The creators of BibleProject have in-depth conversations about the Bible and theology. A companion podcast to BibleProject videos found at bibleproject.com
While the chaos dragon is not God’s rival--it’s the rival of creation--it is God’s enemy. The Psalms sometimes portray creation as the ordered result of Yahweh’s battle with the dragon, to bring order out of chaos. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss two psalms that look back to the cosmic battle at the beginning of creation and also look ahead to a day when Yahweh will give his own dragon-slaying power to a human image of God. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-8:0...
Did God create disorder and chaos? What does it actually mean to be evil? And how do you tell your kids that in the Bible dragons are actually the “bad guys”? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from the first half of the Chaos Dragon series. Thank you to our audience for your incredible questions! View more resources on our website → Timestamps Did God Create Disorder? (2:29) What is God’s Relationship to the Darkness? (15:05) What Does it Mean to be Evil? (21:41) Does God Us...
The theme of the chaos dragon raises some challenging questions. For instance, if God created a perfect world and humans messed it up, why did the dragon and the chaos waters exist at the beginning of the universe? Why would God allow the potential for chaos at all? In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss God’s goodness and the existence of evil, through the lens of the chaos dragon theme. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-13:33) Part two (13:33-30:44) Part three (30:4...
The story of Jonah employs all the major motifs of the theme of the chaos dragon: chaotic waters, a servant of God who rebels against him, and a great sea monster. But the story doesn't call it a sea monster—the story calls it a great fish! Join Tim and Jon as they discuss Jonah, thrown into the deep abyss and swallowed up by death, and the reality that even the belly of the beast is no match for Yahweh. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-11:21) Part two (11:21-28:00...
When Israel chooses to act like the chaos monster instead of living like the people of God, God brings judgment on them. How? He sends other bigger monsters after them, namely, Babylon and Egypt. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the scrolls of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and their focus on the dragon-like behavior of these three nations––as well as God’s promise to bring about justice for each and every dragon in the end. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-12:26) Part t...
What happens when the entire nation of Israel consistently aligns themselves with the dragon? They themselves become a chaos monster Yahweh has to deal with. In this episode, Tim and Jon explore the scroll of Isaiah and the prophet’s indictment of Israel for choices that betray the image and blessing of God they were meant to bring to the world. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-12:52) Part two (12:52-23:50) Part three (23:50-36:22) Part four (36:22-56:54) Reference...
So often the symbol of the chaos monster shows up embodied by a human bent on oppressing other people. Goliath, one of the Bible’s most well-known bad guys, is depicted as having scaly armor like a snake and defying not just Israel, but Yahweh. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the theme of the dragon in the story of David and Goliath. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-18:05) Part two (18:05-32:00) Part three (32:00-42:32) Referenced Resources The Serpent in Samu...
In today’s episode, we once again encounter a theme that’s becoming all too familiar: humans becoming chaos monsters. Jabin, king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of his army, are depicted as serpents in Judges 4, and the humans who overcome these two dragons are two women, Deborah and Jael. Join Tim and Jon as they explore the theme of the dragon in the scroll of Judges. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-11:44) Part two (11:44-28:25) Part three (28:25-42:07) Pa...
Was Cain’s city a good thing initially? If Israel was just as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah, why didn’t God destroy it too? And how will God redeem the city in the new creation? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from the second half of The City series. Thank you to our audience for your insightful questions! View more resources on our website → Timestamps Was Cain’s City Originally a Good Thing? (2:28) Why Didn’t Israel Face the Same Judgment as Sodom? (13:24) Why Is Babylon Dep...
God created humans to bear his image, but sometimes we choose our own destruction and start to look a lot more like chaos monsters instead. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss a human who the prophets frequently called a sea dragon: the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt and enslaved Israel in the scroll of Exodus. If Pharaoh is the seed of the serpent, who is the seed of the woman in Exodus? Listen in to find out! View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-15:26) Part two (15:26-23:5...
Genesis 3 is probably the most famous serpent-featuring story in the Bible—the moment we get to see humans and the nahash interact for the first time. Because the serpent lures the humans into choosing their own demise, it’s also the moment Yahweh announces that the seed (descendant) of the serpent will remain a rival to the seed of the woman. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss Genesis 3-4 and talk about what happens when humans themselves start to act like the chaos monster. View more resourc...
Dragons show up on page one of the Bible, named among the beings that feature in the seven-day creation narrative in Genesis 1. God creates dragons to inhabit the chaos waters, and we meet one early on that tries (and succeeds) to get the first humans to choose their own destruction. Why would God create these creatures? What is their purpose? Join Tim and Jon as they talk about the literary function of dragons in the Bible. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-8:29) P...
When we read the word “myth,” often what comes to mind is a fictional story. However, a myth is a way of exploring universal concerns of human existence, using symbols for things we may or may not have words to describe. The dragon is one such myth—a symbol humans have used for millennia to talk about chaos and death. Some might say it was one of the first worldwide memes. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss ancient Near Eastern literature about dragons. View more resources on our website → Tim...
Nahash , tanin , leviathan ––the Bible is full of strange words describing a creature many modern readers can’t quite categorize. All these words are ways of referring to a monster of the deep, a dragon. In this episode, Tim and Jon kick off a brand new theme study, the chaos dragon, with a look at the language the Bible uses to describe this creature. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-4:27) Part two (4:27-20:25) Part three (20:25-31:13) Part four (31:13-46:03) Refe...
How could Abraham have anticipated a coming City of God, like the author of Hebrews said? What’s the connection between the shame of Adam and Eve and that of their son Cain? Was Genesis first an oral tradition, and how did it become a written account with so many literary hyperlinks? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from the first half of The City series. Thank you to our audience for your incredible questions! View more resources on our website → Timestamps How Could Abrah...
In the Bible, cities have a bad reputation as centers of immorality and unrighteous living. First-century followers of Jesus continued to live in cities, but they lived by an other-worldly ethic set by Jesus. Their way of living was so different that Jesus’ followers began to talk about their citizenship being primarily in a coming heavenly city, rather than the physical city in which they lived. In this episode, join Jon and Tim as they wrap up our theme study of the city. View more resources o...
As the story of the Bible unfolds, the expectation for a city of God—a new Jerusalem where Heaven and Earth will be fully united—continues to grow. Yet the gospel authors seem to think this new Jerusalem is most fully realized in Jesus himself. So if Jesus is the new Jerusalem, what’s his relationship with the physical city of Jerusalem? In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss how Jesus and his followers become the new Jerusalem. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-19:01...
Cities appear to be inherently bad in the story of the Bible. So when Jesus calls his followers a city on a hill, what does he mean? And why is the vision of the new creation a city instead of a garden? In this episode, Tim and Jon review some of the major motifs in the theme of the city so far and explore the concept of a city of God. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-22:02) Part three (22:02-33:57) Part three (33:57-44:17) Part four (44:17-54:52) Referenced Resour...
The city of Jerusalem, established by David to be the home of God, is a glimpse of what a divine city could look like, but even Jerusalem becomes corrupt. Is there any kind of city we can actually put our hope in? Jesus seemed to think so. He said he was the place where Heaven and Earth are fully united, allowing God and humanity to dwell together. Then he took it a step further to say his followers are a city on a hill, the city of God. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the new Jerusalem. Vi...
Israel was meant to be a picture of the heavenly city of God, but over time, it began to look more like Babylon, Nineveh, and Sodom and Gomorrah. In the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet announces Yahweh’s coming judgment on Israel because of their oppression of other humans. Join Tim and Jon as they discuss the city of God in the scroll of Isaiah. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-13:05) Part two (13:05-28:38) Part three (28:38-36:29) Part four (36:29-51:00) Part five ...
When Jesus tells Nicodemus people must be born again of water and Spirit, is that connected to the anointing theme? Is Jesus’ anointing in the Jordan supposed to remind us of the flood story? Does an antichrist have to first be a christ (anointed one)? In this episode, Tim and Jon explore your questions about the theme of the anointed. Thanks to our audience for your incredible questions! View more resources on our website → Timestamps Is Jesus’ Teaching on Water and Spirit Part of the Anointed ...
This episode explores how the biblical cities of Jerusalem and Samaria, intended as reflections of God's order, mirrored the city of Cain instead. Examining Micah's prophecy and stories from the Book of Kings (Solomon consolidating power through assassinations, Ahab and Jezebel seizing Naboth's vineyard), Tim and Jon discuss how human cities magnify both good and evil, often being founded on violence, coveting, and injustice. Despite this, Micah also offers a vision of future hope for Jerusalem as the center of God's instruction for all nations.
Jerusalem is the Bible’s image of what a city of God should be. But from the earliest moments of its founding, it's clear that even this city has problems. What will it take for a city to truly become like the garden of Eden? In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the founding of Jerusalem and what it will take for God and humans to dwell together. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-18:21) Part two (18:21-33:17) Part three (33:17-49:27) Part four (49:27-59:22) Part fiv...
At last, there’s a positive example of a city in the Bible, the capital city of Egypt under the rule of Joseph. In this episode, join Tim and Jon as they explore how a city—usually a perpetrator of death and violence—can become a source of life under the leadership of a wise human image of God. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-10:55) Part two (10:55-34:49) Part three (34:49-49:38) Part four (49:38-59:35) Referenced Resources Interested in more? Check out Tim’s libr...
If Babylon is the worst city in the Bible, then Sodom and Gomorrah are a close second. The injustice and oppression in Sodom and Gomorrah are so pronounced that God sends a flood of justice to completely wipe out these two cities. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss the theme of the city and the darkest parts of human nature. Content warning: Today's episode contains some mention of sexual abuse, rape, and incest. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-16:30) Part two (...
You may have heard that Babylon was the biggest, baddest city in the Bible, but where did that reputation come from? Who founded the city, and what made it so detestable to God? In this episode, join Tim and Jon as they explore the story of the half-human, half-god Nimrod and the city he founded. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-16:08) Part two (16:08-30:37) Part three (30:37-41:00) Part four (41:00-59:28) Referenced Resources The Context of Scripture , William W. ...
As the story of the Bible unfolds, humanity grows more and more violent. Cain is more violent than his parents, and his descendants are more violent than him. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss Lemek, Cain’s far more murderous descendant, and humanity’s escalating violence that prompts God to flood the earth. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-18:31) Part two (18:31-36:18) Part three (36:18-51:52) Part four (51:52-1:14:37) Referenced Resources Interested in more? C...
In the story of the Bible, cities are a bad thing. They’re a symptom of humanity’s violence and attempts to protect themselves instead of trusting God. In fact, in the second chapter of Genesis, God “builds” something for humanity’s protection. And it’s not a city—it’s a woman. In this episode, Tim and Jon explore the theme of the city and the first thing God builds. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-12:51) Part two (12:51-35:26) Part three (35:26-44:40) Part four (...
The theme of the city in the Bible is a surprising one. When cities are introduced in the story, they’re depicted as “bad”—a human response to increasing violence and the need for self-protection—and gardens are depicted as humanity’s ideal setting. However, in the book of Revelation, the new creation Jesus brings is a city. What’s going on here? Join Tim and Jon as they start exploring the biblical theme of the city. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-20:11) Part tw...
“Jesus the anointed one” is the literal translation of the Greek title “Christ,” frequently applied to Jesus. In this podcast episode, Tim and Jon discuss both this title and Jesus’ baptism, which the gospel writers depict as his anointing ceremony. Listen in as we explore the theme of the anointed in the New Testament and how Jesus’ followers become anointed ones too. View more resources on our website → Timestamps Part one (00:00-11:06) Part two (11:06-29:04) Part three (29:04-42:59) Part four...
