Who the Bible was written for

[Silver]

Meh. It's hard for me to really care about it. Does it matter if some guy who wasn't God existed or not? Not really.

It matters how people wield their beliefs, for a misuse of power in the hands of the religious affects us all.

[Jehanne]

Of course, the real reason for all of this was the Bible was written by a bunch of bronze and iron aged zealots, not that it was written for them. My point is, this is a really crappy apologetic.

Of course, when someone writes something they do so with the extent that someone else will read it, and so, I would say that the writers of the Old and New testaments wrote for themselves and their communities.  But, they had no intent that there writings were "inspired"; all of that got imputed to them long after they had died.

[Minimalist]

Especially when you consider his other argument: the Gospels probably don't depict him accurately at all.

But Ehrman has no evidence at all except to cite the gospel accounts.  Here is his problem.  He has spent an entire career demolishing the NT writings as fraudulent, edited, error-ridden, anonymous musings of early believers.  In that he is right.  But he cannot then turn around and use them as evidence of anything.  It is as if he has pissed into a small pond for 35 years and now wants to say "hey guys, it's okay.  I found a spot you can drink from."  No thanks, Bart.

Richard Carrier, who is a historian and not a textual critic, has examined the same "evidence" and come to the conclusion that ole jesus is a mythological creation just like every other god ever created by the imaginations of humans.  And you can bet your ass that xhristards will insist all other gods are indeed mythic but their boy is "special."