In a previous post, I made reference to a recent debate between Bart Ehrman and Richard Hays. For all of their disagreements about the origins of Christianity, they were in decided agreement in their caricature of inerrancy. This kind of an attitude does not surprise me coming from Bart Ehrman. I’ve seen him misrepresent the inerrancy position before, and I have written about it on this blog.
-
-
Ehrman and Hays Debating “The DaVinci Code”
Two eminent scholars of the New Testament recently debated questions raised by The DaVinci Code. The debate was held at the new chapel at Duke Divinity School, and the discussion was meant to address questions raised by the bestselling book, soon to be released as a film. So Bart Ehrman and Richard Hays went at it for an hour and forty-six minutes. The reliability of portrayals of Jesus in the Bible and other ancient texts was among the topics addressed. Hays is definitely the more conservative of the two, though perhaps not conservative enough for some. In any case, this one will definitely be worth the time to download.You can…
-
Bart Ehrman on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewartâ€
Bart Ehrman has been making the media rounds with the publication of his new book Misquoting Jesus. Recently, he promoted his book on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart†(click here and scroll down to “Bart Ehrman†to stream the video). (HT: Daniel Streett) I reviewed Misquoting Jesus on this blog a couple of months ago. In that review I made the observation that Ehrman often mixes in higher critical conjectures that do not have anything to do with the manuscript tradition per se. This serves his polemical purpose of undermining the reliability of the Bible, but it does not help the lay reader who is being introduced to the…
-
Review of Bart Ehrman’s ‘Misquoting Jesus’
Bart D. Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. 242pp. $24.95. UPDATE! (January 15, 2007) Touchstone magazine recently published my review, and it is now available in their December 2006 issue. They also have made available an online version which can be accessed here.
-
Top Ten Posts of 2015
I want to thank all of you who have read and interacted with this site over the last year. I am grateful for every one of you. For those of you who are interested, I give you the top 10 blog posts from 2015. This blog is a combination of content creation and content curation, which means that I sometimes write original material and that at other times I pass on to you items that I find interesting from elsewhere on the interwebs. Both kinds of posts appear on this list, but the vast majority are original pieces. Drum roll, please. 10. Bruce or Caitlyn? He or she? Should Christians…
-
Should Christians lionize Stephen Colbert?
Robbie George issues a pointed admonition about Stephen Colbert: For Christians—Catholics in particular—to lionize this guy is a huge mistake. It’s on a par with lionizing Wendell Berry, something many Christians—especially Evangelicals—did. I understand the temptation to “claim” as one of our own an icon of the cultural elite, but caveat emptor. When push comes to shove, and the choice is between Judaeo-Christian morality and liberal orthodoxy, people like Colbert and Berry play for the other team. Often enough, they go out of their way to express contempt for those Christians who refuse to yield to liberal dogmas (on sex and marriage, for example, or the sanctity of human life).…
-
Possible first-century copy of Mark’s Gospel discovered
In 2012, Dan Wallace dropped a bombshell during a debate with Bart Ehrman. Ehrman had pointed out that our earliest copy of Mark’s Gospel is dated 140 years after the gospel was first written. It’s a point often made by critics to show the unreliability of the New Testament. Wallace then revealed that he had knowledge that a first century copy of Mark’s Gospel had been discovered. He also revealed that the document would be published in a forthcoming volume by E. J. Brill. It was all very cryptic at the time, and Ehrman later complained that Wallace should not have brought it up in the debate. Ehrman argued that…
-
Publications
Male and Female He Created Them: A Study on Gender, Sexuality, & Marriage by Denny Burk, David Closson, Colin Smothers This book is a study on gender, sexuality, and marriage. It presents a biblical vision for contested issues such as homosexuality, transgenderism, and marriage. By the completion of this book, readers will have a better grasp on the Bible’s teaching about our identities as male and female, created in the image of God, and know how to apply Scripture to these issues in their ministries at church, home, and work. God’s Glory Revealed in Christ: Essays on Biblical Theology in Honor of Thomas R. Schreiner Edited by Denny Burk, James…
-
Review: Another Attempt to Discredit Inerrancy Falls Flat
The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (and Why Inerrancy Tries To Hide It). By Thom Stark. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2011, xx + 248 pp., $29.00 paper. It is no secret that some of the most fervid theological liberals tend to be former evangelicals. Evangelical-turned-agnostic Bart Ehrman has vindicated that truism with books like Misquoting Jesus and Jesus Interrupted, both of which seek to discredit biblical inerrancy by popularizing critical studies of scripture. Thom Stark describes himself as a former fundamentalist, and his book The Human Faces of God belongs to the Ehrman-genre, though with at least one significant difference. Despite the…
-
Did Jesus pray, “Father, forgive them”?
Luke 23:34 is one of the most famous sayings of the Bible because it is one of the seven last words of Christ from the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” This is a beloved text of scripture, and for good reason. Here Jesus models for us what he in fact commands all of his disciples to do. Even as his enemies torture and kill him, Jesus loves his enemies and prays for them. I delivered a sermon at my church yesterday on this text. But when I began preparing for the message last week, I wrestled with a significant textual difficulty that…