Explore every episode of the podcast Biblical Time Machine
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manichaeism – An Ancient Faith Rediscovered | 17 Nov 2025 | 00:41:06 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| How the Death Penalty Came to Die | 10 Nov 2025 | 00:38:52 | |
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 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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Interpreting Jesus – Miracles, Moses & Memory | 08 Sep 2025 | 00:47:48 | |
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 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 | 14 Jun 2023 | 00:42:16 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| All About Our Pal Josephus | 05 Jun 2023 | 00:42:53 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Music in Ancient Israel 🎵 | 25 May 2023 | 00:42:12 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| How the Babylonian Exile Changed EVERYTHING | 15 May 2023 | 00:35:16 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Was Early Christianity a "Cult of the Dead"? | 08 May 2023 | 00:35:14 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Coronation Special: Kingship in Ancient Israel | 28 Apr 2023 | 00:47:58 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| David, Bathsheba & Harem Politics | 20 Apr 2023 | 00:43:57 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Easter: The Curious Case of Judas Iscariot | 11 Apr 2023 | 00:41:38 | |
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 Chester.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Easter: What Day Was Jesus Crucified? | 07 Apr 2023 | 00:33:00 | |
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 moderately satisfying conclusions).
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Easter: Meet the Historical Pontius Pilate | 31 Mar 2023 | 00:31:49 | |
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?
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Meet the New Team | 01 Sep 2025 | 00:31:09 | |
The Time Machine is back... with some changes! Join Helen and her new co-host, ancient history Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, as they discuss what they're working on at the moment: everything from ancient Babylon, the Hittites and Persia's first lady to ancient 'lives' and the historical Mary. They are also joined by the show's new researcher and producer, Dr John Nelson. They explore John's research on the absence of a physical description of Jesus in the Gospels, and ask how Jesus came to acquire the familiar appearance he has today. This episode also offers a glimpse into what is coming up on Season 4: Dale Allison on Interpreting Jesus, Sean Tougher on Eunuchs in the Bible & Beyond, and Louise Lawrence on Disability and the Gospels, among many others! 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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Easter: Who Was High Priest Joseph Caiaphas? | 20 Mar 2023 | 00:37:01 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Ancient Manuscripts — The Bible Before It Was the Bible | 09 Mar 2023 | 00:34:32 | |
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 this installment of Biblical Time Machine.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Women in Ancient Israel — What Can We Know? | 27 Feb 2023 | 00:34:50 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Messiah — Not What You Think! | 17 Feb 2023 | 00:39:43 | |
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 miss it!
Hey loyal listeners! If you like the podcast, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It will help other people find us. Also, we'd love to hear your ideas for future episodes. Send us an email or reach out to us on Twitter @BibleTimeMach Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Recognizing the Jewishness of Jesus | 06 Feb 2023 | 00:39:00 | |
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.
Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Dead Sea Scrolls are a Big Deal | 23 Jan 2023 | 00:34:39 | |
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 scrolls are still a really big deal. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| What Did Jesus Look Like? | 13 Jan 2023 | 00:42:09 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| "In the Beginning..." Origins of the Creation Story | 02 Jan 2023 | 00:34:31 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| BTM Christmas Special: The Nativity Stories | 23 Dec 2022 | 00:30:53 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Meet the Historical Virgin Mary | 16 Dec 2022 | 00:39:22 | |
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? Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Where are Helen and Dave? A BTM Update | 28 Jul 2025 | 00:06:10 | |
It's been a while, but there are some big changes in the works for Biblical Time Machine! For more details, check out our post on Patreon. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Was Herod Really a 'Bad Guy'? | 09 Dec 2022 | 00:31:51 | |
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). Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Who Was Paul? | 28 Nov 2022 | 00:42:25 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther | 18 Nov 2022 | 00:40:07 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| All About the Second Temple | 07 Nov 2022 | 00:37:55 | |
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). Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| John the Baptist | 31 Oct 2022 | 00:45:44 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Jesus's Female Disciples | 21 Oct 2022 | 00:33:32 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Who Wrote the New Testament and Why? | 13 Oct 2022 | 00:44:06 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Historical (Not Hysterical) Jesus | 01 Oct 2022 | 00:36:00 | |
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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Let's Talk About "Judeophobia" in the New Testament | 26 May 2025 | 00:52:26 | |
Sadly, the origins of many antisemitic tropes and prejudices can be traced back to the New Testament, in which "the Jews" are cast as the religious "other" against which the Jesus movement is self-defined. As a result, Christians carry around a lot of un-historical and anti-Jewish assumptions are repeated in Sunday School classes and even the halls of academia. Let's fix that! Our guest Meredith Warren just co-edited an excellent book called Judeophobia and the New Testament. Meredith joins Helen and Dave to dig into the origins of the Bible's anti-Jewish rhetoric and discuss new ways of reading these texts without belittling or condemning Judaism. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Why the Bible Loves Cyrus the Great | 19 May 2025 | 00:57:09 | |
Cyrus II was the founder of the Persian Empire, arguably the greatest empire of the Ancient Near East. Cyrus wasn't only a hero to the Persians. In the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus is the only non-Jew that God calls His "anointed one" or "messiah." But does Cyrus really deserve his reputation as the "liberator" of the Jews from Babylon or is it all a piece of ancient propaganda? The incomparable Lloyd Llewelyn-Jones joins Helen and Dave to discuss the glory of the Persian Empire and how Cyrus was interpreted by biblical authors. For more great stuff from Lloyd, check out his latest books:
SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Biblical Law—Was 'Eye for an Eye' Really Enforced? | 12 May 2025 | 00:54:02 | |
The laws and punishments meted out in the Bible sound pretty harsh. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth—not to mention all of the commandments that are punishable by death! Ancient law expert Bruce Wells joins Helen and Dave to answer the question: were biblical laws really enforced? How did they compare with other law codes from the Ancient Near East like Hammurabi? And if they weren't enforced, why do laws play such a central role in the Hebrew Bible? Check out Bruce's books: SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| What Was the Council of Nicaea (Really)? | 05 May 2025 | 00:53:06 | |
According to The Da Vinci Code, all sorts of wild things happened at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, chose the books of the New Testament. The role of women in the Church was suppressed. And most importantly, a bunch of powerful bishops decided (by a slim margin) that Jesus Christ was actually divine. As our guest Sara Parvis explains, the Council of Nicaea was indeed a momentous meeting, but for very different reasons. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The End of the World According to Paul | 28 Apr 2025 | 00:55:09 | |
Matthew Novenson is back and he's brought some exciting (wild, even) new ideas about our old friend Paul. In his latest book, Paul and Judaism at the End of History, Matt argues that Paul believed he was living through the end of the world. Paul wasn't "against" Judaism or the law—he simply believed that Jesus's death and resurrection had ushered in a new reality with new rules. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| A Second Look at the Second Coming | 21 Apr 2025 | 00:50:26 | |
With Easter in the rear view mirror, we take a long-overdue look at the next chapter in the story of Jesus: the Second Coming. Scholar Tucker Ferda is making waves with some compelling new ideas about the origins of Second Coming prophesies. He joins Helen and Dave to discuss what Jesus himself might have believed about the End of Days and His role as the prophesied Son of Man. We highly recommend Tucker's new book, Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Easter: What's the Story with Barabbas? | 14 Apr 2025 | 00:44:13 | |
The enigmatic figure of Barabbas appears in all four gospels as a "bandit" or "insurrectionist" who is released from prison by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus. In this special Easter episode, Helen and Dave explore the (many) theories about Barabbas' backstory and what he may have represented to the gospel authors. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Haunted House of Early Christianity | 03 Nov 2025 | 00:40:46 | |
What if the earliest Christians believed the world around them was teeming with invisible forces waiting to invade the human body? This Halloween, Biblical Time Machine delves into early Christian ideas of demons with Dr Travis Proctor, Associate Professor of Religion at Wittenberg University. His book, Demonic Bodies and the Dark Ecologies of Early Christian Discourse (OUP, 2022) reveals that demons were not just ghosts or spirits—but embodied, contaminating presences that could bring sickness, impurity, and spiritual ruin. In the Time Machine, they explore how Christians imagined demons, what they believed demons were made of, where demons lurked, and how demonic contamination shaped ancient understandings of purity, health, and the human body. Along the way, Travis reveals why haunted houses aren’t just a modern Halloween invention—and which early Christian writer had the strangest ideas about demons. 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. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Bible Says What?! with Dan McClellan | 07 Apr 2025 | 01:05:14 | |
What does the Bible really say about controversial topics like slavery, abortion, homosexuality, Satan and the Apocalypse? Everybody has their take, but few have the ability to interrogate the texts and their ancient origins with as much insight as our guest, Dan McClellan. Dan McClellan is a public scholar of the Bible and religion with a PhD in theology & religion from the University of Exeter. Since 2023, Dan has dedicated himself full-time to combating misinformation about the Bible and religion and increasing public access to scholarship. Dan is co-host of the terrific Data Over Dogma podcast with his buddy Dan Beecher. Pre-order Dan's new book, The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues which hits bookstores on April 29, 2025. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Ancient Synagogues and the New Testament | 31 Mar 2025 | 01:02:54 | |
Before it was called Christianity, the "Jesus movement" was born in 1st-century synagogues. In today's episode, Anders Runneson joins Helen and Dave to talk about the important role of ancient synagogues of both civic and religious institutions, and how a better understanding of synagogues can shape our reading of the New Testament. You can download a full PDF of Anders' book for free: Judaism for Gentiles: Reading Paul Beyond the Parting of the Ways Paradigm SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Introducing Wisdom Literature, a Biblical Oddball | 10 Mar 2025 | 00:55:05 | |
The books of the Hebrew Bible known as "wisdom literature" — Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes — are a strange fit for the biblical canon. They're ahistorical (not interested in Israel's history) and areligious (not interested in God, covenants, the temple or any other pillars of Israelite religion). So where did these funky books come from and how did they find their way into the Bible? Our guest Stuart Weeks is here with some answers! Stuart is a scholar of ancient Israelite wisdom literature and recently published an impressive, two-volume study of Ecclesiastes.
SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Animal Studies Gets Biblical | 03 Mar 2025 | 00:46:01 | |
What can Bible stories about animals tells us about power dynamics in the ancient world? A lot, it turns out! Suzanna Millar joins us to talk about the fascinating new field of Animal Studies and how the Hebrew Bible can open windows into studying human-animal power dynamics 2500 years in the past. For more on this emerging field of biblical studies, check out Suzanna's book, co-edited with Arthur Walker-Jones, Ask the Animals: Developing a Biblical Animal Hermeneutic. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Sabbath—Its Ancient Origins and Evolution | 24 Feb 2025 | 00:56:56 | |
The Jewish sabbath (Shabbat), observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, is one of the oldest continuously observed holidays in existence. At first glance, the sabbath seems pretty straightforward; it's a "day of rest" that God commanded his people to observe on the 7th day. But when you read the Hebrew Bible really closely—like our guest Jon Levenson does—you run into all sorts of intriguing questions. Was the "7th day" the same as the sabbath? Was the sabbath a day or rest or a day of bad omens? What does shabbat even mean in Hebrew? If you're fans of this podcast, you will love Jon's new book, Israel’s Day of Light and Joy: The Origin, Development, and Enduring Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath. SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| How the Gospels Were Actually Written | 17 Feb 2025 | 00:58:45 | |
This is a Biblical Time Machine first—a historical reenactment of how the gospel writers wrote (and rewrote) the books of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Our guest James Barker made his own scrolls, wax tablets and ancient writing implements to see what the gospel-writing process was really like. It gave him all sorts of fascinating new insights into how the gospel authors worked and how they used and reused each other's material. You really have to check out James' terrific new book, Writing and Rewriting the Gospels: John and the Synoptics. JOIN US FOR THE BTM BOOK CLUB Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Kosher—The History of Forbidden Foods | 10 Feb 2025 | 00:53:30 | |
Why were certain foods "forbidden" in the Hebrew Bible? And how did the pig attain ultra-non-kosher status among ancient Jews? Guest Jordan Rosenblum joins Helen and Dave as they try to pinpoint the origins of Jewish dietary laws and how they've been interpreted over time. Check out Jordan's terrific new book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig. JOIN US FOR THE BTM BOOK CLUB Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| Move Over, Josephus—Here Comes Philo! | 03 Feb 2025 | 01:08:42 | |
Josephus will always be our pal, but it's time to meet another super-important ancient Jewish writer: Philo of Alexandria. Living in the vibrant intellectual hub of 1st-century Alexandria, Philo applied Greco-Roman philosophical ideas to the Hebrew Bible and wrote some of the first books about biblical interpretation. Today Helen and Dave Learn all about Philo and the remarkable city of ancient Alexandria with guest Maren Neihoff, author of Philo of Alexandria: An Intellectual Biography. MORE FROM BIBLE ODYSSEY JOIN US FOR THE BTM BOOK CLUB Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||
| The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar | 27 Jan 2025 | 00:42:37 | |
To the authors of the Hebrew Bible, King Nebuchadnezzar was a grade-A jerk. In the 6th century BCE, he and his army sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and carried the Judahites into exile in Babylon. All of that stuff actually happened, but things really start to get wild in the book of Daniel. In that much later text, Nebuchadnezzar goes mad, grows feathers and eats grass for 7 years. Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson. | |||