The Bible Geek Show

Why does Islamic tradition identify the Prophet Idris (the Biblical Enoch) with Hermes Trismegistus? What is the significance of the number 144,000 (Rev 7:4)? Can you give a quick run-down on the history of ideas of salvation in Christianity? Could you please give a survey of the topic of Christology, including both orthodox and heterodox perspectives? I have read that early opponents of Christian...

Do you have a book that goes in detail about the theory that the ancient Israelites were the Canaanites? Is there a possibility that the ancient Israelites were black people? And what are your thoughts about the current Jews in Israel being Khazars? Does the Star of David survive from ancient Israelite star worship? When did the geometric designs known as star polygons, primarily the pentagram and...

If Mark meant us to understand Jesusâ?? baptism as the messianic anointing by Elijah, wouldnâ??t this fend off the â??criterion of embarrassmentâ??? What would have happened if the Marcionite sect became the dominant and orthodox version of the church and how much different would Christianity today be because of it? In John 19:26 + 27, Jesus, on the cross, says to his mother "Woman, behold your so...

Could Jesus have fasted for 40 days if he did it the way Copts do today; eating after sundown? Might Markâ??s pericope â??Leaven of the Phariseesâ?? (Mark 8:13-21) be rebuking Jewish Christian readers for not accepting Pauline doctrine? How tenable is the Christian worldview with the Arts, since so much of it is predicated on the world being sinful? Someone contended that theology has not advanced...

If the gospels are not trustworthy historical accounts of Jesus, what did the early church fathers think they were talking about? Ignatius is said to have been a disciple of the Apostle John; surely Ignatius would know the real truth behind the gospel narratives, and therefore not treat them as being true accounts?   1 Samuel 5:9 of the Douay-Rheims translation adds to the end of the story of the...

How could a copyist, seeing a body of text in the center, and notes in the margins, possibly confuse the two and combine them in his own copy? Would such things not be clearly delineated in ancient manuscripts? What about Michael S. Heiserâ??s Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, & the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ, which, e.g., argues that 1 Corinthians 11:10 means to warn prophesying women...

Why would God not make himself known by some still-evident means rather that a highly dubious story of a 2000 year old story of events in a far-off land? Please explain again how 1 Timothy 2.12-15 refers to fallen angels and Gnostic writings. Maybe the Jubilee Year custom was based on historical practice after all. Is Mark implying that the youth at the tomb in the white robe is Jesus? Whence your...

What do you make of William Klassenâ??s attempt to minimize the connection between the Matthean Judas story and Zechariah? If the Dead Sea Scrolls really do come from the 1st or 2nd century BCE but they are referring to John the Baptist & Jesus, doesnâ??t that imply they were earlier figures â??updatedâ?? after â??Christianityâ?? had caught on? Might â??Jesus Christâ?? have been a title or a role,...

Is the depiction of Jesus in the Catacombs valid archaeological evidence for the historical Jesus? How does the absence of Nazareth in any first century contemporary writings, including Flavius Josephus relates to the late date of the gospels? If Nazareth didn't exist just yet during the time Jesus lived, why would the gospel writers pick a non-existent place to begin with? Does the place Nazareth...

When did the phrase "word of God" come to be associated with the Bible? Whatâ??s the deal with the King James Only movement? The Trees of Knowledge and of life were set aside for the gods. Humans were exiled from Eden and prevented from partaking. But the Serpent already has knowledge and is not condemned to die, unlike Adam & Eve. Nor is he said to have been excluded from Eden. Doesnâ??t all this...

What of the similarity between Jesusâ?? being betrayed at super and Osirisâ?? betrayal at supper? Aren't the gospel writers tipping their hands when they proclaim that Jesus did such and such "to fulfill the scripture"? Prophecy is supposed to be predictive, not prescriptive. �  You do not do a thing because it was predicted, but rather it was predicted because it is what you will do. �  If...

The racist context and legacy of 2nd Nephi 30:6. In Sun of All Ages William Tyler Olcott suggests that the Canaanite deities were all personifications of the sun - representing the strong fierce summer sun, explaining why they were cruel gods. Could this explain the cruel and harsh nature of YWHW in the Old Testament? Do you believe Nimrod and Semiramis were actual historical characters? I have he...

The early Christians seemed completely absorbed with the coming of Christ, and weren't interested in taking part in rebellions against the Roman state. How does this compare to the character of Jesus in Luke, who tells his disciples to sell their cloaks to buy swords? Was Wellhausen correct that the Jubilee law originated after the Exile as a way to allow the so-called returnees to claim land in P...

Could the early Jewish and Christian religions have originated in Africa? Along the same lines, could the Ten Commandments be a rip off of the Egyptian 42 Negative Confessions? You cannot say if there definitely was a Jesus, even after a lifetime of research, so how you say there is no reason to posit a Creator? Whence the impossibly long life spans of Genesis 5? Did Paul believe in an â??Earthlyâ...

In the beginning of Luke we find that the Greek does not read â??bookâ?? (biblos) but rather â??logon.â?? Does Luke call his gospel a â??logonâ?? because it was, in its original form, a collection of the sayings of Jesus like the gospel of Thomas or Q? Perhaps later Marcion re-worked the text into a traditional narrative gospel with Polycarp sprucing it up in the second century? Could â??Marcion"...

Has anybody done a study of the Luke-Acts theology of the Holy Spirit and baptism? Do you think John the Baptists leaping in the womb by the holy spirit is a indicator that infants should be baptized? Do you think the eschatology of Matthew and the book of revelation is consistent? Do they share a common source? Might Judas have ratted out Jesus in the belief he was helping ignite a messianic, apo...

If the epistles precede Mark, and if Mark chose to historicize Jesus, and if Mark based his Jesus character on some individual Cynic sage, would that individual qualify as the historic Jesus? An explanation for how Pythagoras knew there were 153 fish, based on 153 as a â??triangular number.â?? What if anything can be the â??moral lessonâ?? taught in the last 3 chapters of Judges with their gang-ra...

Is it possible that the â??young menâ?? who grabbed hold of the fleeing â??young manâ?? in Gethemane (in Mark) were the basis of the hypothetical â??12 legions of angelsâ?? in Matthew? What are your thoughts on Danielâ??s 70 weeks prophecy that apparently was fulfilled by Jesus to the day? And if we are to imagine that Jesus actually was a historical figure could he hit have self-fulfilled this hi...

Doesnâ??t the "Jesus Mythicism" hypothesis posits too high a Christology (Jesus as a dying/rising God) to interpret the Jesus of our oldest sources? Isnâ??t the eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil a fable about human consciousness, ie why are we different from other animals, feel shame, guilt, fear for the future, etc.? Isnâ??t it as silly to casually assume one can use the New Testam...

Might Honi the Circle Drawer have been the true founder of Christianity? See: http://www.lost-history.com/honi_the_circle_drawer.php http://www.lost-history.com/dumuzi.php http://www.lost-history.com/ http://www.lost-history.com/dying-and-rising-gods.php http://lost-history.com/introduction.php Assyrian estimates of the size of earth, heaven, and the Abyss. Is there any absolutely literal bible tr...

Arenâ??t preachers who start talking in the first person as if they were Jesus doing the same thing biblical critics said early Christians did, resulting in the gospel sayings? As someone who has been involved in the Neo-Pagan movement for two decades, I used to encounter the idea that Jesus was a "Great White Witchâ?? the meaning that he was a healer and magic user. What do you think is the stron...

Can you tell me what the arguments against the Q theory are? Christian Lindtner argues that â??The New Testamentâ?? decodes to â??The New Tathagatha. â?? Is there an anachronism / error in the Parable of the Talents where one servant is told that he should have at least invested the money so that the master could have earned some interest, instead of burying it for safe keeping? St. Paul does...

Are Yahweh and Allah supposed to be the same deity? Might early Christians have believed Jesus and John the Baptist were both messiahs? Might James the Just and John the Baptist be identified with the brothers James and John in the gospels, the so-called â??sons of Zebedeeâ??? Do we have any non-Biblical, non-controversial examples of scribes interpolating rejoinders to the text into the texts? Is...

What have you to say about the Jordanian codices? About the disappearance of Deists and the Reign of Terror.

Was there an OT prototype for the Zaccheus episode in Luke 19? What is the Griesbach hypothesis? In Bible times, how high up did people assume the firmament was from the earth? In the 1st centuries BC and AD around the Mediterranean, especially in the city of Rome, was Greek the lingua franca? Did Roman citizens in Rome talk with one another in Greek? How do Christian apologists deal with the fact...