We are now in the fourth part of this review series on Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God. Ehrman’s sixth chapter is on “The Beginning of Christology” where he tries to make a case for the earliest views of Jesus during the first couple of decades after the death of Jesus and before the writings of Paul (~33-50). Here is Ehrman’s argument for this chapter in a nutshell: Because the disciples thought that Jesus rose from the dead, they immediately believed... Read more

Recently, I reviewed Bart Ehrman’s chapter on the resurrection of Jesus. Basically, Ehrman made the case that (1) historians cannot prove (or disprove) the resurrection of Jesus, but (2) Ehrman finds it highly unlikely that Jesus was actually taken down from the cross and buried. A major plank in his argument for pt #2 is that Ehrman finds it (literally) incredible that the Romans would be so kind and respectful after crucifixion to allow burial. Ehrman doesn’t think there is... Read more

I just came across THIS VIDEO where N.T. Wright gives an address in Edinburgh on Paul and the Faithfulness of God, and Matt Novenson responds.   Read more

See Part I, Part II. Bart Ehrman, in his How Jesus Became God, spends two chapters on the subject of the resurrection of Jesus because he believes that the early disciples’ belief that Jesus appeared to them was the major impetus for recognizing his divinity (chs. 4-5). To be quite honest, while I thought his first few chapters were not so bad, I think his argumentation takes several steps backwards in these chapters. I felt that, in these chapters in particular,... Read more

We are back to the ZonderBird response book – How God Became Jesus. In Chapter three, Mike Bird responds to Ehrman’s own chapter on the question did Jesus think he was God? Mike starts, as Ehrman does, with questions about method. Mike rightly wonders whether one can sift through bits of the gospels looking for “authenticity” the way that Ehrman (and others) seem to do quite glibly. Ehrman believes that if you use the scholarly tools of the trade (various authenticating criteria), then... Read more

Last time we addressed Ehrman’s first two chapters of How Jesus Became God (on Greco-Roman and Jewish religion in the first century). Here we take up his third chapter: “Did Jesus Think He Was God?” Erhman begins this chapter by helping readers get acquainted with how historians use the gospels as historical sources. Ehrman’s basic point is that fundamentalist Christians assume a one-to-one historical correlation between what the four gospels narrate and actually how the life of Jesus historically unfolded. Ehrman tries to... Read more

We are now into Galatians ch. 2. Here are my review notes. 2:1-10 Moo sees the Jerusalem meeting narrated in Galatians as probably pertaining to Acts 11:27-30, rather than Acts 15 (p. 118). When it comes to Paul’s ambivalent language about the Jerusalem “Pillars” (esp signalled by dokeo), Moo thinks that the 2:2 reference is neutral, but there is more a hint of irony in vv. 6 and 9 (p. 120, 124, 132). 2:11-14 Why did Peter withdraw? Moo thinks it... Read more

I have begun blogging on Bart Ehrman’s new How Jesus Became God. I am also now weaving in the response book How God Became Jesus, edited by Michael F. Bird (Zondervan, 2014). The response book does a pretty good job responding chapter-by-chapter to Ehrman. In this post, I look at Mike Bird’s essay where he responds to Ehrman’s discussion of Greco-Roman and Jewish religion. Bird’s chapter is called “Of Gods, Angels, and Men.” Here are a series of helpful rejoinders and key points that... Read more

Today is Earth Day! Regent College Audio is offering several free audio courses and lectures on “creation care.” They have two whole courses available worth nearly $60 – but absolutely free (from speakers such as Iain Provan and Rikki Watts). I was just thinking yesterday, as I finished listening to the Gordon Fee Galatians course from Regent, that I wanted to buy another course. I hadn’t thought about “creation care” courses, but you can’t beat the price tag! Remember to... Read more

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