How Jesus Became God - Bart D. Ehrman

How Jesus Became God

By Bart D. Ehrman

  • Release Date: 2014-03-25
  • Genre: Christianity
Score: 4
4
From 140 Ratings

Description

New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church.

The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus claimed about himself. How Jesus Became God tells the story of an idea that shaped Christianity, and of the evolution of a belief that looked very different in the fourth century than it did in the first.

A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman reveals how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty, Creator of all things. But how did he move from being a Jewish prophet to being God? In a book that took eight years to research and write, Ehrman sketches Jesus’s transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus’s followers had visions of him after his death—alive again—did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God. And what they meant by that was not at all what people mean today.

Written for secular historians of religion and believers alike, How Jesus Became God will engage anyone interested in the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God.

Reviews

  • We are all God in disguise..

    1
    By PuercoMorboso
    We are all God in disguise, He is the dreamer in Us...
  • Compelling and fascinating

    5
    By Travisharger
    Bart does a fantastic job taking his time to establish very sound, rational, and compelling arguments for how Jesus became to be looked at as a divine being, as well as establishing what we can and cannot not historically about Jesus and his ministry. Wonderful book. I’d recommend his book “Forged” and then this one. It’s a must read for any Christian.
  • Very Detailed

    5
    By Uscjs
    Thoroughly researched and well-presented. Not religious-oriented but a substantial historical account of how generations believed in Jesus.
  • Jesus is the only son of God

    1
    By Lori 218
    I recommend people want to know the truth of Jesus in The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. It gives solid and detailed biblical and historical evidences to support that from the begining that the followers of Jesus belived that he was the son of God. I trust what the Bible says: Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
  • Objective cooment

    1
    By Abdo Zozo
    "And their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the apostle of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for sure." 4:157 "And when Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! did you say to men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah he will say: Glory be to Thee, it did not befit me that I should say what I had no right to (say); if I had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have known it; Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in Thy mind, surely Thou art the great Knower of the unseen things." 5:116
  • Jesus is God

    1
    By Bradley Hammer
    It says so in the Holy Bible, look it up
  • Jesus is God

    1
    By Jgod1591
    There is a ton of evidence both from scripture and extra biblical sources that confirm that not only did Jesus believe, behave and have the attributes of God, but that His followers, those around Him and the historians all concur , He was believed to be diety. He forgave sins (only God can) He is refered to as “My Lord and my God”. He accepted worship (only God) He had control over nature , sickness and death (only God) and came back from the dead (only God) seems to be a pattern here. Even Jewish and Roman historians point toward first centruy believers going to their deaths because of Jesus who they worshipped “as though he was a god”. This is another attempt by bart, just like his last few books, to sow the seeds of doubt over the fact that he is disgruntled because he doesnt, by his own admission, understand suffering and evil in the world. nothing new to be found in these pages, just repackaged drivel that he has written before. Dont waste your time or money.
  • About time someone overturned the myth.

    5
    By Shokabraw
    The truth is that the first century Christians saw Jesus as an enlightened man, not as God. It was only much later that Jesus was deified into the figure preached by orthodox religion today. Too bad the original message of Jesus was twisted into the "only son of God" myth. As this book points out, the real and original message was to awaken to the kingdom of God within (Luke 17:21) not worship a human being mythologized as God.
  • Wrong

    1
    By TxLove81
    Jesus is not God. He's the son of God and the Bible says he's "seated at the right hand of the Father." Why would someone who is a "historian and not a believer" write a book about Jesus? You have knowledge of Jesus but do not believe?

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