The Biblical Unitarian Podcast

Romans 9:5 is grammatically ambiguous in the Greek. Is the passage calling Christ according to the flesh "over all God" or is God the Father described as the one who is "over all" in an independent doxology? This episode looks at several considerations in order to solve this grammatical ambiguity, concluding at the end that Paul does not call Christ "God" in Rom. 9:5. Subscribe for free on iTunes:...

The New Testament, among many of its seemingly complicated christologies, exhibits influence from Jewish ideas of preexistence--the theology regarding certain important persons, places, and things that preexisted within God's plans and purposes. This episode explores the ways in which the New Testament texts were impacted by Jewish understandings of notional preexistence.   Subscribe for free on i...

Although it is a common belief that God the Father and the Son of God are coequal, there appear to be explicit differences between these two figures. This episode sets out seven of these differences from Scripture in order to encourage further conversation on this issue. It is concluded that Jesus' authentic humanity is the primary reason why he is not coequal with God the Father. Subscribe for fr...

Having already observed that the opening Prologue of the Gospel of John is a poem of Wisdom Christology, we turn in this episode to see how the rest of the book depicts Jesus as the incarnation of personified wisdom. In fact, there are over a dozen instances where Jesus within the Gospel of John is described in terms echoing Lady Wisdom. John's Gospel appears to be the best example in the New Test...

John's Gospel begins with an eighteen-verse Prologue where Jesus is depicted as the incarnation/embodiment of God's creative and powerful word. However, it is demonstrated in this episode that the echoes of Lady Wisdom, rather than the personified word, would have been more clearly evident by the earliest readers of the Gospel of John. This episode notes the evidence for Wisdom Christology in John...

As we continue our journey through the New Testament, we arrive at the Book of Hebrews. Within the first three verses of this sermon, there appear to be four statements about Christ that have their origins in descriptions of Lady Wisdom, specifically from the book Wisdom of Solomon. For the author of Hebrews, the risen and exalted Son of God is the fullest embodiment of God's Wisdom so that things...

Within our ongoing study of Wisdom Christology within the New Testament, we move to examine the Gospel of Matthew. Within this ancient biography of the human Jesus, we observe five passages where Jesus is portrayed in terms of personified Lady Wisdom. In particular, the author took the roles, characteristics, and functions of Wisdom and reapplied them to Jesus. For the Gospel of Matthew, just like...

In our continued study of Wisdom Christology throughout the New Testament, we arrive at the Epistle to the Colossians. Within this letter, the famous hymn about Christ in Col. 1:15-20 lavishly praises the accomplishments of Jesus in light of things formerly said about Lady Wisdom (without implying that Jesus consciously preexisted his birth). Furthermore, Colossians repeatedly depicts Christlike b...

Having already examined Proverbs, Sirach, and Philo depicting God's Wisdom as a personified female figure embodied into human beings, we now turn to the New Testament. In this episode, we look at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians where Jesus is also depicted as the human embodiment of Lady Wisdom, specifically in light of his death, resurrection, and exaltation. Please consider supporting thi...

The theology exhibited in Proverbs wherein Lady Wisdom can be embodied into human beings was influential with other Jewish writers before the New Testament was written. This episode aims to lay that foundation by looking at the Book of Sirach and the writings of Philo. Both Sirach and Philo continue the argument from Proverbs by depicting God's Wisdom, personified as a female figure, as becoming i...

Modern scholars have observed that many New Testament authors depict Jesus in light of Lady Wisdom (i.e., God's wise interaction with and instruction to his creation). However, most casual readers of the Bible seem to be unaware of what this 'Wisdom Christology' actually is. This episode seeks to examine the origins of Wisdom Christology by studying the Book of Proverbs, where astute readers will...

Despite the dominant scholarly consensus, there is a vocal minority on social media insisting that John 1:1 is not pointing back to the Genesis creation, but instead is referring to the beginning of Jesus' evangelistic ministry of preaching the Logos as gospel. This episode seeks to create a conversation with this minority perspective by noting what appears to be the fairly obvious literary and th...

Does the New Testament depict believers praying/offering prayers to Jesus? You might be surprised at the answer. This episode seeks to honestly assess how the New Testament uses 'prayer language' for Jesus and concludes by offering a model on the biblical way to appropriately direct prayers. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: - https://www.paypal.me/10mintr...

Does it even matter what we believe about who God is and who Jesus is? Some say that it does; others say that it doesn't. In this episode, we explore three practical applications taught in Scripture regarding Biblical Unitarian theology, one of which is highly controversial. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: - https://www.paypal.me/10mintruthtalks    

If Jesus is worshiped in the Bible, does that prove that he is God? Not necessarily. This episode will examine how the Bible depicts worship offered to human figures and then note the difference between the worship offered to God and the worship offered to Christ. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: - https://www.paypal.me/10mintruthtalks    

Many of the debates about Jesus' identity revolve around how one understands the nature of 'preexistence' within the Bible. This episode sets out to introduce the basics of how preexistence was understood and taught by the various biblical authors. We will explore how Jesus was regarded within God's plans/mind and how the New Testament authors understood Jesus as the current embodiment of God's pe...

What are we to make of the controversial passage of Phil. 2:5-11? This episode attempts to explain the nuances of the passage by highlighting Paul's allusions to Adam, Isaiah's Suffering Servant, and even to Emperor Nero. Furthermore, we show that the Philippians passage is actually an ethical argument for Christians to live in humility and obedience to God, just as Christ demonstrated during his...

How are we to responsibly interpret the fact that the Bible both calls certain exceptional human beings "God" and insists that there is only one true God? The answer lies in the fact that the true God can invest his authority into certain human beings as his representatives, such as a prophet, a judge, and even a royal king. This connection appears to be the most prudent way to understand Jesus be...

Why does it seem that the most exalted praises are given to Jesus after his resurrection? Is the risen Jesus equal in status and rank with God the Father? How should we interpret the fact that God has titles and Jesus is often addressed with those very same titles? This episode seeks to answer these questions by looking at the exaltation of the human Jesus. Please consider supporting this Podcast...

What does the New Testament teach about Jesus' death that has implications for biblical Christology? Did Jesus completely die or did he only partially die? Does that New Testament teach that God died on the cross? These questions will be answered in this week's episode dealing with Jesus' death. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: - https://www.paypal.me/10m...

Did Jesus have a God? This might sound like a strange question to some, but Jesus stated on multiple occasions that he did indeed has a God above him. The God of Jesus is also addressed as "my Father" many times in the New Testament. This episode will examine how Jesus understood the Father as 'his God' and will examine how Jesus acted in subordination to God the Father. Please consider supporting...

In this episode, we explore the principle of agency wherein a sent agent fully represents the one who sent him. We demonstrate that this understanding of agency was practically taken for granted within the first-century Jewish world and note how Jesus operates as God's authoritatively sent agent. Since Jesus is God's agent, Jesus can exercise divine prerogatives, speaks God's words, and fully repr...

In this episode, we examine how the four New Testament Gospel accounts portray Jesus as a human figure. Do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John call Jesus a "human being?" Is Jesus portrayed as omniscient in the manner that Yahweh is omniscient? Do the four Gospels describe Jesus as growing in understanding, as one who learns, or even as one who has limited knowledge as all human beings possess? This epi...

We continue our discussion of how the New Testament authors describe the birth of Jesus. We examine this in this episode how Romans, Galatians, 2 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 John, and Revelation describe Jesus' birth and origins, namely as a human figure descending from the family lines of Abraham, Judah, Jesse, and King David.  Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: -...

This episode seeks to answer whether Jesus was "begotten" (brought into existence) or not. Both Matthew and Luke offer birth narratives and lengthy genealogies wherein Jesus' birth is described in detail. Luke, having also authored the Book of Acts, offers his thoughts on Jesus' origins in both documents, so we will explore both his Gospel and Acts in this episode. Please consider supporting this...