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PODCAST

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

"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.

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All Episodes

49:07

Who Says Mary Was a Virgin?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/12/05

Almost anyone who knows anything about Christianity knows that Jesus was born of a virgin. But was he? This miraculous event is found in only two passages of the entire New Testament (in Matthew and Luke). Did the other New Testament authors know about it? If so, why didn't they mention it? If not, how could they not? And where did the idea of a virgin birth even come from? If it is not a major concern for the twenty-five other books of the New Testament, why did it come to be so important in the

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36:47

Telling God What He Can Do

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/11/28

For a religion that claims to view their god as the most powerful, supreme being in the universe, some Christians have an interesting habit of placing restrictions on what he can and can’t do. God can’t make a world without suffering, he has to inspire a collection of written texts (that have no mistakes in them), and he certainly can’t be sympathetic to anyone who practices other religion. But where do these limitations come from, and what purpose do they serve? In short: who says?

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45:12

Does the Book of James Attack the Teachings of Paul?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/11/21

For over five centuries (going back to Martin Luther!) many readers of the New Testament have maintained that the letter of James flat-out contradicts the teachings of Paul, that a person is made right with God only by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. James insists that a person is not justified by faith alone, but by doing good works; but Paul argues with equal passion that a person is justified by faith in Christ and not by doing works of the law. So... aren't these views at direct

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43:51

He's a Very Naughty Boy: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/11/14

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is one of the most intriguing and peculiar non-canonical accounts of Jesus' life from outside the New Testament. The New Testament itself provides only one story about Jesus as a boy (as a twelve-year old, in Luke 2); this later account contains intriguing stories of the mischievous Son of God from ages 5-12. Is he an uncontrollable supernatural being who hasn't yet learned to control his power? Or a Savior already confronting the evils of the world? Or a prime example

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39:16

Could Jesus Read and Write?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/11/07

Nearly everyone today assumes that Jesus could read and write. But is that historically plausible? There is only one story in the New Testament where Jesus is shown to be able to read (Luke 4) and he is never said to be able to write (except in the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery that was added by scribes only later John 7-8). In this episode we consider the literacy rates of antiquity (very low!), and discuss who could learn to read and then write, how they were educated, and whether it is

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43:25

The Omnipresent Fear of Death

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/10/31

As far back as we have literary reports -- beginning with the Epic of Gilgamesh, our earliest surviving narrative, written centuries before the oldest accounts of the Bible -- humans have feared death more than almost anything. Many people fear the process of dying; others fear facing eternal torment; yet others fear the void, the idea of non-existence. In this episode we talk about ancient reflections on death and about why some stalwart souls insisted that in fact there was nothing to

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43:23

Christianity One Year After Jesus

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/10/24

We start learning about the Christian movement with the letters of Paul, around the year 60, about 30 years after Jesus' death. But what was happening during its very first year? The book of Acts, written decades after Paul, describes key events, but can we rely on its account as historical? If not, what can we infer from our various sources? What was actually happening in those years? Were thousands of people converting? Was the religion taking over the world? Was it declared illegal by the

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01:18:42

Our One-Year Anniversary! A Live Q&A with Bart

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/10/18

For our 52nd episode -- our one-year anniversary! -- we will be having a live Q&A with Bart. Questioners have submitted questions, some out of the many have been chosen, Megan will host the event, and questioners will ask their questions live, to hear Bart's responses! A special time of celebration as we (also) reflect on our Year One!

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44:27

Why Isn't Christianity a Doomsday Cult?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/10/10

If Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, then why isn't mainstream, modern Christianity an apocalyptic religion? Was the move away from apocalypticism deliberate, and are modern doomsday preachers actually closer to preaching Jesus' message than other churches?

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45:28

What Does It Mean to Write a Popular Book?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/10/03

Most scholars write books and articles for other scholars, using jargon and presupposing knowledge available only to experts trained in their discipline. But some scholars write books designed for popular audiences about their fields of expertise. Can non-scholars write books like that? Should they try? Why do most scholars choose not to do so? Are there pitfalls in trying to communicate complex knowledge in simple terms? Is it possible to do so without "dumbing it down"? And why do so many

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39:19

Stories about Jesus Before the Gospels: Oral...

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/09/26

The New Testament writings were produced decades after Jesus' death, but long before that people were passing along stories about Jesus and devising poems and creeds about their new-found faith. What do scholars know about these Christian traditions that were being passed along and preserved by word of mouth in the years before we had written texts. Scholars call them "oral traditions." How do we know such things existed, and can we be certain that they were passed along reliably before there were

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48:21

A Giant Jesus and a Walking-Talking Cross: The...

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/09/19

One of the most intriguing non-canonical Gospels to be discovered in modern times is the Gospel of Peter. Unlike the New Testament Gospels, which were written anonymously (only later to be given the titles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), this Gospel actually claims to be written by an apostle, Jesus' own right-hand man, Peter. The account we have is only fragmentary, an alternative version of Jesus' trial, death, and resurrection. And what an account it is, involving an actual record of Jesus

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42:36

Can Christians Study the New Testament Honestly?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/09/12

Many Christians think that a non-Christian simply can't understand the New Testament fully, since they don't agree with it's major teachings. But could an argument be made for the opposite case, that those with a vested in interested in the New Testament as a book inspired by God cannot get beyond their theological assumptions to understand what the text is really saying? It seems like an odd question, but can committed Christians really study their own Scriptures honestly? In this episode we

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42:20

The Genius of the Gospel of Luke

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/09/05

The genius of Luke’s Gospel is frequently overlooked by those who simply breeze through it or assume it is saying the same thing as Matthew and Mark. In fact, it is strikingly different. What especially matters are not so much the contradictions one finds, but the larger picture. Luke has radically edited Mark’s account in places to create a new portrait of Jesus. In this episode we see how he did it and what the end result is. Among other things, when you look carefully at the details of Luke’s

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40:28

Did Jesus Predict his Own Death?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/08/29

The Christian faith is rooted in the belief that Jesus died for the sins of the world and was then raised from the dead. But is this what Jesus himself preached during his public ministry? In the Gospels Jesus certainly predicts his coming death, on numerous occasions. But are those saying historical? How would scholars know? What is the evidence both ways? And if Jesus did not anticipate, let alone predict, his death, does that completely undermine the Christian faith?

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48:30

New Testament Scholarship for Non-Scholars

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/08/22

Even though millions of people read the Bible, few know what experts who have devoted their lives to historical scholarship on it have to say or, even more important, why they say it. In this episode we talk about how scholarship on the New Testament has developed over the centuries, decades, and recent years, how critical scholarship actually works to make better *sense* of the NT and opens up important ways of interpreting the text, and whether and how this kind of academic approach to the NT can

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44:47

How did Christianity take over the Roman World?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/08/15

Christianity started out with a handful of followers in 30 CE - Jesus' remaining disciples and a few female supporters. But within 300 years there were some 2-3 million Christians in the world, including the emperor of Rome. How did *that* happen? How did an offshoot of Judaism come to take over the world, to the extent that it eventually became the religion of the West for centuries, down to the modern age? The answers are not actually what most people would suspect, and in this episode we lay

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40:46

Where Did the Trinity Come From?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/08/08

The idea of the Trinity - that God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are different from each other and are all God, but there is only ONE God, is a central tenant of Christianity. But most Christians don't actually know what the doctrine really says, let alone where it came from (is it in the Bible?). In this episode we explain the factors that led to the formulation of the doctrine and see why it became so important to Christian thinking. But does it matter that the math doesn't work

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50:52

Did Constantine Really Convert?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/08/01

The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity is often pointed to as a turning point in the history of the religion - but would Christianity have continued on its upward trajectory without this conversion? Was Constantine’s conversion one of genuine religious conviction, or was it motivated by something else? Has his conversion been co-opted and over-emphasized by later Christian authors?

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47:48

Is the New Testament Actually Greek Literature?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman ·

2023/07/25

The New Testament is often studied in isolation, separated from other ancient writings. How did this division come about, and what do we lose by looking at it as something different? Dr. Robyn Walsh talks about what can be gained from placing the New Testament back into the canon of Classical Literature.

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