Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 158

How The Afterlife Changed After Jesus’ Life

Easter celebrates the greatest irony of the Christian religion:  those who worship Jesus do not believe what he taught but what his followers taught about him after his death.  That is especially true about one key question the Christian faith addresses: what does it mean to be saved after we die?  Around the world today, [...]

A Probing Interview on “When Belief Dies Podcast”

One of the readers for the audio versions of my daily blog posts is Sam Devis, who also runs a podcast called "When Belief Dies," dealing with lots of intriguing issues connected with "faith, religion, and life."  Check out the podcast site (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...) ; he's had some terrific guests on, and is an extremely thoughtful [...]

Were Jesus and Christ Two Different Beings?

As we have seen, the New Testament in places seems to indicate that of Christ was a human being who, in some sense, had been adopted by God and so made into the Son of God, a divine being.  There were groups of Christians who continued to believe that for centuries.  (Some still do!)  Others [...]

What Is Gnosticism? A Video Introduction

I am in the midst of a thread describing different views of Christ found among early Christian groups of the second century: some Christians thought Jesus was human but not divine; others that he was divine but not human; others (the side that ended up winning the debates) that he was somehow both (that may [...]

A Live Lecture, this SATURDAY (April 3): The Ethics of Paul

This Saturday, April 3, 2:00 p.m. EST.  I will be giving a (one) live Zoom lecture for anyone who wants to come.  It will be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament and there will be a 30-minute Q & A to follow.  NOTE: it is Saturday this time, not Sunday. There is [...]

Fantastic Story. But History? Some Doubts about the Triumphal Entry

In my previous post I provided an excerpt from Jesus Before the Gospels where I summarized the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry.”  Here is the second part of that two-part post, another excerpt, where I call this tradition into question, arguing that it cannot be right historically and that it must, therefore, represent [...]

Did Jesus Really Have a “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem?

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the day on which Christians commemorate Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem.  It is a terrific holiday in the Christian calendar, a celebration of victory and joy, prior to the dark events to occur at the end of the week on Good Friday. The historian would want to know: did it really [...]

Modern Christians Who Follow Marcion (Unawares)

Before I move on from Marcion to talk about "Gnostic" understandings of Christ -- all in this long thread on where the Trinity came from -- I'd like to return to an issue I mentioned briefly in my first post on Marcion, that in many ways his views are alive and well among us.  As [...]

Quotations of Non-Canonical Writings in the New Testament: Platinum Post by Douglas Wadeson

Platinum member Douglas Wadeson has provided us with another thoughtful, provocative, and informed post, this one about how authors of the New Testament sometimes quote writings *other* than those of the Old Testament.   Feel free to make comments! *************************   If you read the New Testament you will find many references to the Old Testament, [...]

Did Marcion Know the Gospels or Not??

I've said something about Marcion's canon of Scripture in the past couple of posts, and last time I did that -- many years ago -- some people got confused.  The issue has to do with what at first seems a different issue.  Did the apostle Paul  (during his ministry) know about the Gospels?  My answer [...]