Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

How would you respond if I told you that, actually, Judas was the only disciple who understood what Jesus was doing on earth? Or that I said that Jesus is unrelated to the God who created the world? Or that the God who created the world is not the same as the one who created humans?

From a modern Christian point of view, those are blasphemous statements - some more so than others, yet they are all paraphrasing an early Christian Gnostic text, known as the Gospel of Judas. Join us today on Misquoting Jesus to find out more about this surprising, esoteric gospel, and to learn the secrets of the world according to the Gnostics.

Writings attributed to the apostle Paul make up a large swathe of the New Testament, and have been of fundamental importance in the development of Christian theology.

However, there are some serious questions over whether Paul actually wrote everything attributed to him. What texts do scholars think are not as…legitimate as they could be, and what texts do experts think were actually written by the man himself?

The Apostle Paul is a central figure in early Christianity, and features strongly in the New Testament in his own letters, and as a character in the Acts of the Apostles. But is the Paul of Acts the same man as the Paul of the Epistles?

Does the writer of Acts change Paul's character and teachings, and why?

A Second-Anniversary LIVE Q&A! Listeners ask their questions, and Bart tries to answer them. Rapid fire for an hour!

The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are widely understood to be a two-volume set, written by a single author.

Given that we’ve spoken before on Misquoting Jesus about how difficult it is to identify authors of ancient texts, why are scholars so sure that these two texts share the same author?

Who was that author, and why write two books when they could have written one?!

Pontius Pilate is a relatively minor figure in the gospels of the New Testament, but one who plays a vital role as the Roman official in charge of Jesus’ sentencing.

Given that he’s the face of Rome in the New Testament Gospels, he’s presented in a surprisingly positive light! The same is true for his appearances in some other early Christian writings. To try and get to the bottom of exactly why the official representative of the big, bad Roman empire is presented as such a sympathetic figure, we’re going to be taking a look at one of these non-canonical texts in a bit more detail.

The phrase "synoptic gospels" is thrown around a lot in Biblical scholarship, but what does it mean, and why are they important?

Are they as similar as people seem to think, and what do non-academics get wrong about them? Today, Megan is joined by Dr. Mark Goodacre, professor of Religious Studies and expert in all things synoptic, to answer these questions and to investigate some of his favorite differences between these fascinating texts. 

Many people in the modern western world view reincarnation as a belief predominately from eastern religions - especially buddhism and hinduism.

Believe it or not, reincarnation was also a theological concept for some early Christians! How does what early Christians taught about reincarnation differ from what we understand it to be?

Was it a common idea, or did those who espoused it receive pushback and censorship from their fellow Christians?

Why isn’t reincarnation still a widely held view in Christian circles?

Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Misquoting Jesus - our 100th episode!

In keeping with our centesimal celebration (hey, it's a word!), we’re going to be exploring the world of Christianity 100 years after Jesus’ death.

Was Christianity still a small, persecuted offshoot of apocalyptic Judaism, or had it spread far and wide? Was it still an apocalyptic religion, and what theological disagreements had occurred? Megan has the questions, and Bart, as always, has the answers.

The Bible is frequently invoked in the ongoing national debates about abortion, almost always to show that abortion is murder and strictly forbidden. Is that true?

This episode is not meant to resolve the issue about whether abortion should ever be considered a legitimate procedure or not.

The focus is on what the Bible actually says. Does it condemn abortion? Does it indicate that the fetus is to be considered a human with human rights, so that abortion constitutes murder? When, according to the Bible, does life begin. The overarching point of the episode is that those who cite the Bible in support of their social and political views should at least read what it says and be clear about what it means.