Unity Bookstore Book Review
Misquoting Jesus - by Bart D. Ehrman
The author, Bart Ehrman, is an American Biblical scholar, born in 1955. He began to question whether the Bible was the “inerrant Word of God” because the Bible we read today is a result of many transcribing’s done through the centuries. Ehrman began his research on what texts were used by scholars to produce the versions we are familiar with.
Accounts of Jesus’ life were written several decades after his death. Copies were made by hand by scribes, some who were less adept than others. The earliest Christian writings were in ancient Greek. There was no punctuation, no upper and lower case letters, and no spaces between the words. Needless to say, this left a lot of room for errors to be made. Copies were made from these copies, so any mistakes made were reproduced; Copies made from these copies added more mistakes, which were then copied, etc.
In 312 AD, the Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity. The Pope commissioned Jerome, a scholar, to produce an official Latin translation of the accounts of Jesus’ life, which became known as the Latin Vulgate and was considered the “true” Bible.
The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg around 1450 AD made it possible to uniformly mass produce the Latin Vulgate. By the time the Catholic hierarchy decided a Greek translation was needed, there were hundreds of Greek manuscripts to consider, none of them alike. Several different scholars tackled the job with varied results. One point of contention was Jesus’ Divinity. Some Christian sects believed Jesus, being the Son of God, was Divine, and did not suffer as humans did. Others believed Jesus was strictly human, while yet others thought he was both human and Divine.
The author cites several examples of differences in the accounts of Jesus’ life in the gospels of Mark and Luke. Mark describes Jesus as being deeply troubled in the Garden of Gethsemane, agonizing over his forthcoming ordeal, and pleading with God several times to release him from being crucified. On the cross, at the point of death, Jesus cried out saying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Luke’s version contrasts sharply. Jesus is composed, surrenders to the Roman soldiers, and is able to comfort the other men being crucified next to him. He does not say anything about being forsaken by God.
Mark is thought to be the oldest of the gospels. Since Luke’s gospel is newer, it is thought that scribes intentionally changed the story to make Jesus fit into the Church’s teachings of Him being Divine.
Many more examples of variations in the gospels are given.
You can find this book in the Unity Bookstore.
Namaste,
Lisa Madewell
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From Notes from a Skylark by Schuyler Cronley
Speaking of Stars
Someone, I believe it was Emerson, once said: “Hitch your wagon to a star.” The difficulty in this for most people comes in trying to decide which star. The Star of Bethlehem is always a good one to start with – then you won’t have to hitch and unhitch so many times.
Two-Faced
Concerning the Kingdom law of riches, Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Mythology tells us of a Roman god called Janus, after which the first month of our year is named. He was two-faced, one on each side of his head. He was the god of gates and doors. Man today has many two-faced gods. As long as man sees good and evil, sickness and health, limitation and prosperity, he holds to a two-faced god. The Unity student who worships the One True God is one-visioned, one-faced only. “If thine eye be single…”