Bart Ehrman’s new book “Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth” is out today. Everyone knows that no university will hire Robert M. Price to teach religion. Now it will be nice to see why.
Interesting. I’ll definitely add it to my reading list. I read his last book and bought a hard copy for future study. I want to see how his thesis matches with other jesus scholars like Crossan and the Jesus Seminar.
I don’t think I am going to read it, so if anyone can tell me what evidence there is for Jesus’s existence I would like to hear it. BTW, John, did you finish Ehrman’s book in one night?
Never mind. I just read about Erhman’s new book on Coyne’s blog, which includes Erhman’s article from the Huffington Post. I thought it all sounded good, until I read the comment #20 on Coyne’s site from somebody called Ben Goren who seems to refute everything Erhman presents as the evidence for Jesus’s existence in the HuffPo article. Sounds good as well.
I guess I’ll stick to my old “Jesus may have existed” for now…
I haven’t read the book yet so can’t speak to the specifics, but given the tone and style of #20, he reads like a complete jerk rather than anyone I would seriously. Further, he implies that Ehrman is Christian. (He labels a lot of stuff Christian apologetics). Ehrman is a non-Christian agnostic, as well as one of the best and most serious scholars of early Christianity.
Haven’t read the book yet but do respect Erhman’s conclusions as he is a noted bible scholar. Even if has proven that jesus existed. So what? Most legends have a grain of truth but that doean’t mean that he walked on water, healed the sick and was yawweh’s kid. BTW there was more than one jesus living then. I will read the book though as it’s of historical interest to me.
Ehrman’s argument is air tight. He destroys the whole field of mythicists (Robert Price, G.A. Wells, Earl Doherty, Acharya S, Timothy Freke, etc.).
Thank God the Christ Myth theory is finally dead. What a bunch of garbage.
Not so fast, John! I’m no Biblical scholar, far from it. But my feeling is that the Myth of Jesus was probably based on an actual person, who went around doing “miracles”, got arrested by the Romans and executed for some reason. Not having read this book (but having read Ehrman’s previous book, “Misquoting Jesus”), I would guess that’s probably what he’s saying too.
Should be a great read. Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus was one of the first skeptical books I read back when I was still a Christian but starting to seriously doubt. His credentials and his honest, accessible approach makes it easy for non-scholars to understand not only what we know but how we know it. I later read Jesus Interrupted and found it just as compelling.
Ehrman’s argument is air tight. He destroys the whole field of mythicists (Robert Price, G.A. Wells, Earl Doherty, Acharya S, Timothy Freke, etc.).
Thank God the Christ Myth theory is finally dead. What a bunch of garbage.
To me it makes no difference if Christ actually existed? If he did, good, he was a philosopher who taught morality. But it does not prove anything about the biblical myths that surround him.
One fact is abundantly clear, he was not conceived of a “physical” virgin. Else he’d be a clone of Mary.
Below is picture of a true virgin, conceived by a virgin and a perfect clone of its mother.
Let’s not forget that one of Ehrman’s big themes is how parts of the Bible are forged, much of it is mistranslated and has been altered over time. I’m sure that hasn’t changed. Saying that there was a person that the gospels are based on does not change that. Obviously, saying “Jesus existed” is far from “the resurrection saved my soul”. I would be glad to have more evidence to put some of the mythicist stuff to rest. I don’t think it is good for skeptics to be backing stories that lack evidence. Ehrman is the perfect person to sort this out.
