Professor Bart Ehrman writes great books on text criticism as it applies to the bible. Anyone a fan of that or interested in it?
Professor Bart Ehrman writes great books on text criticism as it applies to the bible. Anyone a fan of that or interested in it?Thanks for the reference. If you are not familiar with it, you may want to check out the "Skeptics annotated Bible (Quran/Book of Mormon)"
Iāve read a couple of Ehrmanās books, met him, listened to his lecture or two, and I find him more of an apologist.
The Skeptics Annotated Bible/Quran/Book of Mormon is good.
Interesting. Apologist is exactly what heās not. In fact everything Iāve read of his is strictly non-religious, which is what I like. In what way would you consider him an apologist?
Love the guy. An amazing ability to crank out words. I was on a recent Zoom call with him and 200 of my close personal friends. He is planning on writing his next book on Revelation, which should be awesome.
He commented that he was surprised that āMisquoting Jesusā was his most popular book, since it is about a very technical aspect of the Bible. But he mixes stories in with the details of a letter that got swapped, or word changed in translation, and makes it interesting.
In what way would you consider him an apologist? -- MrianaHmm, I'd be interested to know what lectures @Mriana heard. He does like the Bible, even though he is strongly agnostic, nearly atheist. He does believe Jesus was some sort of person and refuses to even really debate it, at least not in any reasonable way. But he doesn't promote any kind of Christian worship or belief that isn't in line with enlightened ethics and morals.
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He was at Skepticon a few years back.
But he mixes stories in with the details of a letter that got swapped, or word changed in translation, and makes it interesting.I don't know if anyone else has commented on this little detail yet.
In the OT ; āI Am that I Amā .
From wiki; I am that I am is a common English translation of the Hebrew phrase ×Ö¶×Ö°×Ö¶× ×ֲשֶ××Ø ×Ö¶×Ö°×Ö¶×ā, 'ehyeh 'ÄÅ”er 'ehyeh ([ŹehĖje ŹaĖŹer ŹehĖje])Now place a comma after "That" and the phrase changes to "I am That, I am", which changes the meaning to an objective statement of physical fact.
Love the guy. An amazing ability to crank out words. I was on a recent Zoom call with him and 200 of my close personal friends. He is planning on writing his next book on Revelation, which should be awesome.He commented that he was surprised that āMisquoting Jesusā was his most popular book, since it is about a very technical aspect of the Bible. But he mixes stories in with the details of a letter that got swapped, or word changed in translation, and makes it interesting.
Youāre kidding? āā¦and 200 of my close personal friendsā¦ā sounds like youāre goofing around. If not, what was this zoom call? Regardless, I really like the technical stuff - just fascinating. But also a bit depressing. Assuming the situation is similar with many ancient texts, like Plato, Socrates, etc. then it really does make you wonder what the heck weāre even reading.
what was this zoom call? - cuthbertI paid a charitable contribution to read his full blog entries. I think the Zoom call was announced through that membership. It was an "ask me anything" type format. The trouble with Bart is, he has a head full of stories and if you ask him one thing, he'll preface it, then maybe answer it, then tell something else he just thought of. He's still fun though.
@lausten - Ah okay. I was thinking of doing similar. Heās obviously super smart, so heās got to know that like him, others that learn what he learned about how the bible came to be will naturally be lead to if not outright atheism, at least agnosticism and regardless, leaving organized religion.
Iāve found the conversations between Bart and Michael Shermer to be interesting. Theyāre on YouTube.
I havenāt visited the forum in awhile, but the last time I commented here I was using Bartās idea in my attempt to play devils advocate.
https://centerforinquiry.org/forums/topic/19930/#post-294295
Took me a bit to find it, but itās a slow day at work so thatās ok.
Bart Ehrman and Michael Shermer: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
Starting around 13:40 - Bart Ehrman and Michael Shermer: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World - YouTube
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Huge Bart Ehrman fan here, at least what Iāve read so far. Feels like an extremely niche fandom most times. My fellow IRL atheists arenāt really interested (āOh, he explains in detail why itās all not true? Well, I already know it isnāt.ā). It helps if you were brought up religious and once accepted the basic narrative as coherent and plausible.
On this thread I feel like Iāve found my people!
Bart teaches at a religious College, so he has found a way to teach the history without making it all about the belief
Bart teaches at UNC Chapel Hill. He is certainly not an āapologistā about anything, except the Tarheel basketball team.
He is very forthright about his transitions from fundamentalism to liberal Christianity to atheism.
As I mentioned in the other recent thread, his numerous books, youtube videos, and weekly podcasts are both fun and educational. āJesus Before The Gospelsā is a fascinating debunking of the reliability of memory (even eyewitnesses of spectacular events) and oral legends (including cultures with oral legend traditions).
He does a better job of saying what these terms mean than I do. Let me know if you canāt read the entire thing. I am a subscriber.
Being an Agnostic Atheist by Bart Ehrman (ehrmanblog.org)
I should check in there more often. He has several blogs with āLife of Brianā as a theme.
The Life of Brian and Jesus: Was Jesus Really Buried on the Day of the Crucifixion? - The Bart Ehrman Blog