History in the Bible

In this Afterlife episode, Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com) explains to me the origins and customs of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Then I explain what Easter is about, and how it is intimately connected to Passover.

Transcribed - Published: 13 April 2025

In this Afterlife episode, Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I try to figure out where the rabbis came from.  

Transcribed - Published: 16 February 2025

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of the miraculous births to be found in the world's religions, including the birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary.

Transcribed - Published: 5 January 2025

Announcing the publication of the final volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion series of books. The book contains the entire scripts of the show’s third and final season. It follows the history of the two heirs of Abraham, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, to the year 200. By that year, the rabbis had formed their foundational document, the Mishnah;, and Christianity had created the imperial church incorporate. The volume also discusses Gnosticism at length, the many books that almost made into the New Testament, and the early years of the rabbinic movement. All the information you need is at https://www.historyinthebible.com/books.html  

Transcribed - Published: 22 September 2024

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of our favourite crazy theories.

Transcribed - Published: 15 September 2024

In this Afterlife episode, Steve Guerra of History of the Papacy (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-of-the-papacy-podcast--4899207) and I discuss history podcasting.

Transcribed - Published: 1 September 2024

I introduce the New Testament to Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com). Here are the Amazon US links for the books mentioned in this episode: Vol 1 Genesis to Babylon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950734 Vol 2 Age of the Second Temple https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 Vol 4 Essential Resources https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950726  

Transcribed - Published: 18 August 2024

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss why we love ancient history.

Transcribed - Published: 4 August 2024

I have published another volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books. It contains the complete scripts of the second season of my podcast. This is the Age of the Second Temple. It covers the books in the Old Testament written after the return from Babylon.  The volume explores the history of Judea from Persian to Roman times. It investigates in depth the rich apocalyptic literature of the time. Then the book examines all the books of the New Testament to see what we can reliably know of the history of Jesus and the disciples, and the great apostle Paul. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.de/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.fr/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0645950769  

Transcribed - Published: 25 July 2024

Announcing the publication of a new volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Genesis to Babylon”. This contains the complete scripts of the first season of the show. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 ttps://www.amazon.com.au/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734

Transcribed - Published: 22 June 2024

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history) and I discuss history podcasting.

Transcribed - Published: 22 June 2024

Announcing the publication of the first volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Essential Resources”. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/

Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2024

The last episode in the show. I give a big thank you to all my listeners, and a brief biographical sketch. Then I finish the series with three more speculations. First, what if Marcionism had become the orthodoxy of the imperial church incorporate? Second, could Manichaeism have swallowed up the church? And finally, could the church have survived and prospered had it not become the state religion of the Roman empire?

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2024

Four more speculations.  I argue that an important element of Christianity’s success was that it quickly transformed itself into what I call the imperial church incorporate. Would Christianity have succeeded had it not done so?  Second, could Mithraism have triumphed over the church?  Third, could the Gnostic variants of Christianity come to dominate?  Finally, the Jewish arm of the church vanished after the Bar Kosiva revolt of 132. What might have happened had that group survived and thrived?  

Transcribed - Published: 14 January 2024

More speculations and alternative histories! Our first diverges from our own timeline in about the year 35. What if Jesus had not been executed by the Romans, but had lived on to see the Great Judean Revolt of 66 CE. What would he have made of it? Second, let’s say that Jesus died when did, a generation before the Great Revolt. What might have happened if his chief apostles Peter and Paul had lived to witness the Roman attack on Judea? And third, let’s move on to about the year 100, when Christians first fell under the Roman gaze. Would the church have flourished earlier and more strongly if the Roman state had never persecuted it?

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2024

This is the second episode in a series of speculations and alternate histories. This time:  What if Christian missionaries had never preached to the pagans? Second, what may happened if Christian missionaries had ignored the Roman empire, and proselytised in Parthia, instead? Third, what would have become of Christianity if the Jewish revolts had never occurred, and the Temple stood to the end of the empire?

Transcribed - Published: 18 December 2023

In this bonus, I continue my collaboration with Steve Guerra of the "History of the Papacy" show (www.atozhistorypage.com/), and Scott McCandless of the "Retelling the Bible" podcast (retellingthebible.wordpress.com/). In this bonus we revisit Scott’s show on the Gadarene swine. I also have a reminder of Gil Kindron's and my course on Isaiah, in January 2024. For more information, go to podcastofbiblicalproportions.com/courses.

Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2023

This is the first episode in a series of speculations and alternate histories. This time: what if John the Baptist was bigger than Jesus? What if Paul had split to form his own independent movement?

Transcribed - Published: 19 November 2023

In this bonus, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history) invites me onto his "Whats New In History" segment. We discuss my ideas about how Bible scholars have it all wrong about the mathematics of the growth of Christinaity in the Roman Empire, and how I have corrected their errors. I also have some announcements about my final episodes, and about my forthcoming book of the show. 

Transcribed - Published: 5 November 2023

In this bonus, I continue my collaboration with Steve Guerra of the "History of the Papacy" show (https://www.atozhistorypage.com/), and Scott Mcandless of the "Retelling the Bible" podcast (https://retellingthebible.wordpress.com/). In this show we revisit Scott’s show on Abraham's three mysterious vistors. I also have an announcement about the final episodes in my main narrative, and a forthcoming book.

Transcribed - Published: 1 October 2023

The revolt of Bar Kosiva against Rome failed, as had the Great Revolt. The Roman punishment destroyed almost all the many blooms living in the mighty jungle that was Second Temple Judaism. Only two species escaped the immolation: rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity. The imperial punishment also destroyed the Jewish wing of the church incorporate, leaving the franchise to follow its own path. With a shout-out to the great Rabbi Akiva.

Transcribed - Published: 5 August 2023

The Temple's destruction also destroyed all the many varieties of Second Temple Judaism, save for the emerging rabbinic movement, and the nascent Christian movement.

Transcribed - Published: 16 July 2023

In this bonus, Gregg Gassman of the Popeular History Podcast (www.popeularhistory.com) and and I discuss Peter, Paul, and Clement. Gregg is a Catholic, and I was brought up in the Anglican tradition. So we have some differences about Peter, as you will soon hear. We also try to work out where Clement fits in the papal succession. 

Transcribed - Published: 9 July 2023

Only two of Abraham's heirs survived to the year 200 CE/AD: rabbinic Judaism, and the imperial church incorporate. My final epiodes explore how that happened.

Transcribed - Published: 18 June 2023

In this collaboration with Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy show (https://www.atozhistorypage.com/), and Scott McAndless of the Retelling the Bible podcast (https://retellingthebible.wordpress.com/2021/09/15/5-19-me-myself-and-manoah/), we discuss Scott's episode "Me, Myself, and Manoah".

Transcribed - Published: 4 June 2023

In this bonus, I launch a new mini-series. My co-hosts are Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy show (https://www.atozhistorypage.com/), and Scott Mcandless of the Retelling the Bible podcast (https://retellingthebible.wordpress.com/). In these bonus episodes, we will discuss one of Scott’s re-tellings. In this show we revisit Scott’s show on Joshua and the day the sun stood still.

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2023

In this bonus, John Brooks of the “Pod Only Knows” podcast interviews me about the genesis and making of my show. I think it turned out pretty well.  This episode formed the last show of John’s former podcast, “Hard to Believe”. It is published here with his kind permission. With his new podcast, “Pod Only Knows”, John is off to fresh ventures, along with Dr. Kelly J. Baker. They are both from the serious world of religious studies. In their new show, they take a sometimes serious, sometimes irreverent, and always curious, look at the way religion shows up in our world. Kelly and John invite other people from the wide and wild world of religious studies to talk to them about why and how they do what they do and why their work matters to us all.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2023

Irenaeus died around the year 200. In his final decades, pagan intellectuals first turned their sights on the Christians. The first was Celsus. Christians counter-attacked with more apologies. They also produced homilies, such as the 2nd letter of Clement.  Fans also produced some fanciful acts and gospels of the various disciples, and two biographies of the young Jesus: the Paidika, and the Protevangelium of James. I finish with a look at two accounts of local persecutions during the period, in Lyon and Scillium. Did they actually happen?

Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2023

Gil Kidron and I discuss how a small rural priest called Mattathias started an insurgency against Judea’s overlords, the mighty Seleucid kingdom, heir to the empire of Alexander the Great. His descendants became rulers of the tiny region. They are known to history as the Maccabeans. In this period, we see the emergence of two political or social groups. First, the Sadducees, or Tsadokites. Second, the Pharisees. 

Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2023

After Irenaeus rescued Paul from the Marcionites and Gnostics, Paul’s letters were honoured and uncontroversial documents, testaments to a great missionary and theologian. Martin Luther weaponised them to attack the established church, and so birthed the Protestant movement. In the 1970s, the New Perspective on Paul movement tried to rescue Paul from Luther. I also finish up my discussion of the Acts of Paul, and make an assessment of Paul’s real significance to Christianity. 

Transcribed - Published: 26 February 2023

The Conspirinormal podcast people kindly invited me onto their show. The  hosts Adam Sayne and Serfiel Stevenson have generously allowed me to publish our conversation here.

Transcribed - Published: 12 February 2023

In this bonus episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I continue our look at some of our favourite moments in the Old Testament or Tanakh. First, Steve investigates the unfortunate incident of Dinah and the Hebites. Then Garry shows a little-known side to Joseph's rule in Egypt.

Transcribed - Published: 29 January 2023

During the middle of the 2nd century, Paul was rescued from the Marcionites and Gnostics. He was elevated from honoured missionary to master theologian. I also discuss the Acts of Paul and his acolyte Thecla.

Transcribed - Published: 15 January 2023

The imperial church of the late 2nd century was bedevilled by external competitors -- Gnostics, Marcionites, Montanists – and vexed by internal division over the nature of Christ. Was he man, god, or both? The church brought forth fighters to defend its corporate markets. These were the heresy hunters. Justin Martyr and Hegesippus the Holy were early soldiers.  Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon was the greatest of these warriors. His works was enormously influential. For a start, he decisively moved the church away from its reliance on the Jewish holy books as divine authorities, and towards a new holy canon.  In his greatest work, “Against Heresies”, Irenaeus produced an encyclopedia of the church’s enemies. He invented the concept of heresy, incorrect belief. This was a concept unknown to the ancient world. Irenaeus used the concept to set up clear borders between the church incorporate and its rivals.

Transcribed - Published: 24 December 2022

Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I turn a quizzical eye on Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.

Transcribed - Published: 4 December 2022

Steve Guerra from the History in the Papacy podcast and I concluded our series on the Twelve minor prophets of the OT some time ago. That was a fake-out. We managed to rope in a real expert to conclude our mini-series. Let me introduce Prof Kip Swinney.

Transcribed - Published: 20 November 2022

Justin Martyr is the second of the great Christian figures of the second century. He is one of the earliest for whom we have a substantial biography from the man himself. He wrote at length and often, creating the largest body of Christian literature to his time. Later Christians quoted from him endlessly, and lauded him as a writer, apologist, philosopher, and intellectual. But he introduced a pronounced anti-Jewish animus into Christianity. He also creates the concept of “heresy”, which would bedevil Christianity for centuries. I also discuss two of Justin’s successors: Melito and Tatian.

Transcribed - Published: 6 November 2022

The rest of the show covers the second half of the second century. In this period, the little Jesus clubs evolved into the imperial church incorporate. This and the next few episodes cover the three dominant personalities of that period. In this episode I investigate the ‘heretic’ Marcion of Sinope. Marcion shook the church to its foundations when he moved to Rome. He rejected the idea that Christianity was based on Judaism and the Old testament. He constructed the first Christian canon: ten letters of Paul, and a reduced version of the gospel of Luke. Decisively expelled by the imperial church incorporate, Marcion returned to Asia Minor and founded a successful rival to the church, one that persisted for centuries. Marcion forced the church to build its own canon, and to raise Paul from obscure letter-writer and martyr, to pre-eminent apostle. 

Transcribed - Published: 16 October 2022

Steve Guerra from the History in the Papacy podcast and I conclude our mini-series on the Twelve minor prophets of the OT. In this episode we have a bit of fun and rank the Twelve using our own entirely ridiculous criteria.

Transcribed - Published: 2 October 2022

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron of a Podcast of Biblical Proportions and I finish our discussion of biblical chronology.

Transcribed - Published: 18 September 2022

Unlike the Sethian Gnostics, the Valentinian Gnostics are clearly rooted in Christianity. They were founded by Valentinus, an Egyptian who may have stood for the bishopric of Rome. Valentinus founded a popular crusade that borrowed from the Sethians and the apostle Paul. The movement produced a copious literature: the apocalypse of Paul, the apocalypse of Peter, the apocalypse of Adam, the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Phillip, and the gospel of truth. All of these books were recovered only in the 20th century. The Valentinians formed a parallel church to the orthodox, one much more inviting to women. They attended orthodox services, but operated separate elite clubs. They were only suppressed in the fourth century, after the Roman state granted a monopoly to the orthodox. 

Transcribed - Published: 4 September 2022

Until the late 19th century, the Gnostic works were known only from their opponents, who regarded them as aberrant and vile Christians.  Discoveries since then have uncovered a wealth of Gnostic literature. The Gnostics are now usually divided into two groups: Sethians and Valentinians. The Sethians are the older. Many scholars hold that their roots are in Second Temple Judaism, not Christianity.

Transcribed - Published: 14 August 2022

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron of a Podcast of Biblical Proportions and I wade into biblical chronology.

Transcribed - Published: 31 July 2022

In the second century, there were three groups of Jewish-leaning Jesus clubs: the Johhanines, the Nazoreans, and the Ebionities. These had either vanished or been absorbed into gentile Christanity by the year 200. While that was happening, the Christian movement came to the attention of the imperial authorities. Writing in 110, governor Pliny only knew they seemed to be vaguely seditious, and had depraved practices, such as meeting before dawn. Forty years later, Christians had gained an appalling reputation. They refused to participate in any of the state rituals that bonded the emperor, the people, and the state to the gods. They were unpatriotic. Even worse, they were wicked sexual deviants with barbaric rituals. The Romans viewed them as witches. I finish the episode by introducing the earliest Christian apologies, books written to defend the faith from the calumnies made against it.

Transcribed - Published: 17 July 2022

In this bonus episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I take a look at some of our favourite moments in the Old Testament or Tanakh. First, Steve wonders what the deal is with Melchizedek. Then Garry shows how a single verse about the patriarch Enoch spawned a whole literature. Back to Steve, who finds some surprising verses in Psalm 137. We conclude with the old she’s not my wife she’s my sister scam, which Abraham and Isaac pull three times

Transcribed - Published: 26 June 2022

Malachi writes in Persian times. The rebuilt Temple has not ushered in an ideal age, the governors of Yehuda are not Davidic, and the priests and people have lost their watchfulness about God’s coming. Malachi attacks this malaise. The priests are corrupt. The people are unfaithful. All must repent. Joel writes of locusts and famine. An ecological catastrophe is divine retribution for apostasy. He exhorts the people of Judah to repent, fast, and pray to avert these calamities.

Transcribed - Published: 12 June 2022

The Mishnah is the first great product of the rabbis. Traditionally it was codified around 200 CE by Rabbi Yehuda haNasi. It appears from nowhere. The Mishnah bears no resemblance to anything in the Tanakh/Old Testament, nor in the vast Jewish apocalyptic literature of preceding centuries. 

Transcribed - Published: 29 May 2022

The origins of the rabbis, dated to the second century CE, are shrouded in fog, for reasons we do not understand. Why did the Jews cease writing histories after the year 100? Why do we have no histories from the Babylonian Jews. Where did the Mishnah, the foundational document of Rabbinic thought, dome from? I also discuss the evidence that historians of antiquity use, and how they assess that evidence. Especial thanks to Dr. Bret C. Devereaux, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for his amusing insights. Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2022

In this bonus episode, Gil Kidron and I discuss Gil's theory that the scribe Baruch was instrumental in writing (or editing or redacting) the book of Genesis, using the life of his master the prophet Jermiah as a model.

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2022

On the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE, the Judean state was a prosperous, self-governed, and stable kingdom. It was Rome’s best buddy in the Levant, with territories extending beyond the Jordan and into Syria. Thriving Jewish communities could be found from Spain to Egypt. Over a span 70 years, the Judeans launched three insurrections against the Romans. The consequences were catastrophic. 140 years after Herod’s death, the Temple and Jerusalem had been razed, the Judean self-governing province crushed, and its people scattered to the winds. Within the empire, the Romans thereafter applied a heavy hand against many diaspora Jewish communities. Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2022