Description
Picking up where Bible expert Bart Ehrman’s New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus left off, Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches–and it’s not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed:
- The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works
- The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later
- Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions
- Established Christian doctrines–such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity–were the inventions of still later theologians
These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions.
Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for–a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus.
Contents
Preface ix
1 A Historical Assault on Faith 1
2 A World of Contradictions 19
3 A Mass of Variant Views 61
4 Who Wrote the Bible? 101
5 Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? Finding the Historical Jesus 159
6 How We Got the Bible 181
7 Who Invented Christianity? 225
8 Is Faith Possible? 269
Notes 285
Comment
“A MIND-BLOWING, Shocking work, grounded in solid scholarship.”
“Amazing… Bart Ehrman has created yet another ‘can’t put it down’ book on the most influential subject of the western world–Jesus. Jesus, Interrupted pulls back the curtain on what you thought you knew about the bible and reveals a fresh, eye-opening perspective.