Bart Ehrman - A Tippling Philosopher

Analyzing Ehrman and Licona's 7-hour Resurrection debate

Recently, there was a seven-hour debate between Mike Licona (Christian) and Bart Ehrman (Agnostic), on the subject of “Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen?” that had been well-anticipated by people in certain corners of the internet. The Resurrection of Jesus has been a topic of much discussion here at

Bart Ehrman

"Of course there are discrepancies, embellishments, made-up stories, and historical problems in the Gospels"

There is no doubt that Bart Ehrman is a brilliant author. Two of his books are particularly worth investing in: Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior and How Jesus Became God: the Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.

Bart Ehrman

Gist Memory and the Gospels

Bart Ehrman’s book Jesus Before the Gospels is really quite excellent. It’s a must-read for anyone looking into how stories became Gospels, about memory, memorisation, distorted memories, and transmission. I am listening to it now, but let me pick out a few sections for you. In the last

Bart Ehrman

Memory, Oral Transmission, and the Gospels

Bart Ehrman's book Jesus Before the Gospels is really quite excellent. It's a must-read for anyone looking into how stories became Gospels, about memory, memorisation, distorted memories, and transmission. I am listening to it now, but let me pick out a few sections for you. In

Bart Ehrman

Who Was Nicodemus?

In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to

Bart Ehrman

Exaltation vs Incarnation Christology

Jesus Christ – who was he? That's something of a different question to skeptics like myself as it is to Christians. And it's a very different question in the context of the New Testament writers. What did Paul think Jesus was, as opposed to Matthew, Mark, Luke,

afterlife

What Does Jesus Say about the Afterlife?

Here is another guest post from Dana Horton, this time looking at Jesus' claims regarding life beyond death (thanks Dana!): What does Jesus say about the afterlife? A lot of us in a western Christian culture just assume there is an afterlife. It is what we grew up believing.

Bart Ehrman

Luke 1 & 2 Infancy Narratives as a Later Interpolation

Luke 3:1 opens with an elaborate chronological statement: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was … the word of the Lord came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness”. This surely reads as if it was originally written as the opening section

Bart Ehrman

Was Jesus a real person who lived and preached in ancient Judaea?

This is a guest post by regular commenter Carstonio. Thanks so much to him for this. Please feel free to submit any guest posts to me as this really helps the blog keep going! Was Jesus a real person who lived and preached in ancient Judaea? Or was he a

Bart Ehrman

Robert Price and Bart Ehrman on the Rise of Christianity

Given that there have recently been threads talking about why Christianity has succeeded in the way it has, this is topical: Robert Price, a double PhD in theology and prolific author on religion and Bart Ehrman, probably the most successful atheist writer on various aspects of Christian history, discuss Ehrman&

Bart Ehrman

Ehrman vs Licona: a Few Remarks

I posted this debate the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP7RrCfDkO4&feature=youtu.be I think this is worth watching, I really enjoyed it as I respect both scholars. To a degree. Part of me thinks that Licona is actually being really disingenuous here. Okay, let

Bart Ehrman

The Resurrection Debunked: Naturalistic Explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, it is that time of year that the historicity of the Easter accounts gets analysed by us skeptics. And found wanting. Very wanting. [caption id="attachment_6627" align="alignright" width="216"] Tintoretto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Bart Ehrman

Ehrman vs Licona 2018

I have not watched a debate for ages. I like both these people. My friend said of this: "I enjoyed this. I think Mike Lincona is struggling a bit and has to admit that some bits might not have actually happened but somehow the gospels are still reliable."

Bart Ehrman

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 4) – naturalistic explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, it is that time of year that the historicity of the Easter accounts gets analysed by us skeptics. And found wanting. Very wanting. [caption id="attachment_6627" align="alignright" width="216"] Tintoretto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Bart Ehrman

On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 4) - naturalistic explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, it is that time of year that the historicity of the Easter accounts gets analysed by us skeptics. And found wanting. Very wanting. [caption id="attachment_6627" align="alignright" width="216"] Tintoretto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Bart Ehrman

On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 4) - naturalistic explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, someone in Malawi is about to have a debate on national TV with a Christian about the Resurrection accounts and I have been asked to help provide some ideas for the debate, so here goes. There are three aspects to the debunking of the Resurrection: 1) The Gospe

Bart Ehrman

Guest post: Peter reviews Ehrman's "How Jesus Became God"

Modern day Christians hold that Jesus and God are one. The Athanasian Creed for instance holds that “…there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost.

Bart Ehrman

Ehrman on the Nativity

This is the sort of stuff I talk about in my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination, available from the sidebar over there on your right! From Bart Ehrman's blog: - Christianity In Antiquity (behind a members only wall):

Bart Ehrman

Lies, lies, lies!

Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman wrote this article for the HuffPo. The gist of the article is that portions of the New Testament were written by people who lied about their identity. Ehrman also explains why this matters.