Hey, this is Tim and welcome to the Bible Project podcast.

Usually, John, my partner in the Bible Project, he does these introductions to the weekly

podcast, but this episode I wanted to do because it's a special episode for the Bible project

and also for me personally.

I started to read the Bible in a committed way a little over 20 years ago now, and for

the first couple of years I was just bewildered and lost like most people are when they start

reading the Bible.

But I had the privilege of signing up for classes at a great Bible college here in Portland,

and I was introduced to the wonderful world of biblical scholarship.

And one of the scholars that I was introduced to in those early years was the late 90s.

Was the work of a scholar of New Testament and Jewish studies, his name in the US.

He's called NT, right?

Over in Europe, he's referred to as Tom, right?

But I still remember it was a bookstore, Powell's Books here in Portland.

I was wandering in the biblical study section, and I saw one of his books.

I'd never read anything by him before, and so I picked it out and went down to the coffee

shop in the bookstore and just started reading a book called The New Testament and the People

of God.

And dude, I was hooked.

I couldn't put it down, and I didn't have a lot of money at the time, but I bought this

big fat book anyway.

And I'm so glad that I did.

...