Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps

it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds. Thanks for downloading

the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast. The conversation you're about to hear picks up on themes inspired by the summer's BBC proms concerts.

If you're moved to listen to the music,

you can find every concert broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.

Now over to the audience in the Imperial College Theatre

next to the Royal Albert Hall.

BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts.

Handled Jephtha presents us with the story of a man who makes a terrible promise to God

in order to win military triumph, but with heartbreaking results.

This emotional telling of the story of Jephtha raises age-old questions

of sacrifice, duty, and suffering, ones that have exercised Talmudic scholars and Enlightenment philosophers

alike. I'm John Gallowher, and joining me to delve more deeply into the world of Jephtha and Old Testament sacrifice are Dr.

Deborah Rook, who teaches in Oxford University's Faculty of Theology and Religion, and the

Reverend Richard Coles.

Richard, can you tell us a little bit about Jephtha and what you find interesting about him?

Well, Jephthah is one of the judges of Israel, and they were leaders of Israel, or leaders of

bits of Israel, who kind of crop up in the record, roughly around 1,200 BCE, something like

that.

Deborah will know the facts better than I do.

But they were sort of warrior chieftains who were called upon in times of crisis,

...