Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 22

The Gospel of Mark: For Further Reading

Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of the Gospel of Mark – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide a bibliography of important works, written by scholars for non-scholars. You may find one [...]

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The Gospel of Mark: Who, When, and Why

Who actually wrote the Gospel of Mark?  When?  And Why? In my previous post I laid out the major themes and emphases of Mark’s Gospel, and now I want to turn to some of the key historical issues about it.  I begin with the author. The two most important things to note are (1) every [...]

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The Gospel of Mark in a Nutshell

How could Jesus be the messiah?  Wasn’t the messiah to be a powerful figure sent from God to overthrow the enemies of the Jews and establish a new kingdom on earth?  How could a person publicly humiliated and tortured to death by his enemies be considered the Mighty One to Come?  That is the question [...]

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The Flukes of Life: How I Almost Never Became a Professor

This is now my 40th year of teaching at a university, 36 of the years at UNC Chapel Hill and 4 before that at Rutgers as a 28 year old.  It very nearly didn't happen at all.  Life is so strange. I was on the job market while I was writing my dissertation.. And even [...]

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Was (the author of ) Matthew Really a Jew?

My previous posts were dealing with the themes and historical context of the Gospel of Matthew, along  with a list of suggested readings for those who want to go deeper. I would like to go deeper myself by returning at greater length to one of the most puzzling features of Matthew, its relationship to Judaism.  [...]

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The Gospel of Matthew: For Further Reading

Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of Matthew’s Gospel – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide a bibliography  of important works, written by scholars for non-scholars.  You may find one or more [...]

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Matthew: For Further Reading

Now that I’ve devoted two posts to the major sine qua non of Matthew’s Gospel – one that lays out its major themes and emphases, the other that deals with who wrote it, when, and why, I can provide a bibliography  of important works, written by scholars for non-scholars.  You may find one or more [...]

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The Gospel of Matthew: Who, When, and Why?

In my previous post we took the first step in understanding the Gospel of Matthew, grasping its major themes and emphases.  It is also important to situate the book in its own historical context.  For that we need to know something about the author, the approximate time he was writing it, and why he appears [...]

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The Gospel of Matthew in a Nutshell

Are you familiar with the Gospel of Matthew?  If not, read on! If so, try to summarize its distinctive portrayal of Jesus in one sentence. (of say, 50 words or so max).  If you really can’t, then again, read on!  If you give it a try, check to see that you have both described it [...]

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Rambling Meditations on What It Means to Exist…. What Do You Think?

I sometimes feel like a pestiferous terrier who goes after someone’s ankles and just won’t stop. There are some issues (among the “Big Questions”) that I repeatedly come back to and just can’t let drop.  I suppose that’s because they seem both really important and completely incapable of being figured out.  Hence my occasional return [...]

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