Bart D. Ehrman's Blog

In a post a few days ago I pointed out that people often don’t clearly differentiate between the nuances of words that mean similar but not identical things, and that this leads to misunderstandings. I posed a challenge then for readers to differentiate between the words: Error Mistake Falsehood Deceit Lie Some of [...]

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Here are some of the intriguing questions I've received recently: a number on how Jesus came into the world and the theology of the Gospel of John.   QUESTION: In your opinion, why did Paul say Jesus was “born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4)? To my memory it seems unique in the entire Bible, and [...]

The post Some Good Questions On John and the Appearance of Jesus in the World appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

I occasionally get an email from someone who says that the disciples must have really seen Jesus raised from the dead because “they would not have lied about it.”  I’m always struck my how that seems to be the only option: Jesus was raised or the disciples “lied.” Relatedly (though not obviously so), my friend [...]

The post Lies, Contradictions, Mistakes, and the Meaning of Words. What Do You Think? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

Among the most fascinating elements of the Didache are the prayers it records, one (the Lord’s Prayer) which it presents in a form more familiar to people today than the forms found in the New Testament (!), and others connected with the Eucharist – that is, the “Lord’s Supper” as celebrated in church.  These prayers [...]

The post The Striking Prayers of the Didache appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

At the end of each year, the blog highlights one of the charities we support through our ongoing charitable work. This year, we’re rallying behind the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina—a phenomenal organization that distributes food to those in need throughout my part of the state. What they do is both astonishing [...]

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In my previous post I started to discuss one of the most important of the Apostolic Fathers, the Didache. I indicated there that it consists of three parts, the first of which is an ethical treatise on the "Two Ways" one can live. Now I continue with describing the even more unusual next two parts, [...]

The post Intriguing Instructions for How To Run the Church: More on the Didache appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

The Didache (pronounced DID-ah-kay) is one of the most interesting and important documents to have survived from the earliest years of Christianity, written before even some of the books of the New Testament, apparently, and invaluable for understanding the development of Christian ethical views, the ways the early church was organized (with wandering teachers and [...]

The post The Didache: An Important Early Christian Document in a Nutshell appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

I would like to descirbe for all of you the kind of webinar I did this past week for those blog members who have chosen to become Blog Stewards -- so you can see what you too could be involved with if you chooose. For a long time I’ve wanted to try having a bona-fide [...]

The post Are You Interested in a More Interactive Approach on the Blog? Reflections on the First Blog Stewards Seminar appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

In my posts on Barnabas I indicated that it was probably written sometime in the 130s CE; I often get asked how scholars come up with dates like that? The first thing to stress is that it's is very difficult to date ancient writings.  But scholars who have worked on such matters (for nearly 300 [...]

The post How Do You Date a Book Such as Barnabas? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.

In my last post  in starting to explain why early Christians may have attributed the anonymous Letter to Barnabas to Barnabas, best known as a one of the closest companions of Paul.  That post was a set up to this; in it I explained some of the key things we know about the mid-second century [...]

The post Why Was the Letter of Barnabas Attributed to Barnabas (Part 2) appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog.