Counterpoints - Robert Price vs. Bart Ehrman on Who Shoulders the Burden of Proof Regarding the Historical Jesus

 

Robert Price - "The burden of proof would seem to belong with those who believe there was a historical man named Jesus."1

Bart Ehrman - "...since every relevant ancient source...assumes that there was such a man, and since no scholar who have ever written on it, except the handful of mythicists, has ever had any serious doubts, surely the burden of proof does not fall on those who take the almost universally accepted position.  On the other hand...perhaps the matter should be put more neutrally.  As my former colleague, E.P. Sanders, an eminent professor of New Testament studies at nearby Duke University, used to say, 'The burden of proof belongs with whoever is making a claim.'"2

Courage and Godspeed,

Chad

Footnote:
1. As quoted by Bart Ehrman in Did Jesus Exist?, p. 38.
2. Ibid., p. 38-39.

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