*Timestamps:* 0:00 - Intro 0:15 - Background of Dr. Ehrman 0:50 - Topics to be discussed 1:11 - Reasons for dating the 4 Canonical Gospels to about 70-100 AD 3:37 - Paul's writing predating the Gospels & contradicting John 5:06 - Is Jesus Yahweh ? 8:03 - Did Jesus PBUH predict his death ? 11:00 - Tampering with the story of Jesus's death 12:13 - Did Jesus PBUH think he was God ? 15:07 - Jesus PBUH denying being God in Mark 10: 17-19 18:40 - Using God (Theos) as a title for people in the Bible [Concept of Divinity in ancient times] 23:33 - Death and Resurrection of Jesus PBUH making him divine 24:40 - No concept of Incarnation of Jesus PBUH in the Gospels 26:49 - Disagreements between the Disciples and Paul 31:05 - Observing the Torah by Jewish Christians according to Paul 35:14 - Jesus PBUH not abolishing the law & Matthew's views on the law 37:38 - Textual Criticism of the Bible (Are the original gospels available today ?) 41:35 - Scribes changing the words in the Bible (Copying errors & Deliberate Alterations) 44:02 - Significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls 48:22 - Historicity of a Scripture vs its Accuracy 50:45 - Early Christianity after the New Testament 56:53 - Which of the early Christian movements resembles the faith of Jesus's disciples ? 57:27 - The Faith of Jesus's original disciples being declared as a Heresy 58:15 - Authorship of the Gospels (Did the Disciples write the Gospels ?) 1:00:26 - People writing books/letters on a famous person's behalf in the ancient times 1:07:19 - Reception of Dr. Ehrman's work by the Biblical Scholars 1:10:21 - Views of St. Augustine on lying being always wrong 1:12:17 - Criteria approach to the Historical Jesus Christ PBUH 1:16:47 - Dr. Ehrman's view of the criteria 1:19:26 - Dale Allison's approach and History as a probability Judgement 1:23:52 - Historical vs Biblical Jesus 1:25:43 - Closing Statements by Dr. Ehrman & his upcoming projects 1:28:40 - Wrapping Up & book recommendations SUBHANALLAH ❤️🤍❤️ *Brilliant, chilled & very informative discussion with one of the most anticipated guests.* _May Allah ﷻ bless you and reward you for your efforts._
Muslims should not get offended by what Dr B.Ehrman says about Islam; he is not an expert in islamic sciences and barely understands it. When it comes to biblical sciences, yes, his opinion matters as he is an Expert in that field. Thanks brother Paul for all your effort; we learn a lot. JazzakAllahu Kayran!
@@james9077 It is not a double standard; he has zero knowledge in Islamic fields. “Here you are - those who have argued about that of which you have [some] knowledge, but why do you argue about that of which you have no knowledge? And Allah knows, while you know not.” Noble Quran 3:66
Sir, I am brand new to this channel. I must say, this is the best Bart Ehrman interview I have seen. You respected us and him by being well-prepared, succinct, informed and focussed. You did the work, and the work paid off. Useful, informative, enlightening, relevant -- just wonderful.
By Bart's own word, he has never picked up a Qur'an to read for himself. He's 66/67 but seems pretty sharp still Masha'Allah. Insha'Allah he gives it a fair chance without any preconceived notions, emotional bias, or gossip and he will be amazed. Much love and peace brother Paul.
All the credits go to Paul to be so knowlegeable to keep up with a world leading scholar in his field on highly academic subjects... and I sensed from Dr Bart's demeanor that he was delighted to be interviewed by an erudit like Paul...THANK YOU to both of you for this great conversation
Paul, thanks for all your work. I wish you interview professor Wael Halaq. He is an American professor of humanities of Palestinian Christian background. He has multitude of books on Islam and modernity. His latest book is called the impossible state. I imagine this would be an epic interview.
@@noahwamalwa4385 god doesnt go to bathroom, he governs everything and he can erase eveyrthing in a blink of a second, he doesnt get beaten by human beings just to save you from himself, he doesnt change how he does revelation and comes as human when for centuries he sended hundreds of prophets, and he knows what the future upholds so he knows what will happen, he is the most powerful and his figure was not and will not never be touched and harmed by none of his creations.
Great conversation. I'm by no means an experienced reader on Christian scholarship but I really do like Bart Ehrman. He must be fun to take a class with.
@@Logia1978 he isn’t wrong though.. he “usually” accepts invitations like this for donations. He doesn’t take money himself he always asks people to donate to good foundations. He’s been doing that for a long time.
Thank you so much. I have been waiting for the longest time for you Sir, to feature Dr Ehrman on your show. I have been following him for many years now with great interest.
Hey Paul... I like where Bart Ehrman said ( regarding ancient beliefs about God ): "In all these belief systems, the divine world is more like a pyramid." I don't think I was ever fully aware of this. So when it comes to Jesus' identity regarding His "divinity," I need to better understand the beliefs of the Ancient Near East, the beliefs of the followers of Jesus and the beliefs of Jesus Himself. If it took "a long time to deal with this question" for Bart Ehrman ( a scholar ), It will probably take me the rest of my life !! assalam wa alaekum
Salaam Paul. I'm on holiday in Turkey but yet find myself still sneaking in one of your vids 😊 No way of escaping your truly informative and noteworthy channel!
Probably the best interview I've seen with Ehrman. I read The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture back in college, around 1999, and it changed everything for me. I need to get his book about forgeries.
@@merlinx8703 Really Bart Ehrman, Granted very smart. The guy can never make up his mind. I appreciate his opinion, there's too much evidence otherwise.
Superb Q & A session Paul. Thank you Paul for the series of questions, which addressed the most salient points. Great work Paul! A lot of enlightening content. I hadn’t been familiar with some of the books presented here, looks like I’ll have a lot of reading to do over the holidays 😃. Mr. Bart Erhman, wanted to extend my appreciation for your Patience and Time enlightening us with your extensive scholarship/knowledge on the subject matter! BTW; I had written a comment on the previous blogging Theology podcast with Dr. Brown. Hope you can find the time to review. Happy holidays and Happy new year to all.
@@mohameda5947 when it’s Eid and someone wishes you a Happy Eid, will your reply be you are Christian and this isn’t your holiday now? It’s all about building Bridges! Be extreme when you are engaging in prayer 🤲🏻
@@logicalreasoning1088 huh? Well, let me keep this short and sweet. Although i may get where you’re coming from, i should point out that being kind And respectful does not entail or necessitate supporting disbelief. Neither does making your position or stance on a matter clear hinder building bridges. Rather it can be argued that it. allows you to build stronger bridges with stronger integrity. in other words the bridge wouldnt be compromised or built on a shaky foundation also because there is transparency and you can see what position everyone is working from. There wouldn’t be fake smiles over and support for things you don’t believe in or support.
@@mohameda5947 Appreciate your perspective on the matter. Christmas is “supposed” to be a celebration of the Birth of Jesus (PBUH), although the view of who Jesus is/was maybe different, along with the actual date of his Birth. Saying that you respect that date isn’t disbelief. The better argument IMO, is to say we don’t celebrate any other Prophets Birthday, so celebrating the birth of Jesus, wouldn’t be warranted. Nevertheless, this particular celebration (Christmas) can build bridges, in addition to promoting Christians who are not familiar with Islam, to perhaps gain some interest in learning, which in turn can lead to reversion. Taking a hard stance or transparent stance (As you say), isn’t the way to optimize building bridges. That’s my personal perspective and opinion.
Thank you brother Paul. I read a lot of books by Bart Ehrman so was familiar with most of the content of the video. However you asked a very significant question that I have never heard him answer in the minute 52. Which group of early Christians most resembled the faith of Jesus early desciples. The answer was even more significant...the Ebionites which was the group who believed in observing the Torah and that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and that he was not devine.
EXACTLY..MOST PROBLEMS were caused by atheists secular govts and Christianity majority counties!! He looks less intellectual nowadays and more of an emotional teenager!
i think he could not follow christianity anymore after he discovered all the false hood , But he has some sort of pride that is preventing him from looking at islam ,therefore he is finding a cause to reject God altogether . He thinks hiding in this little corner , in a false comfort Zone is good enough for him.
@@truthmatter9972 exactly what I have felt .. I wonder the question he has about Christianity, have been answered in Islam … but pride is preventing him from looking
A remarkable discussion and very revealing of Barts character. Very different from the session with Dr Brown. Bart is so at home with the historical Jesus. Paul interviewed him very well.
Great conversation gentlemen. Thank you. Impressive what Bart is doing for the homeless & hungry with his blog. Interesting how he rationalises & critiques the reliability of previous Christian history, tradition & accounts etc - this contrasts with the consistency of the Quran & Hadith chains and their classifications that at least attempts to add some certainty and nuance to historic Islamic claims. One wonders if Bart has ever read the Quran & explored the hadiths?
He is already a muslim but refraining from making a declaration to expose the traditionalist Muslims. He is on to making a new renaissance in Islamic society.
As muslims we need to understand that Islam is the religion chosen by God to be the last guidance for the human race. God will protect it. Islam and daawa do not need people no matter how knowledgeble they seem. Knowledge without humility and mercy means nothing. Look at how God describes al Khidr in Quran:"So they found one of Our servants, on whom We had bestowed Mercy from Ourselves and whom We had taught knowledge from Our own Presence." Mercy before knowledge. It is we , humans who need islam to save ourselve in this life and after death. It's dr.Bart who needs to get the message before it's too late. " O men! It is you, who stand in need of God, whereas He alone is self-sufficient, the One to whom all praise is due."
Honestly this was a joy. Thank you so much Paul and Dr Ehrman. You've definitely gained a fan in me and looking forward to venturing into Ehrman's literature and scholarship. God bless you all
@@BloggingTheology This was worth the money Paul. In the future you could start a donation campaign to fund an hour of any other worthy speaker. speaking for myself, i would be happy to pay into this. anybody in mind? jzk.
I am sure glad you did this session with Dr.Bart...full of academic and intellectual discussion.... After huge frustration and dissatisfaction with the previous unbalanced unacademic non intellectual speakers corners type session between him and Dr Brown.....with no disrespect to Dr. Brown... This session really satisfied my passions for academic and intellectual session
H MY an ardent fan of biased scrutiny of scriptures! I cannot understand this former Christian scholar refuting Christians beliefs n revered by them n building a following who does not want to accept an alternative truth existing in their midst n blatantly ignoring to seek the ultimate truth! I say biased because why if he is sincere is he not dissecting the Quran?
@@abdulazizmanaf2015 truths and sincerity is not an academic or intellectual objectives.... Theirs objective is to seek facts... Through logical methodology... If you seek truths and sincerity... You need to ask religious teachers.... They can give you whatever version of truth you want
@@WORLDNEWREALITY The whole presentation was equally interesting covering three main topics: how the gospels depict Jesus upon him be peace, textual criticism methodology and a brief history of Christianity. They are presented in that order if you are interested.
some people complaining about the last episode. just want to share my thoughts as a regular consumer of the content from this channel. first of all, it was a completely new idea from Paul to bring to guests of opposing views to discuss their ideas on the platform. while i think the discussion was very interesting, i would prefer less of such content on the channel on the future as imo debates have less valuable knowledge for lay people and it feels like battle of emotions and who can do better argumentation rather than we gain some knowledge. secondly on surface the performance from dr bart was not what we are generally used to from intellectuals and academics. same maybe said for dr Brown as well. the simple reason is dr bart didn't have deep enough knowledge of basic Islamic Creed to intellectually engauge with dr Brown. also these people are academic intellectuals not trained debaters. so i would stress that unless we have a very structured debate format, these types of episodes may not necessarily be very useful of the average audience. last but not least i think what Paul is trying to do by bringing the intellectuals of opposing ideas together is very praiseworthy. but i think the episodes of Paul having conversations with each individual separately are extremely valuable for many people especially Muslims like myself as i get to understand the perspective of other religions in a very objective way and how academics think about various aspects of Islamic Creed. jazakAllah for the good work though. love you Paul for the sake of Allah SWT.
I agree. I'd rather see the different/opposing views in their own separate videos rather than being debated. It's much more engaging and informative when it's one-on-one with Mr Williams.
I agree, but you're also ignoring the fact that Paul brought Dr Brown and Dr Ehrman for an open dialogue and not to debate at all! For whatever reason Dr Ehrman went off script and started pressing Dr Brown on his beliefs, perhaps he had misunderstood the aim of the discourse. There's actually no reason why they cannot both share a platform again providing they both understand and agree to the aims of having free, open dialogue with the aims of increasing understanding and sharing thoughts and ideas.
I used to be scared of listening to Bart Ehrman or reading his books. But after this discussion, I feel more comfortable listening to him. That does not mean I agree with everything he says, but I respect his scholarly research.
@@Ace0555 What "forgeries" are you referring to and what do you mean by the word "forgeries." If a book seemingly is fake or not historically accurate, then of course I should disregard what the book says.
@@johnbrzykcy3076 obvious forgeries that were included. Did you not watch the interview. There are obvious forgeries from unknown authors. That can’t be the word of God
@@johnbrzykcy3076 if u are a Christian then please don't be afraid to read scholarly critics of Christianity. Yes, u might be scared of losing your faith but think about this: You have only one life and if u are scared of researching different ideas and theologies then you might die while following a wrong religion. I am a Muslim and I try to read scholarly works of all religions. You shouldn't be hiding in a corner. Come out and explore proffesional works/readings with an open mind and In Sha Allah you will become a Muslim. May Allah guide you.
Half way through it and so thankful to both of you. Islam ☪️ asks believers to look into these books and seek knowledge as it was Devine revelations but got corrupted! Thank u so much for ur expert opinion on bible. One of best and simple explanation.
I just read that Hindus believe in a concept called ‘ghar wapsi’ (that all people of India are ancestrally Hindu and, hence, conversion to Hinduism is one of "coming home" to their ancestral roots). We Muslims say every baby is born in fitrah, as Muslims. Do we see the difference? They see religion and worship as an ethnic thing as if there is a separate religion for each ethnicity. We Muslims say all humans are descendants of Adam, and we are all Created by One and Only God.
Great discussion. I guess I feel like there is a missing piece in the puzzle that dr. Brown didn't get the chance to complete. The missing 3rd prophet mentioned in the Bible started his journey to research Islam but then as he dug deeper it was apparent to him that this is the truth because of the miracle of the Qur'an and the ways this book is so amazing that it's impossible that it was written by a man and that this religion totally makes sense and matches our innate nature. That's what for me turns faith into knowledge, pure probability calculation. What are the chances that a random guy that couldn't read or write in a desert around year 610 could come up with a book that is so amazing in its language and content without contradictions, so different from every writing before and after and turned one very primal nation of various tribes into the biggest civilization in the history in just a few decades? It's really that saying that I read somewhere, "You can deny God but how do you deny Mohammed". Mohammed is a historical person and by most western scholars the most influential person in HUMAN history. That to me is the missing piece of the puzzle that wasn't noted in this discussion that makes Islam go from faith to knowledge and makes it so easy to accept.
one more thing to add. This kinda got dismissed or missed during the discussion but Bart mentioned that one of the unanswered questions that scientists have today is that how did something come from nothing and he believes that science will come to answer this question. I would argue that science will never be able to answer this as based on all our evidence and science today this will go against everything we know.
Apart from the er.emm.eh eh hmm.er. but.but.but emm er's. Really informative & enjoyable conversation between 2 people with a real understanding of the topic discussed leaving us with many Q's answered & with explanations throughout for their individual stance. Many thanks for the upload, learning can never be underestimated
Another great video. The more muslims know about christianity and its origins the better, so they can preach and defend their faith more effectively. Can someone add timestamps to the video though?
@@thefenerbahcesk4156 I'm a Christian and I also want to know more about Christianity and it's origins. I know very little about Islam but I still try to respect Muslims.
Hey Paul... I never read any of Bart Ehrman's books because I had preconceived notions about his beliefs that scared me. But this interview made me feel less reluctant to listen to Ehrman and I have more respect for his scholarly views. As a Christian, my core beliefs have not changed. I really like when Bart said regarding the existence of an original manuscript: "that would have no bearing on the question of whether it's accurate or not." Excellent point ! I also liked Bart's honesty when he said "it's a very complicated issue."
@John, I have to disagree with the fact that an original manuscript would have NO bearing on the question of whether it's accurate or not. It's a DIVINE manuscript, it absolutely has bearing. The day will come when the original Bible will be found, and I hope it's in my time when I'm alive God willing.
@@ajzab Well... I think it depends on what we mean by "accurate." If we mean that the original manuscript not only contains the words written by the author, but those words are an accurate representation of reality, in particular the reality of God ( it's a "divine manuscript" as you said ), then of course I would accept such a manuscript as being "accurate" both historically and theologically. I doubt we will ever find any "original" manuscripts of the New Testament because they were written on papyrus which usually decays after a few decades. Personally, I believe the New Testament manuscripts that have been discovered are accurate in the sense that the words are the "ipsissima vox" ( the concepts of what Jesus said ) although not necessarily the exact words of Jesus. Regarding the Quran, I am learning slowly. Is the Quran "divine"? For me personally, I'm not convinced it is. I hope God guides my path because my reasoning has often been "derailed." assalam wa alaekum from Florida
😱 How did I missed to like this video the last two times I watched it!!? Shame on me 😭Had to watch this again after Dr. Ehrman posted it his in his blog 😁
A nice summary of the growth of Christianity in the early years. And it can be interesting to discuss the origins of the gospels. But the gospels contain various teachings from Jesus. Jesus referred to these teachings as the "Bread of Life" as they contain messages that feed our souls. One can argue over the phraseology of them, but in the end, we do have various teachings from Jesus, that one either takes to heart, or not. Getting people to take them to heart is the hard part. Talking about how they got here is the easy part.
Say (O Muhammad SAW): "O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians): Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but Allah, and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall take others as lords besides Allah. Then, if they turn away, say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims." Quran 3:64
Re Paul's Q at 12:30, on the historical evidence substantiating divinity of Jesus (ie whether HE said it or not), is there extra-scriptural historical source material that substantiates this (contemporary historical accounts, etc)?
Can't wait. Having said that, Prof Ehrman has been disingenuous in various talks with Muslims imo....for instance he says things like Qur'anic preservation is not an evidence of divinity, yet he has said about the bible 'if God sent revelation, why didn't he preserve it'?
@@The_Angry_BeEconomist He doesn’t agree with the second statement though. He says that the statement: “if something is divine, it must be preserved” is just people trying to impose their own standards onto God.
@@IbnMurrah I don't see whats controversial about that statement. The reason most muslims give for not accepting the modern day torah is because its not preserved.
@@The_Angry_BeEconomist Agreed - that's why he should simply have acknowledged that fact when it was presented to him by Muhammad Hijab, instead ehrman says just because Qur'an is preserved doesn't point to a divine nature , even using a phonebook example to make his point! Glad you clarified.
Paul your videos are unmatched I am genuinely thankful for your insightful content Alhamdulillah. May Allah(SWT) bless you with a long life full of health and reward you for all the quality knowledge you share. You should drop a reading list I have gotten a few books that you recommend on my list but there is so many. Do you have a "top 10" that you would recommend on biblical scholarship and early Christian theology ?
Glad to see Dr. Ehrman speaking within his expertise. Alhamdul-lah in Islam we have the chain of narrations both for the Qur'an and the hadith. Especially for the hadiths, which the scholars classified them in sahih, Hasan, daif, maudu. So Muslims who want to learn would know the forgeries from the truth in their religious scriptures.
@@srnp0007 because he was the messenger of Allah, never lied before or after prophecy, was known in Makkah as Al Ameen the trustworthy, that's why his enemies from the pagans never called him a liar, called him a poet, a soothsayer, not a liar. If you study the science of hadith you would see that Muslim took great care of their traditions.
@@srnp0007 Because there are dozen of hadiths narrating the same thing from different people. The logical question would also arise as to why people would die for their invented stories, which is largely what happened.
@@europg81 Why dont you do your own own homework? Start searching ‘sahih hadiths that contradict the quran’ and you will find hundreds. Because you askes for one, here you go: Quran says the knowledge of the Hour and the Unseen is ONLY with Allah. Yet there are hundreds of hadith of the last prophet predicting and prophecising the day of judgment/ future
That’s was useful , I can see why he have a very distorted view of GOD due to his biblical deep understanding and presentation of GOD as an angry aggressive being.
On the discussion of only being able to assign a probability to the likelihood of past events, even in chemistry, we are assigning a probability that a falsifiable theory is true or false based on the findings of repeated experiments. This is built on the epistemological assumption of the uniformity of nature and a subjective threshold for what is considered statistically significant. So, we see even in the hard sciences that we are bound by the limitations of inductive reasoning. Only with deductive methods in philosophy and mathematics can anything be known with absolute certainty.
In lost Christianities bart mentioned that we don't have anything from Jewish Christianity (Ebionites and Nazarenes ) if we got from them the situation will be totally different Christianity
Hey Paul, for the problem of Matthew I'd refer you to a lecture done by Nehemia Gordon titled the hebrew Yeshua vs the greek Jesus. Apparently there is a translation error from hebrew or aramaic to greek and Jesus was warning his disciples not to follow the man made laws that the rabbis have created.
Assalamu alaikum my dearest brother in Islam I'm requesting if you could kindly do audio quran with your awesome voice which Almighty Allah has blessed you with masha Allah
I wanted to have a bilateral meeting with the presence of personalities such as: Ustaadh Muhammad Tim Humble ,Nicholas Pelletier, Yusuf Estes,، Samuel Sharcher, Sheikh Bilal Philips ، Khalid Green ، Sheikh Shamsi ، Sheikh Mufti Menk ، Sheikh Othman bin Al-Farouq.
Excellent discussion! Re: Jews and Gentiles and the Torah/Law... Follow the law if that makes you happy; or is your custom, but don’t become a slave to the law, nor become a hypocrite because of the law. Therefore, don’t force others to follow the laws that you are happy to keep... but rather, follow my/His commands... Love the Lord your God and love your neighbour as you love yourself... and so on. Find yourself in a spiritual place to allow yourself to not be found wanting against the law.
Wow I’m so surprised how many contradictions in Christianity. So many ideas don’t make sense and even their scholars can’t understand so many things in it. Thank God for sending prophet Mouhamed PBAH as last prophet to clarify everything and about all the prophets before him. May God guide us to Islam religion and keep us following it until we pass away.
@@srnp0007 whats up with you dude, why you keep making contradictory sarcastic posts, may things are not clarified to you .. maybe you haven't read it and maybe you are just a troll
But my problem is I don't see the "last prophet" as clarifying everything. I admit I'm still learning about Islam. I personally believe that Jesus' love for mankind makes a lot of sense. Only God can guide us to truth. He understands our hearts and our reasoning.
