Where Was Christianity on its 100th Birthday?

[@MichaelYoder-e8g]

Congrats on episode 100! Here's to the next 100

[@thorpeaaron1110]

Congratulations on 100 episodes guys!

[@rayneweber5904]

Not that I'm not paying attention. But you guys are the perfect podcast to listen to while drifting off to sleep.

[@zapkvr]

There's a podcast called "Nothing much happens" Bedtime stories for adults. If you're insomniac or even quite wired when you retire, it's excellent

[@chipnewtonguitarmusic546]

I actually like to listen to each podcast twice, once while driving to my job in the morning where I actually pay close attention, and then other times where I wake up at 4:30 a.m. And cannot fall back to sleep. I find both of their voices. So pleasant that it helps calm my mind.

[@GEMSofGOD_com]

During any time of anything really

[@UsesElevators]

I like that we cut a lot of the chit chat to 3 minutes and got into the details right off the bat

[@paulkoza8652]

To Bart's point, I think Jesus would be shocked, both 100 years after his death, and today.

[@ElginChris]

Thanks for making these. Always a good day when a new chat is released

[@ji8044]

Very good video, today almost no Christian apologist knows that Marcion was not a "heretic" in his own lifetime but a celebrated Christian theologian with a large following.

[@KaiHenningsen]

Yeah, but then a number of today's Christians don't think Catholics are Christians. And - as has been mentioned - a number still think the end is imminent. Christians are weird, man. (And so are members of other religions, I expect.)

[@bestself2438]

@@xunqianbaidu6917Excommunication didn’t even exist until over a century later.

[@barnsweb52]

"Heretic" - when was that word invented, and why? Fact is that the original Jesus followers used the original "Matthew" - which is now altered - by those of Marcion and Rome. Jesus' disciples were putting out the fires of lies initiated by Paul and Marcion for about 300 years, and then were forcibly overcome by Roman Christianity that united the "Heretical Christianity" variations to be under Roman Rule - something Jesus prohibited in Matthew 23. Please read: "Romans Proves Paul Lied - have we inherited lies from our fathers?" Don't be duped by the likes of Ehrman. I've tried to talk to him for years and he never replied - he has his own agenda. All our records were contaminated. Example: Isaiah 7:14 is not a prophesy of Jesus' virgin birth. The Original Matthew said no such thing - likely added after Luke came out. Onediscipletoanother

[@bestself2438]

@@barnsweb52What are your credentials that would give you any credibility? Bart’s only agenda is scientific research, transparency and truthfulness. You clearly have a strong theological agenda. You are faith biased.

[@bestself2438]

@@xunqianbaidu6917Sounds credible. Can you point to references? Citations?

[@jaredwilliams2667]

I decided to get caught up on the podcast (began listening to random episodes a month or two ago) and got through all of them, now including this one, today! What good timing!

[@jeffburns4219]

I don’t follow you. Why is this good timing?

[@tshwenyegomakhaza9980]

Viva 100 episodes. Looking forward to the next 100.

[@anibalalvarez3807]

I love Bart Ehrman's books, blog, debates, and this amazing KZbin series. Excellent × 1000

[@Nicho2020]

As always - informative and well presented. Thank you, Megan and Bart!

[@rcnfo1197]

Congratulations on your 100th podcast! (Not to be confused with 1/100th of a podcast, which would be a very short show. ) What would our world be like today, if Nero had managed to completely end Christianity before it had a chance to spread throughout the Roman Empire?

[@hiddenfact5950]

Congratulations on your hard & informative work. Megan you deserve from Bart pop quiz Armadela grill😂

[@jscire__872]

Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉💯

[@vmcampos]

Great episode as always, everyone! Congrats on 100 episodes. Speaking of anniversaries, next year is the 20th anniversary of Bart's "Misquoting Jesus" book. Will there be Director's Cut edition or the like? Perhaps the "Too Hot to Handle" Edition? 😁

[@MH55YT]

always good. Thank you.

[@DneilB007]

Congratulations on 100 episodes! I listened to the podcast today after taking my daily meds, and pretty much missed everything up to the question time. Guess I’ll have to give the podcast another listen later.

[@zapkvr]

Amazing work everyone. You are the reason the Internet has a future.

[@godminnette2]

Megan's hair this episode is stunning! My favorite look yet. Of course, it doesn't hold a candle to Bart's wonderful head of hair.

[@spicyroads]

Barts hairs get overlooked

[@raycaster4398]

The dyed hair and changing glasses typical of extroverted intuition. She seems introverted generally. So I wonder what MBTI personality type she is. Perhaps her extroverted intuition as a strong auxiliary cognitive function ... My guess is INTP -- the "thinker" or "logician." The "why" type of person. Some INFP vibes though with the hair and glasses.

[@markandrzejak997]

As always, wonderful show. Grats on 100th episode!

[@MagereHein]

Congratulations on your 1st century!

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you and congratulations.

[@joefromtheBronx]

Purple Hair Day. I hope they are still doing the Acts of Pilate episode they referenced at the end of last episode.

[@joefromtheBronx]

The conversation about Q had nothing about James Bond. Incomplete!

[@corinne7126]

100 congrats

[@dougdollinger945]

Very well done!

[@WeesloYT]

Bart looks like Ignatius of Loyola, someone else who had a lot of bible knowledge!

[@GEMSofGOD_com]

Great content brothers and sisters 💪

[@corinne7126]

laughed " miss cold rainy days"

[@ariebrons7976]

Dear Dr. Ehrman, Thanks for all the time and effort you and Mrs. Lewish put into these lectures. 33:00 This surprises me; Didn't yoshkah invent Christianity just to spite his master? From what I read; Perverse idolatry was always central to the Christian message.

[@Dutchess0909]

Not to Joshua's message, me thinks

[@stevematthews4489]

Always wondered if Christianity would exist at all if Rome hadn't launched a near apocalyptic invasion of Palestine and basically destroyed temple Judaism. That would have left an open field for any competing sects. Also have always thought that Jesus would be more surprised than anyone that he's no longer considered a Jew, and his image has even been molded into an anti-jew.

[@susanmcdonald9088]

Your history is a bit off. Zealots were killing Roman soldiers policing, in cold blood. Most nations conquered by Rome, didn't react like zealots. They organized & brought peace & prosperity & citizenship. With the Jews, it took much more, and the punishment was severe! Same with Israel today. Nonviolent protests didn't work. And after decades of apartheid, after October 7, punishment was swift and genocidal. But Romans managed to incorporate peoples from anywhere, to prosper, the peace of Rome (Pax Romano). Very successful.

[@johndenugent4185]

I oibject very strongly to Ehrnan (who, btw, looks very Jewish, though he may be mostly of German descent) being an atheist. This is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Dostoyevsky said "if there is no God, everything is permitted." Bolshevism was the horrific result. I myself and many other people have experienced supernatural things. Religion is not just based on prescientific delusions by the peasants. I graduated with high honors from Georgetown and am a former US Marine. But I know that there is a higher world. I repeat -- I know this, and so do millions of other people. Ehrman is therefore a two-edged sword. hHe debunks things that need debunking, yes, but he goes too far, and this is why the NY Times and others promote him. They want an atheistic world for their own vile agendas. Ehrman, you are a tool for an evil world.

[@GeneralYen]

But Christianity prospered outside of Palestine, so was it really boosted by the eradication of temple judaism?

[@davidkatz341]

What a contemptible view you have. Apparently your understanding of history is the one that's a bit off, especially with respect to modern day Israel. Have you spent any time at all in Israel?

[@francisnopantses1108]

​@susanmcdonald9088 That's bollocks, just look at British resistance. If anything the Romans came down even more harshly in reaction; eventually the fate that would come to Jerusalem. Pontius Pilate's place in secular history was engaging in provocations against the Jewish population by desecrating the sacred precinct. The Romans could often be selfish and genocidal, just look at Dacia.

[@alanpennie8013]

Curious that such a small sect should gave attracted the attention of such notable writers as Pliny and Tacitus. Presumably because the early Church was concentrated in the cities which were the administrative and cultural centres of The Empire.

[@jeffmacdonald9863]

Another thought: Bart talks here about the churches and the idea of gathering regularly to pray and talk was a Christian thing that would have seemed strange to pagans of the time - though a similar approach had begun earlier in Jewish synagogues, especially in the Diaspora. What I'm wondering now is whether the sense of community from those regular meetings helped Christianity grow and spread as quickly as it did. That kind of community building is often cited as a major appeal of religion today and something that secular society doesn't really offer.

[@jeffburns4219]

I happened to have had several discussions about this recently, and the consensus seems to be that a sense of community is the main attraction of church-going-and really, how could it not be? But any non-religious cult or “movement”, as we used to say, will inevitably present the same sense of community. These cults, movements, and cliques can be political, ideological, a matter of fashion, or a mixture of these or involve various other attitudes, and it seems to me that society is permeated with them. They work best when the cult or clique members consider themselves superior to or more enlightened than others, and the others tend not to be particularly happy about that.

[@jeffmacdonald9863]

@@jeffburns4219 Maybe so, but it doesn't seem to have been a real feature of Roman religion of that era. Possibly the mystery cults? Though being a mystery makes that harder to work. Maybe there were other non-religious groups doing the same kind of thing, but it still seems like it would have been an advantage for Christianity - and maybe for Judaism as well, despite the barrier to entry being higher there.

[@jeffburns4219]

@@jeffmacdonald9863 Actually, I was commenting on your last sentence only. I’m not an historian; I just know my own time. Ehrman says the reason Christianity spread so rapidly and widely is that it required its followers to reject all other religions on penalty of eternal torture-or at least no chance of salvation. Islam seems to me to have also spread widely and fairly rapidly, but Islam conquered entire nations and governmental systems.

[@jeffburns4219]

@@jeffmacdonald9863 Judaism: Presumably practicing ancient Jews felt a strong sense of community, but Jews rarely, if ever, even attempt to recruit outsiders-which brings us to the elephant in the room: for a religion to spread far and wide it helps if it actually wants to spread far and wide and helps even more if it tries hard.

[@jeffmacdonald9863]

@@jeffburns4219 Islam spread even more widely and rapidly. From Spain to Pakistan within a century of so. As you say, that was largely through conquest. I'm not sure I buy Ehrman's explanation, though he's obviously far more an expert than I'll ever be. That's why followers rejected other gods instead of worshiping many as was the common practice, but fear of torture or loss of salvation is only persuasive once you already believe.

[@longcastle4863]

It’s interesting to learn that the same theological battles Paul was addressing in his letters were still unresolved 100 years after Jesus’ death. But it makes sense when you realize how disparate and still not coordinated or organized the different pockets of Christianity were throughout the Roman Empire-and still without any central authority. Unfortunately, what we eventually learn is that having a central authority for a belief system turns out to be not necessarily a good thing.

[@davefoc]

What, if any, writings do we have from Jews in sects that might have known Jesus? Is there any information about how information about Jesus might have gotten to the Christian writers of the New Testament from a Jewish group that Jesus might have been in? These questions are off topic, but the topic of the video made me think about the fact that there is so much more information about the Christian origin of Christianity than the Jewish origin of Christianity.

[@sparrowthesissy2186]

The wars in 70 and 135 CE likely destroyed all, if any, documents from the Jerusalem church. What survives of the early stuff is mostly Paul's letters to outside places not ravaged by war.

[@davefoc]

@@sparrowthesissy2186 Seems plausible, although I think it's more likely that if a Jewish Jesus sect existed its writings and other possible evidence for it disappeared into the dust with the passage of time. The very limited evidence for a Jewish Jesus sect suggests strongly if it existed it was too small and uninteresting for there to have been an incentive for historians to mention it or for its members to pass down the evidence of the sect beyond a generation or two from the time of its existence. Certainly the gentile Christians are unlikely to have saved it if they ever got their hands on it . They may not have even recognized it as evidence of the Jewish Sect from which their religion originated because it was so unlike what they understood about their religion from the fiction that underpinned their religion and if it existed it was unlikely to have been written in Greek.

[@marzipantorte]

This was great! I'm super hyped for next weeks episode now!

[@jimjarnagin5344]

Crowd size...good one Bart! 🤣🤣🤣

[@joshuasheets9236]

Megan, your glasses are so cool! Kinda reminds me of these ones someone was selling at a music festival I went to. Spun Glasses I think they were called, decorated with wire wraps

[@martizzy]

Myth of Persecution by Candida Moss. Good followup read

[@carlosrios3215]

Megan I love your glasses ! Dr. Bart, always a pleasure to listen to! 😊

[@lalrindikaralte8252]

Please explore about Christian Zionism 🙏🙏🙏

[@nostromoglasseye8340]

i hv noted that Bart Ehrman displays many traces of Xian Zionism himself. it's impossible to think that someone who is so careful about the accuracy of what he says is simply making a casual error when referring to places in the occupied Palestinian lands as 'in Israel'. of course it may be that he's contractually obliged to a university or publisher to do so. but it quite puts me off.

[@bendover6272]

@@nostromoglasseye8340 Palestine didn't exist as a concept or nationality in antiquity. All areas claimed by Palestine today were inhabited by Jews.

[@rolfjacobson833]

great again

[@MrCanis4]

Yep, most of the world will have to wait another 1500 years for that storybook.

[@Tocktail]

@bartdehrman could you create a video about Where Was Christianity on its 200th Birthday?

[@jripule]

Could you do a segment about Jesus' crucifixion?

[@oldpossum57]

42:00 Erhman suggests that it was (and is) common rhetoric to exaggerate numbers and sizes.(Insert Trump joke here.) In one of my first courses in medieval studies, the prof suggested that, when dealing with large numbers in ancient or medieval sources, we automatically divide by ten or one hundred, and see if the quotient was plausible. If not divide by ten or one hundred again. I just call it the rule of ten and one hundred.

[@francisnopantses1108]

Of course archeology in recent decades has problematized that widely made assertion that records of tens of thousands of soldiers engaged in battles in antiquity are prima facia false. For example a certain prehistoric battle in a forest bog where both bodies and weapons could not be carried away. Who knew, people clean up battlefields?

[@oldpossum57]

@@francisnopantses1108 1) Really? Where was this dig, and where published? 2) Up until the 19th century continental standing armies, force size and duration of campaign were very dependent on seasons, and the amount of cash in the treasury. There is a military historian (I’d have to find the right box of books…sorry) who determined experimentally what weeks were available for armies in Ancient Greece, even the maximum duration of hand-to-hand combat. Kind of fun! But Cecil B de Mille would be disappointed. Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold had to attack Quebec City 31 Dec 1775 in a raging snowstorm, because the men’s contracts were about to end. (My ancestor in the Militia got to fire his musket in their general direction.) Peasant militia were apt to disappear if a campaign extended into seeding or harvesting. Navies couldn’t sail on schedule until the 17th or 18th c. 3) I would assume that in many of the folk histories reported in the OT, the battles were cattle- and bride-raids. The heralds who wrote the stuff were not historians; they were the equivalent of press flacks. Think of the inaccuracy of damage reports from bombing runs over Germany in WWII. Then imagine how wildly creative the heralds were. Unlike the heralds of Agincourt 1415 who kept track of all the nobles (but not the commoners), the OT heralds were also expected to herd goats.

[@andrelegeant88]

This is something a lot of modern readers struggle with. It isn't that people in antiquity lied across the board. Large numbers were just intended to represent relative scale. For example, Jesus feeding the 5000. Five thousand in Greek doesn't mean a literal 5000. It suggests a large number that is less than the whole of a city but representative of the whole population. Similarly, 144,000 in Revelation isn't literal, but means a really big number, similar to us saying a million.

[@oldpossum57]

@@andrelegeant88 “sprinkles”, when I was a boy, were “hundreds and thousands”…probably the kids’ term from my parent’s youth in the 30s. When I was taking my own kids out for ice cream, sprinkles were called millions and billions. Inflation.

[@oldpossum57]

@@andrelegeant88 We should recall that histories are written for audiences, an court histories are written by courtiers. In Genesis 14, four kings make war against five kings. I suspect these chaps were in fact kings of very little, and their armies numbered few soldiers. After all, feeding, equipping, transporting an army was a tremendously expensive undertaking. No one minded if the heralds exaggerated the numbers. No one really minded that Trump and Kelly Ann Conway and Sean Spicer vastly over-reported the size of Trump’s…inaugural crowd. The man is vain, needs flattering. So too were Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,

[@DashRiprock-m3b]

That depends in the year Christ was actually born. The more popular version would say 33 A.D. was when the first Pentecost Sunday occurred. However, historians have put His actual birth between 4 and 6 BCE due to Herod's death which was in 4 BCE. And we know Herod had his hand in the "Slaughter of the Innocents." So, the celebration of the 100th birthday of Pentecost Sunday is somewhere between 127-129 A.D. Now to where it was. With all the original Apostles death, it was beginning to slowly slide down the rabbit hole of the unholy Roman Catholic Church. You can sign up for my history class in the campus admin building. lol

[@NickG-x6t]

'And we know Herod had his hand in the "Slaughter of the Innocents." ' The "slaughter of the Innocents" never happened: it's just part of a retcon in the Gospel of Matthew, intended to place Jesus's birth in Bethlehem, where the Messiah was supposed to be born, while in fact Jesus was raised, and presumably born, in Galilee.There's a different and incompatible retcon in the Gospel of Luke.

[@rogerparkhurst5796]

Let alone be ‘astonished’ he would have been confused when God did not execute Jesus’s forecast! A major rethink on his part?

[@randykrus9562]

I have a policy to disregard the thoughts and ideas from cult members...regardless of when they transpired_now or in the past.

[@johnthekeane]

🎉💯

[@Dash_023]

I’m going to make a response video soon.

[@RorySeanWainer]

Very interesting. BTW: Cool glasses.

[@samanthasnarley9643]

Thank you for a very informative, interesting 100 episodes. I completed my MDiv at a conservative evangelical seminary about the same time as you did. We too were taught that the Marcionites were a small splinter heretical group and that there many others E.g., the Ebionites. Barth and Boltman were treated with great suspicion, and the search for the "historical Jesus" was the work of secular Christians whose real objective was to undermine the faith of true believers. I can understand the reluctance of pastors to expose their flock to truths which were undermined in their seminary training. Here's a question: Does it not seem that "Luke's" methodology in preparing to write his account (Lu.1:1-4) is out of sink with with the doctrine of biblical inerrancy based on 2 Tim. 3:16, that is taught in evangelical seminaries, since that doctrine applies to the New as well as Old Testament?

[@Steve-u9k4p]

Great, ty👍

[@judyfreeman5193]

I know people today who believe Jesus is coming any day to establish a new kingdom on earth. The Bible after all clearly says this

[@stevearmstrong6758]

The Bible says any day now…

[@three-stripes]

It's only been like 730,500 days since his time, so it doesn't seem too long to wait.

[@EvilXtianity]

Jesus said his return would be imminent - 2,000 years ago! Jesus told his disciples that they would not die before his second coming: "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom". (Matthew 16:28) "Some of you standing here will not taste death until you see the Kingdom come with power." (Mark 9:1-20) "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand." (Mark 1:15)

[@jeffburns4219]

@@EvilXtianity You’re assuming that “the son of man” refers to Jesus himself. Jesus doesn’t say that.

[@EvilXtianity]

@@jeffburns4219 _"You’re assuming that “the son of man” refers to Jesus himself. Jesus doesn’t say that."_ False. Matthew 12:32, 13:37 Luke 12:8 John 1:51

[@robbabcock_]

Great stuff, as usual!

[@busyb8676]

The eighth chapter of John is confusing and makes me believe Marcion was right that the loving Father of Jesus was NOT the Yahweh of the Jews.

[@djparn007]

👍👍👍

[@redoktopus3047]

Megan's dress looks like it's made of the wallpaper from The Peacock Room

[@burebista11]

I would stick with Suetonius, Josephus, Strabo, Moses of Chorine. Josephus sas the source for Acts. Diodorus Siculus wrote Macabies.

[@JohnnieWalkerGreen]

45:57 Uh... oh... "Crowd Size"...

[@Jason-zm4ch]

I wonder what the view of the eucharist was within the first 100 years?

[@arthurmartinson4370]

I want that hair! Megan's of course.....I want Bart's insights.

[@raycaster4398]

Megan: The dyed hair and changing glasses typical of extroverted intuition (Ne). The extroverted intuition's way of "trying on different personalities." She does seem introverted generally. So I wonder what MBTI personality type she is(?). Perhaps her extroverted intuition is as a strong auxiliary cognitive function ... My guess is INTP -- the "thinker" or "logician." The "why" type of person. The combination of Ti (introverted thinking) and Ne makes INTPs uniquely skilled at identifying patterns and exploring theoretical possibilities. Some INFP vibes though with the hair, glasses and endearing demeanor.

[@saadirad5603]

Actually the two scholars are stunning and amazing as they go the great lengths to explain and simplify the narrations

[@stanleyrogouski]

Weren't there a lot of Christians in Ethiopia in 100 CE?

[@TheIObook2024]

There was no Christianity 100 years after Jesus. Christianity was Israelite and after AD70, it began to disappear into obscurity. What existed 100 years after Jesus was a Greek invention.

[@ElkoJohn]

much obliged.

[@Shiyam-h7g]

Make another video on where was Islam on its 100 birthday

[@John.Flower.Productions]

_Were the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus still being taken literally?_ Apocalypticism, by its very nature, is not _literal_ in the modern sense. Annihilationism is more of an appropriate term for what many people today think early Christians believed in. _"There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."_ According to most scholars (including Bart), this was written after 70CE. If the dating and interpretation are both correct, the writer is supposed to have knowingly placed this failed prophecy in Jesus' mouth after the fact. Why would any Gospel writer do that? (The writer of 2 Thessalonians was smart enough to not do that, as he was covering for Paul's nonsense.)

[@jeffburns4219]

Why would any Gospel writer do that? Presumably because he was recording faithfully what he believed Jesus actually to have said.

[@John.Flower.Productions]

@@jeffburns4219 He very likely did believe what he was writing, which speaks to my point about the modern misunderstanding of Jesus' apocalyptic teachings. The ^dating and the supposed _literal_ interpretation of early Gospel writers/readers cannot both be correct; it could be one, the other or even neither but it cannot be both. ^The post-70CE dating for the synoptic gospels is based on the false belief that Jesus (or the writers) could not have predicted the destruction of Jerusalem. There are other very good reasons to believe that the Gospel of Luke was written well after 70CE but the same cannot be said for Matthew/Mark.

[@sparrowthesissy2186]

I think the kingdom of David and end-of-the-age predictions were so famously part of early Christian belief that the gospel writers felt they had to address them somehow. Luke and Matthew do different apologetics for it. And while Mark has layers that are post-70 CE, that doesn't mean every passage was written after then. I think there's also what I call the "Wicked Tenants" layer in Mark that's very likely describing the people of Jerusalem banned from the region after 135 CE, so IMO it's not unreasonable for there to also be some thin layers from the 50s or 60s too, when Jesus's generation hadn't yet passed. Those early sources make the need for all the later apologetics.

[@StingrayTomsFlorida]

Kinda disappointed that Bart didn't get his hair done too.

[@carlredington881]

Bart is such a stud.

[@tylerrichards6456]

Also I have always had an affinity for Marcion. You don’t have to be a textual scholar to recognize that the Old Testament god is radically different from the New Testament deity. If Christianity is true characterization of god, his actions and plan for the world (I’m not a believer myself), then Marcion’s distinction between the vengeful jealous Yahweh and the loving seemingly rational NT Heavenly Father makes perfect sense and shouldn’t have been stamped out as heresy in my opinion. Now Christians for 1700 years have had to try to reconcile these two incompatible deities into one, and the resulting god just doesn’t ring true for me.

[@carolynrobe5957]

I was taught that the Bible is a record of man's changing concepts of who or what God is. The concept of God in Job and Ecclesiastes is different from the God of Lot or Noah, for example. I studied the Bible as Literature at the University of Oregon under Professor Maveety. Even now our concepts of who God is has been changing or evolving. The Santa Claus god...the God as pervasive animating force in the universe....God is Love...etc. God is unchanging but our concepts differ and change.....depending on our culture and experiences surely....?

[@tylerrichards6456]

@@carolynrobe5957 Hopefully the god of Job and Noah are fairytale boogeymen. He is just all around awful and there’s really no getting around that. If I was a Christian I would not want to claim him as my god.

[@andrelegeant88]

One of the core beliefs in Christianity is that our reward is in the next life, and our suffering beyond a state of nature is due to sin. For that reason, God's vengeance wouldn't matter because this life has limited value. Marcion's concern with the OT God was that he seemed to Marcion petty and material. Jesus says man goes hungry because others are afraid of death, so hoard food. God doesn't let us go hungry in a state of nature. But in the OT, God decides if man goes hungry or is fed, or who is wealthy or poor.

[@gravybiscuits588]

How is the OT God more evil? He doesn't even talk about hell

[@andrelegeant88]

@@gravybiscuits588 There is no afterlife in most of the OT. The focus is on God doing things for people who worship him properly, including helping to kill others.

[@carolynrobe5957]

Well why did Jesus say things like "I and the Father are one." if he didn't think he had some kind of divinity?

[@jeffburns4219]

Why don’t you watch some of Ehrman’s videos on the subject?

[@craigfairweather3401]

It is a oneness of intention, action and pronouncement. That is how Jesus can say in Ch 17 that he wants his followers to be one as he is one with his father. It is the same kind of oneness.

[@NickG-x6t]

He didn't. Those words were falsely attributed to him decades after his death. He'd have been horrified at the blasphemy.

[@jonathandutra4831]

Glad the REAL Christian group won outright.

[@stevearmstrong6758]

😂

[@dbarker7794]

😂😂😂

[@harveywabbit9541]

Jesus, the sun, never died.

[@jeffburns4219]

The sun?

[@harveywabbit9541]

@@jeffburns4219 He is in my back yard at this very moment and he is falling downward. He will be resurrected in my front yard in the morning.

[@simonbattle0001]

Christianity has some of my most favorite stories, myths and legends. When I was a kid Jesus was a tall bunny that carried hard boiled eggs and had a son who was made of solid chocolate. Or, that Jesus had a red suit, was a fat man, but happy about it and was a billionaire who goes out once a year to give gifts to the people he likes. Or, the little bible verse on the back of a foot long X 10 inch milk chocolate cross with a white chocolate Jesus I found at a buck store. On the back of the package it said “Take, eat; this is My body.." Since it was Monday it was two for the price of one. So I froze them, and when Halloween came around I gave them out to a couple of kids and they said they were "cool." My neighbor down the street Easter Sunday had a big picture of Jesus on a cross made out of AR-15's and I thought that was kind of different. So I guess taking the Doc's course is a pretty good idea to understand the many ways Christianity has something for everybody one way or another.

[@pigemperor]

Early Christianity was pacifist and socialist. You have obviously just met evangelical nutjjobs who think jesus said anything at all about the abortion and, for some bizarre reason, think that he glorified wealth.

[@arthurmartinson4370]

I mean this sincerely: read Alan Watts' "Myth and Ritual in Christianity". Incredible book, IMO.

[@simonbattle0001]

@@arthurmartinson4370 Thanks I'll take a look

[@jeffburns4219]

You had a strange childhood.

[@markwrede8878]

The Christian calendar was always symbolic, never historical.

[@Bhadradd]

If I don't purchase the NINT now, can I purchase it at a later date?

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

Though I support her fashion sense...I must confess that her glasses make me a bit dizzy. LOL..

[@williamarends7138]

Megan's glasses in this video are quite M. C. Escher.

[@Boonton2010]

Does she like change her glasses and hair color for each episode?

[@siqueirabarros]

There is a nice infinity flavour to it.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

@@siqueirabarros I get it. Not meaning to criticize. Still, makes me dizzy. LOL.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

@@Boonton2010 She does, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[@marksandsmith6778]

In Paul's imagination.

[@lostfan5054]

How can I get on that 10 day cruise???????

[@mb9948]

100!

[@almendratlilkouatl]

where was thelema on its 100th birthday?

[@Cometkazie]

Bart is out of focus for the first fifteen minutes. This has not happened in the other ninety-nine episodes I've watched.

[@dbarker7794]

You shouldn't have taken that whole tab of acid. He looks fine to me.

[@alanpennie8013]

It was rather weird. As if he had a nimbus.

[@shahidmiah917]

Bart knows very well the Bible is completely fabricated. But he has toned down recently and doesn’t say anything too hard or direct. Maybe something to do with his university job or royalties.

[@jeffburns4219]

What do you mean by “completely fabricated”? By whom?

[@shahidmiah917]

@@jeffburns4219 watch his work, that’s what he has explained his entire career.

[@NickG-x6t]

@@shahidmiah917 No it isn't.

[@jeffmacdonald9863]

Was the lack of church buildings at this time a matter of choice? Was it changes in beliefs or theology that led from household worship to formal church buildings? Or, as would seem more likely to me, just the small number of Christians and the lack of wealth and influence that went along with those small numbers? And then later as they did reach a noticeable size and influence any such dedicated buildings would have been targets for persecutions

[@markmoore9486]

Does a year by year history of Christianity exist that covers 30 CE to 330 CE?

[@areuaware6842]

Christianity was not created till the second century at the earliest.

[@TheDanEdwards]

"30 BCE to 330 BCE?"

[@markmoore9486]

@TheDanEdwards Oops. I meant CE, of course. I've fixed that. Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of something that is based on recent research. Something that outlines that transition from the Jewish world to the Greek world, then to Rome. I have a vague notion. I'd like more detail if it's out there.

[@arthurmartinson4370]

@@markmoore9486 Maybe Ehrman's "The Triumph of Christianity"? Charles Freeman's "Closing of the Western Mind" (4th to 6th century) was great, but I did read it 10+ years ago.....

[@markmoore9486]

@@arthurmartinson4370 Thanks. I'll check that out.

[@hippopotamus6765]

The analysis of fiction extrapolates a greater fiction. The evidence for the NT claims are dubious at best or more likely specious wishful thinking.

[@xodarianxo]

I'm still wondering what is the case with the shroud of turin

[@hive_indicator318]

It's fake. The guy who made it confessed not long after

[@oldtwinsna8347]

About the same status as someone claiming to have Jesus' iPhone.

[@oldpossum57]

The Shroud of Turin has pockets: a dead giveaway.

[@hive_indicator318]

@@oldtwinsna8347 and we know he was an android kind of guy

[@EvilXtianity]

The Shroud has been scientifically and conclusive proven to be a medieval fake.

[@crippledcannabiscowboy8925]

This dude is really smart

[@darapdiengdoh2179]

How these church fathers emerged . No one has been able to convinced me on this topic .

[@howardmestas7522]

Beautiful dig at Trump at 46 minutes in!

[@angusmackaskill3035]

Still in the mind of some religious zealot

[@NextJones1172]

I love this show but dang so many commercials and ads now. Didn't used to be like that = ( Please chill with all the mid roll ads

[@abduahmed4518]

Bart keeps referring to the region as “Israel”, stay away from politics and focus on academic stuff, you know very well the naming of this region is more complex than how you subtly put it! You should know as scholar of Christianity Canaanites predate the entire existence of Israelites!

[@michaeldunne338]

The Merneptah Stele, dating from 1200 BC, makes reference to Israel. As in: "Plundered is the Canaan with every evil; Carried off is Asqaluni; Seized upon is Gezer; Yanoam is made non-existent; Israel is laid waste-its seed is no more; Kharru has become a widow because of Egypt. All lands together are pacified. Everyone who was restless has been bound."

[@jeffmacdonald9863]

Just a thought that hadn't occurred to me before on the Jesus being married thing, prompted by Bart's mention of women dying in childbirth: There are good reasons to think that Jesus wasn't married during his ministry, but I don't think those arguments would apply to having been married and having his wife die young in childbirth (probably along with the child, since there's no mention of a child either.) Seems like that might be the kind of thing that could lead someone to radical religious beliefs, leading to the start of his ministry.

[@jeffburns4219]

Maybe, but isn’t this just one of many highly speculative origin stories we could invent?

[@danlee9293]

Sometimes we focus on the negatives so much that we ignore the things that are valuable for us. I hope Bart could find some balance in his narratives.

[@jeffburns4219]

What’s “negative” about any of this video?

[@moafro6524]

Just 100 years after Jesus, Christianity had evolved into something so different that Jesus likely wouldn’t have recognized it. His mission wasn’t to create a new religion, but to guide and reform the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." He made it clear, repeatedly, that his message was directed to the Israelites, not the Gentiles, as seen in his teachings: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 10:5-6). Yet, just a century later, Christianity had become a diverse and often contradictory set of beliefs. Various groups disagreed on major theological issues, such as the nature of Jesus, the relationship to Jewish law, and salvation. Some, like the Jewish Christians, insisted on following the Torah, while others like Marcion rejected the God of the Old Testament entirely. Gnostic Christians went even further, claiming that the material world was evil and salvation came through secret knowledge. With such diversity and contradictions, it became clear that Christianity had lost its original essence. This confusion logically points to the need for God to send another prophet to clarify the truth. That prophet was Muhammad (peace be upon him), who came to restore the core of monotheism and correct the misunderstandings that had arisen. One of the major points Islam came to correct was the divinity of Jesus. Early Christians were divided on whether Jesus was divine or not, but Islam made it clear: Jesus was a prophet, a revered messenger, but not divine. As the Quran reminds us: “They have certainly disbelieved who say, 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary'” Quran 5:72. Islam restored the pure monotheism that Jesus preached. Another point of confusion among Christians was the respect for the law. Some sects, like the Jewish Christians, believed in maintaining the Torah, while others distanced themselves from it. Islam clarified the role of divine law, emphasizing that God’s guidance, as given to earlier prophets like Moses, was valid and essential for humanity's spiritual life. The Quran reiterates this: “And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel(Gospel given to Jesus and he preached, not Mark Luke Mathew, John, defenitly not anything Paul wrote or is attributed to him” Quran 5:46. Jesus PBUH says something in the bible Mathew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. The Quran summarizes the mission of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), sent to clarify these points of confusion and to restore the true faith: “It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although those who associate others with Allah dislike it” Quran 9:33. Islam came to fix what had been misunderstood, to restore belief in one indivisible God, and to re-establish respect for divine law. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sent as the final messenger, sealing the line of prophet hood and bringing the clarity that both Jews and Christians needed. “And We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it. So judge between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth...” Quran 5:48

[@mayito9100]

The first emperor was Julius Caesar. The second emperor was Augustus Octavius. Jesus was born during Caesar Augustus reign and died during the third emperor Tiberius Caesar reign.

[@burtonstest6943]

Augustus was the first emperor.

[@oldpossum57]

I had the same misinformation you do. With his confidence, Erhman made me check. He is right. While the Republic was falling apart before Julius Caesar, the structure held during his lifetime. He was dictator. After Octavian fought and won a civil war, he became Caesar Augustus- the first emperor.

[@adamclark1972uk]

I don't know what Bart Ehrman is afraid of. Why can't he be honest and tell the truth? He seems like a very nice guy. A bit of honesty is all he needs and he'll be fine.

[@jeffburns4219]

Where do you think he’s lying?