Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 169

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 [...]

Could Jews Consider Someone Other than God To Be God?

In order to explain how Jesus came to be seen as his followers as God – the first step to understanding where the doctrine of the Trinity came from – I have been discussing a widespread view in the Greek and Roman worlds, that other very special human beings were thought to have become divine, [...]

Did Humans Ever Become Divine in Judaism? (Seems unlikely, no?)

I have been discussing how human beings were sometimes thought to become gods in the ancient world.  All of this is backdrop to my assessment of why Christians thought that Jesus had become God.  Of course, most Christians say that Christ did not *become* God: he had always *been* God. That indeed is the traditional [...]

A Christian is Not Necessarily a Disciple: Platinum Post by Douglas Wadeson

The weeks' Platinum post comes to us from Douglas Wadeson, a long time member of the blog and recently retired (lucky fellow) physician.  The post comes in two parts: the second part will appear next week.   Remember: this post, your comments about it, and any ensuing back and forth come to Platinum members only.   (And [...]

Guest Post Part 2 by New Testament Scholar Jeff Siker: Why I Am Still a Christian

This is re-post of part 2 of an interesting set of comments from exactly eight years ago by my friend and colleague Jeff Siker, a New Testament scholar who agrees with most of the critical views I have of the New Testament but who is still a believing and practicing Christian.  To make fullest sense [...]

Guest Post by New Testament Scholar Jeff Siker: Why I am Still a Christian

Bart speaking:  I often get asked how someone can be a scholar of the NT, understand all its critical problems, and yet still remain a Christian.  That's a mystery to many people.  But it's not a mystery to biblical scholars.  I was looking back through old posts and saw that in the first year of [...]

Still Other Humans Who Became Gods: In Jesus’ Time!

Here I continue my account about how some human beings became gods according to ancient Greek and Roman traditions.  Last time I discussed the “founder of Rome,” Romulus.  Now I shift to a time period more relevant for Jesus – in fact his own period – and to figures who are not legendary (Romulus), but [...]

Could a Human Become a God in the Ancient World?

If early Christians were monotheists, how could  they claim that someone other than the One God was also God and yet still say there was in fact only one God?  That will be the first issue to figure out if we want to understand how the doctrine of the trinity developed.  With respect to Christ, [...]

Were Ancient Pagans Sometimes Monotheists?

In my last couple of posts I’ve been talking about Jewish monotheism and henotheism as a backdrop to early Christianity.  And now *here* is a something almost no one in the civilized universe knows any more: even among traditional pagan religions there were sometimes movements toward monotheism, or at least evidence of serious henotheism.  Here [...]