Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 52

Platinum Webinar for March: Ethics Without God??

Dear Platinum Members, It's time for our Quarterly Platinum Webinar.  We have scheduled it for Wednesday, March 13, 2023, at 7:30 pm. When I was a young evangelical Christian, I ran across a book called Ethics Without God.  I thought the whole idea was preposterous.  Why would there by ANY reason for being ethical if there [...]

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Paul’s *THIRD* Letter to the Corinthians? A Very Interesting Forgery

Even though we don’t have the forgeries of Pauline letters connected with Marcion (they’ve all been lost or destroyed by orthodox Christians), we have other letters forged in Paul’s name that appear to be opposing Marcion (you don't need to read the previous posts to make sense of this one; but if you want to [...]

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The Two Gods of Marcion and the Forgeries in the Name of Paul

Here I continue my discussion of Marcion, the arch-heretic of the second century, whose followers forged writings in the name of Paul to support their view that the God of the Old Testament was not the God of Jesus and Paul.  Recall:  Marcion argued that the God of the Old Testament was the Jewish God [...]

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The Heretic Marcion and Forgeries of Pauline Letters

If Christians made up stories about Paul, did they also make up writings allegedly by Paul? My two previous posts were about fabricated narratives connected with Paul both from outside the New Testament and in the NT book of Acts.  After posting, I realized that after lo these many years, I’ve never discussed at any [...]

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Facts Hidden Among the Legends of the Apostle Paul?

There are so many legends, and only so many facts, we know about Paul from our surviving sources.  Is there a way to tell which is which?   How much of what we read -- in the New Testament letters of Paul, the book of Acts, the Acts of Paul, the letters of Paul from outside [...]

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Our Controversial Sources About the Controversial Paul

Peter and Mary Magdalene are not the only early followers of Jesus whose lives are shrouded in mystery.  What about Paul?  As it turns out, of all of Jesus’ female disciples after his life, we have the most information about Mary Magdalene, and of all his male disciples, Peter and Paul.  All are mentioned (Mary [...]

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How Much Fact, How Much Fiction? The Life of Peter

History or Legend?  Fact or Fiction?  A bit of both?  It’s hard to know how to understand stories about the apostle Peter found both inside and outside the New Testament.  I began with some examples yesterday, involving his allegedly raising people from the dead.  OK, probably fiction, but still – presented as fact!   I pick [...]

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Archaeology in the Time of Jesus! New Course March 2-3!!

If you're interested in what archaeology can tell us about the world in which Jesus lived, moved, and had his being -- you need to check out the course on offer this weekend, March 2-3, by world-class archaeologist Jodi Magness, my colleague at UNC and one of the leading experts on the archaeology of ancient [...]

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The Disciple Peter in History and Legend

Probably my best-named book is Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene.  This is a book I wrote so I could use the title.  (A) In fact a publisher wanted to give me a contract for the book, but I turned it down because they wanted me to do other apostles too.  NO! I said.  It’s gotta [...]

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Jesus and Mary Magdalene Seen Kissing??

While I'm on the "Jesus and Mary Magdalene" question (see my earlier posts), what about the claims that some (lots) of people have heard, that there is a story in a later Gospel that talk about them kissing? The later Gospel in question is the Gospel of Philip, one of the "Gnostic Gospels" discovered in [...]

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