register; [...]

God is Holy and You Better Worship Him!

There are, of course, good reasons for people thinking that the God of the Old Testament was a “God of Wrath.”  God does indeed engage in wrathful acts of punitive justice throughout the Hebrew Bible, and he requires his chosen people to execute his wrath as well. As one would expect, often this wrath is [...]

Jesus the Healer, Repossessed? Platinum guest post by Douglas Wadeson MD

I am pleased now to publisher the third of Doug Wadeson's four posts on Jesus as a healer, based on Doug's own extensive experience as a practicing physician and a deep understanding of the biblical texts.  The first two have been terrific and this one is especially intriguing, dealing with a question most people have [...]

Finally: Cephas and Peter. What Do I Really Think?

I have recently finished republishing a series of posts from years ago that explored the tradition that Peter and Cephas were in fact two different people.  Anyone who is not interested in the Bible would care, of course, but then again, no one like that would be on the blog!  For those who are both [...]

Gold Q&A for August!

Dear Gold Members, It is that time again!   As you know, one of the perks of your elevated status as a gold member of the blog is that you are provided an audio Q&A once a month for gold members only.   You provide written questions, I answer as many as I can, and I release [...]

The God of Wrath According to the Prophet Amos

  In my previous post I began to explain the book of the prophet Amos, the earliest named author of the Bible, in particular his portrayal of the coming “wrath of God.”  My ultimate reason for dealing with Amos is to set up a later discussion of the book of Revelation, where the portrayal of [...]