A Rebuttal To Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus

by Jeffrey D. Blevins

Rebuttal To Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus is an academic paper written in 2009. The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical context for the topic of New Testament manuscript history, and to respond to Ehrman’s attack on Scripture. Although Ehrman mounts a number of specific attacks, including authorship of the various gospels and epistles, and the alleged rocky road of canonization, the primary focus of this paper is to respond specifically to the questions Ehrman raises regarding the reliability of Scripture subsequent to the initial transmissions of the Apostolic letters. In reviewing the material available for sale regarding this subject, the author opines that the selection is either too elementary, or consists of books the average reader might find daunting. This forty-plus page paper, with over 170 footnotes, is an excellent introduction to the subject and offers cogent criticisms of Ehrman’s analysis of this very important topic.

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2013

Reviews

[Chris Queen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Blevins, a former law enforcement official, brings good information to light inasmuch as there were three major locations where the early copying of the gospels and epistles of the New Testament were performed meaning there are three branches of the tree also to make reasonable textual critical analysis to determine the correct wording by comparing each branch to the others to determine by that comparison where variations, most being syntax, punctuation and spelling errors arose. Further he points out here that evidence in quotations made by church fathers in the early years of the spread of the gospels provide evidence the writings of Paul and the apostles in Jerusalem were known to the churches then. No murky silent centuries after which the writings suddenly appeared as out of nowhere from charlatans were a cause of altered records as Ehrman implies. It was an informative expose and worth reading for anyone wanting to make an entry into finding out factually based information as opposed to the somewhat subjective presentations and obfuscation of the entire facts by Ehrman in Misquoting Jesus. Only complaint is it could have been longer presenting specific examples from the body of fact. Good Job overall. I enjoyed the reading.

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brief read, about 80 pages and comprehensively outlines the arguments and other missing detail from Ehrman's book.