In the modern Western world, monotheism is the rule rather than the exception.

Not so in the ancient world, where many cultures worshipped whole pantheons of gods,

each one responsible for specific areas of the mortal experience.

How does the one god of Israel compare to this myriad of deities,

and can an understanding of how ancient Mediterranean

cultures thought about and interacted with the divine help us to understand the God

presented to us in the Bible. Here to help us navigate all of this, Dr. Bart Ehrman.

Welcome to misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

The only show, where a six-time New York Times best-selling 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.

Hello everybody and welcome back to misquoting Jesus. As I said in my introduction, today

we're going to be looking at different gods in the surrounding area of the ancient Mediterranean

and how the one god of Israel compares to

them. We also have some reminders about upcoming events, including a new course and the AMA with

Dan McClellan. Before that, Bart, how are you? How is the blog going? Oh, the blog's doing great.

So, yeah, people know, I post, you know, five or six times a week

for 13 years. But, you know, we recently announced that we surpassed $3 million. That's amazing.

Charities. And so it's people pay a small membership fee, but there are enough people. It grows.

And so three million, man, that's a, yeah, that's some serious change.

So, but we try, you know, we try to keep growing.

The only way it grows is for people to join up.

...