[Bible] Episode 314: Shayna Sheinfeld - The Complicated World of Second Temple Judaism

The Bible For Normal People

The Bible for Normal People

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete Enns and Anna Sieges Beal sit down with Shayna Sheinfeld to talk about the Second Temple period, spanning from 586 BCE to 70 CE. Shayna presents texts from that time that illuminate events glossed over by most Bibles, and explores the often-overlooked roles played by women wielding power in those communities. Show Notes → https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-314-shayna-sheinfeld-the-complicated-world-of-second-temple-judaism/ Watch this episode on YouTube → https://youtu.be/92i5Pc9CRI4 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Bible for normal people, the only God ordained podcast on the internet.
0:04.9	I'm Pete N's. And I'm Jared Baez.
0:10.9	Did you ever wonder why God created the Garden of Eden with temptation built right into it?
0:17.5	Or ask why an all-powerful God didn't just stop the serpent from deceiving Adam and
0:21.7	Eve? Or ask why God would tell Abraham to murder his son? Well, Pete has just the class for you.
0:28.4	It's called Back to the Beginning, How to Ask Better Questions of Genesis. Yeah, I wanted to teach
0:33.1	this class to think about all those big why questions people ask when they read Genesis, and maybe some
0:38.8	helpful new ways to think about them, maybe seeing what the writers were actually doing instead of
0:43.8	just trying to defend our view of God. That sounds amazing. In this class, Pete will walk us through
0:48.8	why Genesis was written, what's really going on in those strange early stories, and how the later
0:53.6	parts of Genesis
0:54.4	help us ask better questions. If you've ever wondered what Genesis is actually trying to do
0:59.1	or why it matters today, this is a great place to start. The class is happening live on Wednesday,
1:04.3	November 19th, from 8 to 9.30 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by an exclusive Society of Normal
1:09.7	People Q&A. Learn more and sign up at
1:11.8	the Bible for normal people.com front slash Genesis class. Hey, everybody. It's me here, Pete, without
1:18.6	Jared, but I am here with other adult supervision, that is Anna Segas Beal, our very own
1:24.1	nerd in residence. And Anna, how are you doing? I'm doing great.
1:27.8	I'm happy to be here.
1:29.1	I'm glad you're here. We always have so much fun with these interviews. And we did have fun today, didn't we? We definitely had fun. We did. And today's episode, we're talking about misunderstood women in the second temple period. What's that? well we explained that, but we talk about Herod and his kids who have the same name and wives that we can't keep separate because the family trees are crazy.
1:52.0	But it's this backstory to everything. And our guest is Shana Shinefeld.
1:57.0	Shana is a professor of religion at Augsburg University, where she teaches on sacred texts from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
	...

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