{"id":4355,"date":"2011-05-05T15:25:27","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T19:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=4355"},"modified":"2011-05-09T15:49:50","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T19:49:50","slug":"from-true-believer-to-truth-seeker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2011\/05\/from-true-believer-to-truth-seeker\/","title":{"rendered":"From true believer to truth-seeker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by Vicky Dickson<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"reader.100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reader.100-80x80.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAs a student at the Moody Bible Institute in the 1970s, Bart Ehrman would surely have found it inconceivable that he would one day write a book called <em>Forged: Writing in the Name of God \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Why the Bible\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are<\/em>. <!--more-->A conservative evangelical who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d become born-again at the age of 15, Ehrman did aspire, back then, to teach at a state university \u00e2\u20ac\u201c though there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t many evangelicals going that route \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but he would not have imagined that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d eventually teach the New Testament, at UNC, as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153very human book.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Or become an agnostic.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4356\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4356\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Ehrman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Ehrman.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Ehrman\" width=\"200\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Ehrman.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Ehrman-71x80.jpg 71w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4356\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bart Ehrman<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTo understand Ehrman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey, it helps to know that the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies believes that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153knowledge is the most important thing that we have.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That belief steered him from Moody to Wheaton College, and then to Princeton Theological Seminary. It led him to study Greek, so that he could read the New Testament in the language in which it was originally written. When the knowledge he gained from his studies convinced him that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Bible could not be what I thought it was \u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a revelation irreconcilable with the evangelical Christianity Ehrman then practiced \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it led him to become a liberal Christian.<br \/>\nThough Ehrman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christianity has since given way to agnosticism \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he found he also could not reconcile human suffering with his belief in a just and loving god \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the professor continues to find the New Testament \u00e2\u20ac\u0153terrifically interesting and terrifically important.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s published more than 20 books on the subject and enjoys being able to share the results of his research with his students: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Teaching is one of the perks of the job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll even find him sharing knowledge at his Wednesday \u00e2\u20ac\u0153office hours\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Armadillo Grill.<br \/>\nIn part, Ehrman wants to share his findings because he wants laymen to understand what biblical scholars have known, in some cases, for centuries: that the New Testament contains inconsistencies and historical inaccuracies. He wants them to ask, as scholars have asked, whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really likely that an uneducated, Aramaic-speaking fisherman like Peter could have written the Greek letter that appears in the Bible as 1 Peter. Or why the Apostle Paul would have declared in 1 Corinthians that single people should remain single, as the apostle was, and then turn around to insist, in 1 Timothy, that church leaders be married.<br \/>\nBecause such discrepancies suggest not only that the authors of some New Testament books are not who they claim to be, but that they may also include authors with different beliefs and agendas from the people whose work they forge, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to take these questions seriously. Not just for the sake of historical accuracy, significant as that is, but because modern-day practices and beliefs may be based on those forgeries.<br \/>\nEhrman points out that religious beliefs about the proper relationship of the sexes may have been shaped by the lines in 1 Timothy that exhort women to be silent and submissive. 1 Timothy claims to be a letter from Paul to Timothy, and among the reasons to think it a forgery is the contradictory statement by Paul in Galatians 3:28 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which, according to Ehrman, scholars believe Paul himself did write \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In Christ there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yet, as Ehrman notes, conservative Christian churches continue to deny women roles of authority, and some won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even let women talk in church.<br \/>\nEhrman also wants his students, and his readers, to understand the importance of situating ancient texts in their contexts so that what they say about subjects like homosexuality is not used inappropriately, for purposes of discrimination. He tries to emphasize in all his teachings that Jesus himself never talked about gays.<br \/>\nThough Ehrman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s belief is that Jesus is best understood as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a Jewish prophet with a message to proclaim that he thought was given by God,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the professor doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153de-convert\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the many students he has who come out of conservative Christian homes. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just trying to get them to think.<br \/>\nAnd in Forged, his most recent book, he gives his readers a great deal to think about. <\/p>\n<p><strong>LIT NOTES<\/strong><br \/>\nThe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Meet the Authors\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lunch series at Flyleaf Books looks like a great new way to spend a lunch hour. For $25, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get not only a catered lunch and a $14 Flyleaf gift certificate but also the opportunity to chat with some intriguing authors. From 12-1 p.m. on May 13, the Lethal Ladies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mystery writers Kate Carlisle, Elizabeth Lynn Casey and Hannah Dennison \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will hold forth. Then at noon on May 26, former Vogue.com editor Jenny Nelson will discuss her new novel, Georgia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kitchen. Check it out.<br \/>\nFans of Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sarah Dessen will be excited to learn that the acclaimed author of young adult fiction will read from her new book, What Happened to Goodbye, at the Chatham County Community Library at 7 p.m. on May 26. The event is co-sponsored by McIntyre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fine Books, and 20 percent of book sale proceeds will be donated to the library to buy more books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Vicky Dickson As a student at the Moody Bible Institute in the 1970s, Bart Ehrman would surely have found it inconceivable that he would one day write a book called Forged: Writing in the Name of God \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Why the Bible\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4359,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4355\/revisions\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}