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 those views and perspectives can be embodied in a single figure.
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49:37
Why Early Christians Kept the Old Testament
If you have a passing familiarity with the Christian Bible, then you probably know that it’s split into two parts - the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament is the part with all the stuff about Jesus, while the Old Testament is drawn largely from Jewish religious scriptures. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman is joining me to talk about why early Christians insisted on keeping the Old Testament… despite not being Jewish.
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46:17
One God Among Many: Rethinking the God of the Bible
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 presented to us in the Bible?
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42:05
Consensus Scholarship and the Life of Jesus
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 academic consensus, the gospel stories of Jesus’ early life, and how early Christians made meaning from them.
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38:57
The Bible Says So: What We Get Right and Wrong About the Bible
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 the Bible is used in this way, and whether such arguments are ever valid or useful.
"Misquoting Jesus” is the only show where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar uncovers the many fascinating, little known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity. The show features Dr. Bart Ehrman and host, Megan Lewis.