Ehrman thinks that the mere possibility of an error in copying destroys the whole idea of the Bible’s inspiration. But his remarks on this subject do not amount to any substantial argument that would impress someone trained in theology. The theological portions of the book, in which he wanders far from his rather narrow area of expertise, consist mostly of snarky rhetorical questions, which are apparently designed to justify (to an audience of confirmed atheists) his own personal rejection of Christianity. It also includes discussions about his own personal problems with Christianity, and some theological ruminations, which may be found interesting to some laymen, but which are not relevant to the subject of textual criticism.

As an introduction to the field it is very skewed and inadequate, and it simply ignores scholarly criticism of his views, and so I cannot recommend it as an introduction.

But it soon became obvious to me that the book is really just Ehrman’s attempt to popularize the most peculiar and questionable ideas that he labored to make a scholarly case for in his Orthodox Corruption book. This is a popular-level book, which purports to be a layman’s introduction to textual criticism: “written for people who know nothing about textual criticism but who might like to learn something about how scribes were changing scripture and how we can recognize where they did so” (p. So I supposed that this new book would at least be worth a look. But Orthodox Corruption was not unscholarly, it was unusually interesting, and, in my opinion, it was worth reading. He loves far-fetched theological explanations for variants which other scholars explain much more plausibly in other ways. Ehrman is a “character” and a bit of a “bad boy” in the field. I disagreed with much of his earlier book, and I doubt that most scholars will think his handling of text-critical questions is sufficiently sober and sound.

I was already familiar with this author, because some years ago I read a book by him called The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1993). Misquoting Jesus reviewed by Michael Marloweīart Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus was published seven years ago, but I have just now gotten around to reading it. Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Ehrman Bible Research > Textual Criticism > Ehrman

Ehrman misquoting jesus