Refutations of, or Thoughts on How Jesus Became God (Bart D. Ehrman)

score:6

Accepted answer

I have not read either of the books, How Jesus Became God or Misquoting Jesus, but I have read another of his books, Forged: Writing in the Name of God – Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are (HarperCollins, 2011). In Forged, Ehman condensed a lot of challenging conclusions into a single volume, but I found nothing that many other scholars have not stated in other publications.

Ben Witherington sets out to refute some of Ehrman's arguments here, along with an link to Witherington's book, Bart Interrupted. Given that this article sets out to be a refutation, not a peer review, it is reasonably objective. Witherington says Ehrman is a a gifted writer and a gifted lecturer, with the ability to distil difficult and complex material down to a level that undergraduates and ordinary lay folk can understand. Against this, he says that Ehrman is not writing from a position of long study and knowledge of New Testament Studies, and has never written a scholarly monograph on NT theology or exegesis. In fairness to Ehrman, it should be pointed out that he is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and that he has written three college textbooks, so he is hardly an intellectual novice.

This site is more extreme, accusing Ehrman of lacking intellectual honesty. It says that Ehrman should not write on ethics, as this is outside his area of expertise. To help you judge his discussion on Christian ethics, a conservative, but thorough review of Christian ethics can be found in Christian Ethics:Options and Issues, by Norman L. Geisler.

The title of your question asks about thoughts on and refutations of the arguments of Bart D Ehrman,but the question in total seems to be broader than this. You mention an ongoing examination of what you believe, and I assume this will be based on more than what Ehrman says, or any refutations of what he says. In fact, you want to make sure that your research includes information from a diverse range of source material. A quite neutral introductory text by Raymond E. Brown is An Introduction to the New Testament. Burton L. Mack's Who Wrote the New Testament covers some of the ground covered by Ehrman, allowing you to see whether Ehrman is an ideosyncratic outsider, as sometimes portrayed. Mark as Story, by David Rhoads, Joanna Dewey and Donald Michie, discusses nothing of what Ehrman says, but will give a fresh look at the earliest of the New Testament gospels, how it was written and how it influenced its intended audience.

Upvote:3

There is.

http://www.amazon.com/How-God-Became-Jesus-Nature-A/dp/0310519594

It is a pretty good rebuttal and I recommend this book.

More post

Search Posts

Related post