Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

Visions of supernatural beings or places are relatively common in the bible and early Christian writings - from wheels within wheels, to visions of the risen Jesus, to trips to the afterlife, writers record a whole array of fascinating experiences. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to talk about one of the less flamboyant, but nonetheless intriguing visions - Paul’s trip to the “third heaven”. We’ll get into the role of visions in an...

The Sermon on the Mount is probably one of the best-known speeches of Jesus, and if you’ve spent any time in a church service, then the odds are that you’ve heard at least part of it. It contains the beatitudes - “blessed are the meek” - the Lord’s Prayer, and a whole host of teachings that are held sacred by Christians the world over. But… did the writer of Matthew fabricate the whole thing? Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to talk...

Today’s title may seem a little bit odd - how many Jesuses are in the NT? I’m sure there are going to be several comments on YouTube from people who didn’t stay to watch the episode because the answer is clearly “one”. For those who want to see where we go with this, Dr. Bart Ehrman is going to be answering my questions on the different ways early Christians and writers of the NT viewed and understood Jesus, and whether all of thos...

In the modern Western world, monotheism is the rule, rather than the exception. Not so in the ancient past, where many cultures worshipped whole pantheons of gods, each one responsible for specific areas of the mortal experience. How does the one god of Israel compare to this myriad of deities, and can an understanding of how ancient mediterranean cultures thought about and interacted with the divine help us to understand the god p...

If you’ve ever done any research on the Bible - and if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have - you might have noticed that most biblical scholars agree with each other on a lot of basic points. These include the dating of texts and whether specific events recorded in the Bible are historical, among other things. Why is that, and is it some kind of conspiracy? Today, Dr. Chris Frilingos joins me to talk about the acade...

Seeing or hearing a Bible verse being pulled out of a hat to support someone’s argument is a common experience for many people. Homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so. Satan is the bad guy because the Bible says so. Women should wear modest clothing because the Bible says so. But does the Bible say so? My guest today, Dr. Dan McClellan, is no stranger to engaging in biblical debates, and is here to talk about how and why ...

Demons and ghosts have specific, sometimes ambiguous, places in the modern imagination - demons tempt people to wickedness, but their incredible power can be harnessed by someone brave (or stupid) enough to bargain with them. Ghosts envy the living and can haunt and harm you, but can also be the comforting presence of a long-dead loved one. What role, though, did demons and ghosts take in early Christianity, and are those roles lin...

With Easter fast approaching, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are on the minds of many Christians. While it has been a lynch-pin in Christian theology since the formation of the religion, Christians - both early and modern - disagree on how it happened, why it happened, and the implications it has for human life after death. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman elucidates us all on early debates around the resurrection, why these debat...

Unless you have sworn off social media, you’re probably familiar with the existence of “tradwives” - women who live their lives according to traditional, conservative gender roles. They often describe themselves as living biblically, or having a biblical marriage, celebrating that they are subservient to their husbands. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman provides insight into what the New Testament actually says about gender roles and marriage...

If you ask any Christian about the life of Jesus, you’re likely to get a version of one of the gospels of the New Testament - 90% of the story would concern the final few years of Jesus’ life, with a brief mention of his birth in Bethlehem to a virgin and the subsequent flight to Egypt. Historians don’t often talk about what Jesus’ childhood and adolescence may have looked like, but my guest today is a welcome exception to that rul...

The fear of death is an experience common to most of humanity - in fact, one of the oldest pieces of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, shows one man’s struggle with that very fear. Christianity’s promise of heaven provides a safe haven from that fear - but what did Jesus think about life after death? Today on Misquoting Jesus, Dr. Bart Ehrman discusses what the Gospels tell us about Jesus’ thoughts and beliefs surrounding death, a...

Knowing when something was written helps to better understand answers to other questions - like why it was written, and how it relates to other texts from that time. Unfortunately, ancient authors rarely wrote the date at the top of the page when they started writing, which makes working out when something was written a somewhat challenging process. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman is going to guide us through how biblical scholars tackle th...

If I start talking about “the law”, many of you are going to have certain ideas pop into your heads - a police force, trials, prison. But what about if I’m talking about the law in a religious sense?

Maybe you’ll think of the ten commandments, veiling women, or practices of abstinence. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman talks about the Jewish Law as presented in the New Testament, exploring whether it’s possible to even keep it, and what agend...