Bart Ehrman: Misquoting Jesus and Lost Christianities

I decided to combine these reviews since they are very related. Bart Ehrman is a Biblican scholar, a student of Bruce Metzger , and one whose path has taken him from Lutheran to born-again evangelical to agnostic. I came across "Misquoting Jesus" at an airport bookstore and found it quite interesting. Like most folks, I consider the Bible to have come together at discreet points of time. What I found was that not only was the Biblical canon not finalized until centuries after the death of Christ but also may have changed during transcription by semi-literate scribes throughout the ages. Plus the sources that the scribes would have used may have also been corrupted as well. The KJV was based on a fairly erroneous Greek documents for the New Testament. The book also dealt with textual criticism which was trying to arrive at "original" text of ancient documents. A very accessible book.

The second "Lost Christianities" looked at Early Christianity and the various sects that vied for control until the one that Bart refers to as "proto-orthodox" prevailed. Again, the monolithic image I held of a unified Christendom at the beginning was shattered with the accounts of various sects and denominations of followers of Christ. From those that ranged from those that simply viewed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and thus followers of Jesus must also be Jesus to those that rejected Judasim entirely. What I found astounding was the realization that the acceptance of the Old Testament may have been to give Christianity legitimacy in the Roman Empire because of its claim to antiquity based on being an extension and perhaps fulfillment of Judaism!

An excellent pair of books, supplemented by "Lost Scriptures" , which included many of the Gnostic and other materials referenced...