History In The Bible

Another detour episode. This time I am with Gregg Gassmann of many podcasts: Popeular History (that's Popular with an "e"), Pontifacts, and Cardinal Numbers. You won’t find a bigger Pope aficionado than Gregg. Gregg and I discuss the papal conclave of May 2025. You can find Gregg's podcasts at https://www.popeularhistory.com/ and https://pontifacts.podbean.com/. Yes, we are rather late in getting this show out, but sometimes life gets in the way.

The year 2025 marks fifty years of publication by Biblical Archaeology Review, often known as BAR. This is halfway between a journal and a magazine, rather like National Geographic. It has worked as a bridge between professional archaeologists and historians, and the general public.  In this show I am joined by my old mate Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast. We discuss BAR’s history, and present some of its articles. 

On this first detour show, I am joined by Bernie Maopolski of the Fan of History podcast. We investigate the most mysterious objects ever produced in the Roman empire.   

In the last Afterlife episode, Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions and I explored the relationship between the Jewish festival of Passover, and Christian Easter.  This time, we explore two more parallels. This time, we explore the Jewish festival of Shavuot or Weeks, and its significance to the Christian celebration of Pentecost.

In this Afterlife episode, Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com) explains to me the origins and customs of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Then I explain what Easter is about, and how it is intimately connected to Passover.

In this Afterlife episode, Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I try to figure out where the rabbis came from.  

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of the miraculous births to be found in the world's religions, including the birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary.

Announcing the publication of the final volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion series of books. The book contains the entire scripts of the show’s third and final season. It follows the history of the two heirs of Abraham, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, to the year 200. By that year, the rabbis had formed their foundational document, the Mishnah;, and Christianity had created the imperial church incorporate. The volume also discusses Gnosticism at length, the many books that almost made into the New Testament, and the early years of the rabbinic movement. All the information you need is at https://www.historyinthebible.com/books.html  

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of our favourite crazy theories.

In this Afterlife episode, Steve Guerra of History of the Papacy (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-of-the-papacy-podcast--4899207) and I discuss history podcasting.

I introduce the New Testament to Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com). Here are the Amazon US links for the books mentioned in this episode: Vol 1 Genesis to Babylon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950734 Vol 2 Age of the Second Temple https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 Vol 4 Essential Resources https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950726  

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss why we love ancient history.

I have published another volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books. It contains the complete scripts of the second season of my podcast. This is the Age of the Second Temple. It covers the books in the Old Testament written after the return from Babylon.  The volume explores the history of Judea from Persian to Roman times. It investigates in depth the rich apocalyptic literature of the time. Then the book examines all the books of the New Testament to see what we can reliably know of the history of Jesus and the disciples, and the great apostle Paul. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.de/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.fr/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0645950769  

Announcing the publication of a new volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Genesis to Babylon”. This contains the complete scripts of the first season of the show. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950734 ttps://www.amazon.com.au/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history) and I discuss history podcasting.

Announcing the publication of the first volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Essential Resources”. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces: https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/

The last episode in the show. I give a big thank you to all my listeners, and a brief biographical sketch. Then I finish the series with three more speculations. First, what if Marcionism had become the orthodoxy of the imperial church incorporate? Second, could Manichaeism have swallowed up the church? And finally, could the church have survived and prospered had it not become the state religion of the Roman empire?

Four more speculations.  I argue that an important element of Christianity’s success was that it quickly transformed itself into what I call the imperial church incorporate. Would Christianity have succeeded had it not done so?  Second, could Mithraism have triumphed over the church?  Third, could the Gnostic variants of Christianity come to dominate?  Finally, the Jewish arm of the church vanished after the Bar Kosiva revolt of 132. What might have happened had that group survived and thrived?  

More speculations and alternative histories! Our first diverges from our own timeline in about the year 35. What if Jesus had not been executed by the Romans, but had lived on to see the Great Judean Revolt of 66 CE. What would he have made of it? Second, let’s say that Jesus died when did, a generation before the Great Revolt. What might have happened if his chief apostles Peter and Paul had lived to witness the Roman attack on Judea? And third, let’s move on to about the year 100, when Christians first fell under the Roman gaze. Would the church have flourished earlier and more strongly if the Roman state had never persecuted it?

This is the second episode in a series of speculations and alternate histories. This time:  What if Christian missionaries had never preached to the pagans? Second, what may happened if Christian missionaries had ignored the Roman empire, and proselytised in Parthia, instead? Third, what would have become of Christianity if the Jewish revolts had never occurred, and the Temple stood to the end of the empire?