Re: What Bible? (Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels)

Perhaps in these discussions about Ehrman and Pagels, it would be helpful
to mention that there are evangelical New Testament textual critics who
respectfully take issue with the revisionist tendencies in Ehrman and
Pagels without running away from the challenges they present.

Craig Bloomberg at Denver Seminary reviews Ehrman's latest book
_Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why_:

http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles2006/0200/0206.php

Daniel Wallace from Dallas Seminary and the Center for the Study of New
Testament Manuscripts offers his take on the same:

http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=3452

Since much of the recent discussion is driven in part by the recent
popularity of the DaVinci Code, it is worth mentioning the work of Ben
Witherington from Asbury Seminary, _The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About
Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci_.

There is a spirited email debate between Pagels and Witherington at
BeliefNet. Though it addresses the modernist claim that Paul was the
inventor of Christianity, it at least gives you the flavor that there are
indeed critical issues at stake:

http://beliefnet.com/story/143/story_14376_1.html

Pagels and Ehrman arguably succeed in brilliantly making textual issues
and early Christian history accessible to the lay person better than
anyone else, but they do not speak for the bulk of evangelical scholars
who would take issue with how they handle the data.

Blessing in Him,

Clarke Morledge
College of William and Mary
Information Technology - Network Engineering
Received on Mon Mar 13 00:17:04 2006