Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 162

The Buddhist Scriptures and the Gospel of Luke: Platinum Post by Steve Sutter

Here is a second interesting post on the relationship of the Gospel of Luke to certain passages of the Buddhist Scriptures -- for you Platinum members only! Remember, if you would like to submit a post yourself, just write it up and send it to me via email: behrman@email.unc.edu    We are almost at the [...]

My Interview About Jesus for “The Dagger Squad”

Now HERE is an interesting interview (at least I thought it was).  Pretty unusual, in any case.  Garfield A. Reid of Dagger Squad is a lively and interesting interviewer, and the call-ins had intriguing questions. The interview was entitled  Jesus, New Testament, False Prophecies, and False Doctrines; it happened on Monday, February 8, 2021. See what [...]

Is the “Word” (Logos) of God in John the Wisdom (Sophia) of God in Judaism?

In yesterday’s post I began to discuss the Prologue of the Gospel of John, which contains a poem that celebrates Christ as the Word of God that became human. This Word of God was with God in the beginning of all things, and was himself God; through him the universe was created and in him [...]

A Christian Is Not Necessarily a Disciple (Monthly Platinum Post: Douglas Wadeson)

As many of you know, one of the perqs of being a Platinum member of the blog is that at this level everyone is given the opportunity to make a post of their own, distributed only to Platinum members.  For these posts, members can talk about nearly anything they want, so long as it is [...]

Interested in Going to Rome with Me?

As we are all so painfully aware, almost all travel holidays this past year were canceled.  But now many tour companies are optimistic that by late spring or early summer, with widespread vaccination internationally, travel will resume.  We will know eventually! I have been asked to do a special tour to Rome and Southern [...]

Does Luke Present Different (Inconsistent!) Views of Christ?

In a recent post I tried to show that the author of Luke-Acts (same person; let's call him Luke) presented an "exaltation" Christology -- that is, that he thought Christ was not originally a divine being but had been exalted to divinity at some point of his existence; but unlike most of our other sources, [...]

Live Lectures this Sunday! Distinctive Messages of Luke and John

This Sunday I will again be giving two live Zoom lectures on the Gospels to anyone who wants to come. They will be be recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament.  There will be a 30-minute Q & A to follow the second one There is no charge per se, but I would [...]

How Old Was Jesus ???

I received a very interesting question from a blog reader, and it has led to an unexpected answer.   QUESTION Is there any significance to the age of Jesus and its relation to the start of his ministry?   RESPONSE: I don’t know what the questioner actually means about the “significance” of Jesus’ age, and [...]

But Maybe Paul Doesn’t Believe in the Incarnation….

There is a whole lot more that could be said about the Christ-poem in Philippians 2.   You could literally write an entire book on just this passage.  In fact, people *have* written books on just this passage.   The most important one, a classic in the field, is by Ralph Martin, A Hymn of Christ (which [...]

Was Christ actually God in the Flesh?

We now move from Paul's Christology that *combined* an incarnational view with an exaltation view, to a Christology that is incarnational through and through -- still in the New Testament, in the final Gospel to be written (possibly 30 years or so after Paul's death?) In it we find what is arguably the best known [...]