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Bart Ehrman

Bart D. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a leading authority on the early Church and the life of Jesus. A scholar who has been able to reach a wide popular audience, Ehrman is the author of more than 20 books, including the New York Times bestsellers Misquoting Jesus and Jesus Interrupted. He has been featured in Time magazine and has appeared on NBC’s Dateline, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, The History Channel, National Geographic, NPR, and other top media outlets. He has won his university’s undergraduate teaching award, the Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for teaching excellence.

Presenter at

Bible & Archaeology Fest XV, November 16-18, 2012
Jesus and the Other Divine Men
Jesus was not the only person considered the Son of God in the ancient world. Other “divine men” were also said to have been born miraculously, to have healed the sick, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, and raised the dead, and who at the end of their lives were thought to have ascended to the heavenly realm to live forever. Why do we never hear of these others? And was Jesus the real thing, whereas all these others were frauds and impostors? In this lecture we will consider some of the other Sons of God, and examine the ways in which Jesus was allegedly different.

ASOR/BAS Seminar on Biblical Archaeology, October 5-7, 2012
Who Invented Christianity?
Some of Christianity’s most important doctrines—the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, the doctrine of heaven and hell—were not found on the lips of Jesus or his earliest followers. They instead represent later developments, as Christianity moved out into the world and changed its overarching emphases. This lecture considers where these doctrines came from, as Jesus’ later followers modified his teachings and invented what we today think of as Christianity.

Bible & Archaeology Fest XIV, November 18-20, 2011
Who Killed Jesus? Pontius Pilate and “The Jews”
Both within the New Testament and in later Christian gospels, writings that describe the death of Jesus increasingly declare Pilate innocent of the whole proceeding. The logic of this exoneration gives rise to an obvious question: If Pilate is not guilty for condemning an innocent Jesus to death, then who is? The early Christian answer? “The Jews.” This lecture will examine these ongoing attempts to exculpate Pilate and inculpate the Jews in the death of Jesus, paying particular attention to non-canonical gospels, some of which declared that Pilate eventually became a Christian convert and martyr.

Bible & Archaeology Fest XIII, November 19-21, 2010
Pseudepigraphy or Forgery? Was It Acceptable to Write in Someone Else’s Name in Antiquity?
A number of pseudepigraphic works survive from Jewish and Christian antiquity. The Hebrew Bible contains at least two instances (Daniel and Ecclesiastes); the New Testament has many more (the Pastoral Epistles, 1 and 2 Peter, etc.). In each of these examples, an author falsely claims to be a famous person. Some scholars have argued that this was an acceptable practice in the ancient world, and that such books should not be tarnished with the term “forgeries.” Is this true? Or did the ancients themselves consider such books to be deceitful lies? This presentation will consider what ancient authors said about books written under a false name and about the people who wrote them.

Bible & Archaeology Fest XII, November 20-22, 2009
Early Christian Counter Forgeries
Scholars have long known that a number of the earliest Christian writings are “forgeries”—books written by unknown authors claiming to be someone famous (e.g., one of the apostles). What is less known is that some of these forgeries were written to counter other books that were also forgeries. This talk will look at two such “counter-forgeries”—one that made it into the canon of Scripture (the first-century book of “James”) and one that did not (the second-century “Letter of Peter”).