Hello, everyone, and welcome back to misquoting Jesus, this time without Bart.

Now, as you can probably tell from my incredibly strong accent, I am an immigrant to the United States.

As such, the US immigration system has been a rather large feature in my adult life,

but I've never before considered the relationship between American immigration and the Bible,

or more specifically, the Book of Revelation.

It's never really occurred to me that such a relationship even exists.

In complete contrast, my guest today has written an entire and absolutely fascinating book on the subject,

and we're going to be diving right into it.

We'll be exploring how revelation

has been used throughout US history to categorize, demonize, and vilify immigrants, while also

painting the US as the new Jerusalem, sanctuary for God's chosen, which must be defended at all

costs. Welcome to misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.

The only show, where a six-time New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned Bible scholar,

uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.

I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin.

My guest today is Dr. Yijan Lin, an historian of ideas and biblical texts.

She's the author of Immigration and Apocalypse, How the Book of Revelation, Shaped American Immigration,

and The Erotic Life of Manuscripts, New Testament, textual criticism and the biological sciences.

She's associate professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School, where she teaches the critical study of ancient texts and their interpretation, especially in relation to race and gender.

She has made numerous appearances on radio,

podcasts and documentaries to comment on race, immigration, apocalypse and gender. Born in the San Francisco Bay Area to first-generation immigrants, Lynn studied English literature,

and in her bachelor's degree from Pomona College and master's degree from the University of Chicago.

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