Interviewing Bart Ehrman about Hell, Souls, and Jesus 

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"Do you want more content like this?" That must be a rethorical questions. OF COURSE, we want more of this!!!! AWESOME interview!!!

This is how interviews are done! No talking over the guest, intelligent questions , elevated discourse. This is how is done. Thanks.

A collab with Bart Ehrman, are you kidding me!? This is one of the best notifications I've gotten from you. One of my favourite Bible scholars and one of my favourite RU-vidrs.

dr ehrman really knows how to talk about dense material in a way that is easily understood by a general audience. he's like the carl sagan of religious studies.

Oh my gosh awesome! I’ve been devouring his books! Just finished his book “Jesus” and it was really informative. I’ve been wanting to see him appear on your channel for awhile because you two are my favorite religious studies academics and 90% of what I know has been from both of you and your work

I never cede to be amazed by how influential is Greek culture and thinking in our society

Loved it Andrew. Bart Ehrman is one of my favorite scholars of the ancient world.

Bart Ehrmen is someone I really respect and admire. Been following him for a long time and have 3 of his books. Thank you so much for this. I love your content and appreciate all your hard work. Been subscribed for awhile. Tysvm. ❤️

Bart was once devout Christian, *but after decades of studying everything he could from the 1st century,* he slowly reasoned himself into disbelief. Thank you for having the conviction to follow the truth wherever it may lead.

You know you've made it when Bart Ehrman is on your RU-vid show.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video; this kind of content is brilliant and I've learned a great deal!

I have never been more excited for a video notification in my life. As a former religious studies student, as well as a huge fan of your channel, and an unapologetic fangirl of Dr. Ehrman (I have read and own so many of his books, watched as many lectures of his as I can, and I'm a silent member of his blog), this is the content I love to see. Now to actually watch the interview, lol. I'm sure I'm going to love it.

Doctor Bart D. Ehrman was the author that inspired me to study biblical scholarship, his books are so informative and specially readable for non-specialists. Truly a hero! New Atheists hate him for suggesting that Jesus did exist, and Conservative Christians hate him for suggesting that many books from the NT are forgeries 😂 Being a free-thinker has a price! Kudos to Dr. Ehrman

Good stuff. Ehrman's webinar on Revelations was great, as is his book Heaven and Hell. It's amazing how people interpret literally what was obviously a metaphor. Equally baffling is how people think it refers to modern times.

I enjoyed this. You’re a good interviewer and I think these type of videos would be a great addition to your channel. There’s something, to me, about listening to a couple of scholars having an academically based discussion.

The only problem with this is that it isn’t 4 hours…;) Was so happy to see this in my notifications!!

This video was a true joy to watch! More "long"-form interviews are very welcome, as far as I'm concerned.

Definite more like this. An interesting topic as well as a presenter. Perhaps more about Enoch, especially book 2 and 3 which you did not cover in your short form.

This is great. You are not pushing a particular viewpoint and that makes the interview so much more useful.

I would love more interviews as long as you keep making your regular content. Best religion channel on RU-vid!

Bart Ehrman, the Boogeyman of Biblical Literalism

Andrew Henry interviewing Bart Ehrman,, best RU-vid notification ever! This is perfect. NB: yes, more of that please

Outstanding interview. I have attended two presentations by Dr. Ehrman and have read several of his books--he is insightful and erudite, and so down to earth.

this is so interesting, I will certainly be buying this mans book, I'm a Christian and have never heard any of this

Omg! The best collab ever! I can’t believe you interviewed him! Totally geeking out rn. I’ve read Heaven and Hell-it was so fascinating.

This is the crossover event I've been waiting for!

Awesome! Can't wait to watch the entire interview with him! He's one of my favorite writers.

I think this is great! I've read some of Dr. Ehrman's work before and I always get a lot out of it. I do consistently feel a bit wary of his assertions of what ancient people "believed." It seems a much grander statement than we can know from the textual evidence. Many Christians today recognize the same holy texts and believe very different things. Without a survey sheet and a time machine, I'm not sure we can say what the masses believed.

Sweet, double wammy! The man who made me fall (back) in love w/the New Testament being interviewed by the go-to RU-vidr for comparative religions. Long time coming, lets hope for more.

Awesome interview! Dr Ehrman is a real scholar and communicates so well. You're a great interviewer and a thought leader in your own right. Love this.

Anyone interested in the questions posed in the second half of this video should read Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief. You can read it online, and it is well worth your time. It only focuses on the teaching/sayings of Jesus without any of the miracles etc. Tolstoy wrote it based on his study of the original Greek. Truly a fascinating work.

I’ve loved your program for a long time! But I also love hearing smart people nerd out together. Very rich discussion.

Watched a series of Dr. Ehrman's lectures as preparation for my confirmation maaany lifetimes ago and I'm ecstatic to hear he's still as overflowing a fount of knowledge now as he was then

Thank you. Bart Ehrman is an excellent scholar, and I would be grateful for any further discussions you might have with him.

There's a dialogue recounted in John's gospel where some Jews attempted to stone Jesus because something he said led them to think that he was claiming to be God. That supports the idea that Jesus believed he was God, but it also presents a legitimate reason why he never said it explicitly. Mark's gospel recounts Jesus early on claiming to forgive sins, presented in the story as something only God can do, and Jesus calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath, as if he had authority over a commandment seen as divinely imposed. My first ever sermon was on this passage. I always wondered whether Jesus understood that he was God, and what struck me preparing the talk was that it seemed that Jesus really did have that understanding but wasn't explicit about it so that he wouldn't alienate people.

this is cool. i was a religion major at Rutgers in the early-mid '80s when Dr. Ehrman was teaching there, & although a lot of my friends had classes with him, i never had the pleasure. great interview pick. I did have classes with Randall Balmer, who focuses on religion in the U.S., & found his style very engaging & accessible.

Omg. The greatest anime crossover of all time.

Would love to watch more content like this. It’s really enjoyable (as well as educational) to listen to trained historians interview trained historians and where the interviewer is focused on letting the interviewed do the talking (vs. having some subtle agenda drive the discussion). Really well done! Thanks!

Paul has a vision, which he identifies as the risen Christ. Many other Christians likewise, visions and other miracles which they attribute to Iesus, or soon also visions and miracles which the attribute to Christian martyrs. Isn't it possible that the idea that the spirit continues, instead of being destroyed at death and recreated later, gained popularity because it explained these experiences?

Daaaaaang! You got the interview ive always wanted. Nice!!! ☺

I have his course on the New Testament from The Great Courses. It was enlightening.

This was a fun interview and I enjoyed the discussion

Dr. Ehrman: "the square root of 9 is always gonna be 3" -3: "allow me to introduce myself"

I love the interview. It's thought-provoking and refreshing.

I like this question and answer format

Dude this is HUGE. Wow big props on even getting Bart on here. Great interview

As a very academic nerdy type person, 100% would love for you to do more long form in depth interviews. You're great at asking interesting questions, and making sure that people who don't have theology degrees can follow along with deeper questions in theology. Just great stuff!

I have barely clicked on it and I have already said "What a breakfast!"

Really enjoyed this interview. Thank you for sharing and posting. 🙂

the format definitely works when you have a charismatic lecturer and I think it fits into the channel pretty well

Fantastic interview! Dr. Ehrman is great, it's always wonderful to hear his insights into anything.

Subbed. Keep this up. I was a casual watcher before. I LOVE hearing religious folks' side, perspective and mentality. No need to be dismissive or arrogant (you weren't either). But hearing educated people on their religion is fascinating. Do islam, african bushcraft, taoism, idc. Just do more.

Yes! More interviews of really brainy people would be very good. These are the kind of podcasts I like to watch.

This collab is brilliant. I was so happy when I saw you collab with Fillip as well!

One of the most unbiased biblical scholars of the modern era. Love all his books. If I was going to do a thesis of biblical history I think I would choose the application of multiple modern technologies for the location of historical sites and information

I can't believe out of nowhere Ehrman made two RU-vid appearance!!

This is fantastic. I'd love for you to keep this up!

The ways changing concepts like souls and cosmology interact with religious beliefs is super interesting. You can clearly see the shift in concepts in the hebrew bible as the common understanding of the world moves from a 4 pillars type through to an Aristotelian model. Meanwhile greeks that the early christians were evangelizing thought the soul was immaterial in some capacity, so boom, the air like spirit gets abstracted another layer in order to gain more followers and a new concept is born. It will be interesting to see if, as religiosity continues to decline, theists will revamp the concept of the soul yet again in order to attract people in the "spiritual but not religious" crowd. I'd also wager that "karma" will get rolled in at some point.

Very Informative. Intelligent questions and oh boy! extremely informative answers. Kudos for this great interview and thanks to this I signed up for Dr. Ehrman's webinar.

Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers. -Socrates

The story has been told so many thousands of times with everyone having a different interpretation that in all probability there will be little change in the belief of the masses from what is current. We will never know for sure if there was ever a Jesus who is like what we picture in our on minds now, or if he/she was something totally different or not at all.

I don’t understand talking about the gospels as a group in relation to accuracy about Jesus. Why would we think that Matthew’s changes and additions 10 years later to Mark’s text would be equally accurate as Mark? If there is any accuracy in the gospels about Jesus, it will be found almost entirely in Mark. And Mark writes as if he is writing fiction (e.g. dramatic irony). But I always learn a lot from Ehrman

Great show guys, thanks

Two of my favorite scholars together!

Thrilled that factual content is being brought out.

Great interview. You both are remarkable and respected authorities on the Jesus figure! Would you also be willing to interview Dr. Richard Carrier as a contrast to Dr. Bart Ehrman? I personally would find that remarkably interesting indeed!

I really enjoyed this interview. Not only was the content great, but it was less than a half hour, which is refreshing in an era of hour+ long interviews. Keep them coming.

Do an interview with Dr. Richard Carrier

I loved this discussion. On its face, the topic appears concise and straightforward. Yet you both covered a lot of ground. In Listening to your discussion I definitely felt like I was in the deep end of the pool. Thank you for posting, love your channel!

Just as a Hebrew speaker I must correct and say that the word for breath in Hebrew (נשימה - Neshima) is close to the word *soul* (נשמה - Neshama) not spirit. Spirit is more akin to רוח- Ruach, as in, what you are left with when the soul is disembodied. Also God does not breathe into the clay, but places breath in it. Which is more poetic in my opinion. It's a metaphor. I do not think that the original authors of that origins story actually meant that god literally put breath into the clay, I think it's just a figurative way of saying "gave it life". They are not describing the process, just the result. Also also, saying that because Jesus was a Jew at that time he didn't believe in an afterlife is really assuming too much in my opinion. During his lifetime there was already a vast tradition of mysticism, apocalypticism and several beliefs in an after life, at least by some communities. Plus, throughout the generations, Jews have been influenced by the religions that were around them, as we even find in the Hebrew bible, so the assumption that a person in Judah believed or didn't believe in something based solely on the time and place is a bit too speculative in my opinion. Like Dr. Ehrman himself says, it's not like there's a single opinion in Judaism. You know what they say, you put 2 Jews in a room, you get 5 different opinions... I met Jews that believe in an after life AND in the resurrection at the end of times, and have absolutely no idea how they reconcile the two... I think we can say that the Hebrew bible does not talk of an afterlife (except for a couple of clues), and other regional religions didn't believe in an afterlife, or at least not in the modern Christian sense of the word, (there is the concept of שאול - Sheol in second temple Judaism, of course, which kind of reminds me of Hades), and therefore we can say that the historical Jesus probably did not believe in the afterlife as modern Christians believe in it, but it is impossible for us to say for sure what he did or did not believe in. Other than that, I always love your content. I studied religious studies at uni (and outside of it) and I came across several RU-vid channels that deal with these issues, and none is more fun, educational, eye opening and reliable than yours.

The Religious Cinematic Universe Collab I’ve been waiting for is here!! Just found out about this new video (from your Patreon fundraising livestream, had to take a break and watch this, lol) and I would LOVE more videos like this one. Keep up the great work Andrew!!

This is great. I've seen many of Dr. Ehrmans talks already but I'd be really interested in seeing more interviews and being introduced to more religious scholars through this channel.

How would Luke 23:43 "“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” play into this discussion of the destination of the soul after death? Granted, it's a later gospel, but did thought of the soul and where it goes change that quickly, maybe under the influence of latter Paul?

Great interview. Learnyt about the main topic and also about scientific paradigms. Just loved it.

Dr. Ehrman is brilliant, but the problem I, and most people within the religious studies world (including I suspect ReligionForBreakfast), have with him is that so much of his work is totally speculative and often includes mind-reading people in contradiction to their recorded words. That's not a problem in and of itself, we all do that, but Dr. Ehrman speaks of his ideas with a sense absolute ontological certitude. The result is that people outside the field take what he says and run with it as though it's true, when it's actually just his personal (and often idiosyncratic) interpretation of the available data. Some of his views are mainstream scholarship, some of them are way outside the mainstream, but he makes no real effort in his public-facing persona to inform anybody about that.

Truly an excellent video well worth the time to view and consider seriously. Important issues introduced in a professional manner that effectively illuminate the fine points of interest regarding the historical context of Jesus as revealed by reasonable evidence.

This sounds most reminiscent of Jehovah's Witnesses as far as the soul and body. When the body dies, you stay dead until you're resurrected on a cleansed earth and judged. Likewise they don't believe Jesus is God or claimed to be so. Yes, the Messiah, the Son of God but not God himself or anything of the trinity doctrine.

I loved this. PLEASE DO MORE!

You should do a video on Swedenborgianism, it seems like such a weird religion that I feel like I need you to explain it to me to understand it.

Finally! Been waiting for something like this from you.

more content like this would benefit your viewers. interviews are excellent ways of presenting new and old topics of conversation. thank you!

Dr Ehrman has an interesting tendency to say things such as 'Jesus believed X'. Whilst I know that his academic credentials are impeccable, I am not sure that they enable him to embed himself directly into the thoughts and beliefs of a specific person, even one so famous as Jesus. Just because 1st Century Jews believed something does not mean that Jesus was in lock step with them in every regard. I find it odd that this is accepted by his audience without critical comment, and disagree with it.

Wow... I'm very grateful for this collaboration

So it's a combination of Judaism and Greek philosophy. Isn't that true of Christianity in general?

Dr. Henry, I love these. The topics are challenging!

Instantly started to lose interest when this man began with saying things like "What Jesus believed was...." or "Jesus certainly didn't believe..." Okay.

I love interviews like this...so yea, do more!

Geeze, this was a treat. I appreciate both your work. I have some Erhrman lectures from the Great Courses. I go a tad fringe on this Jesus issue. I treat him like a Lau Tzu or a Buddha. He may or may have not existed, but it's about a body of work. You have to decode his cryptic verse in a certain way. The 'measure you mete unto others...' and 'Karma' are just a few glaring similarities. Seek emptiness. (Buddha) Blessed are the poor in spirit. (Jesus) The verses point a way. But most people want to worship or deny the messenger. Just look in the box. It's what IS there.

YEEEEESSSSSS!!!! MORE LONG FORM CONTENT! I do enjoy listening to and reading Bart Ehrman. He is incredibly knowlegable, though I would say his main role in biblical scholarship right now is as a rock star/gate keeper. But this was a great interview with insightful, interesting questions! :) I'm addicted to listening to long form conversations and interviews while I'm running errands, cleaning house, etc. I actually prefer 1-3hr long conversations (I wouldn't even consider 24 mins long form lol). I listen to so much that sometimes I run out of interesting content. I especially love conversations about religion. If you do more, I can promise to fully listen to every one! :)

Dr. Ehrman is a brilliant scholar, but just mention Richard Carrier and he turns into a Mr. Hyde.

So amazing! Lovely interview it's always great to hear stuff like this. Not only does it give me great historical insights but leads me to learn more about my faith.

Could you please interview someone with a counter view to Ehrman as well? Would be really interesting to juxtapose them. Maybe someone like Dr. Daniel Wallace. Thanks!!

Great content. OF COURSE WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE MORE LIKE THIS!

I thought these interviews weren't getting enough love on the second channel. Anyone who appreciates this channel should check out all of the interviews on the Andrew Mark Henry RU-vid channel.

Love the long form content! Keep segments like this coming!

In Matthew, 27:50 it says “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.” Compare that to Mark 15:37: “But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last.”. Saying that when someone died, a quote gave up the ghost“ is a colloquial way of saying that the person breathed their last breath. It doesn’t really mean that a ghost, or a spirit came out of the body at the moment of death, but rather that the breath which is equated with the spirit, or the soul ceased to function, and the person died.

Don’t forget Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones and resurrection of the dead

Excellent interview with great questions! Always interested when Bart Ehrman is talking. He presents complicated information coherently.

Actually the square root of 9 is +/- 3