misquoting Jesus

We're excited in our department about the approaching visit in February, for our lyceum lecture series, of renowned UNC-Chapel Hill Bible scholar Bart Ehrman.


Not quite so exciting was yesterday's staff meeting, devoted to choosing between three possible lecture topics he's dangled before us. We narrowed it to "Who Wrote the Bible?" and "Misquoting Jesus."


A colleague inquired, of the latter: misquoted interestingly?


Yes, definitely.

Example: A crowd readies itself to stone an adulterous woman to death. Jesus leans down, doodles in the dust. Says, let the one without sin cast the first stone. The crowd melts away. It's one of the most famous stories in the Bible. 

And it's most likely fiction, says Ehrman, seconding other scholars who say scribes added the episode to the biblical canon centuries after the life of Christ. 

There are dozens of other examples in "Misquoting Jesus," things that go to the heart of the faith, things that have puzzled scholars for centuries. What actually happened to Jesus of Nazareth, there on the sands of Judea? Was he a small-time Jewish revolutionary or the Son of God? Both? Neither? WashPo

Find out on Feb. 18. [Fresh Air interview]

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But seriously,