Bart Ehrman on *The Colbert Report*

I still plan to read Ehrman’s The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, which I have heard good things about. I also have read criticisms of the book, and I’ve seen where people use his findings within an orthodox Christian framework (e.g., John Behr’s The Way to Nicaea). I am not as interested in his more popular stuff, which seems to dilute whatever good arguments he might have into bad arguments.

My estimation of Ehrman’s logical skills has been reduced by his appearance on “The Colbert Report” a few weeks ago. Here is the clip.

 
The only argument that Ehrman gave (the lack of arguments had more to do with the nature of Colbert’s show than with Ehrman himself) seemed to be about the difference representations of the crucifixion narratives in Mark and Luke. Ehrman claimed that these were “conflicting” since the Gospel of Mark displayed Jesus as being in agony and confused about why he was being crucified, and the Gospel of Luke portrayed Jesus as caring more about the women watching the crucifixion. Ehrman said that Jesus didn’t “seem” to be in agony in Luke.

First, Luke’s gospel does not discuss Jesus’ agony, which is not the same as displaying the person as not being in agony. Concluding the latter takes a little more work than that. (Similarly, if I tell you a story about myself but don’t include any details about what clothes I am wearing, it would be ridiculous to assume I was naked during the story.) Sometimes you’ll hear a woman talking about giving birth, but she’ll be talking about the way her husband acted or her joy at finally having the baby. The woman won’t mention the pain. Surely it would be foolish to assume that, therefore, the birth was painless.

Second, the mere fact that Jesus was being crucified would have indicated to the readers of Luke that Jesus was in pain. To support the assertion that the Gospel of Luke implies Jesus was not in agony because it doesn’t mention it, one would need to show that Luke would have displayed Jesus in agony if he thought Jesus had been in agony. Granted I haven’t read Ehrman’s book, but there does seem to be much evidence in the text to demonstrate one way or the other. (Of course, this involves exegesis more than textual criticism; the latter is Ehrman’s field, and he hasn’t any claims to expertise in the former. So there are other authorities I’ll trust about this.)

Third, and this is what Colbert tried to get at towards the end, differing accounts are not necessarily contradictory accounts. Logically, there is no contradiction between “On the cross, Jesus was in pain” (Mark’s message and confused about the reason he was being killed) and “On the cross, Jesus cared about the women watching him.”

Anyway, I’m sure Ehrman’s critiques are more substantive in the book. I just thought I’d comment on the video.

Ben Witheringon has posted a lengthy review of Ehrman’s latest book, Jesus, Interrupted. Here is the first of several posts that constitute the review.

Thomas Aquinas on Studying

Here is a letter Thomas Aquinas wrote to a fellow monk (I believe). The letter contains wise words on conducting a life of study. I wish I could consistently live these rules!

Too Much Mercy

This probably seems heretical to many Christians, but perhaps our church culture has focused too much on mercy. The mercy of God cannot be our starting place. A person must first realize that they stand condemned for his sins. If he doesn’t recognize his condemnation before a fearful God, then he cannot understand mercy. After all, the Christian message is that we deserved death from God, but we received mercy from God. You can’t understand the latter without the former. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there even a renunciation of the view that all deserve death for their sins. Unfortunately, this doesn’t pack the pews.

Our modern culture expects mercy from God. People either do not believe that they are sinful. Or they do not believe that their sins merit death. Either way, how can the gospel be preached if the hearers are firm believers in one of these two views?

The church has to learn to teach effectively the sinfulness of mankind. Otherwise the mercifulness of God will never be known.

The Burdened and Burdensome Christ

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” –Luke 9:23

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” –Matt. 11:28-30

It would do us well in the church, when so many congregations are clamoring to make Christ easy to follow so they can attract ever larger numbers, that the same Christ that takes our burdens is the same Christ who gives us a cross.

“And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” –Matt. 11:6

Is the Christ we hear preached in the churches today one whom people could take offense at? I haven’t heard it.

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Colossians 2:14-15, Christ’s Power, and the World’s Power

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. -Colossians 2:14-15

Christ triumphed over the principalities and powers of this word. Every Christian has been taught that. Even more, every Christian knows that the way he triumphed was through the cross. Jesus was killed on the cross, the powers of this world gained the upperhand–but they only gained the upperhand in the view of the world. To everyone except a small group of Jesus’ disciples, the principalities and powers had won. Jesus was killed. Their hopes of a new Israel were shattered.

Imagine that you were one of the disciples. (Don’t fool yourself into thinking you would’ve “figured” it out. That’s nothing more than spiritual pride–a spiritual pride masking spiritual ignorance.) You’ve followed a man from Galilee around, and this man has made spectacular claims about himself. A few days before his death, he had been welcomed into Jerusalem as a king. Then, he is arrested and crucified. Hung on a cross to die.

You had expected him to conquer, and he was conquered.

But the ways of this world aren’t the ways of God. The power of God doesn’t always manifest itself in the forms of the world’s power. Here’s a powerful passage from Kierkegaard:

This, then, is how it is with loftiness and lowliness. The true Christian’s abasement is not sheer abasement; it is only a depiction of loftiness, but a depiction in this world, where depiction must appear inversely as lowliness and absement. The star truly is high in the sky, is just as high in the sky although, seen in the sea, it seems to lie far under the earth. Likewise, to be a Christian is the highest elevation, even though in this world’s depiction it must appear as the deepest abasement….As soon as you take away the world, that muddy element that confuses with its depiction, as soon as the Christian dies, he is on high, where he already was before, but which could not be seen here by the world, no more than anyone who could not raise his head and thus could see only the star deep down at the bottom of the sea could have the idea that it actually is on high. –(Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity, p. 198)

And this is what the passage from Colossians shows us. Jesus, as he hung on that cross, looked low in the world’s view, but was the most powerful anyone has ever been on the face of this earth. He triumphed over the powers of this world in the form of heaven’s power.

Yet, in two thousand years of Christianity, have Christians learned that? How often do we try to triumph over Satan using the powers of this world? We’ll defeat evil in the U.S. by getting control of the government, right?

Of course, I’m sure that, if Jesus had lived in a democracy like ours, he would have triumphed over the world by forming a first century Christian Coalition, or a first century Moral Majority.

Sure…