Even if you don’t believe he walked on water, the teachings of Jesus still have a certain power. My guest this week, the New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, calls himself a “Christian atheist.” I asked Ehrman to come on the show to explore Jesus’ message, discuss how the Bible has shaped the morality of the Western world and explain what even the biggest skeptic can learn from one of mankind’s oldest texts.

0:00 - Intro
02:20 - Jesus’s moral teachings
08:15 - Ehrman’s path away from Christianity and faith
21:22 - The historical evidence for Jesus and the New Testament
33:26 - The challenges in interpreting the Gospels
52:07 - The contradictions in the New Testament
01:04:10 - Historical and geographical validity
01:09:25 - The visions and reality of the Resurrection
01:19:21 - A “Christian atheist”

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

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Can We Trust the New Testament?

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat