Ben Witherington reviews Bart Ehrman's Latest Book

Ben Witherington has started a series of posts reviewing Bart Ehrman's latest book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) from HarperOne. His first post only covers the first 60 pages but he doesn't hold any punches. He says, "Bart Ehrman. . . has never done the necessary laboring in the scholarly vineyard to be in a position to write a book like Jesus, Interrupted from a position of long study and knowledge of New Testament Studies." And, "Bart does not much reflect a knowledge of the exegetical or historical study of the text in the last thirty years." He continues, "There are methodological problems, historical problems, exegetical problems, theological problems, and epistemological problems with this book, to mention but a few areas." Ben covers a number of the problems and "contradictions" that Ehrman raises in the book and shows how a careful reading of the text or a proper understanding of the genre or history of the text provides other viable options without resorting to believing a contradiction really exists. For those who have been disturbed by reading Ehrman I would greatly encourage you to read these posts by Ben. Part two of the series is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. Part five is here. Part six is here.