The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

An excellent introduction to modern Bible scholarship by one of the world’s leading experts. Dr. Bart Ehrman explains how the New Testament texts have changed over the centuries and describes the methods scholars use to determine what has changed. Changes have occurred both through scribal errors and through deliberate alterations made for cultural and political purposes. While some of these changes are inconsequential, others have profoundly affected religious doctrine. Ehrman discusses the textual changes that have influenced major theological issues such as the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, attitudes toward women’s ordination, the divine origins of the Bible, and the meaning of the death of Christ, as well as alterations that have influenced more recent customs like speaking in tongues and snake handling.

Bart D. Ehrman is the author of more than twenty books and the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a leading authority on the early Church and the life of Jesus.