As an historian, I'm pretty much always interested in ancient writing. Give me a document written a few

thousand years ago and I will be entertained for hours. My guest today is similarly minded,

except his passion is for the Gospel of John and that has sustained him for not only a few hours,

but the last decade. Today, Dr. Hugo Mendez joins me to talk about why he thinks the Gospel of John was written and discuss the ways in which the author tried to achieve his goal.

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.

Today I am joined again by Dr. Hugo Mendes.

Hugo, how are you?

I'm doing all right, making it through the very hot summer we're all getting through in the United States.

Yeah, I think most people are in the same boat there. It's, it is happening. We're all alive so far.

Now for those who missed Hugo last time, I have a little introduction so you know who he is and exactly why he's here.

But Dr. Mendes is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,

and he specializes in the New Testament and its early reception.

He has research interests in the Gospel and Epistles of John and the reception of biblical texts, figures and images in late antiquity.

His book, The Gospel of John, A New History, came out last month, and that book is what our conversation today is going to be based on.

I'm very excited about it because the Gospel of John is one of those. It's just a fascinating

piece of writing. So Hugo again, thank you for joining me. I'm really looking forward to our

conversation. Yeah, thanks. And it's hard to believe actually. I guess the book is already,

you know, pre-order kind of out there.

So, yeah, please look for it.

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