Jesus, Interrupted

(Ehrman is agnostic now, interesting...)

Notes on my reading:

reading the bible devotionally is completely different from reading it from academic historical point of view (“historical-critical”).

Who were the actual authors?
Are some/all all of the authors not who they claim to be, or are claimed to be?
When did they live?
What were the circumstances under which they wrote?
What issues were they trying to address in their own day?
How were they affected by cultural/historical assumption of their time?
What sources did they have access to?
When were those sources produced?
Could the perspectives of the sources differ?
Could authors have had different perspectives from each other, and from their sources?
Are there internal contradictions?

Irreconcilable differences in Gospels - what day did Jesus die on? When was Jesus “begotten” by God?

Resurrection stories conflict.

Gospel of John vs. “Synoptic” Gospels - John was written last, differs the most. Aims of the authors were different. John has Jesus talking about himself, other Gospels he is talking about the Kingdom of God.

8 of 27 books of New Testament people are pretty sure authors are who they are claimed to be. Other 19 books are basically forgeries.

The longer away in time something was written, the likelier it was to be bogus, or to have a purpose that had nothing to do with Jesus.

Christianity is a religion “about” Jesus, not “of” Jesus.

Jesus was a minor Galilean Jewish apocalyptic prophet. Did not, according to earlier sources, claim to be Son of God - attributed to him later, in John. Taught that the end was near, like many other apocalyptic prophets, and that people should be following God's laws as closely as possible to be included in the coming Kingdom.

“Wild Diversity of early church”

Some thought following Jewish law was still necessary, some thought following Jewish law would doom you to damnation, some thought there were different Gods (gnostics), Roman christians won in the end.

Many other gospels/letters/documents that could just as easily have been included in New Testament. Choice of what to include was political - is different in different churches.