Remember, all the lessons Ehrman teaches us about Bible study can be applied to any ancient work. The value of Misquoting Jesus is showing how a work of antiquity gets into our modern hands. The Old Testament needs a lot more scholarship to understand its complexity in context, but is endlessly fascinating for comprehending some of humanity’s oldest recorded thoughts, and early speculation about reality. They are about The New Testament, which is an easier place to start studying The Bible, than The Old Testament, which is harder to fathom and further distant in time. Characters in The New Testament are easier to relate to for modern people. All these books were written for a popular audience. The six books I’m going to cover are Misquoting Jesus (2005), Jesus, Interrupted (2009), Forged (2011), Did Jesus Exist? (2012), How Jesus Became God (2014), and Jesus Before the Gospels (2016). Non-religious people study The Bible to understand the evolution of human thought. Religious people study The Bible to interpret a metaphysical view of reality. As an atheist I find Bible study a good tool for developing empathy with my religious friends, and a way to understand biblical allusions in art and literature. Understanding The Bible explains many of the memes of Western civilization, and it provides symbolic keys for communicating with people of faith. Studying ancient texts takes us back to the border of history and prehistory, when writing first recorded oral tales that might have been around for hundreds or thousands of years. That’s a shame, because understanding The Bible can provide useful knowledge of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, literature, philosophy, language, memory, writing, textual analysis, and information theory. I suppose they’re afraid of being converted.

Among my skeptical friends, most shun any mention of The Bible or Christianity. It’s goal is to persuade non-believers that The Bible is a worthy book for study.

Companion bible analyzer