Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 86

How Do We “Remember” Lincoln?

In my last post,  I mentioned a phenomenon known as “collective” memory.  It's how groups of people "remember" something in the  past.  This isn't quite the same as how you remember what you did on your last vacation.  It's more like how past events or figures are constructed in the broader "memory" of a society.  [...]

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When I Got Seriously Interested in Memory (at least insofar as I remember)

(Recall: this post came from the past, when I was working on my book about Jesus and Memory, badly titled Jesus Before the Gospels.  I had forgotten about the post till just now!) As I indicated in my previous post, I have long been interested in memory for both personal and professional reasons.  On the [...]

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Did The Twelve Become Only Three? Platinum post by Douglas Wadeson MD

Early Christianity had many stories about the adventures of the Twelve Apostles after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Thomas is tricked into becoming a missionary to India.1 John travels about evangelizing while demonstrating control of bedbugs!2 Andrew was said to travel to the area now known as Ukraine to evangelize there – I’ve [...]

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My Forgotten Book on Memory

Of all the books I've written for a general audience, the one that I think got (by far) less attention than it deserved -- well, OK, less attention that I wanted and hoped (!) -- was Jesus Before the Gospels.  I've long thought I gave it a very bad title.  The book is really about memory [...]

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And Here’s My Final Exam on The Birth of Christianity

Yesterday I posted an old final exam for my course Introduction to the New Testament.  And for your amusement, here is an exam for my course that I taught this semester, called the Birth of Christianity, which covered the developments within Christianity after the New Testament up through the conversion of Constantine. See how you [...]

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Was Jesus a False Prophet?

As many of you know, I started a podcast awhile back, called Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.  It's not connected with the blog, but it deals with stuff most blog members would be interested in.  (And hey, it's free!  Available both as a podcast on all the main podcast servers and on Youtube.) A new [...]

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Wanna Take My Final Exam In New Testament?

I was browsing through some old posts from years ago and came across this one, a copy of my final exam for my undergraduate course, Introduction to the New Testament.   Check it out.  How would you do? The students have some idea of what the exam will entail in advance.  For the identifications, anything they've [...]

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Good Friday or Easter? CNN OpEd

On Easter Sunday CNN published an OpEd that I wrote to discuss how so many Christians (most I've ever known) are not overly compelled by Good Friday but are passionate about Easter.  Just, well, check out the church attendance on both days.  In the OpEd I argued that it's because as a rule most Christians [...]

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Is 2 Thessalonians a Forgery? From 132 CE? Platinum Guest Post by Omar Robb

The proposition that the 2 Thessalonians was forged in 132AD by a Thessalonian priest. Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   There have been lot of arguments discussing the authenticity of the 2 Thessalonians. Many Scholars concluded (due to many observations) that it is a forgery. I am going here to add one more observation into the list [...]

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“Death is nothing to us.” What Do YOU Think?

I quote: “You need to realize that death is nothing to us.   Everything that is good and bad in our lives comes from the experiences of our senses.  But death brings an end to our senses/experiences.  And so having the right understanding – that death is nothing to us – makes our mortality enjoyable, not [...]

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