Bart D. Ehrman Non-Fiction books in order

A complete list of Bart D. Ehrman's non-fiction books in publication order, covering New Testament history, biblical textual criticism, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus.

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 Didymus the Blind & the Text of the Gospels 1986 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
2 The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament 1993 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
3 The Text of the New Testament In Contemporary Research 1995 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
4 The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings 1996 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
5 The New Testament And Other Early Christian Writings 1997 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
6 After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity 1998 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
7 Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium 1999 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
8 The Historical Jesus 2000 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
9 Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew 2002 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
10 Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It Into the New Testament 2003 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
11 Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 CE: A Reader 2003 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
12 From Jesus to Constantine 2004 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
13 Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene & Constantine 2004 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
14 A Brief Introduction to the New Testament 2004 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
15 The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration 2005 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
16 Whose Word Is It? The Story Behind Who Changed the New Testament and Why 2005 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
17 Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why 2005 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
18 The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed 2006 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
19 Studies in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament 2006 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
20 Peter, Paul & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History & Legend 2006 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
21 God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer 2008 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
22 Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don’t Know About Them 2009 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
23 The Reliability of the New Testament 2011 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
24 Forged: Writing in the Name of God 2011 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
25 The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations 2011 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
26 Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth 2012 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
27 Forgery and Counter-forgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics 2012 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
28 The Other Gospels: Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament 2013 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
29 The History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon 2013 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
30 The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History 2013 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
31 The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction 2013 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
32 How Jesus Became God : the Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee 2014 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
33 Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior 2016 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
34 The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World 2017 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
35 Summary and Analysis of the Books of the Bible: A Quick Guide 2019 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
36 Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife 2020 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
37 36 Big Ideas 2020 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
38 After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers 2020 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
39 Can We Trust the Bible on the Historical Jesus? 2020 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
40 Journeys to Heaven and Hell 2022 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
41 When Did Jesus Become God?: A Christological Debate 2022 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
42 Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End 2023 Bart D. Ehrman Buy
43 Love Thy Stranger 2026 Bart D. Ehrman Buy

Bart D. Ehrman’s non-fiction books span nearly four decades and cover the major questions of New Testament scholarship. His early works, like Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels (1986) and The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture (1993), are technical studies aimed at other scholars. Starting in the late 1990s, he began writing for a broader audience with books like Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (1999) and Lost Christianities (2002).

His biggest popular success came with Misquoting Jesus (2005), which introduced general readers to the field of textual criticism. That book showed how copying errors and intentional changes by scribes affected the New Testament text we have today. He followed it with a string of bestsellers that tackled other questions: why the Bible contains contradictions (Jesus, Interrupted), who really wrote the books attributed to Paul and Peter (Forged), and how a small Jewish sect grew into the Roman Empire’s official religion (The Triumph of Christianity).

Ehrman’s more recent books have continued to explore new territory. Heaven and Hell (2020) traces how beliefs about the afterlife developed in Jewish and Christian thought. Journeys to Heaven and Hell (2022) examines ancient accounts of visits to the afterlife. Armageddon (2023) looks at what the Bible actually says about the end times, compared to popular assumptions about it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Bart Ehrman book to start with?

Misquoting Jesus (2005) is the most common starting point for new readers. It is one of his most accessible books and covers a fascinating topic: how the New Testament text was altered as scribes copied it by hand over the centuries. It became a New York Times bestseller and remains his most widely read work.

How many non-fiction books has Bart Ehrman written?

Ehrman has written or edited more than forty non-fiction books. These range from popular works aimed at general readers, like Jesus, Interrupted and How Jesus Became God, to academic textbooks and technical studies in New Testament textual criticism. He has also produced several Great Courses lecture series.

Does Bart Ehrman write about the historical Jesus?

Yes, the historical Jesus is one of his central topics. Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (1999) presents his view that Jesus was a Jewish apocalyptic preacher who expected the end of the world. Did Jesus Exist? (2012) argues that Jesus was a real historical figure, and How Jesus Became God (2014) examines how early followers came to regard him as divine.

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