BONUS EPISODE - Is "John vs. Idolatry" the Interpretive Key to This Book? (With Dr. Steven Bryan)

The Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast

Matt Whitman

Education, Reading, Morning, Bible, Christianity, History, Prayer, Devotion, Scripture, Study, Faith, Men's, Women's, Plan, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An interview with Dr. Steven Bryan about the purpose of John's Gospel Get Dr. Bryan's book here Thanks to everyone who supports TMBH at patreon.com/thetmbhpodcast You're the reason we can all do this together! Discuss the episode here Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

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0:00.0	bonus episode of bonus episode of the 10 minute Bible hour podcast it's a bonus episode of the 10 minute Bible hour podcast it's a bonus episode, a bonus episode
0:21.4	Of the 10 minute Bible hour podcast
0:25.4	Come on now
0:27.4	It's a bonus episode A bonus episode of the 10 minute This is going to be fun, a moment's up and a son, I've got a friend, a friend. I've got a bunch of things in common in terms of our background. This is Dr. Steve Brian. He's a professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. I'll talk about this a lot around here, but that's where I went to seminary. Though I don't think we overlapped. I didn't have any classes
1:11.0	with Dr. Brian. However, we've got to know each other over the years, and he's put out a book
1:16.5	that I think is very interesting to me. I think it's going to be very interesting to you. It's a book
1:20.2	about John, and it's a book that asks, I think, a very important question, and that is,
1:30.5	why? You already have three Gospels out there,
1:36.2	the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke that tell the story of the life and teachings and death and resurrection and commissioning toward the disciples of Jesus. It's very well-covered material.
1:41.8	The Jesus stuff was a big deal. But then along comes John.
1:45.1	But part of the enchantment of John is that it takes a couple more read-throughs to start
1:52.0	to figure out what he's going for and why this gospel exists.
1:56.7	So, Steve, you wrote a book.
1:58.5	What's the name of the book?
1:59.7	The name of the book is the visible word of the invisible God.
2:04.7	So, visible word of the unseen God. So I can't even get the title of my book, right.
2:08.6	But that's the title of the book.
2:11.5	The subtitle is reading John among rivals, old and new.
2:14.6	It's a mouthful if you throw in the subtitle, but the visible word of the unseen God.
2:20.0	Yeah, it's an academic book. They're all mouthfuls, right? Well, let's just cut to the chase.
2:23.9	Why did John write John when you've already got three perfectly good versions of the story of Jesus
2:31.1	floating around out there and being well received by the early church?
	...

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