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This is the Thinking Atheist podcast, hosted by Seth Andrews.

Today's conversation is between me and Dr. Jody Magnus. She is the real thing. She is one of the world's leading archaeologist of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Now she's got a lecture coming up

online, December 13th, 2 o'clock Eastern that talks about Herod the great, King Herod, who of course

is a legitimate historical figure that has been tied into Bible mythology. The course is called

Herod the tyrant of Christmas. Well, I wanted to know more.

And so this conversation is with Dr. Jodi Magnus. A link to the video version of this is in the description box.

I am honored today to speak to someone who's done kind of a deep dive into a specific part of the nativity story that many people don't know all that much about or have assumed a lot about Dr. Jody Magnus joins me today.

Can I call you Jody? Would that be all right?

Yes, please. Thank you.

I mean, I go with Doc, you know, or something like, but I'm Jody. All right. We're all friends here. At least you're not calling me, ma'am, which is what my students call me. We're in the, I'm in the South. I'm going to start with Matthew makes Herod a big deal, right? Herod is out slaughtering the firstborn, trying to get to Jesus,

and then you got the book of Luke that just sort of leaves Herod out entirely.

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