Bart D Ehrman

When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account...

Historian of religion Ehrman takes readers on a tour of the early Christian church, illuminating the lives of three of Jesus' most intriguing followers: Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, and Mary Magdalene. What do the writings of the New Testament tell us about each of these key followers of Christ? What legends have sprung up about them in the centuries after their deaths? Was Paul bow-legged and bald? Was Peter crucified upside down? Was Mary Magdalene...

This work addresses the issue of what the New Testament actually teaches, and it's not what most people think. The author, a Bible expert demonstrates that the New Testament is riddled with contradictory views about who Jesus was and the significance of his life. He reveals that many of the books were written in the names of the apostles by Christians living decades later, and that central Christian doctrines were the inventions of still later theologians....

It is often said, even by critical scholars who should know better, that "writing in the name of another" was widely accepted in antiquity. But religion scholar Bart D. Ehrman dares to call it what it was: literary forgery, a practice that was as scandalous then as it is today. Here, Ehrman's original research takes readers back to the ancient world, where forgeries were used as weapons by unknown authors to fend off attacks to their faith and establish...

"[The author] shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries"--Amazon.com.

Renowned Bible scholar Bart Ehrman discusses the contradictory explanations for suffering put forth by various biblical writers and invites all people of faith--or no faith--to confront their deepest questions about how God engages the world and each of us.

Large numbers of atheists, humanists, and conspiracy theorists are raising one of the most pressing questions in the history of religion: "Did Jesus exist at all?" Was he invented out of whole cloth for nefarious purposes by those seeking to control the masses? Or was Jesus such a shadowy figure -- far removed from any credible historical evidence -- that he bears no meaningful resemblance to the person described in the Bible? In Did Jesus Exist?...

"From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged. He examines how fundamental social experiences of...

What did the "other" Scriptures followed by early Christians say? Do they exist today? How could such outlandish ideas ever be considered Christian? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist? These are just a few of the many provocative questions that arise from these 24 thrilling lectures. Join the dramatic search for lost Christianities and learn why it's considered such an appealing subject to study. These lectures focus on...

First, consider the huge historical significance of the Christian belief in Jesus's divinity, in terms of its effects on Western civilization as well as today's world. Learn about different scholarly views of the historical Jesus, and trace the remarkable diversity of early Christian thought regarding Christian identity, scripture, and theological understandings of Jesus.