Bart D. Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ehrman writes about the early Christians, using the term "proto-orthodox" to describe the Christian traditions that would later be defined as orthodox. He describes first- and second-century Christians as not yet having a unified, orthodox tradition. His graduate studies, however, eventually convinced him that the Bible makes more sense when one acknowledges its contradictions than when one creates elaborate explanations to reconcile them. He remained a Christian for 15 years but later became an agnostic because of the problem of suffering, or theodicy. In his writings, Ehrman has turned around textual criticism. From the time of the Church Fathers, it was those denounced as heretics (Marcion, for example) who were charged with tampering with the biblical manuscripts. Ehrman theorizes that it was more often the orthodox that "corrupted" the manuscripts, altering the text to promote particular viewpoints.
Ehrman became an Evangelical Christian as a teen. His desire to understand the original words of the Bible led him to the study of ancient languages and to textual criticism, to which he attributes the inspiration for an ongoing critical exploration of the basis of his own religious beliefs, which in turn gradually led to the questioning of his faith in the Bible as the inerrant, unchanging word of God. He now considers himself an agnostic. Nevertheless, Ehrman has kept ongoing dialogue with evangelicals. In March 2006, he joined theologian William Lane Craig in public debate on the question "Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?" on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross. In April 2008, Ehrman and evangelical New Testament scholar Daniel B. Wallace participated in a public dialogue on the textual reliability of the New Testament. In January 2009, Dr. Ehrman debated Dr. James White, Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, an Evangelical Reformed Baptist scholar on "Did the Bible Mis-Quote Jesus?"
He has authored or contributed to more than twenty books. In 2006 and 2009 he appeared on The Colbert Report, as well as The Daily Show, to promote his books Misquoting Jesus, and Jesus, Interrupted (respectively).
In 2007, he gave a speech at Stanford University in which he discussed the textual inconsistencies of the New Testament, and also took questions from the audience. He regularly conducts similar sessions through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Adventures in Ideas seminars. He has also made several guest appearances on National Public Radio (NPR) including the show Fresh Air in February 2008 to discuss his book God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question-Why We Suffer and in March 2009 to discuss his book Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them).
Professional awards received include the Students' Undergraduate Teaching Award, The Ruth and Philip Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and The Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Works
Ehrman has written widely on issues of New Testament and early Christianity at both an academic and popular level, with over twenty books including three
New York Times bestsellers (
Misquoting Jesus,
God's Problem, and
Jesus, Interrupted). Much of his work is on
textual criticism and the
New Testament. His first book was
Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels (1987) followed by several books published by the
Oxford University Press, including
The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, and a new edition and translation of
The Apostolic Fathers in the Loeb Classical Library series published by
Harvard University Press. In
God's Problem Ehrman discusses the
problem of evil and suffering, the issue which he claims lead him to become
agnostic. His most recent book
Jesus, Interrupted critically assesses the New Testament documents and early Christianity.
In 1999 Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium was released as a study on the historical Jesus. Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, and that his apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents: the Gospel of Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings.
Much of Ehrman's writing has concentrated on various aspects of Walter Bauer's thesis that Christianity was always diversified or at odds with itself. Ehrman is often considered a pioneer in connecting the history of the early church to textual variants within biblical manuscripts and in coining such terms as "Proto-orthodox Christianity." Ehrman brought this thesis, and textual criticism in general, to the lay public through his popular level work Misquoting Jesus.
Evangelical commentators have been critical of Ehrman's thesis on textual criticism. Daniel B. Wallace, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, wrote, "Unfortunately, as careful a scholar as Ehrman is, his treatment of major theological changes in the text of the New Testament tends to fall under one of two criticisms: Either his textual decisions are wrong, or his interpretation is wrong." Wallace also wrote, "One almost gets the impression that he is encouraging the Chicken Littles in the Christian community to panic at data that they are simply not prepared to wrestle with." Wallace also wrote that "Most of the book (chs. 1–4) is basically a popular introduction to the field, and a very good one at that." Craig Blomberg, a conservative evangelical at Denver Seminary in Colorado, wrote that "Most of Misquoting Jesus is actually a very readable, accurate distillation of many of the most important facts about the nature and history of textual criticism, presented in a lively and interesting narrative that will keep scholarly and lay interest alike." On his blog, Ben Witherington III criticized the book's research writing "It is not sufficient to reply that Bart is writing for a popular audience and thus we would not expect much scholarly discussion even in the footnotes. Even in a work of this sort, we would expect some good up to date bibliography for those disposed to do further study, not merely copious cross-references to one’s other popular level books."
Personal life
Ehrman is married to Sarah Beckwith, Marcello Lotti Professor of English at
Duke University, and has two children, a daughter, Kelly, and a son, Derek. He lives in
Durham, North Carolina.
Bibliography
References
External links
Ehrman's website
Faculty page, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Stanford lecture on "Misquoting Jesus"
Ehrman on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert
A Q&A; session with Bart
Interview with Bart Ehrman on "God's Problem" by ReadTheSpirit.com
Category:American academics
Category:American agnostics
Category:American religion academics
Category:Biblical scholars
Category:Moody Bible Institute
Category:People from the Research Triangle, North Carolina
Category:Princeton Theological Seminary alumni
Category:Former Protestants
Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty
Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Living people
Category:People from Lawrence, Kansas
