Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 92

The Story of the Righteous Job and His Righteous God

In my previous post I explained how the book of Job comprises both a folk-tale written in prose about a righteous man named Job (chs. 1-2; 42) and a set of dialogues written in poetry between Job, his so-called friends, and eventually God (chs. 3-42).   These are two different compositions with two different authors living [...]

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Suffering in the Two Books of Job. Two Books?

  After I finished my short thread of posts about the problem of suffering a couple of weeks ago, I realized that it might be helpful for me to discuss one or two of the books of the Bible that deal with the issue head-on -- in part because many people don't read these books [...]

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Platinum Webinar! Forgiveness vs. Atonement

Dear Platinum members, It is time (finally!) for our quarterly Platinum webinar, for you Plats only.  We have scheduled it for Wednesday March 15, 7:30 pm EST.  I have decided to delve into a topic that you (or at least I) almost NEVER hear about: the difference between forgiveness and atonement.  This difference plays a [...]

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Revelation — A Novel. Guest Post Announcing Publication, by Gary McCarragher

Just now published, here is a novel about a New Testament scholar named Bart, at a major university in the South, who comes from a fundamentalist background and continues running up against it.  But this Bart's story ain't mine.  As a novel, this is a fictional narrative, which does, however, deal with issues that I [...]

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March Gold Q&A: Submit your questions!

Dear Goldies, Our monthly Gold Q&A is coming upon us.  DEADLINE for your question(s):  this coming Friday, March 10, midnight your time.    Interested in anything I can deal with?   Now's your chance: Ask away! I'm more likely to answer questions that are relatively short and to the point than those that go on for [...]

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The Voice at Jesus’ Baptism–An Intriguing Version in the Gospel of the Ebionites

Last week in my class on "Jesus in Scholarship and Film" we were discussing the intriguing little fact that when Jesus is baptized, the voice of God that comes from heaven to call him his Son says different things in each of the three Synoptic Gospels (there is no voice in the Gospel of John).  [...]

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Is the Gospel of Mark in Papias Our Gospel of Mark?

Can we trust a source such as Papias on the question of whether our Gospel of Matthew was written by the disciple Matthew and that our Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, the companion of the disciple Peter? It is interesting that Papias tells a story that is recorded in our Matthew but tells [...]

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Who Wrote the Gospels? Our Earliest (Apparent) Reference

I have begun to discuss the evidence provided by the early church father Papias that Mark was actually written by Mark.  He appears to be the first source to say so.  Does he?  And if so, is he right? Here’s how I begin to discuss these matters in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (edited [...]

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Did Mark Write Mark? What the Apostolic Fathers Say

Did Mark write Mark?   A couple of weeks ago I did an eight-lecture course on the Gospel of Mark for my separate (unrelated to the blog) venture, a series of courses on “How Historians Read the Bible” (the courses are available on my website: www.bartehrman.com).  It was a blast.  One of the things I loved [...]

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Vote for your favorite Platinum Post

Dear Platinum Members, It is time to vote on your favorite Platinum guest posts to go on to the blog at large.  We've had some dandy submissions over the past two months.  Here are the four options. To vote, send the name of your choice to Diane, at ehrmanblog@gmail.com.  Your DEADLINE:  Saturday midnight (your time), [...]

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