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. EHRMANI 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. EHRMANI think the evidence is just so overwhelming that Jesus existed, that it’s silly to talk about him not existing.
BART D. EHRMANIn the entire first Christian century Jesus is not mentioned by a single Greek or Roman historian, religion scholar, politician, philosopher or poet.
BART D. EHRMANI 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. EHRMANA fundamentalist is no fun, too much damn, and not enough mental.
BART D. EHRMANSometimes 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. EHRMANDifferent authors have different points of view. You can’t just say, ‘I believe in the Bible.
BART D. EHRMANTraditionally in Christian circles, Judas in fact has been associated with Jews. Of being traitors, avaricious, who in fact, betray Jesus, who are Christ-killers. And this portrayal of Judas of course also leads then to horrendous acts of anti-Semitism through the centuries.
BART D. EHRMANIn Matthew, Jesus declares, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” In Mark, he says,“Whoever is not against us is for us.”
BART D. EHRMANNo other author, biblical or otherwise, mentions this event. Is it, like John’s account of Jesus’ death, a detail made up by Matthew in order to make some kind of theological point?
BART D. EHRMANFar and away the most changes are the result of mistakes pure and simple slips of the pen, accidental omissions, inadvertent additions, misspelled words, blunders of one sort or another.
BART D. EHRMANJesus 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. EHRMANIn fact, most of the changes found in early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology.
BART D. EHRMAN[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. EHRMANThe 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. EHRMANMy students sometimes ask: what is a fundamentalist? I give them a very simple definition.
BART D. EHRMAN