Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 55

What is the Book of Acts About?

To understand a debate about whether the book of Acts is historical, I first have to explain -- by way or reminder or by way of ... minder -- what the book of Acts is actually about.  After this post I'll lay out how I debate (with myself) whether what it says can actually be [...]

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Gold Q&A: Ask Your Questions!

Hey Golds and Platinums, you the few, the proud: Time again for the Big Dance!  I'll be recording the March Gold Q&A this weekend, scheduling gods willing, to be published next week..  Got a burning, a smoldering, or a cool question?  Ask away!  Anything related to the blog.   I'll do my best to answer.  , [...]

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Is There Any Point Doing a Public Debate?

I'm contemplating doing another debate for BECO (Bart Ehrman Courses Online; you can see the various courses on my website: http://www.bartehrman.com).  It won't be just like the last one, on whether historians can "prove" that Jesus was raised from the dead,  since that one was, well, seven hours! (https://www.bartehrman.com/did-the-re...).  But if I do it, it [...]

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Did Paul Exchange Letters with the Greatest Roman Philosopher of His Day??

I've mentioned several non-canonical letters forged in Paul's name connected with the views of the second-century heretic Marcion.   There are other letters out there that also (falsely) claim to be written by Paul but that were not forged in order to support or attack a particular heretical view in Paul's name.  That is almost certainly [...]

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Paul’s Letter to the … Laodiceans? Long Thought to be Part of the New Testament!

One of the most intriguing letters forged in the name of Paul is his alleged letter to the Laodiceans.  As you’ll see, it’s intriguing both because some Christian churches accepted it as part of the New Testament for centuries and because scholars have never been able to figure out why a forger bothered to write [...]

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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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