Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 185

Randy Alcorn’s Response to Some Blog Criticisms (part 2)

A few days ago I posted the first part of Randy Alcorn’s explanation of his views, in response to a number of criticisms blog members leveled at his review of my book Heaven and Hell.  In particular, a number of readers thought that he was unduly harsh and even “slandered” me.  Here he provides a response.  Feel free to make further comments, though Randy probably will not be responding directly.

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The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Understanding Jesus: Readers’ Mailbag

A few posts ago I discussed, very briefly, the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I received a number of questions about the post, one in particular with some frequency: how did the discovery of the Scrolls contribute to our understanding of Jesus and early Christianity?  For me as a NT scholar, it is obviously an unusually important question.

Let me stress that the Scrolls are *mainly* important for understanding early Judaism, and only secondarily for understanding early Christianity.  But with that said, the...

Do You Have Advanced Training In any of the Blog’s Fields?

Every now and then I learn of someone on the blog who has a PhD  or is ABD in one of the related fields, such as New Testament, Early Christian Studies, Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, Rabbinics, Roman Religion, Greek Religion, Ancient (Greek or Roman) History, Semitic Philology, etc. etc., and/or is teaching in one of those fields in a college or university.

Are you one of them?  If so, please send me an email, at behrman@email.unc.edu.  I’m interested in knowing what your research is and/or has b...

Randy Alcorn Explains His Review In Light of Readers’ Comments

Some of you have expressed dismay that comments/questions you submitted on Randy Alcorn’s book review of my book Heaven and Hell (from June 21) did not get posted.  So sorry.  There were some technical difficulties and problems on this end, and when they were resolved Randy found himself confronted with about a hundred comments, some of them with multiple points / questions, and it was more than a mere mortal could handle.

Moreover, a number of the comments / questions were along the same lines....

Did You Register for the Webinar on Sunday?

I have contacted everyone that has registered for Sunday’s webinar on “Do We Have The Original New Testament?”  and sent an invitation to the Zoom webinar.  If you did register, but did not get the email or invitation, both sent out today (Thursday 6.25.20), please zap me an email, with the subject line YOU MISSED ME!!!

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How Do We Interpret the Beatitudes? Guest Post by Julius-Kei Kato

Julius-Kei Kato is a member of the blog, a PhD from Graduate Theological Union, an expert on the new Testament, and an Associate Professor in Religious Studies at King’s University College at Western University.  You can learn about him here:  https://jkato.kingsfaculty.ca/about-jk-kato/?mobileFormat=false

Prof. Kato has written a very interesting article for the blog as a guest post, on one of the most familiar and least understood passages in the New Testament, the Beatitudes.  I can’t say tha...

What Are The Dead Sea Scrolls?

Here’s a topic I haven’t discussed in a while!  Just about every thinking human being in our context has heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, even if they have no clue what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how they were found.  And it’s no surprise they’ve heard of them.  The Dead Sea Scrolls are by virtual consensus the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century, of major importance for understanding Judaism at the time of Jesus and, in some respects, the teachings of Jesus...

Blog Member Publications! 6.22.2020

Last week I invited Blog Members who had published something to tell all of the rest of us about it.  Many have done so!  If you, too, would like to make your written work known, please read very carefully the instructions in the original post:

https://ehrmanblog.org/have-you-written-something-you-would-like-to-advertise-on-the-blog/

 

Today I publish the first batch.   There are seven (a good biblical number) and of various kinds.   I chose these on very scientific principles: they were the fir...

Bart’s Latest Attack on Christianity by Randy Alcorn

As you know, books on controversial topics get reviewed by all sorts of readers; some reviews are glowing and others are, well, nasty.  About a month or so ago several reader sent me an online review of my book Heaven and Hell on patheos.com (check it out: it’s a website dealing with issues connected with religious faith) by Randy Alcorn, a prominent evangelical author with a high public profile, who has written a number of books about Heaven from his faith perspective.

You can check him out onl...

A Plea for Humility in the Face of the Universe

In this week’s Readers’ Mailbag we move away from the academic study of the New Testament to much broader and more important questions of relevance to us all, involving how we relate to others and live in the world.  The question is about attitudes and responses to suffering.  The question came in a comment about an earlier post I had done.

 

QUESTION:

You said ‘My ultimate view is that even if suffering may lead us away from a belief in God, as it did for me, it should at the same time lead us ...