History in the Bible
Summary: A layman's guide to a 150 years of research into the history presented in the Bible. I explore the religion of ancient Israel, and the development of Christianity through to the death of Paul. I discuss every single book in every Bible (there are more than you think!) Lightly garnished with a dash of drollery, a soupcon of scrutiny, and not one ounce of objectivity. Not one ounce! Episodes are released every third Sunday.
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- Artist: Garry Stevens
- Copyright: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA International License
Podcasts:
Governor Nehemiah and priest-scribe Ezra finally bring the Jews back home from Babylon, transforming the old Judean religion into a faith based on Law and sacred bloodlines.
After Sheshbazzar's failure, the second wave of returnees are led by the enigmatic figures of the supposed Davidic king Zerubbabel and the high-priest Joshua.
Cyrus the Great of Persia urges the Jews to return home under the mysterious Sheshbazzar.
Our most important sources for the Return are the books known as Ezra and Nehemiah in Catholic and Protestant bibles. But there are so many other books of Ezra! It's a mess.
In the book of Ezekiel God transforms from furious father to jealous husband.
In the first episode of series two, I begin with the Judeans in exile in Babylon.
My special guest is Dan Libenson of the Judaism Unbound podcast. We talk about the Bible, the history of the Jewish religion, the difficulties of translation, how Jews and Christians think about God, and many other matters.
Why I am leaving the remaining books of the Old Testament to my second series. I introduce the lush literature of the Second temple period, and describe in detail the nature of Judean religion as it was at the destruction of the kingdom of Judah.
Scholars are divided about the Babylonian destruction wrought on Judah.
Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk all have very different stories to tell.
King Josiah and his successors pursue suicidal diplomatic policies
The Bible tries to explain why the evil King Manasseh reigned for more than 50 years in peace and solitude, while his sublimely virtuous grandson, Josiah, was slaughtered in his prime.
Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I finish (for now) our series on the apocalyptic literature, with a discussion of how views on the afterlife changed in the Second Temple period.
Isaiah's ambiguity has made him a crowd-pleaser for over 2,500 years. He introduces a bunch of shiny-new theological ideas previously unknown in the Bible.
Hezekiah of Judah faced his first great crisis: a mass of Israelite refugees fleeing from the Assyrians. He turned adversity into opportunity, strengthening his authority and using the Israelite intellectuals to create a nationalistic religion.
