Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 4

2 Peter: Who Wrote It, When, and Why?

Now that I have provided a summary of the major themes and emphases of the letter of 2 Peter, I can move to the question of who actually wrote it.  It claims, of course, to be written by Simeon (i.e. Simon) Peter, Jesus disciple.  But it is widely thought in fact to be pseudonymous, more [...]

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2 Peter in a Nutshell

In this “nutshell” series that summarizes each book of the New Testament in canonical order, we now come to the second letter that claims to be from the pen of Jesus’s disciple Peter.  Here is my one-sentence, fifty-word description of the book. 2 Peter is a short letter written in the name of Peter to [...]

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September 2025 Gold Q&A

Golds & Platinums, Our next Gold Q&A with Bart is coming up on Sunday, September 14 at 2 PM Eastern and it’s your chance to ask whatever’s been on your mind. Have a question you’ve been waiting to ask?Email it to Jen at: ehrmanblog@gmail.com Quick tips for getting your question answered: Keep it clear and [...]

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Platinum Repost: The Death and Afterlife of Jesus: A Historical Reconstruction Part II – Guest Post by Platinum Member Mark Reichert

We recently shared part one of a post written by Platinum blog member, Mark Reichert. You can find the first part here. Here now is the second part of his two-part reflections in which he offers his own reconstruction of what might have happened after the crucifixion. So what do I think really happened? There [...]

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Jesus, Essenes, Bible Translations, and 2 Thessalonians: Readers’ Questions and Answers

Here are some of the more interesting questions from readers over the past few weeks, and my responses:   READER’S QUESTION Have you considered the angle that Jesus may have been a revolutionary Essene? This would explain his outward orientation instead of inward. I mean he fits right in with being a disciple of John [...]

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Why An Author Claiming to Be Peter Wanted to Sound Like Paul

In my previous posts I've been showing that 1 Peter does not embrace the views and priorities known to be held by Peter, but endorses views and adopts the language and concerns of Paul.  And I've asked why an author would write a book like that.  Here I give my solution, as found in my [...]

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Is 1 Peter More Like 1 Paul?

In my previous post I started explaining that if you were to read 1 Peter, and didn't see his name as the first word, you would probably never suspect it was written by Jesus' disciple; on the contrary, it sounds a lot like something Paul wold have written.  (All this is taken, in edited form, [...]

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Why Does the Author of 1 Peter Sound Like Paul Instead of Peter?

Why does the “Peter” of 1 Peter sound like Paul but not Peter? This is at the heart of the question of why a pseudonymous author who was claiming to be Peter would have written this particular letter.   It’s a perplexing matter in part because nothing much about 1 Peter sounds like what we would [...]

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Did The Apostle Peter Write 1 Peter?

When it comes to the question of whether Peter, the disciple of Jesus, was likely to have written 1 Peter, as I indicated in my previous post, a major issue to consider is the fact that in antiquity MOST people could not read, let alone write, let alone compose a sentence, let along a five-page [...]

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

Now that I have laid out the major themes and emphases of 1 Peter in my previous post, I can move on to the questions of who wrote it, when, and why.  The final issue in some ways is easiest, at least when it comes to the overarching purpose of the letter.  As we have [...]

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