Biblical Time Machine – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Biblical Time Machine

Helen Bond & Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

History

Religion & Spirituality

Frequency: 1 episode/9d. Total Eps: 160

Join Helen and Lloyd as they travel back in time (metaphorically… it’s a podcast) to explore the real history of the people, places and events of the Old Testament, New Testament and everything in between.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

No recent rankings available

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

http://patreon.com/BiblicalTimeMachine
204 shares
https://www.patreon.com/BiblicalTimeMachine
164 shares
http://www.patreon.com/BiblicalTimeMachine
8 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 53%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Manichaeism – An Ancient Faith Rediscovered

Season 4 · Episode 8

Monday, November 17, 2025 • Duration 41:06

In this episode, Lloyd fires up the Biblical Time Machine with Professor Nicholas Baker-Brian, and they travel back to third-century Persia to meet one of antiquity’s most fascinating and misunderstood figures: Mani, the visionary behind the global religion we now call Manichaeism. They ask: who was Mani, what are the sources for his life, and what do we know about the ancient faith which bears his name?

Nicholas Baker-Brian is Professor of Late Antique Studies in School of History, Archaeology and Religion at the University of Cardiff. He has published widely on religion in late global antiquity, and is one of the world’s leading experts in the study of Manichaeism. Today on the show Lloyd discusses Professor Baker-Brian’s 2011 book, Manichaeism: An Ancient Faith Rediscovered, which is a scholarly yet accessible introduction to Manichaeism, published by T&T Clark in 2011.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

How the Death Penalty Came to Die

Season 4 · Episode 7

Monday, November 10, 2025 • Duration 38:52

What happened when the laws of Moses were translated into Greek? In this episode, we journey from Sinai to Alexandria with Dr Joel Korytko, whose book The Death of the Covenant Code uncovers how Jewish translators in the third century BCE re-imagined Israel’s laws for a Greek-speaking world. Together with Helen Bond and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Joel reveals how death penalties quietly disappeared in the Greek Exodus, and what these changes reveal about Jewish life under Greek rule. This is a story of law, language, and the authority of Scripture in a fast-changing world.

Dr Joel Korytko is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Northwest College | Seminary. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford, where his research explored how Jewish translators adapted biblical law for a Hellenistic audience. His book, The Death of the Covenant Code (Brill, 2022), examines how the laws of Exodus were reshaped in the Old Greek translation in light of Graeco-Egyptian legal traditions. Joel is also co-authoring a forthcoming commentary on Exodus for the Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint series.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a or a for your water bottle.

Interpreting Jesus – Miracles, Moses & Memory

Season 4 · Episode 2

Monday, September 8, 2025 • Duration 47:48

Can modern historians really talk about Jesus’ miracles? Did Jesus expect the imminent end of the world? Was he a new Moses figure? And if memory is so unreliable, how can historians claim to know anything about him at all?

There’s no one better to wrestle with these questions than this week’s guest: Dale C. Allison Jr., Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. He joins Helen and Lloyd to discuss his latest book, Interpreting Jesus (2025), a fresh collection of essays from one of the world’s leading historical Jesus scholars.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Biblical Archeology: What It Can (and Can't) Tell Us

Season 1 · Episode 28

Wednesday, June 14, 2023 • Duration 42:16

For more than 100 years, archeologists have been scouring the Holy Land for tangible proof that the Bible and its accounts are historically true, but they've largely come up empty handed. Still, modern archeology is one of our greatest resources for understanding the ancient societies that wrote these timeless texts — their beliefs, their rituals and their daily lives.

We're thrilled to welcome the legendary biblical archeologist Eric Meyers as our guest. Eric and his wife Carol (who joined us for an episode about women in Ancient Israel) conducted digs in Israel and Italy for more than 40 years and may have been the inspiration for Indiana Jones (or maybe not). You can read all about their adventures in Eric's new memoir, An Accidental Archeologist.

Enjoying Biblical Time Machine? Rate and review us on your favorite podcast app
Email us with episode suggestions!

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

All About Our Pal Josephus

Season 1 · Episode 27

Monday, June 5, 2023 • Duration 42:53

Finally, an episode about Josephus! Josephus is not only our best source for life in Roman-ruled Judaea, but also our only source. (Much like Dave is his parents' favorite, and only, son.) Josephus wrote A LOT about the Jewish wars with Rome and Jewish history in general, but scholars usually take his accounts with a grain of salt. As a Jew and a Roman citizen during a period of great tumult, Josephus had his own version of history to tell.

We welcome Helen's colleague Kimberley Czajkowski, an expert on 1st-century Judaea, to introduce us to the real Josephus, one of the most important and controversial writers from the ancient world.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

Music in Ancient Israel 🎵

Season 1 · Episode 26

Thursday, May 25, 2023 • Duration 42:12

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 us the idea for this episode. If you want to hear your name on the "air," send us an email with your very own ingenious episode idea.

And check out Jonathan's new podcast Amusing Jews!

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

How the Babylonian Exile Changed EVERYTHING

Season 1 · Episode 25

Monday, May 15, 2023 • Duration 35:16

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 God.

Email us with your episode topic ideas. We love to hear from you!
Rate and review us on your favorite podcasting app. Thanks!

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

Was Early Christianity a "Cult of the Dead"?

Season 1 · Episode 24

Monday, May 8, 2023 • Duration 35:14

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. Thanks!

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

Coronation Special: Kingship in Ancient Israel

Season 1 · Episode 23

Friday, April 28, 2023 • Duration 47:58

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 king as a shadow of a future messiah.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

David, Bathsheba & Harem Politics

Season 1 · Episode 22

Thursday, April 20, 2023 • Duration 43:57

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 Bathsheba's famous story is at once the product of ancient literary motifs and the real-life exploits of harem life.

Attention British listeners (and world travelers)! Visit the British Museum in London from May 4 - August 13 to see an amazing exhibit that Lloyd helped curate called Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece
Read Lloyd's latest book, Persians: The Age of the Great Kings
Email us with your episode suggestions

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Read moreCollapse

Biblical Time Machine – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Biblical Time Machine – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Patreon8

Amazon57

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Patreon8

Amazon57