Quotes from Bart D. Ehrman

As it turns out, this is possible because Logos is not only inherent in nature, it resides in us as human beings. We ourselves have a portion of Logos given to us, and when we apply our minds to the world, we can understand it.

The approach taken to the Bible in almost all Protestant (and now Catholic) mainline seminaries is what is called the "historical-critical" method.

especially what it has to say to me personally or to my society.

In Platonic thinking, there is a sharp divide between spiritual realities and this world of matter.

the followers of Jesus (most of them? all of them?) came to believe that Jesus was physically raised from the dead. That belief is a historical fact.

Evidence that Jesus really did think that he was the king of the Jews is the very fact that he was killed for it.

In the Hebrew language, the word for "anointed one" is mashiach, from which we get our word messiah. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the translation of mashiach is christos, whence we get our word Christ.

I'm not a Coptologist. Coptic is one of those languages that I taught myself in my spare time over the years, mainly because I wanted to be able to read ancient Coptic translations of the New Testament and some of the Gnostic Gospels discovered in the twentieth century.

In fact, the Gospels disagree on nearly every detail in their resurrection narratives.

Philo of Alexandria

my case does not rise or fall depending on whether the visions were veridical or not.

Moreover, as the mind is to the body, so the Logos is to the world.

in fact it is very difficult to find any instance in which he actually did what the law forbade. What he violated was the understanding and interpretation of the law by other Jewish leaders of his day, especially the Pharisees, who had developed complex rules to be adopted in order to be sure the law was kept.

No doctor today would think she was grappling with demons when treating hysteria.

A number of central issues are discussed in the writing: the nature of God, the character of the world, the person of Christ, the work of salvation he brought, and how to respond to it. Notably, its views stand diametrically opposed to those that eventually became dominant in Christianity and that have been handed down to Christians today.

Orthodox" Christianity insisted that people are made right with God by faith in Jesus' death and resurrection. This Gospel maintains that people are saved by receiving the correct knowledge of who they really are.

The view, that Christ was not by nature divine but was adopted to be God's son, emerged not out of Jewish Christianity, but from purely gentile stock. This was a group known as the Theodotians, named after their founder, a shoemaker, who happened also to be an amateur theologian, named Theodotus. Since they were centered in Rome, scholars sometimes refer to this group as the Roman Adoptionists.

The Pharisees were not hypocritical in developing these rules: they simply believed that one should do everything possible to do what God had required and so formulated policies to help make that happen.)

Paralyzed with fear and overwhelmed with trembling, at that very hour I ordered the things done by all of them to be recorded, and have reported them to your Majesty.

Do not return to what you have vomited to eat it.

visions are almost always believed by the people who experience them.

I have been referring to a man named Apollonius, who came from the town of Tyana. He was a pagan—that is, a polytheistic worshiper of the many Roman gods—and a renowned philosopher of his day. His followers thought he was immortal. We have a book written about him by his later devotee Philostratus.

there was no way to control what one person said to the next

The powers of evil were far more powerful than we mortals, and even though people could resist them, they could not overcome them.