Pseudepigrapha in the Bible
Dr Bart Ehrman
Why did the Jews of Paul’s day reject the Christian claims about Jesus being the promised messiah? The answer is simple..
To make sense of early Jewish outrage over claims concerning the messiahship of Jesus, we need to cut though many centuries of Christian thinking, mountains of subsequent theological speculation, and masses of Christian “common sense” about how Jesus came as… Read More ›
Suppose Matthew and Paul had been brought together and instructed to produce a joint position paper on whether believers in Jesus were to follow the Jewish Law. Would they have been able to hammer out a consensus?
Early and Diverging Views of Christians and Jews. Divergent understandings of Judaism were found among Christians in the mid-second century. At one extreme were the Jewish-Christian adoptionists, who continued to worship the God of Israel as the one true God… Read More ›
The Scandal of Christian Forgeries in the Bible
“Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature,” writes Dr Bart Ehrman, “is the degree to which it was forged: The Homilies and Recognitions of Clement; Paul’s letters to and from Seneca; Gospels by Peter, Thomas, and Philip;… Read More ›
Other Jewish Miracle-working Sons of God – besides Jesus.
Anyone who called Jesus a miracle-working Jewish rabbi, the Son of God, would have been easily understood: other righteous Jews, both before Jesus, and afterward, were similarly portrayed.
Bart Ehrman & Peter J Williams debate how the Gospels portray the claims Jesus made about himself.
Moses parted the Red Sea.. Is he God? No.
The Institution of the Lord’s Supper in the Gospel of Luke
3 Minute Academic Soundbites. In the gospel of Luke does Jesus claim his death is a sacrifice that brings salvation? Probably not, according to professor Bart D Ehrman, a leading expert of the New Testament. The implications for an Islamic… Read More ›
Biblical Truths: The Meaning of Scripture in the Twenty First Century
In 3 Minute Academic Sound bites I discuss the recent work of Professor Dale B. Martin of Yale University and why I believe it fails in its objective to bring together historical scholarship and orthodox Christian doctrines. Biblical Truths: The… Read More ›
The meaning of Son of God/Son of Man
The way most people understand the terms “Son of God” and “Son of Man” today is probably at odds with how they would have been understand by many Jews in the first century. In our way of thinking, a “son… Read More ›
Beating your children: Proverbs from the Bible and Assyria compared
In liberal child-rearing circles in our day and age, “spanking” a child is very much looked down on and even condemned; not so in many ancient societies. As a demonstration that ancient “Wisdom” differed very much, in places, from modern,… Read More ›
The text of the Bible: its corruption and uncertainty
Modern translations of the Hebrew Bible are largely based on a single manuscript called Codex Leningradensis, dating to the year 1000 C.E. The text of the Hebrew Bible was preserved and protected through the work of the Masoretes (500 –… Read More ›
If Jesus did all the miracles attributed to him, then surely he must be God in the flesh. Right?
The miracle-working prophets Many readers of the New Testament Gospels today believe that if Jesus did all the miracles attributed to him, then surely he must be God. Who else would be able to make nature obey him, or heal… Read More ›
The historical value of Acts
Does Luke give us an accurate account of what actually happened in the early years of the church and in the life and teachings of Paul? Here I will take just one example: both Acts and Paul lay out the… Read More ›
