The Bible As They Heard It

Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount and redefines blessing, righteousness, and obedience. We unpack the Beatitudes, correct common misunderstandings, and explore how Jesus’ words challenged everything His original audience thought they knew about God’s kingdom.

Jesus is tested in the wilderness, calls His first disciples, and announces the kingdom of God. This episode explores what temptation really was, what was often misquoted, and how first-century listeners would have understood authority, repentance, and following Jesus.

Jesus shifts from outward behavior to inward motives—giving, prayer, fasting, money, and worry. This episode breaks down mistaught verses and reveals what faith looks like when no one is watching, as first-century listeners would have heard it.

A slow, in-context walk through Matthew 3—preparing the way, correcting what’s been mistaught, and discovering identity before performance.

Matthew 2 isn’t a sweet Christmas story — it’s a confrontation. We explore what happens when the true King arrives quietly in a world ruled by fear, how the Magi followed the sign, why Herod targeted children two and under, and what this chapter would have meant to the people who first heard it.

Matthew chapter 1 is often skipped, but it lays the foundation for everything that follows. Before Jesus teaches or performs miracles, Matthew answers one key question: is Jesus actually qualified to be the Messiah? In this episode, we read Matthew 1 and explain it as a first-century Jewish listener would have heard it, clarifying misunderstood verses and showing why lineage, exile, and unexpected...

Rodney and Laticia explain why modern Christians struggle to understand the Bible the way the first believers did, and why this podcast exists to bridge that gap. Welcome to the journey of hearing Scripture as they heard it—not what we think it says, but what they knew it meant