Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

The only show, where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar,

uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.

I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin.

Christianity started out with a handful of followers in about 30 CE, Jesus disciples and some

female supporters. It was essentially a small offshoot of Judaism viewed with suspicion and

hostility. In under 300 years, that number

exploded to around 2 to 3 million people and included the emperor of the Roman Empire among its

members. What was it about Christianity that made conversion such a compelling choice for so many

polytheistic people? Before we get to the topic at hands. But hello, how are you doing today?

Yeah, I'm doing fine. When this episode plays, I will be two days away from leaving England.

I've been here all summer. I'm going back because classes are starting. And, you know, they like me

to be there for that since it's my day job.

And so I'm getting prepped to teach and getting back into that rhythm.

It's a very different rhythm, but it's, you know, it's the perk of the job, being able to teach undergraduates.

It's a really great privilege, and I just like it.

I really like it.

Is it hard to change gears from a summer of research and writing to going back into teaching?

Yeah, it is. For all sorts of reasons, because the day job involves more than just kind of showing

up in a classroom and teaching because it's just there's all, there's lots of stuff that's,

you know, it's kind of hard to lay it all out but it's

you know it's a lot of administrative stuff and it's doing grunt work but it's also it is trying

...