Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Season 2 Episode 29
The gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels. He insists that his readers must follow Jewish law. Yet his gospel contains the infamous blo…
8 years ago
The Gospels of Mark and Matthew
Season 2 Episode 28
Mark is the earliest, shortest, and least popular gospel. We don't know if Mark was a Jew or a gentile. Mark's audience is assailed by the powers tha…
8 years ago
What We Know About the Life of Jesus
Season 2 Episode 27
Our earliest pagan sources for the life of Jesus - the historians Josephus, Tacitus, and Suetonius - tell us almost nothing about Jesus. The letters …
8 years, 1 month ago
Christianity's Earliest Witness: Paul Writes to the Thessalonians
Season 2 Episode 26
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians is the earliest surviving document of Christianity. I drop in on the Thessalonian Jesus-club to discover how…
8 years, 2 months ago
Quest for the Historical Jesus
Season 2 Episode 25
Keynote ep: Since the Enlightenment, three great academic attempts have been made to make sense of the life of Jesus: the first, second, and third qu…
8 years, 2 months ago
Battle for the New Testament IV: Modern Times
Season 2 Episode 24
The discovery of the ancient Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus in the 19th century revealed that the New Testament circulated in three different textu…
8 years, 3 months ago
Battle for the New Testament III: the Reformation
Season 2 Episode 23
Unlike the Jews, Christians preserved many versions of their scriptures. The invention of printing spurred European scholars to revisit ancient Greek…
8 years, 4 months ago
Battle for the New Testament II: Against Marcion
Season 2 Episode 22
The Jesus-clubs reacted against Marcion's tiny list of sacred works. The invention of the codex, the book, brought the issue of the canon to the fore…
8 years, 4 months ago
Battle for the New Testament I: Earliest Times
Season 2 Episode 21
Christians in the first two centuries did not have a sacred canon of books. In this first of four parts, I discuss what the earliest church fathers C…
8 years, 5 months ago
Bonus: Samson on Trial
Season 2
We all know of the biblical hero Samson, known to his friends as Shimshon ben Manoah, and to his enemies as "that bastard". Samson of the long hair, …
8 years, 5 months ago