Bart Ehrman on The Daily Show

I heard about this but forgot to mention it; Jim West notes on Xtalk and Biblical Studies that Bart Ehrman appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central last night and that you should be able to catch repeats during the day today. And those in the UK: you can get The Daily Show on More 4, but you already knew that, right?

Update (15 March, 21.06): caught the 8 pm repeat. It was good stuff, ten minutes or so, Bart Ehrman looking smart in a grey suit and a purple-ish tie, in good humour, pretty relaxed. Jon Stewart clearly loved the book and sang its praises at the end of the interview and held it up to camera. Stewart asked at one stage which the authentic version of the Bible was; was it the one in the hotel rooms? He also asked why God revealed the Bible in Greek, to which Ehrman replied (to the effect of) to keep the Greek professors in jobs. There was some talk about the Woman Taken in Adultery, and Stewart asked whether this got added in order to sex up the New Testament a bit. But Stewart also asked a really interesting and perceptive question, pointing out that he thought that what Ehrman was describing was in fact a kind of living, organic text, and that there was a dynamism there that showed it was not the static text assumed by some literalists. It got to the heart of where I think many Christians would disagree with Ehrman. For Ehrman, the discovery of the texts and textual tradition of the New Testament was something that ultimately undermined rather than enhanced his faith; for others of us, that has not been our experience. Overall, I was delighted to see a top NT Scholar talking about serious stuff in a popular show. All strength to his elbow.

So is Ehrman now more popular than Crossan? I think so. In fact, dare we say that he is now even more popular than Pagels?

Update (21.07): Joe Weaks comments on the Macintosh Biblioblog.

Update (Thursday, 00.56): Viola comments on The Americanization of Emily.

Update (Thursday, 08.40): David Ritsema notes, on Xtalk, that the video is now available on-line. Go to The Daily Shows Videos -- Most Recent and click on Bart Ehrman.