Forged by Bart D. Ehrman

Forged: Writing in the Name of God-- Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, Bart D. Ehrman. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. e-book, 256 pps.


Bart D. Ehrman is a scholar and college professor who has written some books about God, Jesus, The Bible, and Christianity. He was converted to evangelical Christianity in high school and first attended Moody Institute where he studied apologetics. [The word "apologetics" has nothing to do with apologizing. It actually involves composing arguments and defenses in favor of Christianity]. Ehrman went on to obtain a PhD from Princeton. He is fluent in [the reading of] several languages which include Hebrew and Greek. 

I attended several brief informal classes of Greek. Armed with a Greek New Testament and a Greek dictionary, the three of us did not get very far. I perhaps might try again but in a different setting with a different style of teaching.

I was taught about the perfect nature of the Bible and that all of it was literally true without any mistakes. I accepted this for several years until I started noticing contradictions in both the Hebrew and the Christian Bibles [Old Testament and New Testament are what we called them back in the old days]. The phrase "follow the evidence" means "follow the evidence wherever it leads, even when it doesn't lead where you want it to go." These days, I attempt to follow the evidence and the money.

Forged is a Bart D. Ehrman for the rest of us-- those of us who are not college students studying this stuff and not biblical scholars-- packed with information. Even so, I found that I did have to give this Ehrman book two full reads. Its pages contained some things that I was familiar with as well as quite a bit of new information.

I didn't realize that the pagans of old did not put an emphasis on the idea that one religion could be true and the rest of them false. Before Christianity took hold, pagans didn't care about such things. Worshipping the gods involved doing the proper prayers and whatever sacrifices were called for. Christianity was the religion that introduced the notion that some religious doctrines could be truth and others not so much. These days, some of the pagan camp fight over things like which gods can be invoked together and how pagan leadership positions are determined and whether or not Satanists are witches [some are and some aren't; also some Satanists are atheists and some are literal believers] and how the latest event went. This is not to say that the ancient days were better. Had I lived then, the appendicitis attack that I suffered in my late twenties would have killed me if something else hadn't gotten me sooner.

On page 19 of Forged, I found that we know about over one hundred forgeries pertaining to Christian writings between the first and fourth century C.E. Page 21 advised that a fellow named Cerinthus actually wrote Revelations, not a fellow named John and certainly not the apostle John. Ehrman pointed out correctly that Palestinian boys were not routinely taught even rudimentary Hebrew and that more than ninety percent of the population were illiterate.  Other pages broke down who wrote each book of the canonized Christian Bible, who wrote some of the books that were not accepted, definition of many terms, and the reasons behind forgeries back in those times. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not actually written by those four apostles. The early church simply gave those gospels the names. There were many gospels floating around and believers had to be able to distinguish the ones they were using from the ones that they weren't.

Ehrman also pointed out that the literalism that is popular today was not how even the Puritans perceived the Scriptures. The current fundamentalist Christian movement started in the late  1800s [references below] at the earliest. Although Ehrman identifies as atheist, he does have some Christians among his fans. 

sapphoq reviews says: I found Forged a bit of a challenge to read but worth the effort. For those interested in what modern day [and some ancient] scholars are saying about the Bible, highly recommended.

https://twitter.com/bartehrman  not updated since August 11 ?2014.

http://ehrmanblog.org/


References re: fundamentalist Christian movement origins:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/articles/unpublished-papers/distinguishing-roots-discerning-the-origins-of-the-fundamentalist-movement/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_fundamentalism

http://www.conservapedia.com/Fundamentalism

http://theocracywatch.org/

http://christianity.wikia.com/wiki/Fundamentalist_Christianity

https://jesuswithoutbaggage.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/what-is-a-christian-fundamentalist/

http://www.acu.edu/sponsored/restoration_quarterly/archives/2000s/vol_42_no_1_contents/kragenbrink.html

http://wisdom4today.org/what-do-christian-fundamentalists-believe/

http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1861.cfm

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/Fundamentalism.html

https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/7944/what-is-fundamentalism

http://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/88697-fundamentalism.html   [discussion on fundamentalism on a chat board]



Although I am an atheist, I do read some well-written Christian books as I find them. My next review will be on Franchising McChurch written by Christian pastors Jon Mark Yeats and Thomas White.

Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them), Bart D. Ehrman. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2009. ebook, 211 pps.

http://ehrmanblog.org/  [n.b.: 24.95 a year to read and comment].


     It was with some eagerness that I finished Misquoting Jesus and began Jesus, Interrupted. This book, published in 2009, describes specific doctrinal disagreements and viewpoints of Jesus in the New Testament present in the Gospels. Jesus, Interrupted also speaks to the issue of forgeries present in the present-day Canon. I understand that this is a dicey subject for those who sincerely believe that their god directly inspired the authors of the New Testament books but I don't know how to lessen the potential impact of the material. Ehrman gives us what acclaimed biblical scholars have found out.

     The four gospels were not actually written by eyewitnesses/ the first four apostles. They were written after the death of Jesus Christ, years afterwards. Early Christians were common folk who did not speak Greek, the language of the learned and of scholars. [The New Testament books as they have come down to us are all written in Greek]. The story of Nicodemus and being born again is actually a Greek double entendre which does not work in Aramaic [or in English]. What Jesus was reportedly saying to Nicodemus [and the story itself is in doubt because of the Greek literary structure] was that one has to be physically born the first time plus born FROM ABOVE [and not "born again"].

     The development of what books to include in the Canon took many years and did not happen overnight as I'd been led to believe. There is a Third Corinthians [not written by Paul, as it turns out] and an Apocalypse of Peter [which almost made it in instead of Revelations]. And it turns out that the authorship of II Peter is in doubt. Back in the days of antiquity, it happened that folks authored stuff under the name of the more prominent so that their ideas would receive some exposure which would otherwise had been denied them.

     Bart D. Ehrman devotes the last bit of Jesus, Interrupted to explaining how it is that a Christian can know these things and still believe. Although Ehrman is an agnostic, he does not argue that Christians should de-convert.

sapphoq reviews says: I believe that Jesus, Interrupted should be read after Misquoting Jesus. The latter book delves into considerable detail regarding the controversies that early Christians had with each other. It is also helpful to have a New Testament handy when reading this book. Highly recommended to all thinking adults with an interest in the New Testament and Jesus Christ.

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, Bart D. Ehrman. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, first edition, 2005. e-book, 180 pps.

@BartEhrman 
on Twitter (r) [no activity since August 2014].

https://www.bartdehrman.com/


     Bart D. Ehrman had a Christian conversion experience of the born-again variety in his teens. He attended Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He remained a Christian even as he first discovered conflicted bible passages and errors. His Christianity finally gave way to agnosticism when he could not reconcile a loving god with suffering.

     The problem of conflicting Bible passages is not a new one invented by so-called liberal atheistic bastards who seemingly want to dump all gods from the public discourse. In 1707, John Mill published what was to become a classic in the field of textual criticism of the new testament. (page 63). Mill reported "thirty thousand places where different manuscripts, Patristic ...citations, and versions had different readings for passages of the New Testament." (quoted from page 63). Ehrman notes on page 12 that there are no surviving original manuscripts, period. I would have liked to have known this years ago but the church preachers kept that from me and my friends.

     Misquoting Jesus makes it abundantly clear that what we have are a variety of copied manuscripts which were copied from copies from copies... And that many of these copies do not agree among themselves because scribes altered things, added things, left out things as they went along. Many specific examples are given.

     But Misquoting Jesus does more than that. It is an introduction to the idea of textual criticism for the average reader. The simplistic idea that because several more copies of something survived than a few copies of something else means that the former is more "important" or "authoritative" [referred to in Dr. Paul Meier's apocalyptic fiction book The Third Millennium] is patently false. Different physical climates influenced how much of which documents survived as much as which libraries of books and manuscripts were burned. This basic tenet of textual criticism is something I had never even thought about before reading Misquoting Jesus.

sapphoq reviews says: Ehrman carefully delineates what is known about early Christianity and its spread, the various cultures and languages of various people, and the politics which rendered some influence on what is regarded today as the Canon. I found Misquoting Jesus to be an excellent book full of dangerous ideas for fundamentalist Christians. Ehrman is careful to point out the differences between getting bogged down in doctrinal disagreements and believing the central messages that Jesus had for the people. As such, I highly recommend Misquoting Jesus to any thinking adults who have an interest in the New Testament.   

Daylight Atheism by Adam Lee

Daylight Atheism, Adam Lee.  self-published via Smashwords.com under Bigthink.com, 2012.  e-book, 609 pps., with footnotes beginning on page 532.

note: Adam Lee's blog can currently be found here at:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/
and Adam Lee himself can be found on Twitter as @DaylightAtheism.


Atheists certainly aren't winning any popularity contests [as of yet].  There is an assumption that only a belief in a deity can provide an individual with a moral compass; that the atheist is void of any sense of goodness or direction.  Atheists are denied the right to run for public office in some places, and sentenced to death in others.  The atheist knows that false perceptions are harmful.  Adam Lee has a blog from the perspective of an atheist and has followed up with a book by the same name.

Here in Adam Lee's own words, on pages 6 -7 from the Prologue of Daylight Atheism, are what an atheist is and what an atheist is not:
   
          Yes, I am an atheist.  No, I don't kick puppies or steal
    candy from babies.  I don't hate God, but I don't have
    any secret desire to worship him either.  Nor do I worship
    Satan.  I haven't had any bad personal experiences with a
    church, nor did a religious person do something to hurt me
    at some time in the past, nor did I have a bad relationship 
    with my father.  I don't hate any country, and I'm not a
    communist, an anarchist, a nihilist, or a moral relativist.
    I don't want to outlaw religion.  I'm not angry or depressed.
    In fact, I'm a person just like you.  You probably wouldn't
    recognize me as an atheist if you passed me on the street.

       But I am indeed an atheist.  What this means, very simply,
    is that I don't believe in any gods. ...they're all imaginary--
    mere products of the human imagination and nothing more. 

Adam Lee goes on to address the objections to atheism-- apologetics, superstition, synchronicity of all belief systems into an uneasy product and why that fails, which god, facts and interpretations, logical fallacies-- and also the advantages and hope that atheism holds out to the world.  It is heady stuff.  Adam Lee handles many threads of information rather well.  His arguments are logical and easily understood.  He is knowledgeable about both religions and atheism.

sapphoq reviews says: Fans of Adam Lee's blog Daylight Atheism will feel quite at home here with his book.  Those who tend toward fundamentalism more than likely will not find anything good in its pages and that is a pity.  Those mystics who scour the internet for references to Jesus and anti-Jesus in order to defend their god against "personal" attacks will likely want to stage a book burning with this book as the center.
     Folks who might be interested in gaining a better understanding of what it is like to be an atheist in today's present-day society would do well to read this book.  Common myths are easily shattered.  The disadvantages to using mysticism as a basis for belief along with literal interpretations of old texts are carefully delineated here.  
    Atheists as a whole tend to be well-informed about various religious teachings and sects and their sacred books-- sometimes better informed than the believers.  There is no use of ad hominem in Daylight Atheism.  Athough some believers on Twitter and elsewhere degenerate into name-calling on a regular basis, Adam Lee sticks to arguments from reason.
     Highly recommended for thinking high school students on up to the most ardent believer and the most dedicated atheist alike.           

The Broken Places by Ace Atkins

The Broken Places: A Quinn Colson Novel, Ace Atkins.  New York: Penguin Group, 2013.  e-book, 291 pps.

How to sum this one up:  A fast-paced action crime novel and characters who have great depth.  Yet, there is more to The Broken Places than just that.  There are prisoners and at least one guard on the take.  There's a governor who pardons, a few politicos on the take, a crooked sheriff, a couple of attractive women, and a convict turned humble Jesus preacher, sprinkled with a few family members and a tornado.  The characters were believable, the dialogue was believable, the action was believable.  This is not a novel that stops in the middle.  I read The Broken Places in one sitting.  It was that good.  And yeah, the places described were just the way I remembered them some years back when passing through.  Ace Atkins is at his finest with this one.  His ability to tell a story is clearly illustrated within the pages of The Broken Places.

sapphoq reviews says:  The Broken Places is an excellent story with bits of psychology and some blood and guts woven through it.  I loved it.  From the trailer park to the titty bar, from the remote hunting lodge to the tiny downtown, the sense of place instilled into Ace Atkins' work is integral to the action rather than just another random backdrop.  Ace Atkins captures perfectly societal and familial conflicts while avoiding any sort of preachiness.  I liked this one and will be reading more.  Definitely recommended.