Dr. Ben Witherington
Below is the description from Amazon.com of Bart Ehrman’s book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them):
The problems with the Bible that New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman discussed in his bestseller Misquoting Jesus—and on The Daily Show with John Stewart, NPR, and Dateline NBC, among others—are expanded upon exponentially in his latest book: Jesus, Interrupted. This New York Times bestseller reveals how books in the Bible were actually forged by later authors, and that the New Testament itself is riddled with contradictory claims about Jesus—information that scholars know… but the general public does not. If you enjoy the work of Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and John Shelby Spong, you’ll find much to ponder in Jesus, Interrupted.
Well, I guess we’ve been told now: The New Testament is a pile of forgeries, Jesus didn’t say what we think he said, Christianity is a sham, and we should all just go home. Right? Wrong!
With this book, Bart Ehrman continued with his habit of producing materials that misreport, misinterpret, or deliberately misrepresent history. Even when he gets his history right, he draws the wrong conclusions from it. Far from being objective, it seems that Ehrman is on a crusade to convince people that scholars all know Christianity to be a sham, but that the public has been hoodwinked all these years.
I cannot state this strongly enough: Ehrman is dead wrong. He realizes that most members of the public are not educated enough to be able to handle his claims (or even fact-check them). So, he has had a powerful negative impact, as many people have simply read his books and said, “Well, that’s it then…maybe I’ll become a Buddhist.”
Well, once again, Ben Witherington provides a powerful deconstruction of Bart Ehrman’s work. This 6-part series is long, but we share it here because it is very useful for Christians and seekers alike.
One thing I’ve learned over years of studying evangelical and skeptical scholars: There are a lot of people out there who will work to tear down Christianity. However, an open-minded assessment of the evidence has repeatedly demonstrated the historical veracity of the books of the New Testament. You just have to go out there and find the data.
Coming soon, we’ll share some powerful video lectures from Dr. Tim McGrew, outlining a positive case for the historical accuracy of the Gospels and Acts.
For now, let’s review Dr. Witherington’s critique of Jesus, Interrupted.
