Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 35

New Course by Bart Ehrman: The Genius of the Acts of the Apostles

Please note: The below course is not affiliated with The Bart Ehrman Blog. We’re sharing it with you because we believe it may be of interest to our members. Thank you for your continued support of the Bart Ehrman Foundation and Blog. *********************************** Hello from Chris Huntley, Did you know that the book of Acts [...]

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The Problem of Suffering? So What’s the Problem?

The “problem of suffering” is especially a problem in the monotheistic religions.   In ancient Greek and Roman religions, with their many, many gods, it wasn’t an intellectual puzzle.  If there’s suffering, it’s because some or all of the gods are ticked off and out to get you.  There are some bad ones up there as [...]

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How Can We Imagine That God is Active in Our World? (A genuine, not rhetorical, question)

Are there moments when you wonder not just why things are going badly for you, or why they are very badly for others, but more comprehensively about why there needs to be suffering at all?  I certainly have, and I am now doing a thread of posts that explain some of my reflections through excerpts [...]

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Hurricanes, Suffering, And My Loss of Faith

Two weeks ago I gave a fundraising webinar for the victims of Hurricane Helene, on the topic:  Why Do Disasters Strike: The Bible’s Views.  In preparing for the talk I decided to re-read the opening section of my book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question: Why We Suffer (San [...]

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And Yet Other Apocrypha: 2 Maccabees and Others, Including Psalm 151!

This will be my final post for now on the Old Testament apocrypha.  In it I discuss the final (and particularly intriguing) book accepted in the Roman Catholic church, and a few others accepted in Orthodox Christian circles. Again this all comes from my textbook, The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Oxford, 2018).   2 [...]

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October Gold Q&A – Get Your Questions Answered!

Gold & Platinum Members, Your moment is here—get ready to fire off those questions for the October Gold Q&A! If all goes according to plan, Bart will be recording on October 20 at 7-8pm ET, with the replay dropping later that week. Got something simmering on your mind, or maybe a curiosity brewing? Now’s your [...]

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Still More Books of the Apocrypha: Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch

In this post I continue discussing the books of the Apocrypha, accepted as part of Scripture by Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.  These are important books, historically and culturally – but hardly known among Protestant readers.   Here are three more!  Descriptions are taken from my book The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction.   The [...]

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Some More of the OT Apocrypha: the Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel, and 1 Maccabees

The OT Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books are truly fascinating, even if not widely read.  Few people outside of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions knows about the first one; the other two here though are better known and, in fact, historically significant. Some descriptions from my book The New Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction. ****************************** The Letter [...]

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Platinum Webinar for October: “The Literacy of Jesus: Could the Christian Savior Read and Write?”

Dear Platinum Members, If you missed the live session of this quarter's Platinum Webinar, fear not. We have recorded the talk and it is now for you to view. Bart covers a lot of fascinating ground in this talk, including: Why this topic is even a question. Context around literacy in ancient societies. What the [...]

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Some of the Old Testament Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, and Additions to Esther

In my previous post I began to describe the Old Testament Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books.  In the several posts that follow I will describe the ones commonly accepted by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.   These are very interesting books, well worth reading, and, as I've said, canonical Scripture for some parts of the Christian church. My [...]

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