Thank you. This shows why context matters.

From context, it’s clear when Ehrman wrote Paul said “he” only ministered to Jews, Ehrman was saying Paul said Jesus only ministered to Jews. By which of course we all agree, he means the first Apostles who received the teaching of Jesus were all Jews (Paul never mentions any other Jews having heard the preaching of Jesus, in fact he all but denies it in Romans 10; and Paul never places any of that preaching prior to the death of Jesus). Which doesn’t establish historicity any more than we can prove Moroni existed by adducing evidence Moroni only ever preached to Americans.

The rest is the same. Paul never says “the twelve” were disciples, as opposed to Apostles like him, but in fact Paul says they were apostles just like him in 1 Cor. 15, ordained by visions of Jesus; no mention of them or anyone being ordained by Jesus before he died. Likewise, Paul never says Jesus “ministered” to anyone (that’s Ehrman’s wording, not Paul’s), rather than appeared to and taught them in visions. And Paul frequently refers to learning teachings of Jesus by revelation; he never refers to learning them any other way, neither him doing so nor anyone else.

So Ehrman is conflating facts (which I just enumerated) with interpretations. Ehrman “isn’t lying” that those are the ways he interprets the facts. But he would be lying if he were to insist those were not interpretations but the actual facts (e.g. if he really means to say Paul said Jesus “ministered” to Jews other than the Apostles, or to anyone before Jesus died, for example, then he would be lying; or so phenomenally wrong as to establish his incompetence in this debate; likewise if he meant to say Paul said “the twelve” ever met Jesus before Jesus died).

Ehrman did say it.

https://ehrmanblog.org/carrier-and-james-the-brother-of-jesus/

Do a word search for “computer” and you will see the comment.

I would need a URL so I can verify he said those things. That he would say Paul himself said he only ministered to Jews is simply not believable. Ehrman couldn’t have said that. Unless he typed wrong. So there is something hinky about that quote. As to the 12, I already cover that (Paul never says they were disciples or ever met Jesus in life). Likewise the quoting Jesus thing, which I have a whole section on in OHJ (Paul says he learned those by revelation: Ch. 11.6). So this quote of Ehrman can’t be responding to me. It doesn’t even seem aware of what I’ve argued.

“Paul mentions the 12. Paul says he ministered explicitly and only to Jews. And he quotes Jesus’ teachings. If I’m lying, I’ll eat my computer.”

So you should do a blog article rebutting this.