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Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

Were Early Christians Known to Be Moral Reprobates?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

Chris Huntley

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8745 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many modern Christians think Christians are inherently more moral than non-believers. Non-Christians, as a rule, don't think so. What about in the ancient world?

Why is it that the most widely attested view among ancient pagans was the opposite, that Christians were dangerously immoral reprobates? Why weren't they seen as stalwart proponents of family values?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Many modern Christians think that being a Christian makes them inherently more moral than those that aren't,

0:06.4

something I'm sure many atheists and members of other faiths would probably disagree with.

0:11.4

Was this also true for the ancient world?

0:14.3

What viewed early Christians have of themselves?

0:17.0

And how different was this to how they were viewed by the non-Christian population?

0:21.5

Join us today on misquoting Jesus to find out why early Christians were actually viewed as moral reprobates

0:27.0

rather than pillars of the community.

0:32.5

Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

0:35.7

The only show were a six-time New York Times best-selling

0:39.2

author and world-renowned Bible scholar, uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New

0:45.0

Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity. I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's

0:51.8

begin. So, upstanding members of the community or the local weirdos,

0:57.8

how we view ourselves as often in odds with how others view us and the ancient world was no exception

1:02.6

to this. So how did early Christians actually see themselves and how far did the rest of the community

1:08.1

agree with that? But before we get into all of that, but good morning. How are you today? Doing well, thanks. Not feeling like a moral reprobate, so that's good. Well, that's excellent news. How's your self-image? Yeah, pretty good, actually. Pretty good. Not sure other people would agree. I have weird hair and weird glasses, but I like it. It's not a sign of being a reprobate. It's a sign of being like funky. Well, thank you. It depends who you ask. I'm sure some people would view me as definitely a moral reprobate. But I know that you spend a lot of your summers over in the UK. You have a place in London. How difficult do you find it acclimating when you switch back and

1:45.7

forth? Does it take you a long time or do you kind of get off the plane at Heathrow and you're like,

1:49.3

good, I know what I'm doing now? Yeah, it doesn't take much to acclimate. The big problem that I have

1:55.2

is trying to remember always which way to look when I crossed the street.

2:04.9

First time I went to London, maybe Sarah and I just got together or something.

2:07.3

I got nailed 12 times.

2:08.3

It's like, oh, my God.

2:15.3

And so luckily in England, the crosswalks in major cities has written down, look right.

...

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