The Bible in Fewer Words

Abraham makes his servant swear (by putting his hand under Abraham's thigh) that he won't let his son Isaac marry a Canaanite. So the servant returns to Abraham's hometown in Mesopotamia and finds a good-looking virgin (Rebekah) for Isaac to marry. The text for each episode can be found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website , where we encourage you to read along with us. Text an...

In the last episode , Abraham abandoned his first son, Ishmael, and his mother, Hagar. Now God tells Abraham to sacrifice his second son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. The text for each episode can be found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website , where we encourage you to read along with us. Text and notes for this episode can be found here . If you enjoy these podcasts, consider supporting u...

When Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 years old, God visited Sarah, made her pregnant, and Isaac was born. Sometime later, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Isaac and told Abraham to abandon Ishmael and his mother Hagar. God told Abraham to do as he was told, and he did. The text for each episode can be found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website , where we encourage you to read along with us. Text...

Abraham and Sarah repeat the same "she's my sister" lie they told in episode 3 . God threatens to kill King Abimelech and his people for believing the lie, but decided to close all the wombs in the king's household instead. He opened them up again, though, after Abraham asked him to. And once again, Abraham enriches himself by telling the lie. The text for each episode can be fou...

In this episode, two angels come to Sodom and stay at Lot's house. All the men of the city demand to have sex with the angels. Lot refuses to give them the angels, offering his two virgin daughters instead. Lot and his family leave the city, while God destroys it by raining fire and brimstone upon it. God turns Lot's wife into a pillar of salt for looking back, and Lot and his daughters ca...

In this episode, God reveals his everlasting covenant to Abraham: Circumcision. Every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old. Whoever isn't circumcised will be cut off. Sometime later, God and two men (or angels?) visit and eat a non-kosher meal with Abraham. When the visitors leave, Abraham goes with them and tries to talk God out of killing everyone in Sodom. The text and notes f...

God visits Abraham in this episode and tells him to chop up some animals for him. That night a burning lamp magically appeared between the pieces of dead animals. Then God appeared in a dream and promised to give Abraham and his descendants all the land between the Euphrates and Nile rivers. But Sarah was still barren, so she gave Abraham her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, as a wife. After Abraham ha...

#3 plus - A few more words about the curse of Canaan The story about Noah's drunkenness, the sin of Ham, and the curse of Canaan has troubled everyone who has read it.   What exactly did Ham do that was so awful to deserve such a severe punishment? It all takes place in just eight verses (Genesis 9:20-27) and it was covered in our last episode. But we didn't have time to discuss the variou...

Abraham, Sarah, and Lot travel to the land of Canaan. When they arrive a famine is going on, so they do the usual biblical thing and go to Egypt. Before arriving, Abraham tells Sarah to lie for him by saying she is his sister. She does so, and the Pharaoh takes the 65 year-old Sarah as his concubine. God sends plagues on Egypt to punish the Pharaoh for believing their lie. Then the Pharaoh makes A...

After Noah sacrificed the clean animals to God, he plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, and lies around naked in his tent. When his son Ham sees him in this condition, he curses, not Ham, but Ham's youngest son Canaan, saying that he and his descendants will be slaves forever. Sometime later, everyone on earth gathered in one place to build a tower up to heaven. God was worried that they...

In this episode, the sons of God have sex with the daughters of men, producing a race of giants. This upsets God so much that he reduced the human life span to 120 years and decided to drown every living thing on earth in a flood - except for Noah, his family, and two (or seven) or each animal species. After the flood, Noah sacrificed the clean animals for God. God smelled a sweet savor and said t...

This episode has a lot of firsts: the first sex in the Bible, the first animal sacrifice, the first murder, the first city, and the first bigamist. It also has the mark of Cain, which has often been used to justify racism and slavery. We are also introduced to Noah, who had his first children when he was 500 years old. (Three sons) The text and notes for this episode can be found here: https://ske...

This episode features two trees, a talking serpent, and a fearful God. The text and notes for this episode can be found here . These podcasts are also available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_Butg1zwRmjXWgWhy8uYw If you enjoy these podcasts, consider supporting us at Patreon.com/BFW .

The Bible's two contradictory creation stories are presented in this episode. The text and notes for this episode can be found here . If you enjoy these podcasts, consider supporting us at Patreon.com/BFW .

This is the introduction to the Bible in Fewer Words Podcast by Carole and Steve Wells.