Why the Bible Was Written
The Hebrew Bible wasn't created by one of the mighty empires of the ancient world — Egypt, Assyria or Babylon — but written in the rubble of a small, conquered kingdom. So how has this "epic monument...
15 Jan 202455min
What Would Jesus Wear?
There's so much we get wrong about clothing and dress in the 1st Century. Did Jewish people dress differently than gentiles? No. Did most men have long hair and beards? No. Did Jesus and the disciples...
8 Jan 20241h
Animals in the Ancient World
The Bible is literally crawling with animals — from the crafty serpent of Genesis to Jesus's parable of the lost sheep. That's because animals (both wild and domesticated) were an integral part of lif...
1 Jan 20241h 1min
A Cultural History of Christmas
Try as you might, you won't find Santa Claus in the Bible. Or Christmas trees, or camel-riding Magi, or even December 25th! In the first centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn't really a "thing." T...
18 Des 202351min
A Second Look at Mary, Mother of Jesus
In the first of two Christmas episodes, Helen and Dave take another look at arguably the "best-known and least-known" woman in history: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Our guest, the fantastic James Tabor,...
11 Des 202347min
Hanukkah History: The Maccabean Revolt
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah is based on real historical events — the Maccabean Revolt of 167-160 BCE. In today's episode, Helen and Dave travel back to a time when Judaea was ruled by the Helleniz...
4 Des 202338min
Biblical Blackness: Cush, the "Curse of Ham" and the Queen of Sheba
The Bible is largely silent about race. People are identified by their lands of origin and beliefs, not their skin color. Yet centuries of biblical interpreters have read race into the Bible, for good...
27 Nov 202335min
Who Chose the Books of the New Testament?
Starting in the 1st century CE, there was an explosion of Christian literature — dozens of gospels, letters, apocalypses and more — but only a fraction of those texts made it into the New Testament ca...
20 Nov 202342min
