[Bible] Episode 315: Kent Sparks - The Beginnings of Israelite Religion

The Bible For Normal People

The Bible for Normal People

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete and Jared are joined by Kent Sparks to unpack the early religious history of ancient Israel. Kent explores how ancient Israelites first gave God the name Yahweh, how Israelites understood Yahweh in relation to other ancient Near Eastern deities, and how the roots of monotheism emerge from a far more diverse and evolving set of beliefs than many assume. Show Notes → https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-315-kent-sparks-the-beginnings-of-israelite-religion/ Watch this episode on YouTube → https://youtu.be/JsRPR59pX54 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.
0:05.0	I'm Pete N's.
0:05.7	And I'm Jared Baez.
0:10.5	Hey, folks, we're going to introduce our guests twice today because this is our first
0:16.6	in-person interview and we kind of just got right into it.
0:19.6	Yeah, and it's with our friend Ken Sparks.
0:22.0	So let's get into it.
0:23.3	Let's do it.
0:24.4	It's a blessing to have these ancient voices.
0:27.2	But if you want them to all agree, then what you're inevitably going to do is you're going
0:31.4	to have to run roughshod over somebody.
0:33.9	Right?
0:34.1	You can't listen to all of the perspectives and homogenize them without taking some part of
0:39.6	scripture in not doing justice to the human author who wrote it, nor the God who gave it.
0:49.3	We have today, Provost and Professor of Hebrew Bible, Dr. Kent Sparks.
1:00.7	We're going to be talking about the beginning of...
1:02.2	What does he teach?
1:03.1	We teach at Eastern.
1:04.3	What a coincidence.
1:05.3	Coincidence.
1:05.8	This is actually...
1:06.7	This is Pete's boss.
	...

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