{"id":18509,"date":"2026-02-11T06:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18509"},"modified":"2026-02-11T06:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T06:14:08","slug":"bart-ehrmans-last-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=18509","title":{"rendered":"Bart Ehrman\u2019s last lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Robin Schumacher<\/span><\/span>, Exclusive Columnist Monday, February 09, 2026<\/span>artplus\/iStock<\/span><\/p>\n

Bart Ehrman, a noted biblical studies professor at UNC Chapel Hill, announced his retirement on December 7, 2025, after more than 40 years in the classroom. Although he was educated at Princeton under the guidance of conservative theologian\u00a0Bruce Metzger, Ehrman \u201cde-converted\u201d from Christianity and has written a number of books aimed at poking holes in the truth claims of Christianity and especially the reliability of the biblical text.<\/p>\n

Ehrman used his\u00a0last lecture\u00a0to again hammer away at the idea that we really don\u2019t know and can\u2019t trust what the Bible says. He claims there are so many \u201cvariants\u201d (i.e., differences) in the many biblical manuscripts we have that we\u2019re unable to know what the original books of the Bible said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his farewell lecture, Ehrman stated that after the original biblical authors wrote their books,<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, after a while, somebody wanted a copy of it, right? And so, somebody made a copy of it. And then somebody copied the copy, and then somebody copied the copy of the copy, and then somebody copied the copy of the copy of the copy. And it went on like that, it went on like that for centuries \u2026 And so, you don\u2019t have originals. You\u2019ve got later copies. The problem is that scribes make mistakes\u2026Today we know of over 5,800 manuscripts. How many variants do we know about? And the recent estimates are around 500,000. So, most of them don\u2019t matter, but some of them matter a lot. Some of them actually change what a verse means, or what a chapter means, or what a book means. Sometimes they change the theology of the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that true? Are these manuscript differences mentioned by Ehrman so pronounced that we don\u2019t know what the books of the Bible originally said and meant?<\/p>\n

Actually, no. Let me explain why.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a variant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his book\u00a0Misquoting Jesus<\/em>, Ehrman says there are \u201cmore variations among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.\u201d And he\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n

However, to quote the movie\u00a0\u201cThe Princess Bride,\u201d that doesn\u2019t mean what you think it means.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ehrman\u2019s claim is a partial truth, which leads to many people thinking the veracity of the biblical text is in doubt. The number of variants is large because, for example, one difference of one letter of one word in one verse in say, 2,000 manuscripts, counts as 2,000 variants (and there are nearly 6,000 manuscripts to compare).<\/p>\n

But, as Ehrman admits in his farewell lecture, \u201cmost of them don\u2019t matter.\u201d The overwhelming majority of variants consist of spelling and numerical differences, sentence word order changes, etc. Thus,\u00a0scholars have concluded\u00a0that the New Testament text is 99% pure, with there being only 1% of the text that contains any \u201cmeaningful\u201d variants.<\/p>\n

OK, but what about that 1%? Is Ehrman right when he claims, \u201cSome of them actually change what a verse means, or what a chapter means, or what a book means. Sometimes they change the theology of the whole thing\u201d?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

Let me give you an example of a \u201cmeaningful\u201d variant. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul describes himself either as \u201cgentle\u201d or as \u201clittle children,\u201d with there being a one-letter discrepancy with the Greek terms used in the differing manuscripts (epioi\u00a0<\/em>vs.\u00a0nepioi<\/em>).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a \u201cmeaningful\u201d variant.<\/p>\n

Can I get a show of hands out there of those whose faith has just been shipwrecked and you\u2019re now bailing on Jesus? No one? Didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

In no way are you going to find one book saying Jesus rose from the dead and another one claiming He didn\u2019t; one saying you have to earn your way to Heaven and another saying it\u2019s by grace alone. And so on.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the thing \u2014 Ehrman knows this.<\/p>\n

Years ago, Ehrman was\u00a0interviewed\u00a0on a\u00a0Lutheran radio show\u00a0and was asked point-blank about whether biblical variants equate to us being in the dark about what the New Testament actually says and means. William Lane Craig\u00a0sums up\u00a0the conversation this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interviewer said to Dr. Ehrman, \u2018What do you think the original text of the New Testament actually said?\u2019 And Ehrman replied, \u2018Well, what do you mean?\u2019 The interviewer said, \u2018There have been all these variants, all these changes that have been introduced. What did the original say?\u2019 Bart said, \u2018It said pretty much what our Bibles today say.\u2019 The interviewer said, \u2018I am confused. I thought there were all these copyist errors.\u2019 Ehrman said, \u2018Oh, well yeah, but we have been able to reconstruct the text, so that we know what the original says.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And what does this admission mean for you?<\/p>\n

It signifies that you are free to declare you don\u2019t believe what the Bible\u00a0claims <\/em>\u2014 e.g., you think that Jesus didn\u2019t actually rise from the dead \u2014 but you can\u2019t cast doubt on what the Bible\u00a0says and means<\/em>. Through the science of biblical criticism, we have what the biblical authors wrote, with the few attempts at additions\/modifications being identified and well known (and none changing the theology of the text).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s disappointing to see someone like Ehrman who is capable of doing so much good for Christianity (for example, his defense regarding the historicity of Jesus in his book,\u00a0Did Jesus Exist?<\/em>) be used as a mouthpiece by the enemy to repeat his question in the Garden: \u201cIndeed, has God said?\u201d (Gen. 3:1). Keep up the prayers for Bart everyone and let\u2019s hope he comes to Christ in the near future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist Monday, February 09, 2026artplus\/iStock Bart Ehrman, a noted biblical studies professor at UNC Chapel Hill, announced his retirement on December 7, 2025, after more than 40 years in the classroom. Although he was educated at Princeton under the guidance of conservative theologian\u00a0Bruce Metzger, Ehrman \u201cde-converted\u201d from Christianity and has written<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[6003,6004,2951],"class_list":{"0":"post-18509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-bart","9":"tag-ehrmans","10":"tag-lecture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}