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Whose Word is it?: The Story Behind Who Changed The New Testament and Why

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I should declare an interest as a militant atheist but having said that, the author of this book certainly started off as a devout christian. This therefore is no Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris-type rant but rather a well laid out historical account of how the new testament came to take its present form.

Haven't you ever wondered how you could be sure that the NT was an accurate history of anything given how many times it must have been copied - by hand, remember - and also translated from one language to another to another to another.... etc etc. Most of us after all will be reading it in translation into languages that effectively didn't even exist at the time e.g. English.

Ehrmann shows well how the texts have been altered over time, sometimes accidentally and often quite intentionally in some quite substantial ways to present a particular picture of jesus and his beliefs.

It would appear arguments began to rage very soon after the death of jesus even about who he was - was he entirely divine, was he entirely human, was he both - and also about the "true" meaning of his teachings so that the texts of the gospels began to change to reflect an emerging orthodoxy and to counter opposing views of which there seem to have been several.

I came away from this book even more strongly of the view that as an accurate history of jesus, his family and companions, and his beliefs and teachings, the new testament is absolutely worthless. We have absolutely no way now of knowing who this man really was - leaving aside the vexed question of whether he even existed , at least as the person most christians imagine him to have been - nor what his teachings were.

The new testament simply represents the outcome of what might best be seen as propaganda wars in which various factions sought to have their version of history prevail over the others.

I strongly recommend this book to believers and non-believers alike.

If you already own or have read "Misquoting Jesus, The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why" you have in effect already read this one too. It could be an editorial decision away from the apt hands of Ehrman or a plot to make you buy the book twice, so Who's tittle is it? Why was it changed? Is this a copyist error or the actual Word of Ehrman? Do most Ehr, err? Many are the questions and few the chosen to be confused by them.

All jokes aside, the book(s) is (are) very, very well researched and historically grounded, at the same time the sources, methods, and ideas are presented in very comprehensible ways, it could easily be used for an undergraduate class or as coffee shop reading. I still think it is funny, ironic and possibly a bit tongue in cheek that book was published under a tittle in the USA and another in the UK, precisely when the book is concerned with the rigor and the failures of the printed word.

P.S. Being a grad student allowed me to borrow both copies, and makes me wonder how many of the tittles from Ehrman contain the same writings. It is not a problem if one restates, researches further one's ideas and publishes more, most of us aren't experts in anything, let alone more than one subject. But I would find highly problematic if the situation persisted across Ehrman's books, it would give his detractors a great deal of ammunition.

I am very satisfied by the products and by their timely deliveries.
Bart Ehrman's book "Whose word is it?" is excellent. Strongly recommend
it to anybody interested in New Testament and religious documents from a
historical point of view. Bart Ehrman is a scholar, a first-class educator
who writes so beautifully.

Bart D. Ehrman has made a great contribution towards our understanding of the New Testament, who wrote it and what it really means. Sadly, these words of truth are still ignored by many of the world's ignorant, but the fact that a man like Ehrman, a true seeker of truth, was able to change his old restricted views of the bible when confronted with the truth that it was written entirely by fallible man, gives me hope that other closed-minded people may also benefit from this book. To anyone who really wants to know how the New Testament was written, I couldn't recommend this book more. Its fascinating information is presented in a very readable style. To those who want to continue living in a blinkered world, where truth and facts are discarded in favour of dogma and doctrine, stay well away, for this book is packed with just that - truth and facts.