Bart Ehrman: Trinity, Apostolic Fathers, Constantine, Resurrection Progression, etc.

Our Commitment to Charity – About the Bart Ehrman Foundation in Durham, NC 

What is the King James Version?

What Kind of a Text is the King James Bible? (Manifold Greatness exhibition opening)

• 1 hour lecture after long intro. To skip the long intro go to 9:34.

His teachings on Memories – Go to the separate post at this site here.

Constantine and his Conversion

1. Constantine and Christianity – Correcting three misconceptions about the early Christians and Rome.
2. Constantine and the Battle at the Milvian Bridge – The battles that led up to Constantine being the sole emperor and about to become a Christian.
3. Constantine Before His Conversion – What we can surmise largely based on Eusebius.
4. Constantine’s Vision according to Eusebius – His initial prayer to win in battle and seeing the cross in the sky.
5. Constantine’s Vision(s): What Did He Really See and When? – Final post in this series. Presents the different accounts of his vision(s).

Constantine and the Christian Faith: His Four Smithsonian Lectures.

The lecture is immersed with content from Bart’s book “The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World.” The program is discussed on his blog: http://ehrmanblog.org/?p=15989

1. Part One:    • Smithsonian Part One – Christianity’s…  
2. Part Two:    • Smithsonian Part Two – Pagan Converts…  
3. Part Three:  • Smithsonian Part Three – Factors for …  
4. Part Four:    • Smithsonian Part Four – Constantine a…  

After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers

Extract from Intro page – As Professor Bart D. Ehrman points out, numerous doctrines that are familiar to Christians today, such as that of the Trinity, are not explicitly found in the New Testament. Neither are the church structures around which various Christian faiths, from Roman Catholic to Southern Baptist, are organized. And the ethical positions that form such a central part of Christian life today, such as those involving premarital sex or abortion, are likewise lacking in specific scriptural reference.

How Jesus Became God – UCC Parts 1, 2, & 3

Bart D. Ehrman – On January 29-31, 2016, Bart D. Ehrman gave three separate lectures to attendees, a series that highlighted his book, “How Jesus Became God.” Rev. Megan Smith opened each session for the local parishioners and pastoral staff at Coral Gables Congregational Church, located at 3010 De Soto Boulevard, Coral Gables, Florida.

1. Lecture 1   How Jesus Became God – UCC Part 1 of 3;
2. Lecture 2   How Jesus Became God – UCC Part 2 of 3; and
3. Lecture 3   How Jesus Became God – UCC Part 3 of 3  

In Part 3 he presents the progression taken by early Christians in moving the exaltation backward in time.

1. First, Jesus was exalted to a deity at the resurrection
   • Romans 1:3-4; See Bart Ehrman’s post here. Bart said this statement is called a “literary tradition”— this is a very early statement of belief by the first Christians, before Paul, and shows they believed Jesus was exalted upon resurrection.
     • 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord
   • BUT, some noted he had been doing miracles when alive so he had to have been exalted before the resurrection. So….
2. Jesus was then believed to be exalted to a deity at Baptism
   • See Matthew with God saying at the baptism, “Today I have begotten you”.
   • But, the early Christians then thought surely he must have been the son of God his whole life.
3. Jesus was then believed to be exalted to a deity at Birth
   • See Matthew and Luke’s miraculous virgin birth with Gabriel telling Mary that the Holy Spirit will come over her.
   • BUT, the early Christians thought not at the resurrection, not at the baptism, not at his birth, he had always been divine since the beginning.
4. Then Jesus exalted to a diety for all time; i.e. Incarnation Theology as cited in John’s prologue.

Trinity – He presented the evolution of the concept of the Trinity.

1. The Modalist View
   • Different relationships of one entity. e.g. Bart is the son of his father; and the father of his son; and the brother of his brother. All at the same time. That is the Modalist View. In the second century, the Bishops of Rome held that view as did many Christians.
   • Tertullian in Carthage, North Africa, opposed the Modalist view. He was the first to use the phrase Trinity to explain the Father-Son-Spirit separate but one god. Three of Tertullian’s arguments against the Modalist view, per Bart, were:
     • Said impossible to “have and to be at the same time”.
     • When Jesus was baptized and God said today I have begotten you. He could not have begotten himself.
     • When Jesus is praying he is not talking to himself.
2. The Arian View – That Jesus was the son of God created by God before anything else was created. There was a time when Jesus did not exist. But, through Jesus, all that was created was created as is stated in the Gospel of John. Jesus is subordinate to God the Almighty. Both cannot be Almighty. The Council of Nicea declared that a heretical belief.
3. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, Arius’ Bishop opposed the view and declared that Jesus had always existed and was fully equal to God the Father; there was never a time that Jesus did not exist.
4. That led to the Council of Nicea – the first of 7 ecumenical councils. The decision was that Christ was not a subordinate being that came into existence and he is fully equal to God.
   • A popular argument for that view is that if something is perfect and it changes, then it changes to be better or worse. If it changes for the better then that means it was not perfect. If it changes for the worse then it is no longer perfect. If you say God created the son then he became the father and that is a change.

Two paragraphs from the transcript of Session 3, at about 35 min – Jesus, by the Council of Nicaea, ended up being God; not a subordinate god but God from eternity past.

• Christ had always existed as God and was equal in glory with God the Father. This is well beyond what you find in the New Testament and it’s affirmations of who Christ is and it is so far beyond anything that came out in the teachings of the historical Jesus that you just wonder is this the same religion.
• Is it the same religion?
  • Jesus was preaching that there’s going to be a judgment of God soon when God intervenes to destroy the forces of evil and set up a good Kingdom on earth. That was Jesus teaching. Jesus might have thought that he was going to be the king of this new Kingdom.
  • The teaching about Jesus is that he was God, equal with God the Father for eternity past, not just billions and billions of years ago, all the way back. There never was a time when he didn’t exist with God as an equal.  That is so different [from what Jesus taught].

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