Bart Ehrman: Revelations about Revelation...and more

The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss

Lawrence M. Krauss

Science, Natural Sciences, Physics

4.4 • 592 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 130 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I have admired Bart Ehrman’s writing for more than a decade. I remember how profoundly reading Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great reminded me of how little I had really understood about the scriptures. For me, Bart Ehrman took over from there. I recalled reading his 2014 masterpiece How Jesus Became God, which made it clear that the modern Western Interpretation of the Holy Trinity differs significantly from the earliest impressions of Jesus, and moreover that the notion of humans intermingling with deities has a long and checkered history. He also made it clear that the Resurrection, perhaps the cornerstone of Modern Christianity, is highly suspect, based on burial traditions at theme.

I have been trying to work out a time to record a podcast with Bart for some time, and was fortunate that his schedule opened up recently, following the publication of his newest book, Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About The End. This book provides a detailed analysis of the Book of Revelations, and describes how perhaps the most iconic modern interpretation of End Times, The Rapture, is a modern mythological invention and is itself not even scriptural.

In our dialogue we explored Bart’s own intellectual adventure from fundamentalist youth to Biblical Scholar, from true believer to skeptical historian. We then explored some of the most enlightening aspects of his writing. It was a fascinating, entertaining, and informative discussion, and one that I hope will be widely viewed. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

As always, an ad-free video version of this podcast is also available to paid Critical Mass subscribers. Your subscriptions support the non-profit Origins Project Foundation, which produces the podcast. The audio version is available free on the Critical Mass site and on all podcast sites, and the video version will also be available on the Origins Project Youtube channel as well.

Get full access to Critical Mass at lawrencekrauss.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Orgence Podcast. I'm your host Lawrence Krause. In this episode,
0:13.4	we all get to have some revelations about revelations. By that I mean my guest in this episode
0:18.4	is the biblical scholar, Bart Ehrman, who's written a number of best-selling books over the years that has mean my guest in this episode is the biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, who's written
0:21.7	a number of best-selling books over the years that has changed my own and many others'
0:26.4	understanding of what the scriptures are all about.
0:29.3	He's a remarkable historian and scholar, and I've wanted to have him on the podcast for
0:33.9	a long time, and I was fortunate enough to find some time in his schedule following the
0:39.2	release of his most recent book Armageddon. One of his other favorite books that I enjoy that we
0:43.5	talk about is how Jesus became God and it describes literally how the biblical Jesus changed from
0:50.1	becoming human to divine in the eyes of the early Christians and later on.
0:55.2	And it packs some surprises.
0:57.8	But perhaps nothing compared to the surprises of his most recent book, Armageddon,
1:02.5	where we learn, which is a story about the book of Revelations,
1:05.7	and we learn that one of the most common features of Revelations nowadays
1:09.5	in popular literature and movies, The Rapture,
1:13.1	isn't even a part of the book of revelations. That's just one of the many surprises and insights
1:17.4	that we got in our discussion. And I talked to Bart not just about those two books, but also
1:22.5	about his own voyage of discovery from being a fundamentalist young man to ultimately deciding to become a scholar and historian and follow the evidence and interpret the scriptures in terms of the evidence and the historical evidence.
1:37.3	It's a very informative discussion. I really enjoy discussing with Bart whenever I've had the opportunity.
1:46.2	And I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Now, you can watch this episode ad free on our
1:52.2	substack site, Critical Mass, if you're a paid subscriber and those subscriptions go to support
1:57.9	the Origins Project Foundation. Or you can watch it on our youtube channel
	...

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