Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 146

The God of Wrath in Both Old and New Testament

It is a very big mistake to think that the "God of the Old Testament" is a different God from the "God of the New Testament" -- even though that is a common view among Christians who want to insist that unlike the OT God of wrath, their God is a God of love.  Not [...]

For Blog Members in the U.K.! Special Zoom Event.

Are you on the blog?  Do you live in the U.K.?   Well lucky you!   A group of blog members who came to a London Blog Dinner last month have decided to host a UK Zoom meeting among themselves, to discuss topics of mutual interest.  For and by Brit Bloggers!  It is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug [...]

My New View of the Book of Revelation

The Apocalypse of John is a book many people revere, many dread, and few actually read.  Most who do read it approach it like every other book of the Bible – they’ll read a few verses here or there when someone says something about them but do not read the whole thing from beginning to [...]

The Naivety of the Nativity: Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller

This week's Platinum Guest Post comes to us from Joel Scheller.  As you know, only Platinum members can read these posts and only Platinums can write them.  This is a platinum thing.  BUT, once a month we vote on one to appear on the entire blog.  Are you interested in reaching the Platinums with your [...]

Cephas and Peter: Final Arguments, Summary, and Implications

Here I give my last supporting arguments that Cephas may have been someone other than Peter, despite widespread assumptions and views that go back at least to the time of the New Testament, e.g., John 1:42, where they are explicitly identified as one and the same!  But were they? It's an intriguing question rarely asked.  [...]

More Hints that Cephas Was Not Peter

I have received a number of emails asking me about the Cephas and Peter article I started giving a couple of posts ago, and most of the questions, as it turns out, are answered in the *second* half of the article, which I had originally planned not to provide here on the blog.  So now [...]

More On Bruce Metzger and Me: How I Got Interested in my Dissertation Topic

THIS POST RESUMES MY RECOLLECTIONS OF MY INTERACTIONS WITH BRUCE METZGER, MY MENTOR.  Remember: when I say "textual criticism" in this post, I am NOT referring simply to the "study of texts."  Textual criticism is the technical term used by scholars (in all fields) to refer to how we establish what an author wrote if [...]

Some Evidence that Cephas and Peter WERE Two Different People

In my previous post I gave the evidence that in the early church there were writers who maintained that Cephas and Peter were *not* the same person, despite what is explicitly said in John 1:42.  As some readers have noted to me, later authors *may* have differentiated between the two (saying they were not the [...]

Congratulations Fredrick Ackun!

The voting is in on the Platinum guest posts.  Among four options, one is to be published on the blog itself for all members.  I'm pleased to announce that the winning post is the Essence of Religious Literacy: A Christian Perspective. Guest Post by Fredrick Ackun.  The post will appear on August 16, if all [...]

Jesus Healing the Paralyzed. How Do We Explain the Stories? Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson, MD

This week's Platinum Guest Post (for and by Platinum members only!) is again by Doug Wadeson, M.D.; it is the second of four dealing with Jesus' healing miracles in light of modern medicine.   I find this one especially interesting.  How do explain these stories in the Gospels?  Here are some options. ****************************** In the previous [...]