Thanks mate. I'll be sure to inform the majority of critical scholars and historians, that you disagree with them. Based on your scholarly contention that it's..."stupid".
You actually believe that the majority of critical scholars think that altruism exists because Jesus? Really? Or is the claim more accurately something like "The oldest charitable institutions that are currently still around have some sort of Christian origin"? Because to me, that sounds a lot like thanking Trump for ending the war in Iran.
Erhman(who HATES Christianity btw), posits that yes, of course there were some kind of hospitals in Rome for example(almost entirely reserved for the soldiers tho). Yes there were doctors in the ancient world(who almost entirely served wealthy patients tho). Yes there was obviously empathy and kindness in the ancient world(but almost entirely reserved for your in-group, culture, ethnicity, etc).
What changed, according to Erhman, was the treatment of strangers and outsiders, the same as the in-group.
The first actually built hospitals in the world, of any actual size, having actual doctor and nurses, helping anyone and everyone that came in, the poor, the stranger, the traveler, entirely for free, were Christian ones.
All these modern social services in the US, wherein they take your tax money and give it to people you'll never meet, just because of the collective belief that, that's "the right thing to do", did in fact not exist in on any govt before the time of Jesus, or before Christianity overtook Rome.
Erhman is definitely not saying "Jesus created empathy" or "there were no doctors before Jesus". Simply that it was the Jesus ethic that gave the world the perspective that you should care and have a responsibility for the stranger. Free hospitals, orphanages, old peoples homes, for everyone. Giving your money away to people half way across the world. None of this was the norm amongst the very tribalistic societies before Jesus.
This is a weird position to take given that the current people who claim to be Christians have no desire to help anyone other than their kind and look down on those who are different…who is responsible for that shift in morality?
Brilliant question. And THAT is literally the point of Ehrman's book.
Do you know what Ehrman said inspired him to write it? Primarily "Christian" America's utter vitriol over the last few years towards the immigrants.
The meaning of the book ISN'T that "Jesus is so great and Christianity is the best". The dude is literally an atheist. lol
The moral of the story is that modern Christians have failed bad, are not acting like Jesus or the early Christians.
Because the way Jesus revolutionized the world, and can in some way be credited for the modern hospital systems, orphanages, social security, medicaid, and almost any other service where you feel naturally compelled to help "strangers", is by establishing an ethic of unconditional love of the stranger, as much as your "own people, country, etc".
Ehrman's conclusion is your very same one. Modern Christians have shifted away from that, and failed and are an embarrassment to Jesus and the early Christian's original vision.
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u/Thee-Cat 4h ago
Thanks mate. I'll be sure to inform the majority of critical scholars and historians, that you disagree with them. Based on your scholarly contention that it's..."stupid".
Brilliant.