Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 5

1 Peter in a Nutshell

The book of 1 Peter is a kind of circular letter written in the name of the apostle Peter to “the exiles of the Dispersion” in several of the provinces of Asia Minor: “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1:1).  The author addresses his readers by calling them “exiles” (1:1) and “aliens” (2:11). Most scholars [...]

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Am I? AI? What do you think?

I have been thinking a lot lately about the relationship of AI to human consciousness.  I'm obviously not an an expert, but hey, at least I can think.  Can AI think?  That, of course, is a major question constantly being raised.  And one on which almost everyone seems to have an opinion.  (In contrast to, [...]

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Q3 2025 Platinum Webinar – September 9th

Platinum Members: You’re InvitedJoin Bart for our next Platinum-Only Webinar on Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 PM ET. This quarter’s topic is a big one:Biblical Explanations for SufferingWhy does suffering exist, and how did early Christians attempt to explain it? Bart will explore the range of answers offered in the Bible and what they reveal [...]

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Why Would Someone Forge the Letter of James?

In my previous three posts I’ve argued that the author of the book of James really does want his audience to think he is “James, the brother of Jesus,” but that in fact he was someone else.  In modern parlance, that means the book is a “forgery.”  Ancient Greek did not use the English word [...]

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Why James Did Not Write James

Here I conclude my string of posts dealing with whether James the brother of Jesus wrote the book of James as the book itself implicitly claims.  Again this is taken from my more academic study Forgery and Counterforgery, but I've edited it a bit for an audience of regular folk instead of irregular scholars. In my [...]

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Could James, the Brother of Jesus, Even Write?

In my previous post I tried to show what the author of James is almost certainly claiming to be “that” James, the actual brother of Jesus.  In this post and the next will be explaining why it probably (well, almost certainly was not, in my view) written by him. I’ve decided, as is my occasional [...]

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James: Who, When, and Why? Does It Claim to be by THAT James (the brother of Jesus)?

In my previous post I summarized the major themes and emphases of the five-chapter letter of James, one of the Catholic Epistles.  I now want to get into the questions of Who Wrote It, When, and Why.  This will take a couple of posts, and I've decided to give a fuller scoop in this case [...]

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James: Who, When, and Why? Does It Claim to Be by THAT James (the brother of Jesus)?

In my previous post I summarized the major themes and emphases of the five-chapter letter of James, one of the Catholic Epistles.  I now want to get into the questions of Who Wrote It, When, and Why.  This will take a couple of posts, and I've decided to give a fuller scoop in this case [...]

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The Book of James in a Nutshell

In this “New Testament in a Nutshell” thread I come now to the intriguing book of James, long one of my favorites among the Catholic epistles.  At one point in my earlier existence, I liked the book so well that I memorized it.  Don’t ask me to recite it now; that was 50 years ago. [...]

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1 and 2 Corinthians “At a Glance,” and Questions for Reflection

In earlier posts I provided discussions of both 1 and 2 Corinthians: their major emphases and themes, what we know about their context, when they were written, and why.   Check them out here: 1 Corinthians in a Nutshell 1 Corinthians: Who, When, and Why? 2 Corinthians in a Nutshell 2 Corinthians: Who Wrote It, When, [...]

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