The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament lists dozens of musical instruments, and we know that the Song of Songs was... well... a song, so what role did music play in Ancient Israel? A big one! Special guest Jonathan Friedmann joins Helen and Dave to talk about his favorite ancient instrument (hint: it has strings), why the high priest in the Temple wore bells on his robes, and to settle the argument once and for all what the psalms originally sounded like. Special thanks to listener Laura Laster who sent...
May 25, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 26
As much as 80% of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was written during and immediately after the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BC. As our guest Anja Klein explains in this fascinating episode, the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC was an inflection point in the history of the Jewish people. In Babylon, the exiled elites of the Kingdom of Judah had to forge a new identity. And out of that trauma (and resilience) came a compelling story of a chosen people and their one true G...
May 15, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Stephen was stoned to death. Peter was crucified (upside down). For early Christians, the highest form of devotion was to suffer and die like Jesus. Those martyrs became the first saints, and their bones and other "relics" were venerated throughout Christendom as part of a "cult of the dead," explains our guest, Kyle Smith . Read Kyle's fascinating book, Cult of the Dead: A Brief History of Christianity Email us with your episode topic ideas Rate and review us on your favorite podcasting app. Th...
May 08, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 24
When Charles III is anointed with Holy Oil and enthroned as the God-appointed King of the UK, he'll take part of a tradition that dates back to Old Testament times. Ancient Israelite kings weren't gods like their neighbors in the ancient Near East and the prophets blamed them for the Babylonian invasion and exile. But as our guest Madhavi Nevader explains, the Hebrew Bible presents many competing versions of Israelite kingship, some that are downright anti-monarchy and others that present the ki...
Apr 28, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Ancient harems were about much more than sex. They were the powerful realms of royal women — wives, consorts and concubines — where favored sons were positioned as future kings. What can the biblical account of David and Bathsheba tell us about the reality of ancient harems? A lot! says return guest Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones . Bathsheba, a victim of King David's lust, rises to become "queen mother," the most powerful position in the royal courts of the ancient Near East. Lloyd explains how David and...
Apr 20, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 22
For our final Easter episode, Helen and Dave tackle the biggest Easter "baddie" of them all, Judas Iscariot. Everyone knows that Judas betrayed Jesus, but... did he? The gospels, as usual, each put their own twist on Judas, and there's compelling evidence that the character of Judas may have been borrowed from an earlier betrayal tradition involving King David. To clear it all up, we welcome special guest Paul Middleton , professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Che...
Apr 11, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 21
For centuries, historians have been trying to pinpoint the exact date of the Crucifixion, but biblical math is tricky! As Helen and Dave explain in today's third Easter episode, the gospels aren't in agreement on when Jesus died. Did different traditions about Jesus's death and resurrection exist in the ancient world? Or do the different dates reflect different theological messages that the gospel authors were trying to send? As usual, we get to the bottom of it (or at least come to some moderat...
Apr 07, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In the second of four Easter episodes, Helen and Dave investigate the historical Pontius Pilate (or "Ponty P" as Helen calls him). What was Pilate's job in Roman-ruled Judaea? Was Jesus the only controversial messiah figure that Pilate had to contend with? And most importantly, how did Pilate end up buried at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland? Read Helen's excellent book: Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation See if you can catch the BTM debut of Helen's dog, Tessa, who briefly barks he...
Mar 31, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 19
This Easter season, Helen and Dave are doing a series of episodes on the fascinating figures that appear in the Passion narratives of Jesus's trial, crucifixion and resurrection. First up is Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple who — according to two of the gospels, at least — presided over the Jewish council that handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate. What was the role of the High Priest in the 1st century? Why would Caiaphas have perceived Jesus as a threat, religiously or po...
Mar 20, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 18
The modern Bible on your bookshelf is the product of centuries of human engagement with really (really!) old texts. Some of the oldest Greek manuscripts of individual books of the New Testament contain "scribbles" in the margins — commentaries, corrections and the occasional doodle. Garrick Allen is fascinated by these "paratexts," all of the extra stuff in manuscripts that show how ancient readers have shaped the scriptures we have today. We're thrilled to have Garrick as our special guest for ...
Mar 09, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 17
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is nearly silent on the lives of ordinary women in the ancient world. Thankfully, we have intriguing clues from archeology and ethnography that help piece together women's lives more than 3,000 years ago. Special guest Carol Meyers doesn't think that Ancient Israelite society was a strict patriarchy — despite troublesome verses like the so-called " curse of Eve " — but that women exercised important economic, social, and ritual functions in home and village life. R...
Feb 27, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Return guest Matthew Novenson drops some absolute bombs in this eye-opening episode about messiahs. Pretty much everything you've been told about ancient beliefs about the messiah is wrong (in varying degrees). As Matt patiently explains, many things got lost in translation (and transliteration) from the Hebrew mashiach to the Greek khristos to the English messiah/Christ. But a close reading of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament in their original languages reveals some stunning insights. Don't m...
Feb 17, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 15
It's easy to read the New Testament and think that Jesus's ministry and message ("grace, forgiveness, love") was somehow in stark opposition to Judaism ("the law, justice, purity"). In today's episode, guest Amy-Jill Levine explains how Jesus's teachings, actions and miracles fit squarely within 1st-century Jewish beliefs and practice, and why understanding Jesus's Jewishness is imperative for healing the centuries-old rift between Jews and Christians. Excellent books by Amy-Jill Levine: The Mis...
Feb 06, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Discovered in 1946 in abandoned caves in Israel, the Dead Sea Scrolls are by far the oldest copies we have of books from the Hebrew Bible. The ancient horde of scrolls — more than 1,000 — also sheds light on the mysterious community called the Essenes who retreated to the Dead Sea wilderness around the time of Jesus. Helen and Dave are joined by Dead Sea Scroll expert Charlotte Hempel , who challenges some of the conventional assumptions about the Essenes and explains why the millennia-old scrol...
Jan 23, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Everybody knows what Jesus looked like—the beard, the flowing locks, the tunic, and of course, the sandals! But incredibly, the Bible doesn't include a single physical description of Jesus... So where did the standard Western image come from, and is any of it historically accurate? Dave and Helen welcome back guest Joan Taylor, who makes a strong case that Western art painted a distorted picture of the real Jesus. Read Joan Taylor's excellent book: What Did Jesus Look Like? Support the show Them...
Jan 13, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 12
The Book of Genesis is packed with iconic stories: the Creation, Adam & Eve, Noah's Ark... but where did those ancient tales come from? Yale Assyriologist Eckart Frahm joins Helen and Dave as they set the time machine all the way back to the "Beginning" to explore the intriguing connections between ancient Mesopotamian myth and the "Primeval History" recorded in Genesis. Did ancient Israel borrow some of its origin stories from Babylon? Hear the evidence and decide for yourself. Support the ...
Jan 02, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Magi and mangers and murderous kings — it must be Christmas! The New Testament tells two very different stories of Jesus's birth, but why? Helen and Dave set the Biblical Time Machine to December 25, Year 1 to discuss why the authors of Matthew and Luke chose to write their own particular versions of the Nativity story, each with important theological and political undertones. And was Jesus even born in Year 1? We'll answer all your Christmas questions. Support the show Theme music written and p...
Dec 23, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 10
With Christmas just around the corner, Helen and Dave piece together a picture of the woman who was there from the start — Mary, the mother of Jesus. Betrothed at 12 or 13 to a much older man, what would life have been like for a Galilean peasant woman and mother (and widow, perhaps?) in the 1st century? And what did Mary make of her unusual son and his radical mission? Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos...
Dec 16, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In the Bible, Herod is a power-hungry, paranoid King who orders the execution of all boy babies in Judea. But did any of that really happen? Join Helen and Dave as they discuss Herod's historic legacy and catalog the people that he definitely did kill (including his favorite wife). Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Dec 09, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 8
According to the Bible, Paul was once Saul, a Christian-persecuting zealot who "converted" to Christianity. But did Paul, the earliest author in the New Testament, see himself as anything other than Jewish? Special guest Matthew Novenson joins Helen and Dave to discuss which of Paul's letters are legit, and what life would have been like for a diaspora Jew like Paul in the 1st century. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos...
Nov 28, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Did you know there's not a single mention of God, prayer, or prophets in the Book of Esther? So how did this entertaining tale of beauty contests, banquets, and impaled bad guys make it into the Hebrew Bible? Special guest Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones joins Helen and Dave to discuss the ancient Persian origins of the Book of Esther. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Nov 18, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 6
The Second Temple in Jerusalem was a wonder of the ancient world and the center of Jewish life. In this episode, Dave and Helen describe the grandeur of the Temple complex after a major upgrade under Herod the Great, how Temple sacrifices worked, and why money changers played an important role (even if Jesus wasn't a fan). Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Nov 07, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 5
What were the Jewish origins of baptism? Did people really wear camel hair and eat bugs? According to Josephus, was John the Baptist a "bigger deal" than Jesus? Special guest Joan Taylor joins Helen and Dave to discuss how John the Baptist fits into the 1st-century world of the New Testament. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Oct 31, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Women played a hugely important role in Jesus’s inner circle and in early Christianity, but the New Testament only gives us a few tantalizing clues. In this episode, Helen and Dave fill in the forgotten stories of Jesus’s female disciples. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Oct 21, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3
The New Testament wasn't handed down from on high as a complete and fully formed text. The books of the NT were written by different individuals at different times to meet the spiritual needs of different communities. Join Dave and Helen as they explore the historical roots of the "Good Book" and the people who wrote it. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Oct 13, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Dave and Helen dive into the biggest Bible history question of them all — who was the real Jesus? Lucky for us, Helen wrote a whole book about it, so there's plenty of fascinating clues to discuss. Support the show Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos
Oct 01, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 1
