Quotes from Bart D. Ehrman

So Jewish texts speak of the great angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. These are divine powers far above humans, though far below God as well.

So too the famous preacher and bishop of Constantinople, John, who was so eloquent in the pulpit that he earned the sobriquet Chrysostom, which means "golden-mouthed.

The word synoptic means "seen together":

It is the sorrowful penitent who is acceptable; that is the kind of woman these texts seek. One can't help but think that the men who relish this recollection of Mary the penitent sinner are those who are trying to inform their own world with their own vision of what sexual and gendered relationships ought to be, with women not enticing men with the dangers of sex but falling at their feet in humble submission and penitence.

Since this other source was mainly made up of sayings, these (German) scholars called it the Sayings Source. The word for source in German is Quelle, and so scholars today speak about "Q"—the lost source that provided Matthew and Luke with much of their sayings material.

The idea of the rapture has not been taken from the Bible; it has been read into the Bible.

In one of my earlier books, Misquoting Jesus, I discuss the fact that we do not have the original copy of Luke, or Mark, or Paul's writings, or any of the early Christian texts that make up the New Testament.

The Christian religion is founded on the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead. And it appears virtually certain that it was Mary Magdalene of all people, an otherwise unknown Galilean Jewish woman of means, who first propounded this belief. It is not at all farfetched to claim that Mary was the founder of Christianity.

books played virtually no role in the polytheistic religions of the ancient Western world.

virtual katabasis.

It is widely held among scholars that the Prologue is a preexisting poem that the author of John has incorporated into his work—possibly in a second edition.

The Greek word apocalypsis means a "revealing" or an "unveiling." Scholars have called this view apocalyptic because its proponents believed that God had revealed or unveiled to them the heavenly secrets that could make sense of the realities they were experiencing—many of them nasty and ugly—here on earth. One

pastors don't want to make waves; or they don't think their congregations are "ready" to hear what scholars are saying;

work of supererogation

We knew about Gnostic forgeries for a long time before we actually had any of them.

The widespread notion that stories never should be changed but should be repeated without alteration every time is an innovation of modern written cultures.

every biblical projection of when and how Jesus will return has been incontrovertibly proven to be flat-out wrong by the relentless march of history.

Matthew and Luke had another source available to them that provided them with these non-Markan passages. Since this other source was mainly made up of sayings, these (German) scholars called it the Sayings Source. The word for source in German is Quelle, and so scholars today speak about "Q"—the lost source that provided Matthew and Luke with much of their sayings material.

The end of time will not bring a salvation of the flesh; it will bring a deliverance from the flesh.

Abductive reasoning is neither deductive nor inductive. Abductive reasoning, even when done properly, doesn't lead to a certain conclusion, as deductive reasoning does; nor even necessarily to a probable conclusion, as inductive reasoning does; but rather to the most plausible conclusion, meaning the likeliest explanation for the observations.

humans sometimes could be elevated to the ranks of those gods.

In my view, the early Christian Gospels are so much more than historical sources. They are memories of early Christians about the one they considered to be the most important person ever to walk the planet.

most ancient people did not see the divine and earthly realms this way.

If salvation could come by belonging to the covenantal community of the chosen people, or by keeping the Law of Moses, there would be no reason for God's messiah to have suffered an excruciating death. Following the law thus must have no bearing on how a person stands in a right relationship with God.