Best Bart Ehrman or other book?

[Roger Mellie]

I have been listening to Bart Ehrman on Youtube and he is fascinating to listen to given his knowledge of the New Testament, but I am curious as to which of his books is best to read first and might show the historical way in which of the gospels are false, or of some dubious origin.

As I posted in my introduction I am of a pentecostal background. While I am interested in the new testament I am stunned by some of the stuff I have seen of the old testament about beating slaves etc. which were supposedly spoken by God himself.

So, if there is any book that deals with both new and old testament I would be interested in that as well, but definitely I would prefer a book that gives solid historical facts as to why the books of old or new testament are historically suspect or without proof, and preferably written by scholars.

I have not listened to the Ehrman debates with Christians on Youtube yet, but I'm sure that will be fun.

[pocaracas]

I'm currently reading Jesus, Interrupted and it does show some of the reasons to doubt the veracity of the NT.
Min gave me a pdf version, but I got a epub version so I can read it on my phone.

[Roger Mellie]

Thanks. I am getting a smart phone soon so might wait until then. I guess I am old testament phone wise.

[Minimalist]

Jesus Interrupted is better than Misquoting Jesus.

Another little gem from him is Lost Christianities.

[catfish]

Ironicly, as a Christian, I find the most compelling reason(s) to doubt the veracity of scriptures actually comes from scriptures. Yeah, go ahead and try to figure me out. lol

[evenheathen]

For a great look at what archeology has to say about the OT check out The Bible Unearthed by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein.

It gives some good insights as to how and why the OT was put together and the motivations (political and otherwise) behind the stories.

[catfish]

Make sure you get a Rabi's perspective on the whole "Jesus" thingy as well as the history of the OT as known to modern Jews.

[Angrboda]

I haven't read any Ehrman that I didn't like, so it really depends on specifically what you are interested in. His Misquoting Jesus is good, but if I'm remembering the right book, it's primarily a gentle introduction to higher and lower criticism, and probably is not as interesting from a point of debunking specific books, passages, or doctrine. I found Forged, what I read of it, fascinating. Richard Carrier is another author worth investigatng, and if you haven't discovered infidels.org, there is a whole library of critical essays which take apart or refute various aspects of (primarily western) religion. In addition, you should check out Finkelstein, et al's "Bible Unearthed" - in book form, or as a four part video on Youtube. (the first thread below contains links). In addition, someone posted a thread referring to roughly 20 some odd 10 minute Youtube videos (url below) by the title of "Excavating the Empty Tomb," which contains well done overviews of some of the more popular "problem spots" of the New Testament (about the first 8 videos deal with a specific author's claims that the Marcan narrative was modeled on the Homeric epics [the author's name escapes me atm]).

http://atheistforums.org/thread-18788-po...#pid459778
http://atheistforums.org/thread-19056.html


I'll post more when I get time. Most of my books are in boxes, and it will take some research.

[MindForgedManacle]

I enjoyed Erhman's Misquoting Jesus and Lost Christianities. They're good introductions on the topic of New Testament historicity.

You might want to watch out for endorsements on the 'Jesus-Myth' hypothesis though. They tend to make faulty and extensive comparisons between Jesus and other mythological figures. That's not to say that Jesus has NO common legendary/mythic elements, but the extensive comparisons are very difficult to argue for, even for the best.

[evenheathen]

I enjoyed Erhman's Misquoting Jesus and Lost Christianities. They're good introductions on the topic of New Testament historicity.

You might want to watch out for endorsements on the 'Jesus-Myth' hypothesis though. They tend to make faulty and extensive comparisons between Jesus and other mythological figures. That's not to say that Jesus has NO common legendary/mythic elements, but the extensive comparisons are very difficult to argue for, even for the best.

I would agree. Most of the comparisons of jesus to other mythical figures are speculative at best and solely dependent on shaky insinuations of translation (mithraism, stemming from zoroastrianism may be the exception being that the two religions are contemporary and stem from the same region), which is why the bible itself is often criticized. This holds true for the comparison of the jesus narrative to the Homeric epics.

It's compelling, but not scholarly steadfast.