Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 165

Jesus, Mary Magadalene, and … Sexual Innuendos?

I was browsing through old posts and ran across this one from almost exactly seven years ago, a question about whether one of the non-canonical Gospels (the Gospel of Philip) really could be right that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship. I get asked about this still on occasion, and it's on one [...]

The Earliest Belief in Christ??

In my past couple of posts I have claimed that the earliest understanding of Christ was a kind of "low" Christology, one that considered Jesus to be a full flesh and blood human being (as he considered himself!), and nothing more than a man, until at some point God exalted him and made him his [...]

Do You Want to Hear Two More Lectures on the Gospels?

Last week I gave two Zoom lectures, recorded for my undergraduate course on the New Testament, and invited all of you to come.  It went extremely well and a good time was had by all.  Well, OK, a good time was had by *me*!   After the second lecture we had about 30 minutes of Q&A, [...]

How Do We Know What Christians Thought about Jesus BEFORE the New Testament?

Yesterday I posted the first in what will be a series of reflections on the earliest Christian Christologies (understandings of Christ).  I began to outline what I take to be the earliest Christology of all. Jesus and his followers, I maintained, saw him(self) as a man and nothing more than a man (who was a [...]

Platinum Guest Post by Douglas Wadeson: A Christian Is Not Necessarily a Disciple, and Vice Versa. Part 2

This now is the second of Douglas Wadeson's two-part post, presenting the flip side of his earlier one. These Platinum guest posts have been terrific so far.  I hope you too have enjoyed them.  Soon we'll vote on which of the four we've seen goes on the main blog site!  But for now, here is [...]

The Earliest Understandings of Christ

Just about everyone agrees that the understanding of who Christ was developed significantly over the years (and if they don't, they should!).  The views Jesus' own disciples had right after his death around 30 CE were not the same as those that had been developed by very sophisticated thinkers around the time of the Council [...]

My Materialist View of the World

This is a brief hiatus in my thread on the Trinity, for a personal reflection.  As most members of the blog know, I have definite religious views, but I do not try to impose them on other people – unlike in my conservative evangelical days, when I knew I was right and everyone who disagreed [...]

A Recording of My Webinar on Heaven and Hell

On January 9, 2021, I did a Zoom webinar for St Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton NY, hosted by The Very Rev. Denis C. Brunelle on the topic: "The History of Heaven and Hell."  It was based on my recent book of a similar title. The talk was followed by Q & A, with [...]

Was the King of Israel Called God??

Yesterday I showed that beings other than God could be called God in the Old Testament and other ancient Jewish literature.  It seems strange, but there it is.   I continue now with an especially important case in point: the king of Israel.  In this case there doesn't seem to be much ambiguity about the matter. [...]

Want to Hear Me Give a Live Lecture?

Because of the crisis, I will be teaching my course, Introduction to the New Testament, remotely this semester, by recording two lectures a week, starting Sunday, for my students to listen to during the week at their convenience.  Last week for the heck of it I tried recording a lecture by myself in an empty [...]