Ehrmageddon! With Bart Ehrman

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hello, everyone, it's Takuya here.

Bart Ehrman (0:02)

And I'm Gabby.

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

And we are the hosts of History of Everything, a podcast which you can probably guess by the name is, well, I mean, it's about everything. Do you want to know why people thought potatoes were evil and would give you syphilis? Are you curious about all the stories of the terrible and stupid ways that people have kicked the bucket over the years?

Do you want to hear tales about all of the different badasses of history and the lives that they had brought to life?

Well, if so, then look no further. History of Everything is just the right podcast for you. It's available on Spotify, Pandora, and anywhere else that you get your podcast from. Join us for some fun and just see how weird and wacky history can be.

Dan Beecher (0:41)

There are many beasts spoken of in Revelation and blah, blah, blah. But what I was shocked by is how terrifying the angels were.

And just sort of to your point, the good guys are horrifying in Revelation.

Dan McClellan (1:01)

Hey everybody, this is Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:03)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:04)

And welcome to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we try to combat the spread of misinformation about the study of the Bible and religion. And we have a very special show for you today. Our guest today is Bart Ehrman. I will introduce Bart briefly and then we'll get into things.

Bart Ehrman earned his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary, I think in 1985, was that the year?

Dan Beecher (1:32)

Now we're dating the guy. We're just, that's how we're launching.

Dan McClellan (1:36)

Where he.

Dan Beecher (1:37)

Shots fired, Ehrman.

Bart Ehrman (1:38)

I was only seven when I got it though.

Dan McClellan (1:42)

You're only a couple of years older than me then. And he studied textual criticism, the biblical canon, the Apocrypha, under the inimitable Bruce Metzger, and now is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who will hopefully have better luck next year in the NCAA tournament.

And correct me if I'm wrong, UNC Chapel Hill, the first public university in the United States?

Bart Ehrman (2:11)

The first to graduate a student, yes, that's right.

Dan McClellan (2:13)

The first to graduate a student, all right.

So imagine you're enjoying things very well there. We appreciate your time very much and welcome to the show. Now, for those who don't know Bart, he has published a number of books, including six that are on the New York Times bestseller list. And I didn't look it up, but my personal favorite is How Jesus Became God. Is that among the six?

Bart Ehrman (2:40)

That's one of the six, one of the chosen ones.

Dan McClellan (2:41)

That's one of the six? All right, congratulations. Then the, I believe the first was misquoting Jesus. Is that correct? Okay, and that's the name of the podcast that you now have that you are hosting with Megan Lewis, who is also known as Digital Hammurabi.

And you also have a blog, a subscription-based blog, where all of the proceeds are donated to charity at ermenblog.org. And you also let us know you're gonna be teaching a remote class this April 15th on The Rapture, and that can be found at bartermann.com, correct?

Bart Ehrman (3:18)

That's correct.

Dan Beecher (3:19)

Yeah, tell us a little bit about both the blog and the courses that you teach.

Bart Ehrman (3:24)

Yeah, I'm happy to. The blog, you know, the blog I've been doing for almost 11 years now, I post five times a week, 12 or 1400 words a day. I've done it for every week for 11 years.

And it's on anything having to do with scholarship connected with the New Testament, historical Jesus, early Christianity, going, you know, anything related to it, Roman religion or Old Testament. People pay a small subscription fee for it. And there are different levels. The more somebody pays, the more they get. But anybody pays, the fee gets gets my post anyway. People can make comments. I answer every question I've ever gotten on this thing every day.

And so it's a lot people can get for a small fee. And we give the fee to charities dealing with hunger and homelessness. This last year, we raised over $500,000 on this blog.

Dan Beecher (4:15)

Wow, that's impressive. That's amazing.

Bart Ehrman (4:18)

Yeah. So I urge people to take a look as it all goes to a good cause. And you get, you know, they get tons of tons of information.