Misquoting Jesus

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

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)

Extremely interesting

I hadn’t even ordered this audiobook myself. My husband had, and I ended up reading it as part of the family-share plan. I almost never read nonfiction, so I didn’t have any idea where I would even be interested in this book. But I found it fascinating, and I more or less just plowed through it. I had already known that the available texts of scriptures varied quite a bit, but I had absolutely no idea how scholars dealt with that. The author explained very clearly the methods used by scholars to evaluate these texts. I’m an atheist - not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination – but I was still absolutely fascinated by this book.

Excellent, though necessarily scholarly.

This book should be read by all those with substantial opinions about the Bible or even religious traditions in general. It is both ridiculous and unfortunate that, like the Bible, it will not be read by even a small fraction of those same people.

Narration was excellent!

Jesus,Jesus, Jesus what have we wrought?

yes, it addresses the Gentlemens
Club , Church, puts it into an understandable and acceptable listen.
will take two listens to get it all.

Fantastic Book

If you like the angle that Richard Dawkins and Same Harris take for their books, you will love Bart Ehrman's take on his. I found it to be historically very interesting. There were even parts in it that got me excited. I totally recommend this book. I am glad I stumbled upon it. Good Job Bart!

Repetitive, but thorough

This book is ostensibly for the layman of Bible history, but it has a big, fat, midsection that should have been better distilled. However, it will give you loads of very good arguments against those annoying evangelical friends who believe that Jesus dictated it word-for-word, stamped "King James" on it, then published it through Random House.

The premise of the book is interesting-- how centuries of scribal copying of the Bible have altered its contents from the original manuscripts. However, the author belabors his points to excess. What was at first interesting became redundant and boring. After more than four hours of the book, I was happy that it would soon be drawing to a close... or so I thought. Much to my chagrin, there were another four hours left!

It starts with a good introduction of the author's beginnings as an Episcopalian to born-again "fundamentalist," believing the Bible to be the inerrant word of God. It is that belief that compels him to investigate the roots of it, ultimately finding just how inconsistent all the available manuscripts actually are. He then wraps up with an insightful point that, for true comprehension, all reading must be interpreted-- just as the Bible was by centuries of scribes. In essence, we are all imperfect scribes of the Bible.

Great Book but To much at times

I have read 2 of Bart D. Ehrman books and this one I found very intreasting but way to long in parts. It seemed that he really was stuggling to get his point accross at time when in fact he already had. He is very pasionate.

Not what my Sunday School teacher said

I've already read this book twice and it's blowing so many concepts that I've (sort of) lived with for almost eighty years. Almost everything the author said makes sense to me. Through the years, I have (painfully) learned to be more open to ideas that cause some conflict with ideas that I have long held. I highly recommend this book to anyone in a similar place.

Thought provoking

Any additional comments?

Mr Ehrman made some points that prompted me to spend some time digging into a bit deeper. This is part of the reason I gave it 4 stars. Any book that makes you stop and think is OK with me. My investigations led me to validate some and completely disregard some of his conclusions. I say this admitting that I do not have a tenth of the schooling he has but I felt as I was listening to the book he seemed to gloss over some facts that seem very relevant to me. Some of his conclusions seemed to be based upon his opinion more than facts. It concerned me that with his title, facts should of been the complete basis of the book. I was able to find many scholars that completely contradict a majority of his conclusions (Daniel Wallace PhD for one). The percentage of difference between many of the books of our modern New Testament Bible and what was is contained in some of our oldest manuscripts are minute but Mr. Ehrman would have us believe they are catastrophic. I would not take this book as gospel but as I said before it is thought provoking and worth the time if you are willing to research his findings for yourself. If you are unwilling to look deeper I would only recommend reading (listening) to this book with a salt shaker in hand.

Good book if the subject interests you

I enjoyed this book and I learned a lot. Sometimes it got a little wordy and technical, but overall I am glade I read it.

A bit slow but worth it

I found the title a bit misleading. This book is not about different interpretations of excerpts of the bible but an exhaustive description of the evolution of the new testament. The narrative is a bit repetitive and the reader could be a bit more enthusiastic, but the research put into it and the knowledge and perspective you take away are definitively worth the while. I would recommend it to a friend.