Who Said That?

"The Gospels were written 35 to 65 years after Jesus' death -- 35 or 65 years after his death, not by people who were eyewitnesses, but by people living later. The Gospels were written by highly literate, trained, Greek-speaking Christians of the second and third generation. They're not written by Jesus' Aramaic-speaking followers. They're written by people living 30, 40, 50, 60 years later. Where did these people get their information from? I should point out that the Gospels say they're written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But that's just in your English Bible. That's the title of these Gospels, but whoever wrote the Gospel of Matthew didn't call it the Gospel of Matthew. Whoever wrote the Gospel of Matthew simply wrote his Gospel, and somebody later said it's the Gospel according to Matthew. Somebody later is telling you who wrote it. The titles are later additions. These are not eyewitness accounts."

OK . . .  Who said that?  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  No google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow next week.

Update on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 02:34PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is Bart Ehrman's take on the historical reliabilty of the New Testament.  This is a quote from a debate between Ehrman and William Lane Craig, in which Craig cleaned Ehrman's clock (so to speak).  The debate was held March 28, 2006 @ the College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, MA.

Comments

[Play The Man]

Bart Ehrman

[Stan McCullars]

Bart Ehrman

[John Y]

"We learn that suffering has 'haunted' Ehrman for a very long time and that it is the reason he lost his faith. The faith he lost was Christian evangelical fundamentalism, which, as we are told, crumbled under 'critical scrutiny'..................So the professor ventured forth on the journey that he apparently considers heroic, even though it has been made by millions in the west before him: the journey of taking God less seriously and himself more so."

I love this sarcasm from William Willoman- I will go with Bart Ehrman too.

["lee n. field"]

Bart "the happy apostate" Ehrman.

[PB]

Too easy, I guess...I was going to say someone from the Jesus Seminar but the point is the same.

[Yarrb]

If it's not Bart Ehrman, is it Crossan?

[Jim Vellenga]

Some apostate, but I don't know whom.

[John]

Crossan, although so many people believe and teach this now.

[Mark Denning]

Dr. Bart Ehrman. You know it's close to Easter when he or Dr. Elaine Pagels start showing up all over the media debunking Christianity and plugging thier latest books.

Comedian (and devout Roman Catholic) Steven Colbert recently had Ehrman on and made fun of him, while mimicking a conservative pundit, while also delivering plausible explanations to thwart Ehrman's critiques. That's talent. Colbert is starting to look like a master (of his medium) apologist for Christianity in my opinion. He gives no ground here and does it in a way that is very funny.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224128/april-09-2009/bart-ehrman

[Steve D.]

One of the managing partners of The Misrepresenting God Group, LLC., Borg, Crossan, or Ehrman.

[Marv]

Bart Errorman, of course.

[Flip]

Pagels

[jschoeman]

Bart Simpleton Ehrman

[reg]

Mark,
The Colbert clip was hillarious and you are right with humor Colbert blew Ehrman's arguments out of the water. Thanks for the link.

[Dan S]

Actually it was not Bart Ehrman who said that. The quote was written and then Bart's name was added to it years later. Bart, therefore, was not even an eyewitness of the quote. Nevertheless, it is now known as "the Gospel of Bart."

[timinator]

Crossan or Ehrman.