Here are now some more “agrapha” (sayings of Jesus not found in any of the surviving Gospels; I say more about "agrapha" in the previous post).  These ones are found in writings of church fathers, who appear to have had access to Gospels unavailable to us, or at least to have heard non-canonical sayings of [...] The post Other “Unknown” Sayings of Jesus appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

To my surprise, I've never talked about the "agrapha" of Jesus before on the blog.   It's about time I did!  This is an intriguing topic connected with the teachings of Jesus known to almost precisely No One!!  (I'd bet a case of fine French wine that your pastor -- if you've ever had one, in [...] The post Ever Hear of an Agraphon? An “Unwritten” Saying of Jesus? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

While I'm on the "Jesus and Mary Magdalene" question (see my earlier posts), what about the claims that some (lots) of people have heard, that there is a story in a later Gospel that talk about them kissing? The later Gospel in question is the Gospel of Philip, one of the "Gnostic Gospels" discovered in [...] The post Jesus and Mary Magdalene Seen Kissing?? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Mary Magdalene has become one of the most talked about figures from the life of Jesus, even though she hardly ever shows up in the Gospel accounts about him (during his public ministry, just in one verse, total!, Luke 8:2).  (She shows up only at the crucifixion and, most important, the empty tomb). In my [...] The post When Did Mary Magdalene Become a Prostitute? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

It is "common knowledge" that Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a prostitute in the New Testament, but like so much "common knowledge" this view, while common, is not "knowledge."  In fact it's not true.  I get asked about this on occasion, and so I thought I should devote a couple of posts on it. I [...] The post Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Did people in oral cultures even care if stories were changed?  We do! We have an interest not just in story but in establishing with some kind of accuracy what actually happened in the past, whether it is about the Civil War, the assassination of JFK, or the last election.  Did people in oral cultures [...] The post Changing the Past in Light of the Present appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

I have been discussing some of the many problems with assuming that oral traditions are passed along intact, without significant change, in oral cultures.  In graduate school we all learned that they are and did, so that, for example, the fact that we might have a saying of Jesus or story about him in a [...] The post Proof That Historical Narratives (not just myths) Constantly Change in Oral Cultures appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

Do we mean the same thing by “the same” that people in oral cultures do? Here I pick up on my discussion of oral cultures; in the previous post I talked about how Milman Parry began to study one such culture, and his discoveries were starting.  Professional memorizers/reciters would claim that various performances of the [...] The post When is “The Same” Memory/Tradition/Story Not Actually “The Same”? appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

How do oral cultures “work”?  How do they pass along their traditions?  How accurately?  And why did scholars first get interested in the question.  Not at ALL in the way that you might think! Here’s how I discuss the matter in my book Jesus Before the Gospels (HarperOne, 2017). The Beginning of [...] The post How Do We Know About Oral Cultures? By Starting Where You’d Never Suspect! appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more

In my previous posts I've given some of the arguments for thinking Jesus delivered an apocalyptic message that the end was coming soon with a divine intervention in which all the forces of evil would be destroyed and all people judged.  I’ve actually saved what I consider to be the strongest argument for last, a final [...] The post A Less-Expected Argument that Jesus Preached the End of All Things appeared first on The Bart Ehrman Blog ..read more