A scholarly examination of the last events in the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ by two able New Testament scholars. Evans and Wright take a look at all of the current historical and archeological evidence and theories pertaining to the trial, crucifixion, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus.

This is an excellent apologetical source with new and solid reasons to accept the Gospel accounts of the events rather than all of the theories which have been floated to discount the historicity of the N.T. documents. While this is primarily a scholarly work rather than a book written for popular or general readers, it should be readable and valuable study for most Bible students.        *Top

New Testament scholar Dr. Ben Witherington gives an incredible detailed analysis of Bart Ehrman’s New book: “Jesus Interrupted”—in a 6 part series:

Bart Interrupted— A detailed Analysis of ‘Jesus Interrupted’ Part One

Bart Interrupted— A detailed Analysis of ‘Jesus Interrupted’ Part Two

Bart Interrupted— A detailed Analysis of ‘Jesus Interrupted’ Part Three

Bart Interrupted: Part Four

Bart Interrupted— A detailed Analysis of ‘Jesus Interrupted’ Part Five

Bart Interrupted— A detailed Analysis of ‘Jesus Interrupted’— Coda

Response: This series is not to be missed by any serious new Testament student. Dr. Witherington does us all a great service in tackling Dr. Ehrman’s latest.

All of Ehrman’s books are popular and he usually hits the TV and radio circuit to support his new works so you should be hearing soon from some of your secular friends about how the NT can not be trusted. Fortunately armed with this series you will be able to tell them that it is Dr. Ehrman’s conclusions that should be questioned.          *Top

Jesus began his public ministry with the declaration: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." (Matt. 4:17)  What is repentance? What does it mean, and more important, what did Jesus mean when he said- Repent?

What is Repentance?

The Greek word behind our English word ‘repent’ is metanoeo, which means -an internal change of mind and heart.  Meta means -a change of movement, and noeo refers to the mind -including thoughts, purposes, and perceptions.

What did Jesus Teach about Repentance?

In Luke 13:5 Jesus said: "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."  The people of his day believed that God brought disaster only upon sinners.  Jesus is making the point here that all are sinners and all need to repent, and final judgment is going to overtake us all.  Jesus said: "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel." (Mark 1:15)  The Gospel is the ‘good news’ that we don’t have to all perish, but those who repent or change their mind, thinking and direction, can receive forgiveness and eternal life instead.

Jesus told his disciples after his resurrection to teach repentance and take the Gospel to every nation:  "Thus it is written,…that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:46-47)

Conclusion:

The demand of Jesus to repent is a universal demand for all the world and for every person of every generation.  As John Piper says in his closing remarks:

So the demand of Jesus to repent goes to all the nations.  It comes to us, whoever we are and wherever we are, and lays claim on us.  This is the demand of Jesus to every soul: Repent. Be changed within.  Replace all God-dishonoring, Christ-belittling perceptions and dispositions and purposes with God-treasuring, Christ-exalting ones.

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John Piper has some great comments about the Gospels and the ‘Quest’ of modern Biblical scholarship for the ‘real’ Jesus.  See the section in the intro of his newest book ("What Jesus Demands from the World") called: "A Word to Biblical Scholars" (pg.29-36).

He points out that much of what passes for "the assured results of Biblical criticism" is nothing more than conjectures and the wishful thinking of the scholars themselves.

The goal is to find the real Jesus who lived and taught before the gospels were written.  In reality, ‘The Quest for the Historical Jesus’ brakes down because the earliest written records we have about Jesus, the Gospels themselves, are downplayed and fractured to support the currents attitudes and theories of the latest scholars and writers.  Dr. Piper calls it all an academic game:

"First, no reliable or lasting portrait of Jesus has ever been reconstructed from going behind what the four Gospels portray. There is no reason to think this will change. The reason is at hand: When you abandon ‘das Vorhandenen’ (what exists at hand) for conjectures, you turn scholarship into an academic game."

He concludes that the Gospels will always be the primary source for all that we know about Jesus, and the primary source for the church and most Christians:

"…,the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament is the only portrayal that has any chance of shaping the church and the world over the long haul.  This is because it is the only one that people have access to.  Whatever the Questers may construct, it will usually be read by only a handful of people."

Finally, one of the major goals of the ‘Quest’ movement is to find the ‘radical’ Jesus behind the ‘Christ of faith’ or the ‘theological’ Jesus worshipped by the church.  Dr. Piper concludes that the ‘real’ Jesus is the one recorded in the Gospels, and in reality is the most ‘radical’ of all.  In his book, he actually plans to present all the radical ‘demands’ that Jesus made in the Gospels.

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This is probably destined to be the definitive book on the subject.  Written by the very able scholar from Chapel Hill.  One may disagree with his conclusions, but Dr. Ehrman is never to be ignored.  I plan to review his book in a ‘serial’ fashion, this is the first installment.

Chapter One -Introduction

Here Dr. Ehrman reviews for us his initial involvement and evaluation of the Manuscript.  Quite an interesting tale indeed.  He includes basic facts about the ‘gospel’ and begins to ask pertinent questions about its place and importance.  In the next few chapters, professor Ehrman summarizes the references to Judas in the earliest Christian writings, including the writing of Paul, the Gospels, and the Apostolic Fathers.  This book is really an analysis of the portrayal and treatment of Judas in all early Christian literature, not just the ‘Gospel of Judas’.

Chapter two -Judas in Our Earliest Gospels

How Judas is treated in the ‘synoptic’ gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) is evaluated in this chapter. But first, he looks at the possible references to Judas in the letters of Paul.

The writings of Paul are the earliest Christian records we have.  However, Paul was not one of the disciples of Jesus and did not experience the events of Jesus’ ministry and really knew only a few of the original disciples.  In I Cor. 11:23-24, he mentions that Jesus was betrayed on the night of the ‘Last supper’, but does not reference Judas by name.  Ehrman questions whether Paul even knew about the betrayal of Judas at all, putting forth the idea that the Greek in this passage could be merely stating that it was the night when Jesus was ‘handed over’.

Then he points out that Paul references ‘The Twelve’ in I Cor. 15:3-8, the resurrected Lord appearing first to Cephas and then to the Twelve.  He makes a big deal out of Paul’s usage here maybe indicating that he didn’t know of the betrayal of one of them.  I think that Ehrman is just simply wrong here, he is constantly looking for ways to discount the accuracy of the Biblical record.  Paul mentions Peter first (Cephas) and he was also certainly one of the twelve, so by Erhman’s reasoning, would he have us believe that Paul did not know that Peter was one of the Twelve?  Obviously not.  This really does point to the fact that the term is just being used here in a general sense.

Dr. Erhman does make an interesting observation in this chapter.  He laments the fact that most Christians combind all the gospels together to come to an understanding of the events in the life and ministry of Jesus, and Judas for that matter.  He suggests that we allow each Gospel to speak to us individually.  I believe that we need to know both, what each individual gospel teaches, but also have an overall understanding of all the gospels combined.

The three Synoptics seem to give us different reasons for the action of Judas.  Mark really does not conclusively identify the motives of Judas for us.  Matthew presents Judas as a greedy person who seemingly does it for the money.  Luke identifies the influence of Satan as being a major factor.  It is professor Erhman’s opinion that the gospels cannot be reconciled here.  I believe that they can.  While Judas may have been a greedy person, as portrayed in Matthew,  30 pieces of silver is not very much compensation if that was the only motive of Judas.  So we probably do not have a definitive answer to the motivation of Judas here, therefore I believe that Mark is also correct.  While Luke does not give us a motive, the influence of Satan probably best explains the actions of the fallen Apostle.  All three of the Synoptics combined, really do help us to better understand the actions of Judas.

In the next installment, we will look at all the other early Christian portrayals of Judas, including the Gospel of John, and some of the early Apostolic Fathers.

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The book contains an introduction to the ‘Gospel’, with a translation and commentary.  First, a chapter on the incredible story of the discovery of the Codex and intrigue which kept the text from public view for 28 years.  Then there are chapters on the 2nd century comments on the ‘Gospel of Judas’ made by Irenaeus, the Gnostic connection and identity of the work, and a chapter by Ehrman placing it in its early Christian historical context.

This book is the first on the ‘Gospel of Judas’ and an important work for all those interested in early Christianity, Gnosticism, and New Testament study.  There were some sensational claims made in newspaper articles and news shows about how this ‘gospel’ would affect our understanding of the Jesus and Judas, the New Testament, and Christianity in general.  The facts contained in this book, place the ‘Gospel of Judas’ in its 2nd and 3rd century historical context and shows that the work really does not affect our understanding of 1st century events and people portrayed in the New Testament gospels.

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Dr. Ehrman is a noted New Testament textual scholar.  His accomplishments are extensive, and he comes to the table with incredible abilities and extensive knowledge.  Yet, I was quite disappointed in Ehrman’s work.  It was like hearing a series of punch lines first, from someone, who never gets around to telling the background stories–Ehrman never completes the deal.  He raises a variety of issues, and comes to a number of radical conclusions, with little or no supporting evidence.  There is nothing here except exaggerated opinion, unsubstantiated conjecture, & a propensity for putting every fact in the worst possible light.  “Hey Mabel!, When is he going to get to the verses that ‘Misquote Jesus’?” –he never really delivers–only leaves us with the impression that there must be many.    …To Continue… 

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