Overview

How did early Christians come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the divine Son of God? This is the central question in this book. When Did Jesus Become God? is a transcribed conversation between Bart Ehrman and Michael Bird, with a helpful historiographic introduction by Robert Stewart that helps listeners understand the conclusions reached by Ehrman and Bird. Ehrman contends that neither Jesus himself nor the apostles believed that Jesus was divine during Jesus' life; it was only after Jesus was crucified and the apostles began to have visions and revelations that they became convinced that Jesus was a godlike figure who was sent by God. Over an extended period of time, the early church solidified its belief that Jesus was God--first, with an inventive claim that Jesus was exalted to divinity, then later by seeing him as a preexistent angel become human. Bird disagrees. Based on different historiographic criteria and different readings of Scripture, he asserts that Jesus himself claimed to be the divine Son during his lifetime and that many of the apostles believed Jesus to be identified with God's own prerogatives and identity. In Bird's account of the early church, Jesus was the preexistent Son of God from the beginning, who then became human, exercised the role of Israel's Messiah, and was exalted as God the Father's vice-regent.

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Robert B. Stewart is professor of philosophy and theology and the Greer-Heard Chair of Faith and Culture at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Stewart has authored or edited twelve books, ten of which were debates or dialogues, which include numerous contributing essays by other highly respected scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan, Alister McGrath, Craig Evans, and others. Bart D. Ehrman is the author of more than thirty books, including the New York Times bestsellers Misquoting Jesus and God's Problem. Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a leading authority on the Bible and the life of Jesus. He has been featured in Time and has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, the History Channel, major NPR shows, and other top media outlets. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Michael F. Bird is lecturer in New Testament and academic dean at Ridley College in Australia and an Anglican priest. He is the author and editor of over thirty books, including The New Testament in Its World, Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible, Jesus the Eternal Son, and How God Became Jesus. Born and raised in Queens, NYC, Steve Menasche is a child of Egyptian and German immigrants. He completed BS studies in percussion from Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music as well as his minor in theater. He was also a student at Manhattan School of Music, Third Street Music Settlement, and American Conservatory Theatre. He has toured the world three times, was a member of New York City's American Folk Theatre for two years, narrated over 250 audiobooks, performed countless voice-overs for major brands, appeared in national commercial campaigns, and continues to perform as both an actor and musician/composer. He previously owned and taught hapkido and jujutsu in San Francisco and continues to teach when his old knees allow.

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