Bart D. Ehrman's Blog, page 98

Do Public Debates Do Anyone Any Good? What Do You Think?

Do public debates on controversial topics do anything other than entertain, stir up the blood, and make people more entrenched in their views?  It there any sense of speaking of a “winner” in a debate in which virtually all listeners already have opinions?  Is there any substantive reason to have these events, other than to [...]

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Paul and the Gospels: Platinum Guest Post by Ryan Fleming

One of the very big issues of New Testament studies is the relationship between the teaching of Paul and the preaching of Jesus.  Are these basically the same?  Irreconcileably different?  Weirdly unalike?  Understandably similar?  Something else? Here in this Platinum Guest Post, Ryan Fleming provides an intriguing approach to the question, which raises lots of [...]

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Famous Passages that Are Not Original: How Do Modern Translators Deal with Them?

In my previous post I indicated that the King James Version includes verses in some places that are almost certainly not “original” – that is, passages that were not written by the original authors but were added by later scribes.  I chose three of the most outstanding and famous examples: the explicit reference to the [...]

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Problems with the King James Version: What Were the Translators Translating?

I’ve mentioned several problems with the King James Version in previous posts.  Arguably the most significant set of problems has to do with the text that the translators were translating.  The brief reality is that in the early 17th century, Greek editions of the New Testament were based on very few and highly inferior manuscripts.  [...]

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Can We Trust the Bible? The First Published (as opposed to Printed) Greek New Testament

In this thread on Bible translation, I have been talking about what it is translators of the New Testament actually translate.  In order to answer the question, I have had to explain how we started to get printed editions of the Greek New Testament, including the first to come off the printing press, the Complutensian [...]

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My All-Time Favorite Jesus Movie. Wanna Discuss It With Me?

Here's a reminder about a first-time-ever blog event, coming soon.  Interested?  Here's the original announcement. ************************* People often ask me what my favorite “Jesus Movie” is, and they  almost never expect my answer.  For me it’s hands down.  A clear forerunner.  A movie most people have never heard of, but in my opinion, the best [...]

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What Is a Viable Christian Theology? Platinum Guest Post by Joel Scheller

Here is a thoughtful and interesting guest post by fellow Platinum member Joel Scheller.  It deals with something we don't get a lot of on the blog -- reflections on what actually would be an adequate approach to theology by modern, sophisticated believers.  Even if you're not a believer, there is a lot of food [...]

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Can We Trust the Bible? The First Printed Greek New Testament

I have started to explain what it is translators of the New Testament actually translate.  They do not translate just one manuscript or another; they translate what they take to be the “original” text as it has been reconstructed by textual specialists (some of whom are the translators themselves).  These reconstructions can be found in [...]

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What New Testament Do New Testament Translators Translate?

I've been talking about some of the intriguing issues and problems with the King James translation.  The Biggest Problem is one that takes a bit of time to explain, and so will consume a couple of posts even before I explain the issue with the KJV.  The broader context involves Bible translation in general, and [...]

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A FREEBIE for Gold and Platinum Members Only

Dear Gold and Platinum Members, As you may have noticed (and, well, as several of you have pointed out!) we have had technical difficulties in posting the Gold Q&A's the past several months.  We think we've worked out the kinks now and hope it won't happen again.  But it's been a flippin' nuisance for all [...]

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