Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 2

1, 2, and 3 John: For Further Reading

Now that I have discussed the themes, emphases, authors and occasions of the “Johannine epistles” (1, 2, and 3 John) I can provide some suggestions for further reading.  These are all important works written by scholars for non-scholars.  I have given brief annotations for each book to give you a sense of what it’s about [...]

The post 1, 2, and 3 John: For Further Reading appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

2 John and 3 John in a Single Nutshell

In this post I continue my summaries of the books of the New Testament “In a Nutshell” by turning to the letters of 2 and 3 John.  Because these are so brief, I will deal with them together in a single post, explaining their themes and emphases and exploring the question of who wrote them, [...]

The post 2 John and 3 John in a Single Nutshell appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

The Weird Textual Variant of 1 John 4:3: False Teachers Who “Loose” Jesus?

This post will be about a couple of intriguing textual variants in our manuscripts of the New Testament, including the use of a four-letter word (literally) in 1 John.  To set the stage, let me remind you that in my previous post I discussed an early Christian understanding of Christ that I called “separationist,” because [...]

The post The Weird Textual Variant of 1 John 4:3: False Teachers Who “Loose” Jesus? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

Was Jesus Christ Two Beings, One Human (Jesus) and One Divine (Christ)?

Just to show how strange and, uh, detailed scholarship can be even in New Testament studies, I want to conclude this small thread on the five-chapter book of 1 John by discussing a textual variant in its text that I was obsessed with for years.  It involves how different manuscripts word just one verse (1 [...]

The post Was Jesus Christ Two Beings, One Human (Jesus) and One Divine (Christ)? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

Was Jesus Christ Two Beings, one human (Jesus) and one divine (Christ)?

Just to show how strange and, uh, detailed scholarship can be even in New Testament studies, I want to conclude this small thread on the five-chapter book of 1 John by discussing a textual variant in its text that I was obsessed with for years.  It involves how different manuscripts word just one verse (1 [...]

The post Was Jesus Christ Two Beings, one human (Jesus) and one divine (Christ)? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

1 John: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?

In my previous post I provided a summary of the main themes and emphases of 1 John; now I can turn to the question of Who, Why, and When. They question of “who wrote it” has long been discussed, and almost always in relationship to the Gospel of John.  Neither book mentions the name John; [...]

The post 1 John: Who Wrote It, When, and Why? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

1 John in a Nutshell

  I move now in this “NT in a Nutshell” series to provide an overview of the epistle of 1 John, one of the General or Catholic Epistles.  This short, five-chapter book is normally called a “letter” even though it does not have the standard features of an ancient piece of correspondence. Normally (not just [...]

The post 1 John in a Nutshell appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

My First Scholarly Encounter with the Canon of the New Testament

So: I've started to work on my next book (or books, depending on how things go), on how we got the canon of the New Testament.  Why these 27 books?  Why not others?  Who decided?  When?  On what grounds?  etc. I started thinking about this issue already as an 18-year-old in Bible college, but at [...]

The post My First Scholarly Encounter with the Canon of the New Testament appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

Why Wasn’t Peter’s Apocalypse Included in the New Testament?

As I indicated in my previous post, I’m planning to write a book (after the one on charity in early Christianity) explaining how we got the canon of the New Testament.  Who choose the books?  On what grounds?  And when? In this post I thought I'd show the kind of think I'll be interested in, [...]

The post Why Wasn’t Peter’s Apocalypse Included in the New Testament? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

My Next Book: Creating the Bible — How We Got the Canon of the New Testament

Now that my book Love Thy Stranger is done, in press, being prepared for publication (March 24!  You can preorder it with a price guarantee from Amazon already), and, as far as I am concerned with, over and done with, I have moved on to the next project, or projects.  I THINK it will be two -- [...]

The post My Next Book: Creating the Bible — How We Got the Canon of the New Testament appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.