7) and whether or not he gave signs that he was the Messiah (p. This is especially evident when he argues that John and Mark have contradictory tellings of when Jesus cleansed the temple (p. 51)Īt other points you wonder why Ehrman wasted paper making such a terrible argument. Of course, Ehrman does not engage such thought and simply dismisses these types of answers as being the least straightforward reading of the text. This does seem to be a problem, though some have noted that while part of Zechariah is quoted, Jeremiah 19:1-13 is alluded to, and this is why the author mentions Jeremiah. One passage that should be given a second look is Matthew 27:9-10 where the author quotes words from Zechariah 11:12-13 while attributing them to the prophet Jeremiah. While Ehrman, at times, makes points that every evangelical reader of Scripture must take into serious consideration, at other times he builds straw men that make you wonder how much he has thought through what he has written, and whether or not he has actually engaged with any scholarship of these particular passages that he cites as contradictions. I know that Ehrman’s goal is to show that it is not, but these people look at the same data and they still notice that the Bible is elevated above all other books. Wright in his book, The Last Word, or Peter Enns in his book, Inspiration and Incarnation–who address Scripture from a perspective that is well aware of some of the problems found within the canon, that nevertheless show how the Bible is still the Word of God. This may be because he no longer considers himself a Christian, but there are others who read the Bible from a liberal standpoint, such as Marcus Borg and Karen Armstrong, who write very engaging books on Scripture.Īlso, there have been authors who are not, by any means, hyper-conservative evangelicals when it comes to the inspiration of Scripture–such as N.T. In addition, Ehrman’s book is one of the least creative attempts at addressing the nature of Scripture I have ever read. Where would the writing careers of people like Josh McDowell, Norm Geisler, and others be if it were not for the fact that Christians have noticed these problems and they have sought to address them. This idea, in and of itself, ignores the fact that Christian authors have been writing books on the contradictory/contrasting elements of Scripture for some time now.

It is marketed as a book with information that has been made known to the scholarly community for sometime, but kept away from the average person. I must admit that I did not find Jesus, Interrupted to be a very engaging read.

Jesus, Interupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them).

Jesus interrupted by bart d ehrman