The Last Lecture: Bart Ehrman's Retirement Lecture from UNC

Important Links:

https://bartehrman.com - Bart Ehrman's professional website, home of our online courses, events like NINT, and the Biblical Studies Academy (BSA).
https://ehrmanblog.org - Bart's non-profit blog which has raised over $3 million for charity. Bart posts 5-6x per week. Join today!
https://bartehrman.com/mark - Bart mentions his "Mark class" in the lecture. This is it.

Timestamps:
0:00 Welcome
1:58 Tribute by Mark Goodacre
6:30 Tribute by Hugo Méndez
12:55 Reflections on Teaching by Bart Ehrman
24:28 Bart's Lecture, “The Most Significant Discovery in the History of Biblical Studies”

Overview:
After more than 40 years in the classroom, including 37 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Bart Ehrman is retiring from UNC. To mark this milestone, Bart delivered his final public lecture at UNC on December 7th, 2025, sharing his most cherished memories and profound lessons from his life as a scholar and teacher.

This special evening featured brief tributes from colleagues, Hugo Méndez and Mark Goodacre, and was followed by Bart’s retirement lecture, “The Most Significant Discovery in the History of Biblical Studies.”

Related Online Courses:

https://courses.bartehrman.com/corruption-of-scripture/ - Bart discusses our flawed manuscripts in 24:28. For more information about textual changes to the Bible, see "The Scribal Corruption of Scripture."
https://courses.bartehrman.com/timeofjesus/ - Bart discusses the findings of archaeology in 29:43. For more info, see "Archaeology in the Time of Jesus."
https://courses.bartehrman.com/unknown-gospels/ - Bart discusses how we should read the Bible as separate books starting at 38:28. Our best course highlighting how to read similar books differently is Bart's 8-lesson course, "The Unknown Gospels."
https://bartehrman.com/bsa-academy/ - Stream every online course in Bart Ehrman's catalog for one low price.

Help:
Everyone needs to hear the message in Bart's last lecture. Please share on social media or text the video link to a friend or family member. Please also like the video and leave a comment for Bart. We'll be sure he reads them.

Thanks:
Many thanks to the team at The Friday Center at UNC for hosting, to Hugo Méndez for MC'ing and to Mark Goodacre for his tribute... I think. :)

Thanks to Bart's team who helped coordinate the event and get guests there: Chris Huntley, Joy Ring, Brian Chang, Megan Kraege, and Jen Olmos.

Keeping up with Bart:
While Bart has retired from UNC, his work continues. He plans to continue writing books, doing the Misquoting Jesus podcast, creating online courses, writing for his non-profit blog, and more.

To keep up with all of Bart's work, please visit https://bartehrman.com and https://ehrmanblog.org.