Introduction

The Bible’s first, outlandish claim is that there is one God, who created our entire universe. If this is true, then believing that Jesus was born of a virgin is not irrational. In fact, believing that God could make the whole universe out of nothing but not believing he could make one baby without a human father would be irrational.

So (the argument goes), Luke must have invented the census to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth.

The resurrection is the engine that drives this message, not an optional extra for the luxury model. Without it, there would have been no Christian movement poised to change the world. Jesus would have been just another failed Messiah.

Maybe you think of yourself as basically good—not perfect, certainly, but not a sinner who deserves God’s judgment. If that’s your first reaction, let me ask you this: how would you feel if other people knew your thoughts?

saying that early recruits to Christianity made up the resurrection is like saying that early Facebook users made up social media.

Whether or not you believe in God, my guess is that you believe in human rights.

The richest sources we have for Jesus’ life are the four biographies that we find in the New Testament part of the Bible: the so-called “Gospels” of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Ehrman calls these Gospels “the oldest and best sources we have for knowing about the life of Jesus,” and says this is “the view of all serious historians of antiquity of

we must stop pretending we’re the hero of the story. We must admit we don’t deserve a happy ending. In fact, we are the unsuspecting villain. And yet—in the most shocking twist of all—the hero of the story loves us.