It's deeper than that, abaris.
Ehrman's hypothesis is that the oldest manuscripts are the "closest" to what the "originals" said. If you read Misquoting Jesus he fully accepts that what we get by the 4th century has been highly edited horseshit designed to meet the political needs not of an apocalyptic sect but of a church which had to change its focus because after ole jebus failed to return they had to re-invent themselves.
Ehrman, despite his protestations to the contrary, cannot shake free of the idea that there were "originals" floating around in the first century. Suppose that is where he goes wrong? Maybe there weren't. Maybe this jesus stuff is simply a second century invention and the earliest fragments we have WERE the originals? It doesn't alter Ehrman's work in any way as what he traces are the careless errors of scribes or the deliberate work of editors in later versions for political or doctrinal reasons. He makes an assumption that there are earlier versions now lost to us but it is only an assumption. We have no evidence of any jesus shit from the first century at all.
Ehrman's hypothesis is that the oldest manuscripts are the "closest" to what the "originals" said. If you read Misquoting Jesus he fully accepts that what we get by the 4th century has been highly edited horseshit designed to meet the political needs not of an apocalyptic sect but of a church which had to change its focus because after ole jebus failed to return they had to re-invent themselves.
Ehrman, despite his protestations to the contrary, cannot shake free of the idea that there were "originals" floating around in the first century. Suppose that is where he goes wrong? Maybe there weren't. Maybe this jesus stuff is simply a second century invention and the earliest fragments we have WERE the originals? It doesn't alter Ehrman's work in any way as what he traces are the careless errors of scribes or the deliberate work of editors in later versions for political or doctrinal reasons. He makes an assumption that there are earlier versions now lost to us but it is only an assumption. We have no evidence of any jesus shit from the first century at all.
