Bart Ehrman's "Jesus, Interrupted": New York Times Bestseller

I recently came across a book that does an excellent job of explaining the enormous gap in knowledge that exists between Bible scholars and the rest of the population, which is Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). This is one of Ehrman's four New York Times bestsellers, which explains why he is one of the most well-known Bible scholars among the general public.

In this book Ehrman recounts his personal journey as a conservative evangelical Christian who went to Princeton Theological Seminary to earn a doctorate, and was determined to hang on to his belief that the Bible was the inerrant Word of God. But at Princeton he was exposed to the critical-historical methods of research into the writings that make up the Bible for the first time, and this experience would forever change his entire view of what the Bible actually is.

He explains in detail how and why he changed his views on the Bible. In short, when one is exposed to higher education in this field, you discover things you've never heard before, and the evidence is simply overwhelming. It also just makes far more sense than the simplistic approach to the Bible taught in fundamentalist churches. I can identify with Ehrman because I had the same experience 16 years ago when I first started doing this kind of research.

Recommended scholarly books on the Bible

Here's a list of scholarly books I can recommend on the Bible.

These focus on the Christ myth theory - that Jesus was originally a fictional/mythical figure and only later was historicized:

1. The Christ Myth Theory and Its Problems - Robert M. Price.
2. Jesus: Neither God Nor Man - Earl Doherty.
3. Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus - Thomas L. Brodie.
4. The Jesus Mysteries – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
5. Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All - David Fitzgerald.
6. The Jesus of the Early Christians: A Study in Christian Origins - G.A. Wells.
7. The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold – Acharya S.
8. The Pagan Christ – Tom Harper.
9. The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man – Robert M. Price.
10. The Jesus Puzzle – Earl Doherty.
11. Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled - Acharya S.
12. Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection - Acharya S.
13. Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ - Acharya S.
14. Jesus and the Lost Goddess – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
15. The Laughing Jesus – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
16. The Jesus Legend – G.A. Wells.