Lost Christianities

The Battles of Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Matthew Kugler

The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners.

Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures" - including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus's closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus's alleged twin brother - to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians" - those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief - and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail.

©2003 Oxford University Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

awesome learning experience as always

we forget that Christianity has changed considerably over time. some ideas come back into style after an era.

In-depth

A long, in-depth book about forgeries. I learnt many new things about the birth of christianity through the author's books. Sometimes the audio was cut abruptly though, and I always thought that I accidentally paused it somehow, but no, the audio was not cut properly at places.

excellent book and presentation

Very revealing, and enjoyable book. Thank you for creating it for us to read. Going to read this one a few times.

excellent book

This is a wonderful book.It is so good at exploring and explaining its subject matter, that you feel like an adventurer being guided through the centuries of the early Christian church.You are being encouraged to truly understand, and even from some understanding to truly be in awe of how complex , beautiful,thrilling and yet terrifying the growth of Christianity became. Beautifully written easy to understand I loved it very much and I will definitely enjoy it again.

Lost Christianities

Well presented, engaging and educational. This book can introduce the listener to a history of Christianity and its evolution. Highly recommended.

excellent app and presentation!

depth of understanding!
research author prior to listening - I
am glad to have listened I learned so much !

stimulating and informative

Difficult to follow at times because of the abundant references, but also informative because of them. I wouldn't want him reading every verse in every version obviously. It is well done and the difficulty comes naturally. In other words, if you've memorized the bible, this book would be easy to follow... but then... you would be a scholar (unlikely still one of the "faithful") and this information would already be quite familiar. Basically, Christians WILL have some references to look up, and as "Christians" it's a good exercise to start doing it. Not knocking Christians here; I get it: we wanna be good people and we want our opinions to be respected if not validated. Sometimes a bit lazy, but we wanna be good and claim to know. I can appreciate that desire to be good.

The Early Church(es)

While I enjoyed Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, I think I like this one was even better.

Here we are taken through a tour of the first generations following the death of Jesus and the many forms of Christianity that they practiced. He discusses why some flourished (able to claim ties to the antiquity of the Hebrew scriptures) and why some sects floundered (disagreements over the role of women.) It was very easy to follow along and see how each event contributed to the scripture and the forms of Christianity that have been handed down to us today.

I was just as fascinated with the stuff that almost made it into the New Testament (letters from Clement, Titus for example) as those that did.

Ehrman goes on to provide a clear context to understand the books of the Apocrypha as well. A lot of verses I never understood before suddenly made perfect sense when I was oriented in the right cultural beliefs. For example, in the Gospel of Thomas (alleged to have been written by Didamus Judas Thomas, Jesus's twin, but debunked by scholars) it says that women must become men to reach the Kingdom of God, Ehrman explains that Neo Platonists did not see the human race as having two genders, but only one. Ancients believed that women were males who never developed properly! Needless to say, that had never occurred to me. Suddenly, all became clear.

While this book may be too introductory for experts, it was fascinating to a lay person like me. Recommend.

Fantastically informative and well narrated

This book is highly educational, informative, and captivating. It’s amazing the impact Jesus Christ had on the world. This book addresses the most important known faiths that sprung from Jesus Christ’s life and resurrection. “Proto orthodox“ Christianity “won the battle” over Christian theology, but it is fascinating to learn of the other branches of Christianity that were in conflict. And it’s so disappointing that we have so few of their original scriptures. Bart Ehrman is among the most credentialed scholars in New Testament history, and it shows when you read this book. Matthew Kugler does a fantastic job of narration. His enthusiasm and voice inflection draw in the listener. Highly recommend this audio book. A+

Depth in scholarship and rich in insights

I love the historicity of the narratives. I love the insights on how events and sentiment of the time influenced the scribal output, and how an impertinence to historical contexts can really result in interpretations that are confusing, misleading and many times downright laughable.