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Bart D. Ehrman

Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium Paperback – May 31, 2001

by Bart D. Ehrman (Author)

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In this highly accessible discussion, Bart Ehrman examines the most recent textual and archaeological sources for the life of Jesus, along with the history of first-century Palestine, drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings.

Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and the man who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament (and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels of Thomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood
as an apocalyptic prophet--a man convinced that the world would end dramatically within the lifetime of his apostles and that a new kingdom would be created on earth. According to Ehrman, Jesus' belief in a coming apocalypse and his expectation of an utter reversal in the world's social organization
not only underscores the radicalism of his teachings but also sheds light on both the appeal of his message to society's outcasts and the threat he posed to Jerusalem's established leadership.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

May 31, 2001
Dimensions

7.92 x 5.3 x 0.61 inches
ISBN-10

019512474X
ISBN-13

978-0195124743
Lexile measure

1260L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Very readable. Useful especially for undergraduates and interested public."―Blake R. Grangaard, Heidelberg College

"Jesus is a superb example of how scholarship can be as full of suspense and surprises as a well-plotted mystery."―The Los Angeles Times

"As fine and succinct a gathering of the voluminous Jesus scholarship as you're likely to find."―The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"An elegantly written, much-needed book....Ehrman's should be the first book for any lay reader interested in the historical Jesus."―Kirkus Reviews

"[Ehrman's] warm, inviting prose style and his easy-to-read historical and critical overviews make this the single best introduction to the study of the historical Jesus."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Bart D. Ehrman is Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of many books, including The New Testament: A Historical Introduction and The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (May 31, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019512474X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195124743
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1260L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.92 x 5.3 x 0.61 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #82,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44 in New Testament Biographies
- #134 in General History of Religion
- #158 in History of Religions

Customer Reviews:
189 ratings

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This is not the end of your faith...

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016

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This is not the end of your faith... at least not necessarily. In two key books, Apocalyptic Prophet (about the historic Jesus) and Misquoting Jesus (about the New Testament), Dr. Ehrman searches the most reliably accurate parts of the gospels to better understand who Jesus was. From this effort, Ehrman makes an exceedingly strong case that Jesus was a human product of his time, not of All Time.

This is hard reading for Christians because Ehrman, formerly a Christian, methodically examines other historical sources along with the oldest surviving materials of the New Testament to make informed, rational, evidence-based arguments consistent with proven principles of scholarship. He's not pulling this stuff out of the air — in fact, much of it has been long-proved but ignored — and he's well aware of the crisis this awareness can cause. But evidence in the text and subtext of Jesus' message shows that Jesus’ life was altogether human. His story, however, made a compelling impression that took on a life of its own almost immediately. Ehrman traces where emphases, errors and additions were made to the Jesus story from the start, possibly while he was still alive. (Possibly, even by him.)

But it became a powerful story, one that his followers couldn't let go of. Many of us still can't.

Ehrman's point is that the actual Yeshua from Nazareth, however, was simply not the character that emerged through First Century fan fiction. We don’t know a lot about that person. But the later Jesus of legend stood the test of time because, for good and for ill, the canonical gospels allowed believers from different times, cultures and contexts to emphasize those parts of the official story that they most craved. And even with all the tampering the story received as a result, the underlying ideas communicated by the mortal Yeshua from Nazareth gave us a lot to work with over the last twenty centuries. The world was sorely ready for that man's radical ethical message -- all the more contagious because he mixed it with an equally radical license of apocalyptic urgency. It was a powerful combination, but flawed. The actual Yeshua believed that the world, a mistakenly tiny world, was about to end in a spectacle of doom and magic. He wasn’t the first cultural prophet to bet his life on such beliefs, and to be wrong. We know now that history wasn't over. He was in fact writing history, in ways he never imagined.

So the personal question Christians are left with after considering Ehrman's work is: What do we do with God, without Jesus as God? For some, faith dies without religion. Ehrman went from being an evangelical fundamentalist 'Bible college' Christian to a moderate, literate Christian, and ultimately an agnostic heavily influenced by the New Atheism. He had very good reasons for this, and his journey was painful and real. But the same route isn't for everyone.

The truth is, if you're a Christian who has seriously read Ehrman's work then you've already crossed the Rubicon into literate faith. Literal faith is over for you, whether you recognize it or not. You probably don't need a textual historian to convince you that Earth is more than 5700 years old, that theocracy is disastrous, that the Left Behind series is reckless huxterism. You may have already come to the conclusion that God wants you to be rational and intellectually honest, and that loving God -- however less certainly you view God now -- involves doing so with the mind you were given. Sometimes faith dies. But as the Jesus legend demonstrates, sometimes that's also how we experience faith anew. It's possible that Ehrman's theses have been on your spiritual reading list all along; that it's your time to encounter these facts about the faith, and to be further changed into the thinking spiritual person you're meant to be.

If so, welcome again to the Emmaus Road, where God no longer has the face you knew. For what it's worth, you're not traveling alone.

67 people found this helpful

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Tim K

Fantastic

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2014

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Ehrman’s book is fantastic. He’s a very clear writer, drawing the reader in. His style is very conversational, non-academic (i.e., not dry), and you actually want to know what happens next.

As a historian, Ehrman is called upon to reconstruct what we can actually know about the historical Jesus and his teachings. As such, Ehrman uses the earliest sources to tell the reader about Jesus and what he did. He dissects which aspects of the Gospel we can fairly conclude as historically accurate. Ehrman utilizes three tools along the way: (1) Multiple attestations [i.e., are the sayings attested to in many of the earliest sources (or, those sources least likely to be effected by future Christionization)?], (2) Dissimilarity (do the sayings/deeds go against some Christian teaching or at least not further a Christian agenda?), and (3) does it make sense in a historical context (given what we know about the first century, does what is said to have happened make sense?).

Ehrman makes the case that it is absolutely essential that we understand Jesus in his context. Too often we hear Christians attempting to make sense of Jesus in modern terms. That just can’t be sustained, because as a historian, Ehrman wants to know what Jesus actually did and said.

Although many Christians won’t like what Ehrman has to say, his conclusion is substantially backed up by the evidence we have: Jesus was a Jewish apocalyptic preacher. Jesus taught that the world was going to end in the lifetime of his followers and people better heed his warning.

Anyone interested in Jesus from a purely historical (and not theological) perspective could not start at a better place.

7 people found this helpful

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Richard Gunter

Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart Ehrman

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2014

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Here is a great understanding of the message and mission of Jesus as he actually lived it. Ehrman with his extensive scholarship places Jesus in context of his own time. The various Jewish factions, Roman occupation, and the apocalyptic movement of his day, and the social standing of Jesus and his early followers, all elucidate the historical meaning of Jesus' message. He taught that God would imminently intervene in the world and destroy evil and bring in an utopia. All would be judged on keeping God's Law by a Son of Man. In this New World Order the previously downcast and oppressed would be exalted and the lofty oppressors brought down and Jesus and his disciples would be rulers. But Jesus was crucified and the New World Order never arrived. However the experience of the resurrection gave life to the followers and led to an evolving set of beliefs. Jesus' conquering death and his exaltation to heaven as his followers experienced it, led to seeing Jesus' sacrifice as necessary for salvation. But the continued absence of the Apocalyptic Order, necessitated further evolution. Ehrman also elaborates the historical research methodology and let's us know what we can and cannot know historically. This is a great work to help understand the origin of the Christian perspective in which many of us have found ourselves today.

7 people found this helpful

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Edmund Pickett

Jesus before the Christians re-invented him

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2014

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This book presents the evidence for the historical Jesus, clearly and fairly, and explains how Christianity, which developed after the death of Jesus, has very little to do with what he actually preached when he was alive. Ehrman is not a scoffer or a debunker. He is scrupulously polite to the beliefs of Christians, but he insists on the distinction between faith and history. This is a well-written summary of the last two hundred years of textual scholarship on the New Testament. I've read many other works in this field over a number of years and I think this book would serve as an excellent introduction to the field for anyone who only knows the bible as it is taught in churches.
A few quibbles: the Oxford Press paperback is printed in absurdly small type. I had to wear high powered reading magnifiers to get through it. Also, hoards and hordes are not the same thing.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

colin sweet

Did Jesus really believe the world would end within the lifetime of his apostles?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2019

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I bought this book because the blurb claimed that "through a careful evaluation of the New Testament ... Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet - a man convinced that the world would end dramatically within the lifetime of his apostles and that a new kingdom would be created on earth". I was particularly interested in the claim that Jesus was convinced that the world would end "within the lifetime of his apostles". That he taught that God would intervene in world affairs, overthrow existing kingdoms and establish his own kingdom is self evident even from a cursory reading of the gospels. But what is more contentious is the assertion that he believed all this would happen within the lifetime of his apostles. So if Ehrman was really carrying out a "careful evaluation of the New Testament" I would have expected him to pay close attention to and provide some detailed discussion of the so-called "imminence" passages like Mark 9:1 and Mark 13:30. It comes as a surprise therefore to find that he only has a few short paragraphs in the middle of his book when he simply quotes these verses but provides no analysis of them. There are credible explanations for these verses which show that they do not point to a belief that the universal cosmic intervention of God in human affairs was to take place in Jesus' generation. (See for example A L Moore's "The Parousia in the New Testament". ) Ehrman's superficial reference to these verses and his failure to interact with alternative explanations means that he has failed to substantiate this crucial part of his thesis and detracts considerably from the value of this book.

One person found this helpful

Mrs J Iredale

I cannot recommend it enough

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2017

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First up, I am a Christian so obviously read this from a faith aspect, but I have an open mind and indeed I learnt so much and it answered so many queries and anomalies that have always puzzled me. I cannot recommend it enough, and a hard cover to keep is a must if Jesus is high on your agenda - which he is on mine! Well-packaged by the way - arrived on time and just as described.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

Good book

One person found this helpful

ScooterMa

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2016