Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 160

Was Christ Human But Not Divine? Another Early Christian View

In my previous post I talked about Jewish Christians of the early centuries who held to an “adoptionistic” view of Christ, the view that he was not by nature divine but was a human being who at some point came to be adopted to be God’s son.  This view was held by other groups as [...]

Two More Live Lectures on Sunday, one of them very strange….

This Sunday, March 14,  I will be giving TWO live Zoom lectures (not one) for anyone who wants to come.  They will be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament and there will be a 30-minute Q & A to follow the second one.  Please NOTE the time; the first is at 2:00 [...]

What Are the Sources of the Hebrew Bible?

Just now I was fishing around for an old post for a rerun, and thought it would be nice to do something on the Old Testament.  It's been a while!  Here is one from many years ago that deals with a question I still get regularly today.  You might have it too!   QUESTION: Do [...]

Christ as “Not God” in the Second Century: Early Jewish Adoptionists

You might think – and many people do think – that as Christianity developed, every Christian more or less went along with the “standard” or “orthodox” Christian beliefs that emerged.  The term “orthodoxy” literally means “right beliefs” (or correct opinions); the word “heterodoxy” means “other opinions” (that is, other than the right ones!).  A term [...]

Was Matthew Influenced by Buddhist Writings? Platinum Post by Steve Sutter

Platinum Members!  Here is another guest post by Steve Sutter on interesting parallels between Buddhist writings and the Gospels.  What do you think?  Let him, me, and your fellow Platinum folk know! ALSO: The platinum-post well is running dry.  Do you have something you'd like to contribute?  Go for it!  We'd all enjoy it and [...]

Where Did the Trinity Come From? The (Briefer) Video Version

Now that I've established that the earliest Christians came to think Christ was God (in some sense or other) and continued to think God was God, and yet thought there was only one God -- I am able to move into the thinking and debates based on those views that eventually led to the doctrine [...]

The Doctrine of the Trinity: Where We Are So Far

I am in the middle of a very long thread dealing with the question of where the doctrine of the Trinity came from.  I started the thread on January 7, here: https://ehrmanblog.org/is-the-trinity... , and so have been at it for nearly two months, on and off (with a other things thrown in en route, obviously).  [...]

Another Weird Event in my Life that Led Me to Be a Research Scholar

A few weeks ago I posted on a weird event that significantly contributed to my becoming a research scholar, involving my problems with ninth-grade Latin.   You can see it here:  https://ehrmanblog.org/one-of-the-wei... Today I would like to talk about another one.  It involves, well, hepatitis. The background:  I was always a competitive kid growing up.  I [...]

God Showing Up a (Apparently) Human in the Hebrew Bible

So far in my posts on Christology I have talked a bit about pagan views of the divine realm and its relationship to the human.  There is a lot more that could be said about that – in particular with the various ways that humans could be thought of as in some sense divine in [...]

TWO Live Lectures This Sunday (We’ve Changed The Plan…)! How Do We Know about the Historical Jesus? and Jesus, The Apocalyptic Prophet

APOLOGIES for the earlier post.  It was mistaken.  Can you imagine?  Here is the true, infallible, inerrant information!  At last, you may say.... This Sunday, March 7,  I will be giving  TWO live Zoom lectures (not one) for anyone who wants to come.  They will be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament [...]