Modified from original published on January 22, 2010
I do from time to time read some of what Bart Ehrman writes as I enjoy studying early church history. His latest book “Jesus Interrupted” is on the list. I have not read this entire book but have read some of it in the book store and online.
In chapter 4, Dr. Ehrman claims that the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses because the disciples of Jesus could not read or write.
From the Gospels we learn that the disciples of Jesus, like him, were lower-class peasants from rural Galilee. … We have some information about what it meant to be a lower-class peasant in rural areas of Palestine in the first century. One thing it meant is that you were almost certainly illiterate. Jesus himself was highly exceptional, in that he could evidently read (Luke 4:16-20), but there is nothing to indicate that he could write. In antiquity these were two separate skills, and many people who could read were unable to write.
… Continue reading
Having explored the early evidence from Papias, Irenaeus, the Anti-Marcionite Prologue, Clement, and Origen we have looked at two potentially independent lines of information. One source coming from Asia Minor and the otehr from Alexandria, Egypt. All of the early accounts confirm a lot information regarding the authorship and circumstances regarding the writing of the Gospel of Mark:
Dead Heroes Don't Save 