Jesus before the Gospels
by Bart D. Ehrman · first published 2016
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Many believe that the Gospel stories of Jesus are based on eyewitness testimony and are therefore historically reliable. Now, for the first time, a scholar of the New Testament, New York Times bestselling author Bart D. Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus; and Jesus, Interrupted), surveys research from the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology to explore how oral traditions and group memories really work and questions how reliable the Gospels can be. Focusing on the decades-long gap between when Jesus lived and when these documents about him began to appear, Ehrman looks to these varied disci
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…problematic when considering the origins of the book, but I think I better dip out of this conversation here and now. If anyone is curious what resources led me to this conclusion, I would recommend reading "Jesus Before the Gospels" by Bart D. Ehrman. He is much better versed on the subject and also has some great talks online.
on “Should we use AI and LLMs for Christian apologetics? (2024)” ↗Bart D. Ehrman has written a lot of interesting books on Christianity (some of his work might be considered controversial to some practitioners). E.g., "Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior", "Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics", "Lost Christianities:…
on “Ask HN: What's the Best Book on Religion” ↗