The Bible and Beyond

An interview with Dr. Samuel Zinner Dr. Samuel Zinner describes the ancient Apocryphon (or Secret Book) of James, then, focusing on two common elements in so-called 'gnosticism'—the meaning of the demiurge and ascending—he shows how this text does not neatly fit any category. It includes no reference to demiurge, but it does involve a lengthy and unusual description of Jesus, Peter, and James all...

An Interview with Dr. Amy Jill Levine Amy-Jill Levine, a distinguished New Testament scholar, provides examples of Christian commentators making Jewish practices and beliefs look bad in order to make Jesus look good. A more realistic understanding of these Jewish practices helps us understand Jesus better and understand Judaism more respectfully. Examples of these Jewish beliefs and practices incl...

An Interview with John Dominic Crossan  Crossan draws on Paul's life and experience as a devoted Pharisee to understand his insights and expectations for the meaning of resurrection. Unlike the well-known ancient belief in ascension, which was reserved for the near-Godlike humans, Pharisees believed in resurrection for everyone. This was based on a faith in the end time. Paul's revelation about th...

An Interview with Dr. April DeConick April DeConick theorizes about how gnostic ideas that emerged as a concept in antiquity keep reproducing themselves within different environments. This is one of the things that propelled religion toward its therapeutic aspect and individual relations to God. It came about during the desperate time of harsh Roman occupation, when people felt let down by their g...

An Interview with Dr. Kimberly Bauser McBrien Kimberly Bauser McBrien finds the Secret Book of James to be a humorous critique on the idea of apostolic authority. From our 21 st -century perspective, it is difficult to decipher the difference between a weird or absurd tale from a clever parody on a serious subject. She argues that this late second century author is taking shots at his contemporari...

An Interview with Dr. Erin Galgay Walsh Macrina was born into a wealthy and historically important Christian family. Her virtuous life, devoted to Christ, was based on her ascetic ideals. That is, she rejected human pleasures and comforts in order to free herself to be fully present to Christ.  The 4 th century text, The Life of Macrina, which was written by her brother Gregory, describes her as a...

An Interview with Dr. Tony Burke If the Secret Gospel of Mark turns out to be authentic, it could provide important insights into early Christian thought and practices. Popular theory claims it is mere forgery, however, created and circulated due to pro-homosexual motives. Professor Tony Burke explains the origin of the text, its content, the basis for the doubt, and the reasons for his own suppor...

An Interview with Dr. David Brakke David Brakke challenges the common notion that Christians had a New Testament type of Bible by around 200. Rather, he claims, their Bible was Jewish scriptures plus a wide variety of written texts by Jesus followers used in multiple contexts. Marcion and his followers would have been the exception, since he rejected the Jewish writings. Brakke's recent analysis o...

An interview with Dr. Sarah Parkhouse Dr. Sarah Parkhouse has made a discovery that is quite noteworthy for anyone interested in the Gospel of Mary. One of the hundreds, if not thousands, of small fragments of papyri found in the garbage dump Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, just might be a missing part of the Gospel of Mary. The fragment includes a description of baptism, which is closely related to the ascen...

An interview with Dr. David Litwa The strange story of Simon in the Bible illustrates the uncomfortable truth that Christianity seems to reinvent itself when it defines itself in opposition to its perceived enemies. In this biblical account, Simon (later called Simon Magus) appears to have been repenting properly from his mistake of offering to pay for the spiritual instructions, when Peter lashed...

An Interview with John Dominic Crossan John Dominic Crossan draws on his own Irish life experiences to create an image of Jesus living in an empire dominating the Jewish world of Jesus. The Roman Empire might have been perceived as "the world of civilization," accomplishing great power and wealth. But this success came at the expense of its conquered nations. Jesus's nonviolent opposition to Rome...

An Interview with Rabbi Evan Moffic Rabbi Evan Moffic, senior rabbi at a vibrant Reform Jewish congregation in northern Illinois, thinks Christians can understand Jesus's words and works better – and Jews and Christians can understand each other better -- by considering the Jewish world of Jesus more fully. In this podcast interview, he explains Jesus's relationship to his students, why Jesus hims...

An interview with Dr. Susan M. (Elli) Elliott In answer to a listener's question about how attitudes toward singleness evolved in Christianity, Dr. Elliott draws on her knowledge of family legislation that Caesar Augustus inflicted on the Romans well before Jesus's ministry. Followers of Jesus often followed the common but conflicting Roman attitudes toward elite and lower-class women. But early o...

An interview with Dr. Deborah Saxon. Martyrdom in antiquity was often a painful choice. The dual powers of religion and politics made those decisions complex, but also caused a search for identity. Christians had to determine whether they would live under Roman systems, by Christian faithfulness, or by imagining a reward with Christ after martyrdom. Disagreements arose between advocates for martyr...

An interview with Dr. James McGrath Professor James McGrath explains why you should read ancient texts outside the Bible. A knowledge of apocryphal and other noncanonical texts give more background to biblical writings. The meaning of canon itself becomes clearer in the context of the many cousin-like texts that relate to the biblical writings. McGrath demonstrates this with an exploration of the...

An Interview with Dr. Jeremiah Coogan Dr. Jeremiah Coogan, a scholar of ancient manuscripts, explains the significance of the recent discovery of an ancient palimpsest. That's an ancient writing found underneath other writing that had covered it. The object we're discussing contains the Old Syriac translation fragment of the gospel of Matthew, and it gives us a window into what the text of some Gr...

An interview with Dr. Jason BeDuhn. Dr. Jason BeDuhn, an expert on Manichaeism, takes us into the ancient world where Mani was a leader of early Jesus followers in the East, before the fourth century Council of Nicea. He paints an intriguing picture of Mani's interpretation of Jesus's teachings and how Christianity might have been different if he hadn't lost the competition with other leaders from...

An Interview with Dr. Joseph Bessler. Dr. Joseph Bessler challenges and delights us with his suggestions that learning what we can about the historical Jesus contributes to the betterment of society. The surprise of the past few decades has been the revelation that our traditional teaching of Jesus has been used to silence the voices of any 'other.' Certain texts reinforce certain theologies. But...

An interview with Dr. Arthur J. Dewey Arthur Dewey explains how the "blood curse," based on Jesus's trial before Pilate, has been taken out of context and turned into a false basis for blaming Jews as a whole for the death of God. The "trial" in the Gospel of Matthew (which could not have taken place historically) was based on Mark's original critique against the leaders of the Jews. This was anot...

An interview with Dr. B. Brandon Scott Dr. Brandon Scott explains the complicated history of resurrection. It was not an Easter celebration during biblical times, but the hope of God's restoration of things was handed down from Daniel and the Maccabees.  Sacrifice was widespread in the ancient world, not because of sins, but as an act intended to realign the world with God. Writing of Jesus's deat...

Early Christian Texts is celebrating the 50th episode of our Bible and Beyond Podcast! We have collected snippets from ten episodes featuring several of our interviews since the podcast first aired in 2019. All fifty episodes have been quite unique and fascinating, but these ten excerpts exemplify the depth and breadth of the topics we covered — from why anyone should even look at extracanonical w...

This month Shirley interviews Perry Kea, an expert scholar on the Book of Acts. Dr. Kea explains why the objectives of the author of the Book of Acts differ from simple historical documentation.  The letters of Paul provide an excellent example of such differences and illustrate why the objective of the Book of Acts is inconsistent with historical facts. Stories in Acts were a means of using resou...

Dr. Jennifer Stollman, a Conservative Jew, surprised herself by discovering a couple of 'game-changers' in her reading of Paulson's book,  Illuminating the Secret Revelation of John: Catching the Light.  As a self-described activist, Stollman was startled to consider an elevated sense of God that challenges traditional beliefs in the permanence of evil. A second 'game-changer' for Stollman was the...

An interview with Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel 'The Magi' of antiquity were usually religious professionals who were almost always associated with people in power, such as kings. But they were not kings themselves. Therefore Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel thinks the author of the Gospel of Matthew uses the characters of 'the magi' (instead of the shepherds who appear in the Gospel of Luke) to make a political poi...

An interview with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer Elizabeth Schrader Polczer claims that there has always been controversy over Mary Magdalene's name and birthplace. She argues that Mary Magdalene was probably not from Magdala. So the name we use to refer to her should be 'Mary Magdalene' and not 'Mary of Magdala' for both historical reasons and the fact that Mary appears in better light if she came fr...