TomboyMom

Very interesting episode of Fresh Air last night about the book Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Ehrman. Here's a link to the NPR web story: Fresh Air Interesting scholarly work (which I haven't read) goes through centuries of gradual changes to the bible made by scribes from the 2d century through the medieval period. Asserts that the bible we read today has changed dramatically from any "original" early texts. Anyone familiar with the book or its contentions care to comment?

Apikorus

I read Misquoting Jesus a few weeks ago. It is a gentle but engaging introduction to NT text criticism and transmission history. I enthusiastically recommend it.

In the forward, Ehrman's own personal testimony, of how we evolved from Born Again Christian to agnostic scholar, is especially interesting.

gregor

Api
Does it build upon the Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, by Ehrman, or is it independent? My library's already full, and I'd hate to purchase something with alot of material already covered.

S.C.Carlson

I'm still reading it, but I still might be able to answer your question. It is largely a non-technical intoduction to textual criticism (the history of the text and the methods of textual analysis) with one chapter discussing his Orthodox Corruption material. His preface, however, contains the most autobiographical material about himself to date, and that seems to be piquing people's interest.

Stephen

RUmike

It's an incredibly easy read. I could hardly put it down. As Stephen said, it's largely non-technical but very interesting to someone not very familiar with the subject and who would like a general introduction with some interesting examples of textual corruption. If you already own Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, I don't think this book would have very much new information, besides the little bit of autobiography Ehrman included, but I can't be certain since I haven't actually read the former.

SaintCog

Ehrman wrote the book to bring his "Orthodox Corruption" to a popular audience. If you've already read Orthodox Corruption you're not going to get much more out of Misquoting Jesus, except perhaps an interesting view into how he brings textual criticism to the masses.

gregor

Sincere thanks to all.

Killer Mike

Ehrman is at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for anyone interested in his qualifications. I have not purchased his book as of yet, but he was interviewed at a local radio station here in Ohio. The book and his interview sounded interesting, so I plan to purchase his book.

gregor

Mike
He's authored a large number of books. Maybe the order in which to read some of the popular titles, if money were no object, is:

Misquoting Jesus

Jesus: Apocalypic Prophet

Lost Chritianities

The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture

Lost Scriptures (a collection of apocrypha)

Steven Avery

Right, he is not too far, about half an hour, from a fellow who really has an excellent overall understanding of New Testament manuscript history, Professor Maurice Robinson of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Professor Ehrman is most welcome to discuss and dialog and debate his theories of textual corruption in public forums at any time. My understanding is that he has declined such dialog now for many years.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic