Bart D. Ehrman Quotes & Sayings

But if we don't figure out the way the world works and is, and if we don't live in harmony with it, we will be miserable and no better off than the dumb animals. — Bart D. Ehrman

If Jesus predicted that the imminent apocalypse would arrive within his own generation, before his disciples had all died, what was one to think a generation later when in fact it had not arrived? One might conclude that Jesus was wrong. But if one wanted to stay true to him, one might change the message that he proclaimed so that he no longer spoke about the coming apocalypse. So it is no accident that our final canonical Gospel, John, written after that first generation, no longer has Jesus proclaim an apocalyptic message. He preaches something else entirely. — Bart D. Ehrman

The authors of Job and Ecclesiastes explicitly state that there is no afterlife. — Bart D. Ehrman

The reason we need books like these is that the Gospels cannot simply be taken at face value as giving us historically reliable accounts of the things Jesus said and did. — Bart D. Ehrman

Different authors have different points of view. You can't just say, 'I believe in the Bible. — Bart D. Ehrman

But only two people known by name were also called "Son of God." One was the Roman emperor - starting with Octavian, or Caesar Augustus - and the other was Jesus. This is probably not an accident. When Jesus came on the scene as a divine man, he and the emperor were in competition. — Bart D. Ehrman

a child has been born for us, A son given to us; Authority rests upon his shoulders; And he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God — Bart D. Ehrman

My students sometimes ask: what is a fundamentalist? I give them a very simple definition. A fundamentalist is no fun, too much damn, and not enough mental. — Bart D. Ehrman

We might mean different things. How can you tell? Only by reading each of us carefully and seeing what each of us has to say - not by pretending that we are both saying the same thing. We're often saying very different things. — Bart D. Ehrman

In terms of the historical record, I should also point out that there is no account in any ancient source whatsoever about King Herod slaughtering children in or around Bethlehem, or anyplace else. No other author, biblical or otherwise, mentions this event. Is it, like John's account of Jesus' death, a detail made up by Matthew in order to make some kind of theological point? — Bart D. Ehrman

Traditionally in Christian circles, Judas in fact has been associated with Jews. Of being traitors, avaricious, who in fact, betray Jesus, who are Christ-killers. And this portrayal of Judas of course also leads then to horrendous acts of anti-Semitism through the centuries. — Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus taught that the age he lived in was controlled by forces of evil but that God would soon intervene to destroy everything and everyone opposed to him. God would then bring in a good, utopian kingdom on earth, where there would be no more pain and suffering. Jesus himself would be the ruler of this kingdom, with his twelve disciples serving under him. And all this was to happen very soon - within his own generation. This — Bart D. Ehrman

(an apocalypse is a vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities), — Bart D. Ehrman

Moreover, this earlier tradition has a different view of Christ than the one that Paul explicates elsewhere in his surviving writings. Here, unlike in Paul's writings ... the idea that Jesus was made the Son of God precisely at his resurrection is also stressed. — Bart D. Ehrman

As time goes on, thing do get made up. — Bart D. Ehrman

The way to escape our entrapment in this world of matter is to acquire secret "knowledge" (= gnosis) from above of who we really are, how we came to be here, and how we can return to our heavenly, spiritual home. — Bart D. Ehrman

The Synoptics simply accept a Christological view that is different from Paul's. They hold to exaltation Christologies, and Paul holds to an incarnation Christology. — Bart D. Ehrman

[P]eople need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally. Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate - whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or George Eliot, of Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, or the Dalai Lama. — Bart D. Ehrman

You can't believe something just because someone else desperately wants you to. — Bart D. Ehrman

I have such a fantastic life that I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for it ... But I don't have anyone to express my gratitude to. This is a void deep inside me, a void of wanting someone to thank, and I don't see any plausible way of filling it. — Bart D. Ehrman

Some believers, as though from a drinking bout, go so far as to oppose themselves and alter the original text of the gospel three or four or several times over, and change its character to enable them to deny difficulties in the face of criticism. (Against Celsus 2, 27) — Bart D. Ehrman

Sometimes Christian apologists say there are only three options to who Jesus was: a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. But there could be a fourth option - legend. — Bart D. Ehrman

Paul started out as an outsider to the apostolic band and originally opposed rather than supported their movement. — Bart D. Ehrman

I think the evidence is just so overwhelming that Jesus existed, that it's silly to talk about him not existing. I don't know anyone who is a responsible historian, who is actually trained in the historical method, or anybody who is a biblical scholar who does this for a living, who gives any credence at all to any of this. — Bart D. Ehrman

The Bible, at the end of the day, is a very human book. — Bart D. Ehrman

In the entire first Christian century Jesus is not mentioned by a single Greek or Roman historian, religion scholar, politician, philosopher or poet. His name never occurs in a single inscription, and it is never found in a single piece of private correspondence. Zero! Zip references! — Bart D. Ehrman

In Matthew, Jesus declares, "Whoever is not with me is against me." In Mark, he says,"Whoever is not against us is for us." Did he say both things? Could he
mean both things? How can both be true at once? Or is it possible that
one of the Gospel writers got things switched around? — Bart D. Ehrman

In fact, most of the changes found in early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology. Far and away the most changes are the result of mistakes pure and simple slips of the pen, accidental omissions, inadvertent additions, misspelled words, blunders of one sort or another. — Bart D. Ehrman

The political benefactors are considered 'religious' heroes. They have statues and a place in the temple, and sacrifices are made in their honor. In a very real sense they are the 'saviors' and so are treated as such. — Bart D. Ehrman

whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the Lord; But those who miss me injure themselves; All who hate me love death. — Bart D. Ehrman

Later orthodox theologians would have found this view completely inadequate. In stressing that the Father was "greater" than the Son, Tertullian articulated a view that would later be deemed a heresy. Theology, in these early years of the formation of Christian doctrine, could not stand still. It progressed and got more complicated, sophisticated, and refined as time went on. — Bart D. Ehrman

There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty. — Bart D. Ehrman

It's like what some Episcopalians say about themselves today: get four in a room and you'll find five opinions. — Bart D. Ehrman

The problem then with Jesus is that he cannot be removed from his time and transplanted into our own without simply creating him anew — Bart D. Ehrman

The author of "The Little Labyrinth" indicates that the Theodotians maintained that their view - that Jesus was completely human, and not divine, but that he was adopted to be the Son of God - had been the doctrine taught by the apostles themselves and by most of the church in Rome until the time of Bishop Victor, at the end of the second century. — Bart D. Ehrman

The idea that Jesus rose on the 'third day' was originally a theological construct, not a historical piece of information. — Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus existed, and those vocal persons who deny it do so not because they have considered the evidence with the dispassionate eye of the historian, but because they have some other agenda that this denial serves. — Bart D. Ehrman

Price says this figure provides compelling evidence of his view. In his words, "I find the possible parallel to the case of Hong Xiuquan to be, almost by itself, proof that James' being the Lord's brother need not prove a recent historical Jesus." That is, since Hong Xiuquan was not really Jesus's brother, the same could be true of James. — Bart D. Ehrman

The search for truth takes you where the evidence leads you, even if, at first, you don't want to go there. — Bart D. Ehrman

5 Do not be of two minds whether this should happen or not. Do not take the Lord's name for a futile purpose. Love your neighbor more than yourself. Do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is already born. Do not not remove your hand from your son or daughter, but from their youth teach them the reverential fear of God. — Bart D. Ehrman

The idea that Wisdom could be a divine hypostasis - an aspect of God that is a distinct being from God that nonetheless is itself God - is rooted in a fascinating passage of the Hebrew Bible, Proverbs 8. ... God made all things in his wisdom, so much so that Wisdom is seen as a co-creator of sorts. — Bart D. Ehrman

One of our driving questions throughout this study will always be what these Christians meant by saying "Jesus is God." As we will see, different Christians meant different things by it. — Bart D. Ehrman

Wisdom is referred to as "she" - or even as "Lady Wisdom" - because the Greek word for wisdom is feminine); — Bart D. Ehrman

This is one of the hard-and-fast ironies of the Christian tradition: views that at one time were the majority opinion, or at least that were widely seen as completely acceptable, eventually came to be left behind; and as theology moved forward to become increasingly nuanced and sophisticated, these earlier majority opinions came to be condemned as heresies. We have seen this movement already with the exaltation Christology that was the original form of Christian belief. By the second century it was widely deemed heretical. Later understandings of the second century were acceptable and dominant in their day, but they too came to be suspect and even spurned. — Bart D. Ehrman

The history of this world was divided into two phases: the present age, which was controlled by the forces of evil, and the age to come, in which God would rule supreme. — Bart D. Ehrman

Some people may think that it is a dangerous attitude to take toward the Bible, to pick and choose what you want to accept and throw everything else out. My view is that everyone already picks and chooses what they want to accept in the Bible ... I have a young friend who whose evangelical parents were upset because she wanted to get a tattoo, since the Bible, after all, condemns tattoos. In the same book, Leviticus, the Bible also condemns wearing clothing made of two different kinds of fabric and eating pork ... Why insist on the biblical teaching about tattoos but not about dress shirts, pork chops, and stoning? — Bart D. Ehrman

The time when Christianity arose, with its exalted claims about Jesus, was the same time when the emperor cult had started to move into full swing, with its exalted claims about the emperor. Christians were calling Jesus God directly on the heels of the Romans calling the emperor God. — Bart D. Ehrman

throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; You love righteousness and hate wickedness. — Bart D. Ehrman

The son of a human is human, just as the son of a dog is a dog and the son of a cat is a cat. And so what is the son of God? — Bart D. Ehrman

I have often wondered what would have happened if Paul and Matthew had been locked up in a room together and told they could not come out until they had hammered out a consensus statement on how followers of Jesus were to deal with the Jewish law. Would they ever have emerged, or would they still be there, two skeletons locked in a death grip? If — Bart D. Ehrman

Orthodoxy is my doxy and heterodoxy is your doxy. — Bart D. Ehrman