In terms of the historical record, I should also point out that there is no account in any ancient source whatsoever about King Herod slaughtering children in or around Bethlehem, or anyplace else.
BART D. EHRMANHis name never occurs in a single inscription, and it is never found in a single piece of private correspondence. Zero! Zip references!
More Bart D. Ehrman Quotes
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In the entire first Christian century Jesus is not mentioned by a single Greek or Roman historian, religion scholar, politician, philosopher or poet.
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Did he say both things? Could he mean both things? How can both be true at once? Or is it possible that one of the Gospel writers got things switched around?
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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.
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[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.
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A fundamentalist is no fun, too much damn, and not enough mental.
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The search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don’t want to go there.
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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.
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Different authors have different points of view. You can’t just say, ‘I believe in the Bible.
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There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.
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Traditionally 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.
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The problem then with Jesus is that he cannot be removed from his time and transplanted into our own without simply creating him anew
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My students sometimes ask: what is a fundamentalist? I give them a very simple definition.
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You can’t believe something just because someone else desperately wants you to.
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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.
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As time goes on, thing do get made up.
BART D. EHRMAN