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Rogue monarchs, assassins, war and intrigue. The Bible continues to toggle between the nation of Judah to the south and Israel to the north as the spiritual needle moves further away from God and edges ever closer to outright paganism. With the Jerusalem temple now seen by Judah's kings as an exercise in architecture and interior design, the outlook for the nation has never been bleaker. Chap...

They don't call it the greatest story ever told for no reason.    This is without doubt one of my favourite episodes in the entire Bible.    At incredible personal risk, a teenage girl saves the royal bloodline by hiding her tiny nephew away, Ann Frank-style, under the radar of her psychopathic and homicidal queen.    In doing so, she allows the continuation of David's line which, the Bi...

As grisly an episode as it sounds. Blood and gore abound as the Second Book of Kings goes full throttle on schadenfreude. It's not a good time to be a king or queen of Israel or Judah, or evena friend of=r relative, particularly not a pagan one. A violent end is coming and the Bible doesn't hold back. A warrior is coming. Chapters covered: 2 Kings 8-10 Written and produced by Chas Bayfie...

It's hard to imagine how awful life in a besieged city was in  the ancient Near East. As the title of this episode suggests, with no food, people resorted to desperate and degrading measures just to stay alive. It os during such a siege that four men with an incurable skin disease find themselves at the centre of one of the most incredible yirnarounds in the Bible. I think this little known e...

Elisha continues to pull off some of the Bible's most extraordinary miracles - one of these is the kind of showstopper that only Jesus might attempt. From lowly holy men to foreign dignitaries, the miraculous makeovers show no favouritism. However, Elisha's servant is less of a saint than his master. His head is turned and  his fall is mighty. Chapters covered: 2 Kings 4-6 Written and pr...

Seson 11 begins. When a king of Israel decides to consult a pagan deity to see whether he will recover from an accident, the Jewish prophet Elijah steps in with dramatic effect. Elijah then departs the earth in spectacular fashion leaving his protégé, Elisha to steer Israel back towards some form of godliness. It's an uphill battle. Israel's kings seem genetically conditioned to worship...

Jezebel proves her creds as Israel's most evil queen when she plots to kill a nighbour just because she covets his vineyard. Then Ahab ignores a prophet's dire warning that he will die in battle because he has a plan that will help him evade death - he will wear a disguise... Without giving too much away, the First Book of Kings does not end well for Israel's royal family. Chapters...

On the run from his homicidal queen, the prophet Elijah is given a heads up by God as to how things are about to play out. Israel may be an ungodly nation but its king, Ahab is given an opportunity to see God in action when his meagre fighting force goes into battle against a vastly superior enemy. However, the king's inability to follow actions and his queen's greed prove to be their un...

As Israel spirals into paganism, a new hope rises in the shape of a Jedi-like holy man, Elijah. Elijah's showdown against the shamans sponsored by Israel's evil queen, Jezebel is one of the most dramatic in the Bible. Without giving away any plot spoilers, it's quite a show. Chapters covered: 1 Kings 15-18 Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music my Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins M...

The Kingdom of Israel has split into two. Judah is tiny but retains Jerusalem and its temple,  and a dynasty descended from David. Israel is vast in comparison but in separating from Judah, it appears to have also separated itself from God. In these chapters, Israel enters a kind of death spiral from which it seems impossible to pull out, while Judah just about clings on. However, this nation seem...

It's fair to say Israel's King Solomon doesn't hold back when it comes to getting married. His enthusiasm for the opposite sex is legendary, as is his immense harem. However, according to the Bible this does not sit well with God, especially as some of Solomon's wives are from pagan nations, and the women prove as seductive as their religions.  The seeds are sown for a complete...

Solomon's reign is spectacular, if only for its opulence. Foreign rulers make pilgrimages just to marvel at the wealth and wisdom of Israel's king. But all is not golden in this particular kingdom. Solomon slowly begins to lose his grip on what being king of Israel actually means. His marriages are foreign alliances and he appears to be putting his faith in his own power rather than in G...

After the roller coaster of David's warlike reign, things settle down a little with his son, Solomon in charge. This is where Israel enters a golden age. Where David fights and suppresses rebellions from his own sons, Solomon builds. Using the wealth hoarded by his father, he constructs a temple and palaces and enjoys a life of unrivalled opulence. Still, he is known for more than just his we...

Season 10 begins. David hands over his reign to his chosen heir, Solomon, just as another of David's sons, Adonijah makes his own bid for the crown. Solomon's reign begins with bloodshed. There is no room for pretenders,  traitors or sentimentality, and no one can stand in the way of Israel's Sun King. Chapters covered: 1 Kings 1-3 Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Mich...

The judge, Samuel is long dead. His lasting legacy is Israel's monarchy. The nation's first two kings, Saul and David were chosen by him. As the book that bears his name draws to an end, so does the life and reign of David. These closing chapters are a summing up, a kind of who's who at the end of David's rule. However, the drama isn't over, and another mis-step by the kin...

Blindsided by an unexpected assault on the monarchy by his son Absalom, David has had to gather an army and prepare to fight back.  Having spent much of his reign defeating enemy nations and winning security for Israel, the king is now facing down ever more threats from his own people. Will blood prove thicker than water, or will the old king  manage cling onto his throne? Chapters covered: 2 Samu...

Out of nowhere, David suddenly has to face a coup from within his own family.  With no time to prepare, he must evacuate the royal compound and quickly assess who is with him in his fight to maintain the throne.  Helping him is an underground network of spies and a faux adviser who he is depending on to feed the wannabe king bad counsel. It's a long shot, but right now, David is out of option...

Surely one of the most sordid episodes in the entire Bible, and certainly one of the saddest, a bored young prince convinces himself that he is in love with his half sister.  The event escalates and David has a choice, to deal with his son or to let things get completely out of hand. Chapters covered: 2 Samuel 13-15 Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins Music....

A beautiful woman takes a bath on the flat roof of her house in plain view of a bored and randy king. Whatever the worst is that can happen, happens, as David manages to break all ten of the Ten Commandments, all at once. This isn't a section of the Bible that regularly gets aired in church services, for good reason. It's around 1000BC, and it's bathtime. Come on in! Chapters covere...

David's rule begins as he crushes army after army, builds his citadel in Jerusalem and adopts his best friend's son. It all starts off so well... Chapters covered:  2 Samuel 6-9 Written and produced by Chas Bayfield Music by Michael Auld and Jon Hawkins Music Cover Art by Lisa Goff Download S nakes and Angels, a Secular Walk through the First Five Books of the Bible , here: https://www.a...

With Saul dead, a power vacuum opens up in Israel. David believes that God has chosen him to be the nation's next king, but Saul still has sons and grandsons who survived the battle at Gilboa. One in particular believes that he is his father's heir apparent and assumes the crown for himself. His fall is an object lesson in how treating the true power brokers in the accession with disdain...

Spoiler alert: God might give you more than you can handle, and he doesn't necessarily help those who help themselves. If that revelation hasn't shocked you off your chair, get ready for more bombshells. In this special episode, I cover off a number of myths that people assume must be biblical, but aren't. Nativity lovers be warned, you'll never look at an infant Christmas play...

The First Book of Samuel reaches its season finale - and it's a satisfying one. A giant enemy army is bearing down on Israel as Saul and the rest of the Israelite force prepare to make a heroic last stand. Yet incredibly, Israel's most loyal soldier - and potentially its next king - is marching with the enemy. What gives? Those who think the Bible is simply a list of rules and regulation...

Everyone loves a bad guy getting their come-uppance and in this episode, a surly and ungrateful farmer provides listeners with that satisfaction. However, the predominant baddie in this particular Bible book is Israel's king, Saul who narrowly misses assassination not once, but twice. And not only does David have to slip into a neighbouring country to evade capture, he suddenly finds himself...

These are some of the liveliest pages in the Bible - and some of its most bloody. David may be the golden child of Israel, but Saul's jealousy is about to get the better of him. His hunt for David is relentless, and aided by a psychopathic Edomite shepherd, he unleashes one of the most appalling attacks in the entire Bible. Chapters covered: 1 Samuel 18-22 Written and produced by Chas Bayfiel...