The Wild Wild West of Early Christianity
Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman
Chris Huntley
4.8 • 745 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if everything you thought you knew about the origins of Christianity was just one version of a much wilder, more chaotic story? In this episode, Megan Lewis and renowned scholar Paula Fredrickson dive into the glorious mess of competing beliefs, hidden gospels, and theological squabbles that shaped the first 500 years of Christianity. From grumpy Church Fathers and outlaw texts to pagans, prophets, and even Kentucky snake handlers (no, really), discover why Christian diversity isn't a modern problem—it's the tradition itself. Tune in for a witty, eye-opening journey that will give you a whole new appreciation for the beautiful, bickering family tree of Christian history!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you're raised in a single-faith tradition, it can be easy to miss the fact that modern Christianity contains a wide variety of denominations, |
| 0:08.0 | theologies and disagreements. So, too, it can be easy to miss the fact that ancient Christianity was, by no means, a single unified religion. |
| 0:18.0 | Today, I'm joined by Dr. Paula Fredrickson to talk about the huge variety present in |
| 0:22.7 | early Christianity and her new book, Ancient Christianity's The First 500 Years. |
| 0:32.1 | Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman. The only show where a six-time New York Times best-selling author |
| 0:39.3 | and world-renowned Bible scholar uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, |
| 0:45.6 | the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity. I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin. |
| 0:55.0 | Welcome back, everybody, to misquoting Jesus. |
| 0:58.0 | Today I am joined by Dr. Paula Fredrickson. |
| 1:01.0 | Formerly a professor of scripture at Boston University, |
| 1:04.0 | Dr. Fredrickson currently teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. |
| 1:08.0 | She is published widely on the social and intellectual history of ancient |
| 1:12.2 | Christianity and on the pagan Jewish relations in the Greco-Roman world. Her publications include |
| 1:18.6 | Paul, the Pagan's Apostle, and When Christians were Jews, as well as her most recent publication and the topic of today's conversation, |
| 1:26.0 | Ancient Christianity is the first 500 |
| 1:28.3 | years. Dr. Fredrickson has also been a consultant on a variety of media projects, including the BBC |
| 1:34.2 | series, The Lives of Jesus. Dr. Fredericks, thank you so much for joining me today. |
| 1:39.6 | And thank you for having me. |
| 1:41.1 | It's my pleasure. Before we get into the book, I wanted to open by asking |
| 1:46.5 | how you first became interested in the study of the New Testament and early Christianity? |
| 1:52.7 | Well, like most things in life, it was by accident. I went to a college that just before I got there had required all students to take Old Testament |
| 2:04.8 | in the fall and New Testament in the spring. |
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