One of the main tenets of Christianity is Jesus’ divinity - most denominations hold him to be fully divine (and also fully mortal, but what’s a whole other conversation). History is littered with humans who claimed to be gods - think Egyptian kings, for example. Is this something that applies also to Jesus? Was he walking around, telling people that he was, in fact, god? Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to talk about the line between divine and mortal in the ancient world, and to examine Jesus’ s...
Jun 24, 2025•14 min•Ep. 140
What if everything you thought you knew about the origins of Christianity was just one version of a much wilder, more chaotic story? In this episode, Megan Lewis and renowned scholar Paula Fredrickson dive into the glorious mess of competing beliefs, hidden gospels, and theological squabbles that shaped the first 500 years of Christianity. From grumpy Church Fathers and outlaw texts to pagans, prophets, and even Kentucky snake handlers (no, really), discover why Christian diversity isn’t a moder...
Jun 17, 2025•30 min•Ep. 139
Visions of supernatural beings or places are relatively common in the bible and early Christian writings - from wheels within wheels, to visions of the risen Jesus, to trips to the afterlife, writers record a whole array of fascinating experiences. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to talk about one of the less flamboyant, but nonetheless intriguing visions - Paul’s trip to the “third heaven”. We’ll get into the role of visions in ancient communities, what exactly a “third heaven” is, and why Paul...
Jun 10, 2025•39 min•Ep. 138
The Sermon on the Mount is probably one of the best-known speeches of Jesus, and if you’ve spent any time in a church service, then the odds are that you’ve heard at least part of it. It contains the beatitudes - “blessed are the meek” - the Lord’s Prayer, and a whole host of teachings that are held sacred by Christians the world over. But… did the writer of Matthew fabricate the whole thing? Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to talk about this amazing sermon, whether anything like it exists elsew...
Jun 03, 2025•45 min•Ep. 137
Today’s title may seem a little bit odd - how many Jesuses are in the NT? I’m sure there are going to be several comments on YouTube from people who didn’t stay to watch the episode because the answer is clearly “one”. For those who want to see where we go with this, Dr. Bart Ehrman is going to be answering my questions on the different ways early Christians and writers of the NT viewed and understood Jesus, and whether all of those views and perspectives can be embodied in a single figure....
May 27, 2025•50 min•Ep. 136
If you have a passing familiarity with the Christian Bible, then you probably know that it’s split into two parts - the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament is the part with all the stuff about Jesus, while the Old Testament is drawn largely from Jewish religious scriptures. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman is joining me to talk about why early Christians insisted on keeping the Old Testament… despite not being Jewish.
May 20, 2025•46 min•Ep. 135
In the modern Western world, monotheism is the rule, rather than the exception. Not so in the ancient past, where many cultures worshipped whole pantheons of gods, each one responsible for specific areas of the mortal experience. How does the one god of Israel compare to this myriad of deities, and can an understanding of how ancient mediterranean cultures thought about and interacted with the divine help us to understand the god presented to us in the Bible?
May 13, 2025•42 min•Ep. 134
If you’ve ever done any research on the Bible - and if you’re listening to this podcast, you probably have - you might have noticed that most biblical scholars agree with each other on a lot of basic points. These include the dating of texts and whether specific events recorded in the Bible are historical, among other things. Why is that, and is it some kind of conspiracy? Today, Dr. Chris Frilingos joins me to talk about the academic consensus, the gospel stories of Jesus’ early life, and how e...
May 06, 2025•39 min•Ep. 133
Seeing or hearing a Bible verse being pulled out of a hat to support someone’s argument is a common experience for many people. Homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so. Satan is the bad guy because the Bible says so. Women should wear modest clothing because the Bible says so. But does the Bible say so? My guest today, Dr. Dan McClellan, is no stranger to engaging in biblical debates, and is here to talk about how and why the Bible is used in this way, and whether such arguments are eve...
Apr 29, 2025•47 min•Ep. 132
Demons and ghosts have specific, sometimes ambiguous, places in the modern imagination - demons tempt people to wickedness, but their incredible power can be harnessed by someone brave (or stupid) enough to bargain with them. Ghosts envy the living and can haunt and harm you, but can also be the comforting presence of a long-dead loved one. What role, though, did demons and ghosts take in early Christianity, and are those roles linked at all to our modern understandings of them? When you get rig...
Apr 22, 2025•32 min•Ep. 131
With Easter fast approaching, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are on the minds of many Christians. While it has been a lynch-pin in Christian theology since the formation of the religion, Christians - both early and modern - disagree on how it happened, why it happened, and the implications it has for human life after death. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman elucidates us all on early debates around the resurrection, why these debates happened, and what pagan authors thought about the whole thing...
Apr 15, 2025•53 min•Ep. 130
Unless you have sworn off social media, you’re probably familiar with the existence of “tradwives” - women who live their lives according to traditional, conservative gender roles. They often describe themselves as living biblically, or having a biblical marriage, celebrating that they are subservient to their husbands. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman provides insight into what the New Testament actually says about gender roles and marriage. Is this style of patriarchal living actually biblical, and how ...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 129
It’s not every day that you get to talk about an exciting new discovery in biblical studies - the ravages of time mean that it’s rare for a text to survive, especially a complete text! Even rarer is a complete text that records an entire sermon given by Jesus. Well, I’m excited to say that today is one of those days! Dr. Bart Ehrman is with me to talk about his take on a fascinating new text discovered recently in Egypt!
Apr 01, 2025•46 min•Ep. 128
If you ask any Christian about the life of Jesus, you’re likely to get a version of one of the gospels of the New Testament - 90% of the story would concern the final few years of Jesus’ life, with a brief mention of his birth in Bethlehem to a virgin and the subsequent flight to Egypt. Historians don’t often talk about what Jesus’ childhood and adolescence may have looked like, but my guest today is a welcome exception to that rule! Dr. Joan Taylor joins me to talk about her new book, “Boy Jesu...
Mar 25, 2025•51 min•Ep. 127
Early Christian writings from outside the New Testament contain some pretty unexpected material - a giant walking, talking cross and Jesus’ childhood pastime of bringing clay birds to life are both examples that we’ve discussed before. But do these additional documents also contain authentic sayings of Jesus that are overlooked by Christians because they’re not contained within the New Testament?
Mar 18, 2025•48 min•Ep. 126
Picture this: a man in his 80s trying to cross the street, but the traffic doesn’t pause for long enough for him to cross. A young woman notices his difficulty, and runs over to help. Does the young woman get any kind of benefit from her action, or is it entirely thankless? Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman and I are talking about altruism. Is it possible to do a good deed without experiencing some kind of benefit?
Mar 11, 2025•50 min•Ep. 125
The apostle Paul went from being a devout Jew, one of God’s chosen people, to an enthusiastic missionary for the Jesus movement. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman and I look at Paul’s writings to consider whether this shift also changed his self-identification as a Jew, and if he believed that God no longer favored the Jewish people.
Mar 04, 2025•45 min•Ep. 124
The fear of death is an experience common to most of humanity - in fact, one of the oldest pieces of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, shows one man’s struggle with that very fear. Christianity’s promise of heaven provides a safe haven from that fear - but what did Jesus think about life after death? Today on Misquoting Jesus, Dr. Bart Ehrman discusses what the Gospels tell us about Jesus’ thoughts and beliefs surrounding death, and to ask whether he would even have recognized our modern concep...
Feb 25, 2025•49 min•Ep. 123
Today on Misquoting Jesus, we’re talking about what "born-again" means, how a born-again Christian considers themselves different from other Christians, and what Jesus would have thought about the whole thing. As a former born-again Christian, Dr. Bart Ehrman is here to explain all of this and more!
Feb 18, 2025•51 min•Ep. 122
Knowing when something was written helps to better understand answers to other questions - like why it was written, and how it relates to other texts from that time. Unfortunately, ancient authors rarely wrote the date at the top of the page when they started writing, which makes working out when something was written a somewhat challenging process. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman is going to guide us through how biblical scholars tackle this challenging process, and look at why it is that the Gospel of ...
Feb 11, 2025•56 min•Ep. 121
If I start talking about “the law”, many of you are going to have certain ideas pop into your heads - a police force, trials, prison. But what about if I’m talking about the law in a religious sense? Maybe you’ll think of the ten commandments, veiling women, or practices of abstinence. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman talks about the Jewish Law as presented in the New Testament, exploring whether it’s possible to even keep it, and what agenda the NT authors had when talking about it.
Feb 04, 2025•46 min•Ep. 120
The disciples were Jesus’ closest companions during his ministry, the collective Robins to his Batman. As such we might expect them to be more enlightened, more intelligent, more attuned to God’s divine plan than other people Jesus’ came across. The Gospel of Mark, however, seems to defy that expectation. Today, we talk about how the author of Mark portrays the disciples, how that treatment advances his aims for the gospel, and whether this portrayal is representative of a personal vendetta....
Jan 28, 2025•44 min•Ep. 119
The question of how much of the Bible is historically accurate, and how much is myth or legend, is both interesting and important to a lot of people - believer and atheist alike. Some insist it’s accurate down to the last detail, while others label it as fairy tales from beginning to end. In this episode, Dr. Bart Ehrman unravels how scholars distinguish history from myth within the Gospels of the New Testament, why it’s important to do so, and exactly what a “myth” is.
Jan 21, 2025•55 min•Ep. 118
Start talking about the Gospels, and most people will have a rough idea of what you’re talking about - a narrative account of Jesus’ life. Today, however, we throw all of that familiarity out of the window and talk about one of the most non-Gospel Gospels I’ve ever read, the enigmatic apocryphal Gospel of Thomas!
Jan 14, 2025•51 min•Ep. 117
Is there a difference between how the New Testament is taught in church versus a university? In this episode, New Testament scholar Hugo Mendez joins us to explore the devotional approach to the Bible often found in churches and how it contrasts with the critical, historical methods used in academia. We discuss what surprises students about studying the New Testament in a classroom setting, whether one approach is ‘right,’ and how both can offer valuable insights for Christians, skeptics, and tr...
Jan 07, 2025•46 min•Ep. 116
In this episode, we sit down with Bible scholar John Edwards to explore how critical scholarship can deepen one’s faith. John shares his personal journey of reconciling faith and academia, offering insights into how studying the Bible critically can inspire and enrich Christian belief. Join us as we discuss the positive impact of Jesus and the Bible in the modern world.
Dec 31, 2024•39 min•Ep. 115
What was the world like just before Jesus was born? In this special Christmas Eve episode, we explore the political, cultural, and religious climate of 1st-century Palestine with world-renowned archaeologist Dr. Jodi Magness. From Roman rule and Jewish life to messianic expectations, Dr. Magness helps us understand the historical backdrop that shaped the world Jesus entered.
Dec 24, 2024•53 min•Ep. 114
Most Christians would likely agree that Jesus and the Gospels provide us with guidance for how we should be living our lives. People of non-Christian faith traditions, or those with no religious belief at all, might have a somewhat different response...but our guest today, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, is here to talk about how non-Christians can find value in Jesus and the Gospels, and why they should take another look at the New Testament!
Dec 17, 2024•37 min•Ep. 113
Most of us know the story: Jesus was born in Bethlehem but grew up in Nazareth. Both Matthew and Luke agree on this, but key details raise questions for scholars. Join Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis as they dive into why the Gospel writers placed Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Was it historical fact or shaped by theology? Why does Luke have Mary travel 100 miles while pregnant? And why does Matthew’s story send the family fleeing to Egypt?
Dec 10, 2024•45 min•Ep. 112
When you picture the story of Jesus’ birth, you might think of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, a stable, shepherds, and wise men. But have you ever wondered which details come from which Gospel—and why the accounts differ? Join Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis as they explore questions like: Were Mary and Joseph from Nazareth or Bethlehem? Did they flee to Egypt after Jesus’ birth, or go straight home? And can these accounts be reconciled into one story?
Dec 03, 2024•41 min•Ep. 111
