How screwed up are the manuscripts of the New Testament? What aren’t Christian preachers and apologists telling the public? How can you know when they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes about what’s in the Bible…or if they even know they are reporting the facts correctly?
How can you tell which Bible translation is the most honest for any given passage?
How have books been transmitted to us from the ancient world two thousand years ago? Is their text reliable enough to trust? Why? Or why not?
Do the Gospels really disagree on when Jesus was born? Do modern Bibles really contain known forgeries? Has the Gospel of Mark been doctored after the fact?
Answers to those questions, and more, will be covered in this course.
But what questions do you have about the New Testament? Like about its formation and transmission, its survival and accuracy, how it’s translated, what Christians claim about what it says. Or any question in the subject of New Testament studies, or the study of Greco-Roman texts generally.
This is your chance to ask an expert and get as full a response as you want, with as much follow up as you want, within the month of February. So join this class and take advantage of it!
Only one course text is required (and you can get it on kindle): my anthology Hitler Homer Bible Christ.
See you there!
Hi Dr. Carrier,
I am currently not able to join this course but as a result of a few recent conversations with Christians I have been looking for a good piece of scholarship on the composition of the modern bible, ie. Translation, Forgeries, Transmission.
Certainly your own book (for this very course) is one resource that I have looked at but am wondering if there are others (your own or otherwise) that you would recommend.
Sincerely,
A fan of your excellent scholarship!
The Bible Unearthed for the OT. Jesus Interrupted for the NT. See here.
Regarding receiving revelation through visionary deities, I have another good example:
“Thogal” and “terma” in Tibetan Buddhism.