Friday, March 30, 2012

Bart Ehrman and all Holy Books

After I wrote Misquoting Jesus, I started getting a lot of emails from all sorts of people. One common kind of email was from people who wanted me to know that even though the New Testament had textual problems, the books that they revered were absolutely perfect, with no mistakes & no textual errors. Most commonly these emails came from people who wanted me to convert to follow either the Book of Mormon or (on the other side of the religious spectrum!) the Koran.

My own view is that every piece of religious literature is produced by human hands, and that human hands are never perfect. Anyone who claims that a religious book is perfect is making a statement of faith, not a statement of fact. People believe that their own sacred texts are perfect, but very few of these people (including the kind-hearted ones who have sent me emails) have actually engaged in the kind of detailed textual study of their texts that I, and others like me, have engaged in with respect to the New Testament. If they did so - what would they find? My hunch is that they would find that all works of religious genius are produced by human hands, and that they all have the imprints of those hands still upon them. (Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus, U.S.: Harper One, 2005, p. 255)

6 comments:

Cristo Te Ama said...

I hope Muslims won't ever use again Bart ehrman arguments against Christianity, but we all know how Muslims minds work.

Mary said...

The words of the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit. And, as there is only one church which was founded by Jesus himself (all the other Christian churches branched from that one), so there may be many rewritten Bibles. Martin Luther threw out seven whole books because he did not like the doctrines referred to therein. King James attempted to reduce the Bible to the level of poetry. But, the Holy Spirit's inspired words are never truly lost to the world, even if rejected by some. The Bible says seek and you will find. I think people sometimes just reject the answers to their seeking.

D335 said...

It amazed me, when the muslims claim openly, that the writer of Quran is Allah WE-self.
Allah might have a pen back on those days!. I always imagine that Jibril would smack muhammad with a book called quran at the hiram cave.

In contrast to Christian's gospels in which "divinely inspired", not like the "two tablets" written directly by God.

At the very least, we must state the truth of how the gospel is today and the same message as it was nearly 2000 years ago. WHILE the muslims might try to forget the contradictions and how the quran surah actually collected and put into a book. Not to mentioned also burned by the islamic caliphate.

"You see Bart Ehrman is right that holy bible is corrupted?" DESERVES ONE ANSWER: "well, Bart Ehrman studied the book that is worth with sound doctrines, unlike those who are not, Bart didn't even discusses it".

Dk said...

He sounds like such a leftist. Be very harsh on Christianity, soft on Mormonism and Islam. Anything non-Christian is "a" "okay".

Anonymous said...

The best critique of Ehrman's "Misquoting" nonesense is here.
http://www.curtisvillechristian.org/Misquoting.html
Ehrman is basically a mass of confusion and sophistry.
One of the best refutations of his view can be found in William Goode's work on Scripture and Tradition 1853.
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=goode%20divine%20rule%201853%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts
Get educated, these type of attacks are nothing new, and will continue as long as the devil, sin, and the world continue.
Courage and Godspeed,
Tychicus

TPaul said...

Good on you Bart, however I think the reason why Bart won't peel apart the koran and Islam the way he does the New Testament, is that he values his life more.
Muslims take Bart's fearful silence as him being a champion of their faith.
Bart Ehrman, Champion of Islam will one day earn him the title of pbuh.