The Bible Geek Show

If the "Neapolitan Ice Cream" analogy for the Trinity actually Modalism? How about attempts to analogize the Trinity with Quantum Physics? Mustn’t the Genesis Flood be inspired by an actual world flood in ages past? Was Mary made pregnant by a Roman soldier, by her husband Joseph, or an angelic sex act? Do the Paulicians represent a continuation of original Gnostic Christian faith, or a revival? A...

Can we surmise that Marcion is a possible candidate for the author of Mark? He was in Rome during the 130s and I understand his name translates to “little Mark”. Why would a Roman author, whoever he was, choose to edit the Little Apocalypse from the ostensible time of Jesus to appeal to the current circumstances of the Bar Kokhba revolt? Do you have any speculation on who the "Teacher of Righteous...

Is there any biblical basis for the insistence of some that only humans go to heaven, not animals? What do you make of the baptism for the dead described in 1 Corinthians 15:29? Why would a Roman author, whoever he was (Marcion?), choose to edit the Little Apocalypse from the ostensible time of Jesus to remove references to the current circumstances of the Bar Kokhba revolt? Do you have any specul...

"And heard (this) King Herod openly for his name / authority became manifest. And he said, "Because John the Baptist was risen from the dead and, by this, operates / works this Power ["dynamis"] in him”. Is Herod referring to Jesus or John? Is it possible that he means a docetic Christ spirit who appears here and there to do his feats? What was your translation philosophy in your Pre-Nicene New Te...

In Mark 6:15 Herod wonders if Jesus might be John the Baptist raised from the dead. Could it be that this doesn't refer to Jesus as sorcerer but to Jesus (or several people in a movement) manifesting the Celestial Christ to participants in a pentecostal-like movement (as per Stevan Davies)? I am wondering what your translation philosophy was for the Pre-Nicene New Testament. What purpose do you th...

What is the word for "church" in the original Greek, and what did it mean before Christianity? If "Messiah" and "Christ" are terms rather than proper names, might not any group of people following a Messiah be called Christians by a disinterested third party such as a Roman historian of the time? Could Mark be hinting that the scattering of the twelve disciples shows that the original Petrine Chri...

You asked listeners to suggest a mythical or legendary character who could potentially be historicized by clever apologetics. Here is my humble suggestion: Ned Ludd. I'm interested in any thoughts you might have on the Branch Davidians, Koresh, or the sectarian politics within the Adventist movement which gave rise to the group. What do you make of the thesis that the Greek word AEON should be tra...

Might the Noah story be based on the recently discovered flooding of the originally dry Persian Gulf around 14,000 years ago? Did Simon Magus’ followers who still exist in Eusebius day? Was this a full-on religious sect? Deuteronomy 32:7 and Israelite polytheism. Could one write a book about a person of history, a mythical character, or a yet undecided person of history that may be a myth, that ha...

On your latest podcast you were asked about the parallels between the controversies about Pauline and Shakespearean authorship. Since this is something I actually know about, I’d like to share my answer to the question. Have you ever heard of a Jewish sect that believed that directly talking to God was forbidden and blasphemous? Is it possible this Jesus/Metatron originally performed this role? Wa...

In Acts, the writer mentions the apostles performing "signs and wonders", as well as miracles. If miracles are mentioned separately, it would seem that signs and wonders are something other than healings, resurrections, etc. What do you think the writer wanted the reader to imagine the apostles doing exactly? Parallel between scholars denying authenticity of some or all of Shakespeare’s plays and...

In John 3:14-15, is the writer comparing Jesus to the serpent god? Why does God conceal his real name in the Old Testament? I was wondering what inspired the "Temptation narratives" in the various gospels? Why would the Romans undermine their state security by replacing their gods with a lesser god like Jesus? Does Paul show any knowledge of the contents of the 3 synoptic gospels or the one of Joh...

What are your thoughts on the interactions between the biblical Paul and the 12? Did they even live at the same time? Why was it important that the first Christians get their message to Rome? Are the Odes of Solomon (e.g., Ode XXXI) and the Gospels both inspired by the Q Source? What was the early Christian attitude towards slavery? In the Acts of Thomas Saint Thomas was literally sold into slaver...

Analyzing Worldwide Church of God theology. Does an objective moral standard require God--or vice versa? Morton Smith and the Secret Gospel of Mark Marcion and Galatians Mithraism The Egyptian

Ironies of Bible-worship Do we know exactly what caused Judaism to metamorphose from a polytheistic religion into a monotheistic religion? How much of a role might its adoption of Zoroastrian ideas have played in this? Could the young man fleeing the Garden naked originally have been Peter? What’s your opinion of the 60s-80s genre I like to call "Christploitation" Films? Was Cain originally Yahweh...

A possible Greek pun in the story of the Gerasene Demoniac. Balaam appears twice in Numbers, in chapters 22 and 31. In Chapter 22 he seems to be a good guy who fears God, but in Chapter 31 he masterminds an operation to seduce the Hebrews away from God. Do the 2 stories come from different sources? How did Paul recognize Jesus on the Damascus Road if he had never met him pre-crucifiction? How was...

Is the dating of the gospels well established?  How do we know Mark was written in 60-70 AD?  Could it be MUCH later? Is the Pauline view that the wicked dead will not be resurrected unto judgment derived from the LXX (mis)translation of Psalm 1:5? In a recent Bible Geek episode, you used the phrase “weighed in the balance“ from the book of Daniel. The phrase brought to mind the weighing method us...

How much weight should we give to such a silence about Jesus' life as being evidence for Paul not thinking of Jesus as a human being that walked the earth? Now, if the silence of a Gospel-like-Jesus in the epistles is viewed as a telltale sign that we instead might be dealing with a celestial Jesus-figure, how do you explain the lack of historical Jesus references/allusions in the Pastorals (with...

Do you SUPPOSE that "Mark", which lends itself so readily to being a stage play...actually BEGAN as such? Mark is unique in that it never SAYS "angel". And we are never told who this boy is. Could it be that the "boy in white" is actually STAGE DIRECTION that by a quirk of fate found its way into the long term "record"?  In that the acting instructions read "scene opens:  angel (depicted by beauti...

Do the Pseudo-Clementines anticipate Pascal’s Wager? Do you find that in Catholicism the Eucharist and the rosary take on more importance than the Bible? Why do we call the coming return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead the Second Coming? Why not count his birth #1, his resurrection as # 2, his return from harrowing Hell as # 3, and the Parousia as # 4? Might the story in John 1:41-50ff b...

Is 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 an interpolation? Is there a good critical study of Marian apparitions? Is Joseph of Arimathea’s retrieval of Jesus’ body based on Flavius Josephus’ account of rescuing a crucified friend with Titus’ permission? In Gal. 5:2-4 Paul writes that "if you let yourselves be circumcised Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be c...

The story of Balaam in Numbers 22 is puzzling. Verse 6, which says any curse or blessing Balaam may speak will come true, reminds me of Jesus giving a blank check to Peter in Matt. 17. Any connection? And what is going on in this story? God seems to change his mind a lot. What was Balaam supposed to do? What is the point of Frances the talking mule? Is Matthew’s “Thou art Peter” passage some sort...

The Bible Geek's Emergency Relief Request https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-bible-geek Can you explain more about the haberim and how they may relate to the origins of Christianity?  Based on John 2:19-21 and 8:57, Irenaeus believed Jesus was about 50 at his death. Did this view die out in the pre-Nicene times or did it reappear in later theology? Also, how, if at all, could this be harmonized with t...

Possible explanations of visionary experiences via hallucinaens, etc. What evidence nis there for Mark having originated in Antioch or Rome? For Matthew being wriiten in Antioch? Any idea to what extent Paul was reared in Roman or Roman-influenced culture (as opposed, say, to hellenistic / Jewish)? Acts 4:13 Peter is called "agrammatoi" ("unlettered"). Does that mean "not formally educated in reli...

Do you think the “young man” who flees the Garden of Gethsemane in Mark 14:51-52, leaving his sheet in the clutches of Jesus’ enemies might be a symbol for the casting off of the body of flesh and the emergence of the spiritual/resurrection body, having escaped the clutches of the Archons? In Raymond Brown's Anchor Bible volume "An Introduction to the New Testament," Brown dismisses the troubling...

What do you make of the young man in the loin cloth, a.k.a. the Naked Fugitive, present at Jesus' arrest? Where does F.C. Baur claim that Acts uses Simon Magus to stand for Paul? Does Deuteronomy 22:5’ prohibition of cross-dressing fit in the Mary Douglas’s discussion of Israelite taxonomy? What is your view of speaking in tongues as described in the epistles and acts? When did people stop viewing...