• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. black
2. grey
3. blue
4. red
5. brown
6. white

Sometimes Christian apologists say there are only three options to who Jesus was: a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. But there could be a fourth option – legend.

Bart D. Ehrman

Related Topics

ChristianGodJesus

Popular Authors

Marilyn Monroe Paulo Coelho Abraham Lincoln C. S. Lewis Khalil Gibran Charlie Chaplin Gautama Buddha Isaac Newton

| Next

More Bart D. Ehrman Quotes

• 

  There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  CriticalInbredsReligiousThinking
• 

  The search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don’t want to go there.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  FirstsTruthWant
• 

  [P]eople need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  LifeLiveNeedsWriting
• 

  Jesus existed, and those vocal persons who deny it do so not because they have considered the evidence with the dispassionate eye of the historian, but because they have some other agenda that this denial serves.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  AgendasEyeJesus
• 

  In fact, most of the changes found in early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  ChristianMistakeSimple
• 

  A fundamentalist is no fun, too much damn, and not enough mental.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  FunFundamentalMental
• 

  Different authors have different points of view. You can’t just say, ‘I believe in the Bible.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  AtheistBelieveViews
• 

  I have such a fantastic life that I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for it. . . . But I don’t have anyone to express my gratitude to. This is a void deep inside me, a void of wanting someone to thank, and I don’t see any plausible way of filling it.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  FantasticGratitudeLifeSomeoneWanting
• 

  In the entire first Christian century Jesus is not mentioned by a single Greek or Roman historian, religion scholar, politician, philosopher or poet.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  ChristianJesusZero
• 

  His name never occurs in a single inscription, and it is never found in a single piece of private correspondence. Zero! Zip references!

  BART D. EHRMAN
  CorrespondanceFoundInscriptionNameSingle
• 

  The problem then with Jesus is that he cannot be removed from his time and transplanted into our own without simply creating him anew

  BART D. EHRMAN
  CreatingJesusProblemTransplant
• 

  I don’t know anyone who is a responsible historian, who is actually trained in the historical method, or anybody who is a biblical scholar who does this for a living, who gives any credence at all to any of this.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  CredenceKnowLivingResponsibleTrained
• 

  My students sometimes ask: what is a fundamentalist? I give them a very simple definition.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  FunGivingSimple
• 

  You can’t believe something just because someone else desperately wants you to.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  BelieveDesperatelySomeoneWant
• 

  As time goes on, thing do get made up.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  GoesMadeTime
• 

  Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate—whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or George Eliot, of Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, or the Dalai Lama.

  BART D. EHRMAN
  BibleEverythingInspireIntelligencePeopleUnique