Another view of Bart Ehrman

I differ with Wayland Jackson (letter Feb. 13), who characterized Bart Ehrman simply as a “historian.” In reality, Mr. Ehrman is a Princeton-trained theologian, who adheres to the historical critical method of interpreting scripture. His specialty is textual criticism, which is the study of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.

Mr. Ehrman believes the Bible is a book like any other and was, therefore, not inspired by God. Since the early Greek manuscripts were copied by hand, they contain many errors, such as misspelled words, word order changes, etc., which make up less than 1 percent of the text. These “variants” do not change the meaning of the text and are easily corrected.

In Mr. Ehrman’s view, however, the New Testament is full of errors and, therefore, not trustworthy. This is not history, but rather historical critical theology! His so called “higher criticism” is nothing less than a denial of the existence of God, his ability to perform miracles and is a direct attack on the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is not simply a historian, but an anti-Christian scholar, who wants to “enlighten” our backward community. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing!

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 6:42 AM with the headline "Another view of Bart Ehrman."