Bart Ehrman, Jesus being God, Theology, and Related Issues

Bart D. Ehrman's is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He probably has one of the most extensive Curriculum Vitae's that I have seen. He obtained his P.H.D and M. Div from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his B.A. from Wheaton College in Illinois. His teaching experience is vast, and he has written several books and publications. This writer has a great deal of respect for Dr. Ehrman and one of the things that I find fascinating is that he is agnostic. Although, I have not yet arrived at a similar worldview, and I hope I never do, I still admire his sincerity and knowledge of theology. Well, I could probably go on and on with credits and compliments, but you can also view them yourself at his very own website if desired. The websites is found at the following link: http://www.bartdehrman.com/.

I recently heard an interview with Dr. Ehrman on NPR's FRESH AIR which is hosted by Terry Gross in which he discussed his new book which is titled: How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. The interview was very interesting with relevance to the research Dr. Ehrman did for the book. The following is part of the interview that I obtained from a transcript of the program.

“GROSS: OK, so one of the things you look at is typically what happened to the bodies of men who were crucified. And when you try to answer that question, what answers do you come up with?

EHRMAN: You know, this is one of the things that really startled me in doing my research for this. I actually changed my views about this question about whether there was an empty tomb three days after Jesus' death, and the reason I changed my mind about it is because I started to look into what we know about Roman practices of crucifixion. Now it's interesting that we never have any literary descriptions in any writing at all. These no description of how exactly crucifixion was performed. But there are references in ancient Greek and Latin texts that refer to people who have been crucified, and what is striking is that in virtually every instance, we're told that the person was left on the cross in order to rot away and to be eaten by scavengers so that the punishment of crucifixion wasn't simply the torture involved, it also was the horrible effect of not being given a proper burial.

GROSS: The desecration of the body after death.

EHRMAN: Absolutely, the body was to desecrated, and this was scandalous to ancient people. But the Romans did it this was as a disincentive for crime. So it's not just that you're going to go through a horrible death; your body is going to rot in the cross, and scavengers are going to eat it. And this is the typical procedure for crucifixion in the ancient world, and so I ask in my book is it likely that there was an exception in the case of Jesus. So in the Gospels, of course, Joseph of Arimathea asks for Jesus' body, and Pontius Pilate gives it to him, and then Joseph puts it in his tomb, and three days later that tomb is found empty.

Well, I ask the question in my book is Pilate, from what we know about him from other sources, likely to have made an exception with Jesus or with anyone else? Is Pilate likely to have said, well, OK, in this one case, we'll actually take the carcass off the cross and put it in, and give him a decent burial? I think it's highly unlikely, for reasons that I lay out in the book, given what we know about Pilate from other sources.

GROSS: What are some of the reasons you think Pilate would not have made an exception?

EHRMAN: Well, what we know about Pilate comes to us from various sources, including the Jewish historian Josephus and the philosopher from Alexandria, Egypt, named Philo, what we learn about Pilate from these sources is that Pilate was not a nice fellow. He was not concerned about the people that he ruled. He was ruthless. He was hard-hearted. He was mean-spirited, and he simply did not care about the religious sensibilities of the Jews in Palestine as we learn from several episodes in both Josephus and Philo. And so even if the Jewish authorities who had arranged for Jesus to be crucified with Pilate, even if they decided, well, let's give him a decent burial, there's nothing in the record to suggest that Pilate would ever do that, and we have no record of any governor of any province in the entire Roman Empire who would bow to the religious sensibilities of their people in order to give somebody a decent burial. And so it seems unlikely to me that the exception was made in the case of Jesus.

GROSS: Say an exception was made...? (http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=300246095).”

Well, I decided to stop after this question because I wanted to simply interject with something from the Gospel of Mathew. In the RSV translation, Mathew 27: 54-66 reads as follows:

“[54] When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"
[55]There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him;
[56] among whom were Mary Mag'dalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zeb'edee.
[57]When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathe'a, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.
[58] He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
[59] And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud,
[60] and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.
[61] Mary Mag'dalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.
[62]Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate
[63] and said, "Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, `After three days I will rise again.'
[64] Therefore order the sepulchre to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away, and tell the people, `He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first."
[65] Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can."
[66] So they went and made the sepulchre secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard (RSV Bible).”

Even if Jesus didn’t say that he was the son of God, it is certainly clear that the centurion and those who were with him…saw the earthquake and what took place during the crucifixion, and were filled with awe, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" Moreover, the chief priests and the Pharisees asked Pilate to guard the Tomb because they feared that Jesus would indeed resurrect; consequently, according to the Gospels “an exception was made” for Jesus and he was buried. Now, it is known that Jesus did say that he and the father were one. In fact, in John 17: 21 he said: "I pray that they may all be one…."Perhaps, these things I say do not make a case for many, but they do to me. In conclusion, my suggestion for a new book that Dr. Ehrman can write in order to convince me a bit more, and perhaps the other 2.2 billion Christians on the planet is to write a book in which he proves that the Gospels and the New Testament are a complete lie and hoax. I hope you enjoyed reading. Blessings!


Reference:

Bible, Revised Standard Version
http://www.bartdehrman.com/
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=300246095