Tyndale House Podcast

Dirk Jongkind, Academic Vice Principal at Tyndale House and expert on New Testament manuscripts, dives deep into the fascinating world of biblical manuscripts. He highlights the transition from scrolls to codex and the unique characteristics of ancient texts, including the curious absence of standard word breaks. Jongkind also shares insights on the materials used, like papyrus and parchment, and the lavish ornamentation of some manuscripts, such as the purple one of Matthew. Join this enlightening conversation that unravels the complexities of early Christian literature!

Dirk Jongkind, Vice Principal Academic at Tyndale House with decades of experience on the Greek New Testament, and Nelson Hsieh, a Research Associate focused on early manuscript punctuation, dive deep into the world of New Testament manuscripts. They discuss what defines a manuscript and why their study is crucial for understanding biblical texts. Learn about the challenges of accurate copying, the excitement of uncovering unpublished ancient manuscripts, and how the reliability of these texts compares to other historical writings.

In this episode, Tony talks to Dr Steve Walton, Professor of New Testament and Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Bristol. Steve is a frequent visitor to us here at Tyndale House as he's been working on his commentary on Acts for the Word Biblical Commentary series. The first volume of the commentary, on Acts 1–9:42 (volume 37A), was published in the USA in October 2024, and will be out in the UK on 2 January 2025. There will be three volumes in total, and Steve is currently working on volume 2. He and Tony discuss the process of writing the commentary and some key things that Steve has discovered about the book of Acts.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Is the Nativity a true story? Why are there differences between Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’s birth? Was Luke historically correct when he wrote about the census? What was the star and is it even possible for the wise men to have followed it? What year was Jesus actually born? Peter Williams answers all these questions and more in this special Christmas podcast episode. Visit our Christmas resources page on our website for further reading on this topic: tyndalehouse.com/christmasSupport the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode, Tony is joined by three of our long-term readers who are all working on PhDs at Cambridge University. Ellie Wiener is currently studying the book of Job, Megan Alsene-Parker is studying Lamentations, and Ben Rae is studying Ecclesiastes. Together, they discuss what poetry actually is, the features of Hebrew poetry, and why we should spend time digging into biblical poetry.TH ink articles written by interviewees:The ABCs of Hebrew Acrostic Poems by Megan Alsene-Parker: https://tyndalehouse.com/explore/articles/hebrew-acrostics/The surprising joy of memorising Job by Ellie Wiener: https://tyndalehouse.com/explore/articles/memorising-job/Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Steve Walton and Tony Watkins discuss why Saul changed to Paul in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, the apostle Paul is referred to as Saul up until chapter 13, where he begins to be referred to as Paul. Steve explains how names worked in the Roman world to shed light on this name change. He also shares about some of the research he has done in the book of Acts over several years.Further reading: Steve Walton, 2023, Why was “Saul” changed to “Paul”? www.logos.com/grow/hall-saul-to-paul/Edited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode, Peter Williams, Principal of Tyndale House, explains how names can help us to assess the historical reliability of the Gospels. By looking at name records we can see what the most popular names were outside of the Gospels at the same time and place. Peter then compares these with the names we see in the Gospels to see whether they line up. He and Tony also discuss Jesus calling himself ‘The Son of Man’ and what we should make of that.Edited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode, Tony chats to James Bejon and Josh Meynell about strange or animal-related names that we find in the Bible. Some of the names in the Bible strike us as having curious meanings. For example, Caleb means ‘dog’, Nun means ‘fish’, and Abel means ‘vapour’. What are we to make of these names? James, Josh, and Tony work through some of these examples and some from the wider ancient Near East to explore how there might be more to the names than we might think at first glance.Edited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode, Tony asks Caleb Howard and James Bejon why we have genealogies in the Bible and how we should make sense of them. They discuss how the Old Testament is unique in ancient literature in the way it lays out genealogies. They also explore how it can give us a clear account of the people of Israel from Adam through to the exile, by looking at some genealogies in the book of 1 Chronicles.Edited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

In this episode, George Heath-Whyte and James Bejon chat with Tony about the use of divine names in the ancient world and in the Bible. What did the Babylonians call their gods?What did the names of the Babylonian gods mean?Why did the Israelites go from calling God 'El-Shaddai' to 'Yahweh'?How did the worship of Yahweh in the Old Testament compare to idol worship in the ancient world?Hear answers to these and more in the episode. Edited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Support the showEdited by Tyndale House Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube