Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 193

What About Accurately Preserved *Oral* Traditions?

Yesterday I talked about arguments Muslims and Christians sometimes make about their written texts – that the only way to explain the preservation of the “originals” is that it was a divine miracle, with the corollary argument that for that reason, these writings really do contain the truth. It is a very, very bad argument, for reasons I explained.

A number of religious traditions also boast of the unbelievable accuracy of the oral traditions of their religion. In this case, the claim is...

Sacramento Lecture: Cancelled

Several people have asked me about my scheduled lecture in Sacramento at the Slavic Pastors apologetics conference. I’m sorry to say that the sponsors of the event have cancelled my talk (without, well, notifying me!). They assure me that it is not because of my views, but because of their financial restraints. I’m not hugely sorry, as it would have been a bit of a lark and not my normal kind of thing: it was a long trip over three days to tell a group of conservative evangelical pastors that...

Raffle Winners!

I am pleased to announce that the raffle for galleys of my bookHeaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife has been concluded. We have three winners of the autographed copies, and I have notified them. If you participated and I didnot notify you, I’m so sorry. But be of good cheer! The book will be available on March 31.

Many thanks to all who participated!

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Why Do Smart People Make Stupid Arguments?

I’m always puzzled about why smart people make (and believe) such stupid arguments. We see this all the time, of course, in political discourse and family disagreements, not to mention department meetings, but since my field is religious studies I hear it the most in connection with the great religions of the world. Actually, I guess I find it less puzzling than aggravating.

A lot of conservative Christians get upset with me when I push them for evidence for their views, and so I thought I...

Jesus as Single: An Actual Argument!

So far I have pointed out that it is flat-out wrong to say that every Jewish man in the first century was married and was expected to be married. It is not only demographically impossible (there were not enough women to go around) but we know of Jewish men from the time of Jesus who were not married and were proud of it. Strikingly, they, like him, were apocalyptically minded Jews – such as the Essenes and the apostle Paul. I have also argued that whatever Mary Magdalene was to Jesus, she was...

Demons and Christians in Antiquity! Guest Post By Travis Proctor

Some readers have suggested that I have guest posts from my former PhD students describing their dissertations. Great idea! This is our first shot at it. One of my most recent PhDs was Travis Proctor, who is now an Assistant Professor of Religion at Wittenberg College in Springfield Ohio. Travis wrote a terrifically interesting dissertation on demons in early Christianity. It turns out, it’s not only a really intriguing topic, but unexpectedly complicated.

The dissertation was called “Rulers...

Was Jesus Intimate with Mary Magdalene?

I pointed out in my last post that most people simply assume that Jesus was not married because there is no mention of his wife in any of our sources, or any mention that he ever had a wife. And so it is assumed that he did not have one. As scholars often, and rightly, argue, that is an argument from silence, and on it’s own it is not a very strong one – since, among other things, none of these sources indicates, either, that he was not married. And so it is not evidence in one direction or...

So… WAS Jesus Married?

As a follow-up to my previous post, I’ll now re-post a couple of reflections on this question that has obsessed modern people: was Jesus probably married? I should say that what obsesses most folk is not what obsesses scholars, as a rule; in my roughly 89 million discussions with New Testament scholars over the past 44 years, I don’t recall ever having a detailed back-and-forth about it, except in public settings in front of a crowd of non-scholars. It’s kind-a like Shakespeare. I know this...

A “Newly Discovered” “Gospel”: Was Jesus Married with Children?

When James Tabor graciously made two guest posts a couple of weeks ago, he raised a lot of intriguing questions for our blog readers. I was asked by one of them to address James’s view that Jesus may well have been married. I was pretty sure I had dealt with this at one point on the blog, and just now I’ve checked, and it was almost exactly five years ago, well before most of you were on the blog, and probably before some of you were born. A series of posts. On a lively and interesting topic....

A Raffle!! Would You Like a Pre-publication Copy of My Book on Heaven and Hell?

Would you like to read my forthcoming book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife prior to publication (it will be released two months from now!)? I have three galley proofs that I would like to give away – not to the highest bidder (as in the last fund-raising venture) but to three randomly-chosen winners based on tickets sold at a very affordable price.

These are complete, pre-publication copies of the book, in paperback, less expensively produced, but exactly as it will appear in...