Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 20

For Further Reading on the Synoptic Problem and Its Possible Solutions

I have now finished my short thread on the Synoptic Problem and here would like to provide some guidelines for additional reading for anyone who, well, just can’t get enough!  These are books written by experts dealing with various aspects of the problem and its solution; I’ve indicated which ones are most suitable for beginners [...]

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Other Sources for Matthew and Luke: M and L! And Who CARES?

We have seen that most scholars agree that the problem of the close similarities and striking differences among our Synoptic Gospels -- the "Synoptic Problem" -- is best solved by thinking that Mark was copied (to a greater or lesser extent) by both Matthew and Luke, the view called "Markan Priority."  The majority continues to [...]

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Q1 Platinum Webinar: The Mystery of the Beloved Disciple

Platinum blog members, it's time for our Quarterly Platinum Webinar! Mark your calendars – the live lecture will take place on Wednesday March 5th at 7:00pm Eastern. As always, if you are not able to attend live, the lecture will be recorded and distributed via email after the event. The topic for this quarter's lecture [...]

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Q1 Platinum Webinar: The Mystery of the Beloved Disciples

Platinum blog members, it's time for our Quarterly Platinum Webinar! Mark your calendars – the live lecture will take place on Wednesday March 5th at 7:00pm Eastern. As always, if you are not able to attend live, the lecture will be recorded and distributed via email after the event. The topic for this quarter's lecture [...]

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Evidence for Q: The Sequence of the Sayings

In my previous post I gave a simplified illustration to show why it is problematic to get rid of the Q source (the hypothetical  collection of sayings found in both Matthew and Luke but not in Mark).  Having this hypothetical source does not actually complicate the solution of the Synoptic Problem, it makes the solution [...]

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An Argument for Q: The Hypothetical Source That Seems to Have Existed

Why should we think there was a Q, the hypothetical document that contained principally sayings of Jesus, that was (according to this hypothesis) used by Matthew and Luke (but not by Mark) in constructing their Gospels? It is an issue because if Matthew and Luke both used Mark, as almost everyone agrees (for reasons I [...]

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The Q Source Used by Matthew and Luke

If Mark was the first Gospel written, as  I tried to explain in my previous post, and it was used by both Matthew and Luke, how do we explain that there are many places in Matthew and Luke that agree with each but are not in Mark.? They didn’t get these passages from Mark, but [...]

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Materialism, Personal Identity, and Resurrection: Part 2 – Platinum Post by Dennis J. Folds, Ph.D.

Materialism, Personal Identity, and Resurrection: Part 2 In part 1 of this post, I explored the link between a specific individual and the idea of the resurrection of that individual.  I contrasted the Hebrew notion of the resurrection of the body and the Greek notion of the immortal soul. I found both to be rooted [...]

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Was Mark Really Written First? The Arguments for “Markan Priority”

I've begun blogging on the "Synoptic Problem," the problem of why Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar in so many ways (many of the exact same stories, often told in the same sequence, and even in the very same words), and yet so different (often in wording, sometimes in sequence, etc.).  The solution virtually [...]

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Gospel Problems: Does Matthew Ever “Correct” Mark?

In my previous post I indicated that one of the reasons for thinking that Matthew copied Mark instead of the other way around is that there are passages in Mark that can be read in ways (or maybe even were meant in ways) that could be seen as problematic -- they might be worded in [...]

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