I have picked on Bart Ehrman, the atheist’s favorite Bible scholar, a few times on this blog (and even more elsewhere). If you aren’t familiar with him, he has written a handful of books in the last few years talking about all of the errors in the New Testament and claiming some of the books are forgeries.
However, it turns out that Ehrman actually does believe a few things. I ran across an interesting post today discussing a book by Mike Licona, in he what he calls the “historical bedrock”—three facts about Jesus and early Christianity which are accepted by virtually all liberal and conservative scholars alike.
As it turns out, Ehrman believes these things too.
They are:
1. Jesus’ death by crucifixion
2. Very Shortly after Jesus’ death, the disciples had experiences that led them to believe and proclaim that Jesus had been resurrected and had appeared to them.
3. Within a few years after Jesus death, Paul converted after a personal experience that he interpreted as a post resurrection appearance of Jesus to him.
The article goes on to give supporting quotes from Ehrman on these three points.
These aren’t a bad start—he could turn into a preacher yet.
There’s a great series by Professor Luke Timothy Johnson recorded by The Teaching Company titled Early Christianity: The Experience of the Divine which examines these three historical points. Rather than starting with dogmatic theology, Johnson simply examines the early church’s experiences and convictions. It’s a candid and refreshing approach which avoids all the pratfalls of “historical Jesus scholarship.”