Thinking Biblically… and Beyond

Though it’s the shortest book in the New Testament, the Third Letter of John is a fascinating enigma that gives us a little peek into early Christian conflict over hospitality and missionary work. In this episode, we’ll explore some of the major scholarly approaches to Third John, why they’re flawed in many ways, and how, by approaching the text with a Jewish perspective, we may be able to better...

A long awaited episode... We'll be diving into an overview of some of what we can, and can't, know about the historical Paul and try to unravel some of the mystery around Paul as a (utterly and endlessly fascinating) historical figure. Should be a good one!

In this episode, we'll cover the main theories that scholars propose for how Paul's letters may have been collected. Hint: It's complicated!

Join us as we dive into the earliest document of the New Testament, Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians (~50 CE). In this episode, we will survey some of the big historical issues in the letter and explore some modern-day parallels.

When we think about the authorship and production of the New Testament corpus, we often don't think about the people who were actually tasked with first writing down the text itself. Taking inspiration from the recent work done by Candida Moss on the subject (see her newly published 2024 book, "God's Ghostwriters"), this episode will explore the possibility that enslaved people w...

The Gospel and Letters of John are some of the most unique and interesting texts in the New Testament. Join us as we explore the idea of a ‘Johannine community’ and take a deeper look at the texts that have come to form what scholars call the Johannine corpus (the Gospel of John + the 3 letters of John).

In this episode, we’ll touch on some interesting features of Mark’s gospel and attempt to situate this fascinating text within its larger historical context.

In part two of this mini-series on academic fraud, we explore how academia interacts with and influence public policy and opinion. This episode presents some important questions that academics of any field (and those not in academia) need to ask and think about in order to have more nuanced public discussion about the increasing influence of academic research in wider society, for better or for wo...

To kick off the new year, we are focusing on some different topics. In this episode, we’ll introduce some interesting psychological parallels between instances of academic fraud and dishonesty in modern academia and in the production of the Biblical corpus.

In this episode, we’ll explore the Jewish revolt of the first century (66 CE- 74 CE) against the Romans. Specifically, its potential overlap with the people and texts of the New Testament and potential implications for how we understand the development of early Christianity

In this follow up episode on Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we’ll dive deeper into some of the historical aspects of the text and the historical situations that may be behind this fascinating letter. We’ll also explore how this might impact how we read and understand the Bible in today’s day and age.

In this episode, we’ll read through Paul’s letter to the Galatians and then dissect this fascinating and very important text in the episodes to follow.

Having read through the entirety of Luke’s gospel, this episode will focus on the stories that are unique to Luke’s gospel (such as the Good Samaritan) and how it might help us better understand its author and text.

Having read through the entirety of Luke’s gospel, the next few episodes will be devoted to examining the narrative in an effort to better understand the meaning and context of the text itself.

Approaching the Bible with intellectual honesty is critical to having more honest and informed discussions around sensitive, but very important, topics. Chief among these is homosexuality. In this episode we’ll explore what it means to approach these often uncomfortable conversations with openness and intellectual honesty.

In this episode, we will tackle the very intriguing and nuanced question of whether or not Jesus was a Communist. While this question may seem relatively straightforward on the surface, there are many layers to this issue that need to be addressed before attempting to arrive at an objective answer.

What role did women play in the ministry of Jesus? What role did they play in the formation and spread of early Christianity after his death? What implications might this have for people today? We will explore these questions and more in tackling this very interesting and important topic.

In the episode, we’ll explore the relationship between early Christianity and anti-Semitism and its roots in the New Testament itself.

In this episode we will tackle the topic of slavery in the Old Testament and explore some texts that address the topic. We will contextualize slavery in the ancient world and see how ancient Israelites arguably held a more compassionate understanding of slavery and the slave/master relationship (at least among fellow Israelites) compared to other societies of their day and why that may have been t...

I recently came back from a trip to Israel and wanted to make a short episode to share some of the big takeaways that I had!

In this episode, we’ll explore the circumstances around the formation of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). What does this matter to the modern world and biblical literalism? And what does it tell us about the people who first wrote/heard/compiled these texts?

A short episode on how Biblical stories are portrayed for younger generations. This was brought about by my recent experience of watching a Lego movie narrating the story of the Exodus and Passion using stop-motion animation.

In this episode, we’ll examine the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth and why virtually all scholars of all religious convictions agree that Jesus was a real historical person.

In this episode we tackle the very complicated topic of Jesus’ divinity and whether or not he thought he was God

Should we read the New Testament like any other ancient text? This question does not have a simple yes or no answer. In this episode, we’ll explore this question and why a more nuanced approach is necessary, regardless of whether you are approaching the text from a historical/secular or a religious/devotional point of view.