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Misquoting Jesus  By  cover art

Misquoting Jesus

By: Bart D. Ehrman
Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
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Publisher's summary

When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible.

Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible.

Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.Bart D. Ehrman chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a widely regarded authority on the history of the New Testament.

©2005 Bart Ehrman (P)2006 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Engaging and fascinating." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Misquoting Jesus

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A must read for serious Christians

I have thoroughly enjoyed this volume by a Biblical scholar who spent his life on Christian manuscript. No Christian who are serious about their faith can afford to miss this work, it certainly begs the question whether using Bible as a tool for social control or gain political podium is legitimate. I love this volume very much. It also contain brief outline of history of the early Church, I wish it could be more detailed, but the book ultimate is about manuscript variation and not early church history.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

interesting, but...

somewhat overlong on the possible ways & reasons for alterations at the expense of analysis of actual alterations & how these alterations do or do not change the meaning. In addition, the book does not address at all, when the idea that the Bible is "inspired word of God" became a common argument (fairly recently) & how the approach to editing scripture relates to these changes. Did the various editors approach the editing of these documents as preserving the word of God, or were they more intent on addressing concerns within their own time & their own environment. This may be a bigger question, in terms of older texts - The Hebrew Bible, for example, but it would be interesting to hear his opinion. (See Karen Armstrong if you are interested in pursuing this.)

It might be interesting as well to pursue the potential argument that God has changed in the way in which he deals with his people over time, & with their development & greater capacity for understanding has adjusted & is actually inspiring the new interpretations. (There are obviously problems with this for literalists.)

In addition, if we are to look at the Bible allegorically, to what extent do these differences affect the overall message? (Karen Armstrong, again)

That said, I don't think that this is or is not meant to be in any way an anti-biblical text (heretical!!! below); but the reading is terrible, does sound arrogant & no doubt would appear that way to believers. For the record, I agree with everything here, essentially, bit the narrator is a bit difficult to bear.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 10-03-11

Full of Maybe(s) and Conjecture... Not impressed

After lending his scholastic credentials I found the course of discussion to degrade rapidly into supposition while chasing 'details' in repetitive banter. I stopped listening soon in to the second part. I should have bought a baseball book.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

What a hack.

This is some of the poorest scholarship I believe I've seen since Joel Osteen. About half of his claims are simple miscontext and the other could be divided among taking an antagonistic view of all things scripture & the "late date" hermenutic.

Save your money. This guy is a hack.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good for the General Reader

This is a well-presented book making Biblical textual study available to the average reader. Perhaps without intention, Ehrman infers that Evangelicals do not recognize the truth of his assertions that (1) we don't have the original Biblical manuscripts and (2) those we do poses have copying and editing errors. I agree with both statements and Evangelicals would acknowledge the logic and truth of these two statements. Indeed, anyone interested can readily access marginal notes in newer translations (NIV, NASB) of the Bible, explanations in various "study Bibles” and reference works readily available.

Otherwise this book is a good introduction to textual studies of the Christian scripture. Ehrman provides many examples for the reader for each of his points. While the resulting redundancy becomes a little repetitious - it is still worthwhile.

Throughout the book I was wondering if other religious traditions have the same interest in textual criticism. After all, they are at least as old as the Christian tradition and their holy writings would have to have been copied by someone - wouldn't they?

In sum, this book is written for the novice and new comer to Biblical criticism. It is informative and well read though a little repititious.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful explanation of textual tradition

Ehrman provides one of the clearest explanations of ancient texts and their transmission that I've seen. One reviewer criticizes Ehrman for not giving 'reasons' why scribes changed the text. In fact he does--he covers the gamut of possible errors in textual transmission. This is a well-written, accessible scholarly approach to understanding ancient texts in general and the new testament in particular.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Makes Sense

What did you love best about Misquoting Jesus?

Bart Ehrman has a way of communicating his years of research to the general public which, in my opinion, make total sense!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator was good, but honestly I'd rather have Bart Ehrman narrate his own books. He has a great speaking voice and is good at engaging with his audience.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The story behind the story

I was very impressed with the research that went into this book. It was very easy to understand and very logical. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how the bible came to be written.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • J
  • 04-12-08

Get the Hard Copy too

One of the best informative Bible studies on how we came to the Bible of today! Some of my absolute favorite scriptures may have been added by scribes in later generations/copies of the Bible ... I am happy to know that. I especially enjoyed how we came to have the last one-third of Revelation in the KJV. Overall, this listen solidified my faith that the Bible is the Word of God, given to His Prophets, and copied, re-copied, and yes sometimes mis-copied by the hands of men/scribes. Why didn't God give Moses and Paul a xerox machine?

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

SURPRISE! IT IS TEXTUAL CRITICISM

It is a surprise to find this kind of audiobook available. For those of us who know about textual criticism this is a good exercise and refresher on how the ancient and surviving texts and their redaction shape and are shaped by the powerful forces in the history of the church. Just the fact that a technical and scholarly book like this is available at Audible is a big surprise -- whether one agrees with the author's thesis or not.

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6 people found this helpful