History in the Bible (Garry Stevens)

In this bonus episode I am joined by Omri and Gil of the rambunctious podcast “A Podcast of Biblical Proportions” for a discussion about the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and a little bit about Joseph.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron and Rutger Vos graciously invite me on to their long-running show Pod Academy. This show is dedicated to applying a critical intellect to popular media, especially movies or TV series. In this bonus we discuss the 2014 movie Noah, staring Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly, and Emma Watson. With a special appearance by Ray Winstone, doing what Ray Winstone always does: being himself.

Announcing the publication of a new volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Genesis to Babylon”. This contains the complete scripts of the first season of the show. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734
https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734
https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950734
https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734
ttps://www.amazon.com.au/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734

In this Afterlife episode, Steve Guerra of History of the Papacy (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-of-the-papacy-podcast--4899207) and I discuss history podcasting.

In this bonus, I have a jaunty conversation with the Rev. W. Scott McAndless, author of the Retelling the Bible podcast. Scott has a ripping show for you, which I heartily recommend. We talk about how his show sprang from a book he wrote, and venture into various Biblical topics.

In this co-released episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I talk about Satan (ha'Satan, the adversary). In the Old Testament he is God's faithful prosecuting attorney. Only in the apocalyptic literature does he transform into the source of all evil. That is the Satan we find in the New Testament.

After decades preaching to the gentiles in Asia Minor and Greece, Paul returns to Jerusalem for a final time. James the Just humiliates Paul by demanding Paul demonstrate his adherence to the Jewish law. The story is unlikely. James suddenly vanishes from the narrative when the Romans save Paul from a Jewish lynching. They place Paul into protective custody. Paul surprises the Romans when he declares his Roman citizenship. In a confusing series of trials, Paul is dragged before the Jewish council, defends himself against charges that no one has laid against him, is rescued by his nephew, and is tried twice by Judean procurators. He is dispatched to Rome for trial on vague charges.

In this show I discuss the state of the Christians on the verge of the Great Revolt in 66 CE/AD. The Seleucid empire created a new way of conceptualising time. This provided the Jews with the intellectual tool to create a new body of literature, the apocalypse. The apocalypses solve a vexing theological problem. Why are the Jews suffering under the Seleucids, when the Jews have done everything that the old prophets told them to do? The apocalypses explain that the Jews are pawns in a cosmic struggle. Christianity was born as an apocalyptic movement. I also cover the earliest Roman references we have to Christians, by Suetonius and Tacitus. I think some of these are misinterpreted.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

While the Israelites are stuck in the wilderness they meet Balam and his talking donkey. They defeat King Og and the Midianites, and will never stop talking about it. Moses' siblings Aaron and Miriam die, and in a vicious plot-twist God tells Moses that he will never cross the Jordan

On the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, the Judean state was a prosperous, self-governed, and stable kingdom. It was Rome’s best buddy in the Levant, with territories extending beyond the Jordan and into Syria. Thriving Jewish communities could be found from Spain to Egypt. Over a span 70 years, the Judeans launched three insurrections against the Romans. The consequences were catastrophic. 140 years after Herod’s death, the Temple and Jerusalem had been razed, the Judean self-governing province crushed, and its people scattered to the winds. Within the empire, the Romans thereafter applied a heavy hand against many diaspora Jewish communities.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

In the first episode of series two, I begin with the Judeans in exile in Babylon. We move from the prophet Jeremiah to the prophet Ezekiel, and his crazy imagery, imagery that has inflamed Christian iconography for centuries. But not only Christians. Ezekiel is the father of Jewish mysticism, a movement which the rabbis only quashed in the early Middle Ages.

The Israelite King Ahab and the Judean King Jehoshaphat join in an ill-fated war against the kingdom of Aram-Damascus. One battle not mentioned is the Battle of Qarqar, which we know from Assyrian records. Ahaziah follows Ahab on the throne. We start the second book of Kings. Elijah dies and passes his legacy to Elisha. I discuss Elijah's importance to Jews and Christians.

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron of a Podcast of Biblical Proportions and I wade into biblical chronology.

This is the defining moment in the history of the Israelites, where they swear allegiance to God in return for a special relationship with the divinity. I discuss how this contract follows the suzerainity treaties of the Hittites and Assyrians. I also throw in a discussion on the Ten Commandments, and how the Jews and various Christian denominations slice and dice them.

The revolt of Bar Kosiva against Rome failed, as had the Great Revolt. The Roman punishment destroyed almost all the many blooms living in the mighty jungle that was Second Temple Judaism. Only two species escaped the immolation: rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity. The imperial punishment also destroyed the Jewish wing of the church incorporate, leaving the franchise to follow its own path. With a shout-out to the great Rabbi Akiva.

Malachi writes in Persian times. The rebuilt Temple has not ushered in an ideal age, the governors of Yehuda are not Davidic, and the priests and people have lost their watchfulness about God’s coming. Malachi attacks this malaise. The priests are corrupt. The people are unfaithful. All must repent.

Joel writes of locusts and famine. An ecological catastrophe is divine retribution for apostasy. He exhorts the people of Judah to repent, fast, and pray to avert these calamities.

My Christmas special tells the story of Christmas as related by the gospel of Luke. With lots of canticles and shepherds. My forthcoming Epiphany special relates the gospel of Matthew's version of the nativity.

Unlike the Sethian Gnostics, the Valentinian Gnostics are clearly rooted in Christianity. They were founded by Valentinus, an Egyptian who may have stood for the bishopric of Rome. Valentinus founded a popular crusade that borrowed from the Sethians and the apostle Paul. The movement produced a copious literature: the apocalypse of Paul, the apocalypse of Peter, the apocalypse of Adam, the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Phillip, and the gospel of truth. All of these books were recovered only in the 20th century. The Valentinians formed a parallel church to the orthodox, one much more inviting to women. They attended orthodox services, but operated separate elite clubs. They were only suppressed in the fourth century, after the Roman state granted a monopoly to the orthodox. 

After Irenaeus rescued Paul from the Marcionites and Gnostics, Paul’s letters were honoured and uncontroversial documents, testaments to a great missionary and theologian. Martin Luther weaponised them to attack the established church, and so birthed the Protestant movement. In the 1970s, the New Perspective on Paul movement tried to rescue Paul from Luther.
I also finish up my discussion of the Acts of Paul, and make an assessment of Paul’s real significance to Christianity. 

The earliest Christians had three theological problems to tackle. First, what exactly happened at the resurrection of Jesus? Was his physical body brought back to life? Or was he transformed into an immortal spiritual body? Perhaps he never had a mortal body in the first place. Second, how was Jesus related to God? Perhaps he was a good man adopted by God. Eventually Christians came to believe he was no mere man, but an eternal divine being. Third, what happens to people after they die? Jews knew that nothing happened to them. They were not in heaven or hell because there was no heaven or hell. In the world to come, God would eventually resurrect the dead back on earth. After many years, Christians decided that people possessed immortal souls, that went to heaven or hell immediately after death. The idea of the resurrection of the dead faded into the background.

With the support of the Philistines, David turns his bandit gang into a disciplined mercenary force. After Saul's death fighting David's patrons in battle at Mt Gilboa, David is made king of the southern tribes, but not the northern.

It should have been but a few days march from Mt Sinai to the promised land. But the Israelite's kvetching annoys God so much he condemns them to spend 40 years in the wilderness.

Jesus' mission to Galilee does not go as well as hoped. The Pharisees and scribes attack him for teaching and working wonders on the sabbath. Jesus spars with the Jewish factions many times. Jesus attacks the Pharisees for their petty legalism. Modern interpretations of these accounts hold them to reflect the situation when the gospels were written, projected back into the time of Jesus. Jesus' Galilean ministry concludes with his Transfiguration, where he stands between Moses and Elijah, and the voice of God again declares that Jesus is his son.

Flood epics were a dime a dozen in ancient Mesopotamia. Genesis has its own version. This section of Genesis is full of puzzles: Cain's gift of tabouleh is rejected; the dating system is a complete mess; Noah was alive in Abraham's time; Enoch goes to heaven; the mysterious Nephilim make an appearance; Canaan is cursed for no reason and the slavery of blacks is justified.

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of our favourite crazy theories.

What solid statements can we make about the life of Jesus? Who did Jesus think he was? We can never know, but we can make some guesses. Certainly, he thought he was like an Old Testament prophet. He believed that God's kingly rule was about to intervene. Jesus believed that his mission was to prepare the Jews for God’s imminent intervention in the world. Did Jesus intend to found a new religion? I doubt it.

Four prophets lived in the last decades of the kingdom of Judah. In his short and miserable book, Zephaniah rails about the destruction to come. Jeremiah is a foreign policy advisor, and spreader of doom. We are all going to die! Surrender to your new overlords: Babylon! In a short and nasty work, Nahum gloats at the fall of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, a victory he did nothing to accomplish. Habakkuk is a contemplative philosopher, with an important question for God.

The notion of the Trinity is one of -- if not the -- most difficult concepts in Christian theology. Steve Guerra and I plough through centuries of Jewish and Christian thought to try to make sense of it. Part one of two.

As the Tanakh tells it, the Jewish nation comprised a united body-politic from the fall of the kingdom of Israel right through the return. The only division in Judaism was between those who followed God’s laws, and those who strayed. From the time of the Seleucids on, the people fragmented into factions and religious renewal movements. Prime amongst these were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes: maybe.

As so often, the synoptic gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke tell a different story of the third and final act of Jesus' life compared to the gospel of John. In the gospel of John, Jesus spends six months in Judea before his death, and is attacked by the authorities because he raised Lazarus from the dead. John has Jesus deliver a series of confusing speeches about his relationship with God. Against John, the synoptic gospels assert that Jesus spent a few weeks traveling to Judea, and only a week in the city.

Mark is the earliest, shortest, and least popular gospel. We don't know if Mark was a Jew or a gentile. Mark's audience is assailed by the powers that be. He has an especial dislike of the Pharisees. His Greek is rough, but punchy. Mark expects the return of Jesus any day now. Mark's Jesus was a man adopted by God at Jesus' baptism. His Jesus is forever telling people shut up about Jesus' true identity. In Mark, Jesus is Clark Kent, not Superman. In Mark, the reader always knows more than the characters in the story. Mark thinks the disciples are nitwits. The gospel of Matthew has long been regarded as the premier gospel. Matthew uses a lot of Mark, but he treats Mark critically. Matthew improves Mark's Greek, reveals Clark Kent as Superman, and is much kinder to the disciples. Matthew really differs from Mark by including five long speeches, including the famous Sermon on the Mount

We all know of the biblical hero Samson, known to his friends as Shimshon ben Manoah, and to his enemies as “that bastard”. Samson of the long hair, Samson who was seduced by Delilah, Samson who brought down the Philistine temple. In this bonus episode, three award-worthy history podcast writers and producers bring Samson to trial for mass murder.

None of the gospels recount the resurrection. They tell of the discovery of the empty by Mary Magdalene and some other women, and then move to Jesus post-resurrection appearances. The resurrection happens off stage. The Gospel of Peter is the only document that describes the actual moment of resurrection.

The gospels present differing accounts of Jesus' appearances after his death. Did he appear in spirit, like an angel, or as real fleshly human?
How many people did he appear to, and when, and where?

In John's account of the early ministry, Jesus flies all over the place. He steals the disciples Simon Peter and Andrew from the Baptist while in the Perea. In his first great sign, he turns water into wine at Cana, then finds the disciples Philip and Nathaniel. He cleanses the temple and debates Nicodemus. He is first recognised as Messiah by a Samaritan, a people derided by the Jews. Jesus gives us his first theology lesson. None of this is in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In the second century, there were three groups of Jewish-leaning Jesus clubs: the Johhanines, the Nazoreans, and the Ebionities. These had either vanished or been absorbed into gentile Christanity by the year 200.
While that was happening, the Christian movement came to the attention of the imperial authorities. Writing in 110, governor Pliny only knew they seemed to be vaguely seditious, and had depraved practices, such as meeting before dawn. Forty years later, Christians had gained an appalling reputation. They refused to participate in any of the state rituals that bonded the emperor, the people, and the state to the gods. They were unpatriotic. Even worse, they were wicked sexual deviants with barbaric rituals. The Romans viewed them as witches.
I finish the episode by introducing the earliest Christian apologies, books written to defend the faith from the calumnies made against it.

Bernie Maopolski from the Fan of History podcast and I have fun discussing how the Judeans ended up in exile in the Babylonian empire.

Our most important sources for the Return are the books known as Ezra and Nehemiah in Catholic and Protestant bibles. The Jews have a single book, called Ezra. There a whole bunch of other books of Ezra, many to be found in Russian and Greek bibles. 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Latin Esdras, Esdras Alpha, the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, the Latin Vision of Ezra, the Questions of Ezra, the Revelation of Ezra. What a muddle! Colombus used 4 Esdras to discover America.

Abraham swindles the Philistine king Abimelech just as he did Pharoah, and almost kills his son Isaac, following God's commands. At the very last minute, God says it's all been a test. Was this a remnant of ancient Israelite child sacrifice? After a perfunctory chapter or two on Isaac, Genesis forgets about him to talk about the Bible's greatest and least repentant con-man: Jacob, later known as Israel. We meet yet another scheming wife, Rebekah.

Announcing the publication of the final volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion series of books.
The book contains the entire scripts of the show’s third and final season. It follows the history of the two heirs of Abraham, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, to the year 200. By that year, the rabbis had formed their foundational document, the Mishnah;, and Christianity had created the imperial church incorporate.
The volume also discusses Gnosticism at length, the many books that almost made into the New Testament, and the early years of the rabbinic movement.
All the information you need is at https://www.historyinthebible.com/books.html

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of the miraculous births to be found in the world's religions, including the birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary.

The Jesus-clubs reacted against Marcion's tiny list of sacred works. The invention of the codex, the book, brought the issue of the canon to the forefront. Melito, Tatian, Irenaeus, Eusebius, and Athanasius made the first attempts to list a sacred canon. The Christians struggled against Marcionites, Montanists, and Gnostics to define what they believed. I introduce the Shepherd of Hermas.

This is a bonus episode for season two. Steve Guerra and I tackle the the book of Daniel. We all know the book's stories of Daniel: the lion's den, the fiery furnace, and the writing on the wall. We discover a book of two parts, one of which claims to be a reliable history of Babylonian times. Spoiler: It's not. The second half is the only apocalypse in the Old Testament.

Scholars are divided about the Babylonian destruction wrought on Judah. The Biblical sources tell different stories. How many were deported to Babylon, and how many stayed behind? Was Judah left utterly desolate, as the Book of Chronicles says, or just reduced, as the Book of Kings says? We find out what happened to the prophet Jeremiah, and encounter the book of Lamentations; and the book of Baruch, one found in Catholic and Orthodox bibles, but not Protestant.

The discovery of the ancient Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus in the 19th century revealed that the New Testament circulated in three different textual traditions: the Byzantine, the Alexandrian, and the Western. It became clear that the Textus Receptus was based entirely on Byzantine manuscripts, all written in the high Middle Ages. Modern Protestant and Catholic bibles rely on the much older Alexandrian manuscripts, represented by Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, and on modern papyrus discoveries.

In this co-released episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I introduce our new series on the apocalypse. We talk about the little-known but rich literature that flourished between the closing of the Old Testament, and the opening of the New Testament; and how it crucially influenced Judaism and Christianity.

In this co-released episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I continue our series on the apocalyptic literature, with the second of two episodes on the earliest Christian apocalypse, the Book of Revelation. We find lots of magical numbers.

Apocalypses were popular reading amongst Jews in the centuries they spent under Roman rule. Rabbinical Judaism blotted the apocalypses from its collective memory. Christianity incorporated them into its very soul. I cover the greatest apocalypse of them all, 1st Enoch. The book of Tobit is my special guest star.

Announcing the publication of the first volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Essential Resources”. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/
https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950726/
https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/

In this bonus episode I am joined by Steve Guerra of the podcast History of the Papacy. We introduce our latest mini-series, the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament. We will cover Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Only two of Abraham's heirs survived to the year 200 CE/AD: rabbinic Judaism, and the imperial church incorporate. My final epiodes explore how that happened.

David's son Solomon is the first Hebrew king we can assign reliable dates to. Or maybe not. Solomon is a dazzling glitter-ball on the international stage; the richest, wisest, and most awesome king in the entire Middle East. He marries an Egyptian princess. I go through the legends of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and investigate the role of Solomon's benefactor, King Hiram of the Phoenician city of Tyre.

The first half of Leviticus is preoccupied with the priests and the Tabernacle. The second half of Leviticus radically extends the idea of holiness to the whole people of the Israelites. It lays down a mass of laws, from what an Israelite can eat, to laws on menstruation.

King Saul becomes king of the Israelites, in four different ways. Samuel moves from being the last judge to the first prophet. I take the opportunity to introduce the Hebrew prophets, showing they were not fortune-tellers and sooth-sayers. They responded to political crises, and spoke about the here and now.

The finds at the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria provided us with our knowledge of the religion of Canaan, the land conquered by the Israelites. Some of this religion, such as the god El and the monsters Leviathon and Bohemoth found their way into the ancient religion of Israel and into the Bible. I also discuss the most common names of god found in the Bible (Yahweh, El, Elohim, Adonai), and what they mean.

Justin Martyr is the second of the great Christian figures of the second century. He is one of the earliest for whom we have a substantial biography from the man himself. He wrote at length and often, creating the largest body of Christian literature to his time. Later Christians quoted from him endlessly, and lauded him as a writer, apologist, philosopher, and intellectual. But he introduced a pronounced anti-Jewish animus into Christianity. He also creates the concept of “heresy”, which would bedevil Christianity for centuries. I also discuss two of Justin’s successors: Melito and Tatian.

In the last half of Deuteronomy, Moses lays out laws on family matters. I compare these to the Mesopotamian law codes. He sets out a splendid set of curses on those would disobey, modeled on Assyrian curses. Polytheism sneaks through a few times.

My special guest is Dan Libenson of the Judaism Unbound podcast. We talk about the Bible, the history of the Jewish religion, the difficulties of translation, how Jews and Christians think about God, and many other matters. All good fun!

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron of a Podcast of Biblical Proportions and I finish our discussion of biblical chronology.

Keynote ep: I look at the two earliest Christian communities we know about: the Judean clubs run from Jerusalem by James and Peter, and the pagan clubs founded by Paul and others. I also have excursions into why women lost their positions of authority in Paul's clubs, the gospel according to the Hebrews, and how Paul transformed the message of Jesus, into a message about Jesus.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Paul has been on the road for 20 years. In his third and final mission, Paul travels from his base in Antioch in Syria through his earlier foundations in Turkey and Greece. He re-unites with Priscilla and Aquila. He spends a few years in the great city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. We meet Apollos, who is spreading the word of John the Baptist. As usual, Paul is violently ejected from Ephesus. This time, the pagans are to blame. Paul tells all and sundry that he has the monopoly on religious trinkets. That really upsets all those making a fortune selling relics of the great goddess Artemis. Paul barely makes it out town with his skin intact. He travels through Macedonia and Greece, then back to Asia Minor. He delivers a melancholy speech at Miletus, and reluctantly turns toward Jerusalem. I finish the episode with a letter Paul wrote during the mission, his angry letter to the Galatians, where he denounces the circumcision party of James and Peter.

In the book of Ezekiel God transforms from furious father to jealous husband. The prophet is commanded to protest against the Judeans with performance art. He has a few passages no-one can make head nor tail of. I also reluctantly tackle the book of Job, that most difficult of books.

The gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels. He insists that his readers must follow Jewish law. Yet his gospel contains the infamous blood cry. Matthew's community might have been Jews who went to synagogue, and believed that what we call Christianity was the right way to be a Jew. Or they might have been outside the synagogues. Matthew today is understood as a factional writer, one who contended against the emerging rabbinical community. The gospel of Luke is part of a package, with the book of Acts. Luke is the most polished of the gospels, yet ranks with Mark in the bottom of the popularity stakes, even though it contains some of our most beloved stories: the parables of the good Samaritan and the tax collector, the annunciation of Jesus and John the Baptist, the shepherds and their flocks, and Jesus ascension to heaven.

My Epiphany special relates the story of Christmas as told by the gospel of Matthew. In Matthew, the story is told from Joseph's point of view, not Mary's. Matthew has wise men, the infamous massacre of the innocents, and the flight to Egypt. No angels and no shepherds. He does not mention Mary's relative Elizabeth, and her son John the Baptist. If you read Matthew carefully, he says nothing of the day of Christmas, but he has a lot to say about the day of Epiphany, 6th January, the day the magi paid homage. I also introduce the Gospel of James, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

Samuel manufactures reasons to condemn King Saul, and supplant him with David. Our two great sources, the Septuagint and the Masoretic text, have very different versions of David's complicated rise.

Paul's letters say that he spent 17 years in Arabia Nabatea, in Damascus, and in what is now southern Turkey. In all those long years, he met the disciples precisely once, and then only Peter and James the brother of Jesus. I call this Paul's lost mission. The Book Acts ignores it. The chronology of Acts is impossible to reconcile with Paul's letters.

In this co-released episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I discuss the mysterious figure of Melchizedek, and try to work out how he figures in the Jewish and Christian priesthoods. Check out Steve at the Agora Podcast Network.

In Judah, we meet a bunch of kings: Uzziah, Jotham and Ahaz. Uzziah gets leprosy when he offends the priests. Jotham's reign is confused, just like I am. Ahaz is threatened on all sides. Back in Israel, Jeroboam II is followed by Zechariah, then in quick succession by Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah. Israel is falling apart. King Retzin of Aram-Damascus hammers the Hebrews, but is squashed by the Assyrians.

My special guest is Dan Libenson of the Judaism Unbound podcast. We talk about Israeli author Yochi Brandes' novel The Secret Book of Kings, set in the period of Saul, David, Solomon, and then the divided monarchy. It has been recently translated into English from the Hebrew. The novel was a smash hit in Israel. We discuss the novel and its impact in israel, and how it bears on Dan's quest to forge the next Jewish future.

I finish my survey of the Book of Psalms. The psalms are replete with references to God as but one member of the pantheon of the ancient Canaanite religion, a god fighting the ancient sea monsters of the Canaanites: Rehab, Leviathan, and Behemoth. Boney M. sings psalm 137.

In 1st Corinthians, Paul struggles to impose his authority on his foundation. He denounces other preachers. He attacks the Corinthians for tolerating sexual immorality, and for favouring the rich members.He has to explain the resurrection. 2nd Corinthians is believed to be a composite of at least two other letters. In the first part of the letter, Paul buries the hatchet, and makes nice with the previously rebellious Corinthians. In the second part, Paul turns into Mr Hyde, and lashes into the Corinthians for listening to others, others who say that Paul is no apostle. In his letter to the Romans, Paul introduces himself, sets out some theology, and ass for help for his Spanish mission.

After the primeval stories, Genesis introduces the man who dominates and forms the very heart of of book, Abraham. He is the first of the patriarchs. God makes a real-estate deal with Abraham, giving him Canaan in return for eternal fidelity. Abraham has many adventures, meeting and swindling the Pharoah of Egypt; and encountering the mysterious Melkizedek, priest and king of Jerusalem. We also meet his scheming wife Sarai, his slave-wive Hagar, and his first-born son Ishmael.

The Great Revolt of 66 AD/CE began as a protest against Rome's failure to protect the Judeans from their ancient foes. The Judeans proved to be effective fighters, easily dispatching the initial Roman response. The Romans withdrew and regrouped. That gave Judea seven months to prepare for Roman retaliation. During that interlude, Judea instead erupted into a vicious civil war. Judean militias and warlords attacked and betrayed each other. They acted as though the Romans were the least of their problems. They murdered countless numbers of their countrymen in Jerusalem, and starved the rest. The Great Revolt ended up as a self-inflicted catastrophe.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Gil Kidron and I discuss how a small rural priest called Mattathias started an insurgency against Judea’s overlords, the mighty Seleucid kingdom, heir to the empire of Alexander the Great. His descendants became rulers of the tiny region. They are known to history as the Maccabeans. In this period, we see the emergence of two political or social groups. First, the Sadducees, or Tsadokites. Second, the Pharisees. 

In this bonus, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history) invites me onto his "Whats New In History" segment. We discuss my ideas about how Bible scholars have it all wrong about the mathematics of the growth of Christinaity in the Roman Empire, and how I have corrected their errors. I also have some announcements about my final episodes, and about my forthcoming book of the show. 

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss why we love ancient history.

Until the late 19th century, the Gnostic works were known only from their opponents, who regarded them as aberrant and vile Christians.  Discoveries since then have uncovered a wealth of Gnostic literature. The Gnostics are now usually divided into two groups: Sethians and Valentinians. The Sethians are the older. Many scholars hold that their roots are in Second Temple Judaism, not Christianity.

By the year 70, all of the disciples save perhaps John, were dead. Their inheritors are traditionally known as the Apostolic fathers, although many scholars would object to that appellation. I explore the fathers in this and the next episode. In this show I present the very earliest: Bishop Clement of Rome, and the anonymous author of the Didache, a fascinating look into earliest Christian practices. Along the way I speculate about the relationship between Jewish and Christian practices of the time. Who took what from whom? I finish up with the earliest Christian commentator, Papias of Hierapolis; and with Ignatius of Antioch.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

This is a bonus episode for season two. Bernie Maopolski from the Fan of History podcast and I have fun with the book of Deuteronomy. And jellyfish.

Christians in the first two centuries did not have a sacred canon of books. In this first of four parts, I discuss what the earliest church fathers Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and Papias were reading. Marcion spurred the Jesus-clubs into action.

Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I turn a quizzical eye on Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.

Keynote ep: The Jews living in the Roman empire had many privileges that allowed them to practice their religion in peace and security. They were even allowed to avoid their patriotic duties of service to the state. The Romans favoured the province of Judea under the House of Herod, appointing it the peacekeeper and Roman proxy in the region. Why then did they revolt? I also introduce the synagogues.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Steve Guerra from the History in the Papacy podcast and I concluded our series on the Twelve minor prophets of the OT some time ago. That was a fake-out. We managed to rope in a real expert to conclude our mini-series. Let me introduce Prof Kip Swinney.

This is the second of an irregular series of bonus episodes, in addition to my fortnightly installments. In this bonus episode, Stephen Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I talk about the Second Temple period.  This was the time between the return of the Jews from the exile in Babylon in 538 BC to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.

You can visit Steve and the History of the Papacy podcast at http://atozhistorypage.com, or you can listen to him on iTunes. Again, thanks to Steve for doing all the editing and recording work.

The rest of the show covers the second half of the second century. In this period, the little Jesus clubs evolved into the imperial church incorporate. This and the next few episodes cover the three dominant personalities of that period. In this episode I investigate the ‘heretic’ Marcion of Sinope. Marcion shook the church to its foundations when he moved to Rome. He rejected the idea that Christianity was based on Judaism and the Old testament. He constructed the first Christian canon: ten letters of Paul, and a reduced version of the gospel of Luke. Decisively expelled by the imperial church incorporate, Marcion returned to Asia Minor and founded a successful rival to the church, one that persisted for centuries. Marcion forced the church to build its own canon, and to raise Paul from obscure letter-writer and martyr, to pre-eminent apostle. 

Most of Jesus ministry was conducted in Galilee. This time is stuffed to the brim with miracles and parables. Jesus exorcizes demons, raises people from the dead, and cures the sick. He feeds thousands, walks on water, and calms the storm. He teaches parables about old wine into new skins, mustard seeds, pearls, and weeds amongst the wheat. He meets Mary Magdalene. Jesus predicts his own death. Peter professes him the Messiah and Son of God.

This is a bonus episode for season two. My long-time collaborator, Steve Guerra, attended the IntelligentSpeech podcasting conference in New York in June 2019. I appeared with Steve thanks to the magic that is Skype. We talk all things Biblical. I hope you enjoy this bonus show. The conference was organised by Roifield Brown, producer of numerous podcasts: How Jamaica Conquered the World, and The Things That Made England, amongst others. Roifield was the man who introduced me to history podcasting.

The Jews have a placid existence under Persian rule, and create Judaism. They reconstruct their religion, one now without kings and prophets. From on, the Law is all. I discuss the last of the books of the Tanakh: the romances of Esther and Judith, the hateful but mercifully brief prophet Obadiah, and the funniest book in the canon, Jonah.

During the middle of the 2nd century, Paul was rescued from the Marcionites and Gnostics. He was elevated from honoured missionary to master theologian. I also discuss the Acts of Paul and his acolyte Thecla.

More speculations and alternative histories! Our first diverges from our own timeline in about the year 35. What if Jesus had not been executed by the Romans, but had lived on to see the Great Judean Revolt of 66 CE. What would he have made of it? Second, let’s say that Jesus died when did, a generation before the Great Revolt. What might have happened if his chief apostles Peter and Paul had lived to witness the Roman attack on Judea? And third, let’s move on to about the year 100, when Christians first fell under the Roman gaze. Would the church have flourished earlier and more strongly if the Roman state had never persecuted it?

I wrap-up the Book of Joshua, and rush right into the dark times of the Book of Judges. I start with the central and oldest chapters, called the Book of the Rescuers, the heroic epic of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Keynote ep: An introduction to the geo-political world of Jesus. I also discuss the many problems we have when attempting to reconcile the chronologies of the gospels. The synoptic gospels differ in the details. The big problem is with the gospel of John. We simply cannot reconcile the chronology of John with the synoptics.

We believe there were four distinct early Christian communities: the gentile clubs of Paul, the Jewish clubs of Peter and James, the clubs who followed the writings of Thomas, and clubs attached to the disciple John. In this episode I tackle the first three.
The letter to the Hebrews is the most vigorous exposition of Paul's views and denigration of his own people, the Jews. But the letter never claims Paul as its author. And its not even a letter. Various books try to harmonise Paul and Peter. In Acts, Peter sounds like Paul of the letters, and Paul sounds like Peter of the gospels. Acts may conceal a hostility to Paul in its depiction of Simon Magus. The pastoral letters move Paul closer to Peter’s views. The two letters of Peter move Peter closer to Paul. The gospel of Thomas and Acts of Thomas show that some communities were attracted to early Gnostic views.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

The origins of the rabbis, dated to the second century CE, are shrouded in fog, for reasons we do not understand. Why did the Jews cease writing histories after the year 100? Why do we have no histories from the Babylonian Jews. Where did the Mishnah, the foundational document of Rabbinic thought, dome from? I also discuss the evidence that historians of antiquity use, and how they assess that evidence. Especial thanks to Dr. Bret C. Devereaux, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his amusing insights.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

The Temple's destruction also destroyed all the many varieties of Second Temple Judaism, save for the emerging rabbinic movement, and the nascent Christian movement.

Isaiah's ambiguity has made him a crowd-pleaser for over 2,500 years. He introduces a bunch of shiny-new theological ideas previously unknown in the Bible. Christians read into his book prophecies of the Christ. Micah is his counterpoint.

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Torah, the Pentateuch, the books holiest to Jews. To many Jewish scholars, the Torah is where study of the bible stops. I discuss how Deuteronomy was modeled on Assyrian vassal treaties.

Dan Libenson of the Judaism Unbound podcast returns to the show. This time we discuss best-selling Israeli author Yochi Brandes' novel 'The Orchard'. Dan translated the book into English. The novel centres on Rabbi Akiva, the man who forged rabbinic Judaism after teh fall of the Temple. Along the way we encounter a host of other rabbis and Paul of Tarsus. We also ponder the difficulties of translation and working out what actually happened in history.

In this bonus episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I take a look at some of our favourite moments in the Old Testament or Tanakh. First, Steve wonders what the deal is with Melchizedek. Then Garry shows how a single verse about the patriarch Enoch spawned a whole literature. Back to Steve, who finds some surprising verses in Psalm 137. We conclude with the old she’s not my wife she’s my sister scam, which Abraham and Isaac pull three times