Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman – Details, episodes & analysis

When a scholar claims to have discovered a new text from early Christianity, it can send shockwaves through the academic community.

In the case of the "Secret Gospel of Mark," the shockwaves are still being felt today after over 65 years later. And scholars still can't agree on whether the text in question is authentically ancient, a modern forgery, or something else. 

There are huge implications. The traces of this "secret Gospel" allegedly discovered in 1958 by Morton Smith, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, have been interpreted (by Smith himself) to indicate that Jesus engaged in homosexual rituals with the followers he baptized in the nude. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing the discovery of this amazing text, what it actually says, and how scholars have interpreted the intriguing passages it contain

Why do so many Christians claim that other Christians are not really Christians? Is there a definition written in the sky somewhere?

Here we talk about the history of the problem, from its very beginning. Among other things we'll discuss why some biblical scholars today refuse to use the word "Christian" for the apostle Paul, the members of his churches, and for followers of Jesus in the first century altogether; and we'll ask whether there is something about "Christianity" in particular that leads to debates about what it actually means; and we'll try to work out if there's any satisfactory answer to the questions: "Is it possible to define the term to everyone's satisfaction?" and "Does it matter?"

If Jesus was dead for three days -- where did he go? The standard view for almost all of Christian history was that he went to the realm of the dead to save the lost souls who died before his crucifixion made salvation possible. But did he save only a few or ... everyone?

In this episode, Bart and Megan dive into the ancient doctrine called the "Harrowing of Hell," which is still believed by millions today. But what are we to make of idea that Jesus' salvation was universal? Literally everyone gets saved?

Most of us think of early Christian monks moving into the desert to escape the chaos and noise of civilization to lead the quiet contemplative life.

In a fascinating study by Kim Haines-Eitzen we learn that in fact the desert was and is unexpectedly filled with sound. Based on her high-tech own recordings in some of the major deserts of the world, Haines-Eitzen, professor of Early Christianity at Cornell, considers the importance of sound and the possibilities of silence, not just for the ancients but for those of us seeking quiet in our own lives.

Here she explains to Bart her findings, based on her new book (which includes access to her stunning recordings), The Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks -- and What It Can Teach Us.

Many modern Christians view the Bible as the inspired, inerrant word of God. Is that what its own authors thought? Did the author of Matthew, for example, think the Gospel of Mark was infallible? If so, why did he change it?

In this episode we look at the views of the Gospel writers about the inerrancy of other Gospels -- even those also found in the New Testament. 

Many modern Christians think Christians are inherently more moral than non-believers. Non-Christians, as a rule, don't think so. What about in the ancient world?

Why is it that the most widely attested view among ancient pagans was the opposite, that Christians were dangerously immoral reprobates? Why weren't they seen as stalwart proponents of family values?

Did Jesus himself think or talk about his imminent sufferings—did he predict his own brutal end, or have those parts been creatively interpreted by later authors to fit a theological agenda?

This episode offers a chance to uncover the layers of historical, religious, and philosophical complexities surrounding these ancient texts.

In this episode Bart interviews Jill Hicks-Keeton about her sure-to-be controversial book, recently released: The Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves.

We are all familiar with the disturbing parts of the Bible, with it's divinely sanctioned violence from the destruction of Jericho in the Old Testament to the destruction of the world in the New, from the passages that justify slavery to the patriarchal views of ancient Israel and the writings in the name of Paul. How have evangelicals tried to salvage these disturbing passages in order to make them not just tame but "good" for readers today?

Listen to this interview and hear Prof. Hicks-Keeton explain.

All the Gospels agree that on the day Jesus was crucified, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body and took it from the cross to bury in a tomb.

What almost no one realizes is that this would have been unprecedented, so far as we know, in the Roman world, where part of the humiliation of crucifixion was for the corpse to be left on the cross to decompose and be ravaged by scavenging birds for days before being disposed of. 

Did the Romans make an exception for Jesus? Is that plausible? Or is the story of his burial by Joseph a later legend? This is obviously an issue of enormous significance. If Jesus was not buried that afternoon, how could he have emerged from the tomb "on the third day"? 

The Gospels agree that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, even if they don't agree on why he did it. But is their view about *what* he did plausible? That he told the authorities where they could find Jesus without any crowds around?

There are, in fact, reasons for thinking that Judas did something far more sinister, that he revealed a key teaching of Jesus gave to his closest followers but he did not proclaim in public.

Did Judas reveal a secret teaching that led to Jesus' crucifixion?