My new book on the Revelation of John will appear in March, and I can’t wait for readers to learn what the Apocalypse is really saying. It probably ain’t what you think. You can pre-order here:
For what it’s worth: I don’t think I know a single scholar of the historical Jesus, or of the New Testament, or – well of any academic topic taught at universities whom I’ve ever spoken with – who likes the movie.
I’ve been doing a lot of interviews and podcasts over the past couple of months, and for my money this is absolutely one of the best, with Seth Andrews the Host of “The Thinking Atheist.” He’s a terrific interviewer.
I've written a new book on Revelation: "Armageddon - What the Bible Really Says about the End". In it, I examine the least-read and most-misunderstood book of the Bible. It will be out in about 2 weeks, but you can pre-order here: . Get it while it's hot!
Written for secular historians of religion and believers alike, “How Jesus Became God” will engage anyone interested in the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God.
Normally one would not welcome Armageddon with rejoicing, but in this instance .... My book was published yesterday: Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End.
Get your copy here:
We blew the top out of our charity-giving this year, by bringing in and distributing $503,000. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that, well, is half a million dollars. Whoa. Many thanks!
My editor from Yale University Press emailed me today to tell me that my recent book Journeys to Heaven and Hell has been chosen for the New Yorker’s “Best Books of 2022.” An academic book?? Go figure.
Of all the books I've written for a general audience, the one that I think got (by far) less attention than it deserved -- well, OK, less attention than I wanted and hoped (!) -- was "Jesus Before the Gospels".
(Note: this is a post for blog members.)
Every now and then I receive an email from a devout Christian who tells me that no one (including, well, me) is able to interpret the Bible correctly without guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If you had the opportunity to sit down with Bart over coffee and pick his brain, what's the number 1 question you'd ask him? Let him know here, he'll be responding to some in the upcoming weeks!
Over the years, the Blog has raised more than $1,500,000, and every nickel of your Blog Membership fees goes directly to charities dealing with poverty, hunger, homelessness, and medical needs.
There have been some writers (OK, mythicists who don’t believe there ever *was* a historical Jesus), who have argued that Jesus could not have come from Nazareth since the place did not exist.
Most of these Gospels have been lost to us in all but name. Some are quoted sporadically by early church writers who opposed them. A few have been discovered in modern times. Take a look at "Lost Christianities" and some other books here:
From the beginning the followers of Jesus insisted that they had the “truth” and that it was only by accepting the “truth” about God as revealed by Jesus that anyone could have salvation.
The way to read Revelation is not through a fundamentalist approach that isolates statements scattered throughout its chapters and rearranges them like pieces of a great jigsaw puzzle to create a version of what is to happen soon.
ARMAGEDDON -
What other resources do we have to figure out what the authors of the New Testament originally wrote, if we don’t have their actual writings themselves?
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.
Many, possibly most, people don’t realize that the King James Bible was not the first translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into English.
The course will be unlike any other I have given in any context. It will indeed cover major issues involving the New Testament, early Christianity, and the formation of the Christian religion. But it will also be deeply personal and autobiographical.
On my podcast (“Misquoting Jesus Podcast,” with Bart Ehrman) I recently interviewed my friend and colleague Jennifer Knust about the problems involved with producing a modern translation of the Bible.
Now here’s an intriguing topic I bet you’ve never thought about. Can you (should we?) consider early Christianity — and in fact Christianity as a whole, as a “cult of the dead”?
In today's post for blog subscribers I continue my reflections on how stories about Jesus were floating around the Mediterranean world *before* the Gospel writers wrote their accounts (based on these stories). Take a look.
I was recently asked about my claim that Jesus never calls himself God/a divine being in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some people have asked me about what they think might be an exception …
In my previous post I pointed out that scribes sometimes changed the manuscripts of the New Testament in order to make them more theologically “orthodox,” that is, more in line with theological views of (most of) the scribes...
Arguably the most significant study of early Christianity in modern times is Walter Bauer’s 1934 classic, Rechtglaübigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum.
We remember most things just fine, but we also often get things either partially or completely wrong. Memories can be frail, faulty, and false. What about faulty memories of Jesus? Read more in today's post for blog subscribers.
Readers of the blog will know that I’ve talked a lot about scribal changes in the writings of the New Testament, making it difficult to know what the author originally wrote.
I get irritated by reviewers who go for the jugular without seriously understanding (or caring) what I actually say. Or possibly knowing what I say? I sometimes genuinely do wonder if the reviewer actually bothered to read the book ...
I am very pleased to publish this guest post on what the Bible might have to say about people who are transgender. Most people probably assume they know, or at least can surmise. Well, read on.