The Bible Lore Podcast

Hayden Tank
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Oct 6, 2025 • 1h 2min

Ep. 24: The Long Seventh Century, Pt. 5 – The Inquisition (feat. Kipp Davis)

This episode released early for Patreon subscribers. Support the show and join the ranks of the Shaddayim here:  https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Kipp Davis returns to walk us through the reign of Josiah, the monarch against which all others are measured in the book of Kings. The Assyrian Empire crumbles, Jerusalem rejoices, and the righteous king begins his crusade to centralize all worship in Judah's capital. Check out Kipp's book here:  https://bookshop.org/a/117081/9781069638502 And his YouTube channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/@DrKippDavis Buy books mentioned in the show from this affiliate link:  https://bookshop.org/shop/biblelorepodcast Bibliography:  Eckart Frahm - 'Assyria';  Radner et al - 'The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East Volume IV';  Radner et al - 'The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume V';  Robert Alter - 'The Hebrew Bible';  Berlin et al - 'The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition';  Frevel - 'History of Ancient Israel';  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7l37SSVImE
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Sep 25, 2025 • 1h 8min

BATM 4: Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ ft. Max aka Palma

This episode came out early for Patreon subscribers, so make sure to become a supporter here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast Max (Palma) introduces me to the terrific French Bible epic parody, Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ. Join us as we determine whether the movie is racist and homophobic and Orientalist or just French! Check out The Drain: https://www.patreon.com/thedrain/home And buy some of the books you've heard mentioned on the show from my affiliate shop: https://bookshop.org/shop/biblelorepodcast
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Sep 18, 2025 • 1h 28min

Ep. 23: The Long Seventh Century, Pt. 4 – Warrior, Scholar, King (feat. Eckart Frahm)

This episode release several early for paid subscribers. To get early access along with hours of bonus content, and to support the show, become a member of the Patreon here: https://patreon.com/biblelorepodcast This time, I'm elated to bring on Dr. Eckart Frahm, who is the John M. Musser Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University, and whose wonderful book, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire, is a must-read for fans of the show (click the affiliate link). We talk about the management of empire under the idiosyncratic king Ashurbanipal, whose handling (or mishandling) of Assyria will set the stage for its downfall, and the long afterlife as a cultural figure that Ashurbanipal would have in the Greek tradition, where he was known as the corrupt king Sardanapalus.
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Sep 10, 2025 • 1h 24min

Ep. 22: The Long Seventh Century, Pt. 3 – Moloch

This episode came out early for Patreon subscribers, so make sure to become a supporter of the show here: https://patreon.com/biblelorepodcast It's child sacrifice time again at the Bible Lore Podcast! Yay! This time I talk about the real mlk sacrifice sites discovered throughout the Mediterranean, the real Manasseh, and the way both biblical authors and modern apologists attempt to deflect and obfuscate the connection between proper Yahweh worship and child sacrifice. Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydentank/ Bibliography: Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice’;   Heath Dewrell - ‘Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel’;  Coogan & Smith - ‘Stories from Ancient Canaan’;  Coogan & Metzger - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’;  Shelby Brown - ‘Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice’;  Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’;   Hallo & Younger - ‘The Context of Scripture, vol. 1-3’;  Charles Krahmalkov - ‘Phoenician-Punic Dictionary’;  Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’;   Berlin, Brettler, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’;   Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and NJPS with adaptations https://www.thetorah.com/article/giving-your-firstborn-son-to-god https://www.thetorah.com/article/how-exodus-revises-the-laws-of-hammurabi https://www.thetorah.com/article/isaac-before-he-was-abrahams-son https://x.com/timothybarnett/status/822992422888239104
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Aug 28, 2025 • 21min

BONUS: Bob Cargill Talks Melchizedek (Patreon Preview)

Here's an extended preview of today's Patreon episode. To get full access to the interview, become a paid member here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast I am absolutely honored to welcome Bob Cargill to the show to talk about all things Melchizedek, as well as the use and abuse of archaeology to attempt to legitimize claims from Israeli settlers in the modern Palestinian West Bank. Check out more from Bob here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6TIKnUUWEhh1nspJ62komg https://classics.uiowa.edu/people/robert-cargill https://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
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Aug 12, 2025 • 1h 19min

BATM 3: The Chosen (pilot) feat. Jordan (@SLCLunk)

We're BACK to watching the Bible on the screen, as I'm joined by Brigham Young Money podcast's Jordan, aka @slclunk, to dive into an evangelical/Mormon foray into prestige TV Jesus. This time it's Angel Studios' pilot for The Chosen: if the streaming era has been marked by bloat, The Chosen is conservative Christianity's answer to this boring trend. Watch as all the minutiae of the gospels are extended ad nauseam with needless and tedious backstories, long establishing shots, and heavy abuse of speedramping. This episode is out EARLY for Patreon supporters, so make sure to back the show by becoming a member here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast
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Jul 29, 2025 • 52min

Ep. 21: The Long Seventh Century, Pt. 2

Patreon subscribers get early access to this episode! This time, I'm talking about one of the most taboo and horrifying topics in the Bible: child sacrifice. This first of two episodes on the subject covers some of the biblical laws and rhetoric and folktales about child sacrifice, while the next will go over the practice in archaeology and history. Today I answer a few questions: was Isaac actually killed in his famous binding? Did Yahweh give a law commanding the sacrifice of the first born? And what does Ishtar's descent into the underworld have to do with the tragic tale of Jephthah's daughter? Join the Patreon for early access to episodes, along with bonus content:   https://patreon.com/biblelorepodcast Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydentank/ Bibliography: Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice’;   Heath Dewrell - ‘Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel’;  Coogan & Smith - ‘Stories from Ancient Canaan’;  Coogan & Metzger - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’;  Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’;   Hallo & Younger - ‘The Context of Scripture, vol. 1-3’;  Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’;   Berlin, Brettler, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’;   Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and NJPS with adaptations https://www.thetorah.com/article/giving-your-firstborn-son-to-god https://www.thetorah.com/article/how-exodus-revises-the-laws-of-hammurabi https://www.thetorah.com/article/isaac-before-he-was-abrahams-son
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Jul 22, 2025 • 1h 9min

Ep. 20: The Long Seventh Century, Pt. 1

This week's episode, we spend a lot of time with Assyrian king Esarhaddon, whose hellbent insistence on ensuring his own son's succession was not a repeat of his own disastrous rise to the throne that he promulgated a treaty text to the far corners of the Assyrian empire, a text that would be reworked to be a treaty between Yahweh and his people in Judah. All of this and so much more on this week's episode! Support the show on Patreon and get hours of bonus content and early access to episodes: https://www.patreon.com/biblelorepodcast Bibliography:   Stavrakopoulou - ‘King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice’;  Hayes - ‘Hidden Riches’;  Younger - ‘The Context of Scripture, Vol. 4’;  Van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’;  Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’;  Frahm - ‘Assyria’;  Podany - ‘Weavers, Scribes, and Kings’;  Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible’;  Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’;  Berlin & Brettler - ‘The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd Ed.’;  Radner, Moeller, and Potts - ‘The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Vol. IV’ Neujahr - ‘Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East’;  Adams and Goff - ‘The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature’;  https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/solar-eclipse-substitute-king ;
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Jul 8, 2025 • 55min

Ep. 19: The Pious Kings, Pt. 2 (feat. Eve Feinstein)

This is part 2 of the story of the prophet Isaiah, the Judahite King Hezekiah, and the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib. We explore prophetic oracles, a tortured cultural pizza metaphor, divine snakes, and more on purity and sacrifice from scholar Eve Feinstein. Support the show on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/c/BibleLorePodcast   Check out the Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/haydentank/ Bibliography: Eve Levavi Feinstein - ‘Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible’;  Berlin, Brettler, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible (Second Edition)’;  Daniel McClellan - ‘YHWH’s Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach’;  Barton & Stavrakopoulou - ‘Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah’;  Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’;  Eckart Frahmn - ‘Assyria’;  Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’;  Finkelstein and Silberman - ‘The Bible Unearthed’;  Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’;  Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’;  Van der Toorn, Becking, van der Hoorst, et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’;  https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/hezekiahs-tunnel-reexamined/ https://thestateoftheology.com/data-explorer/2022/7?AGE=30&MF=14&REGION=30&DENSITY=62&EDUCATION=62&INCOME=254&MARITAL=126&ETHNICITY=62&RELTRAD=62&EVB=2&ATTENDANCE=254 https://www.thetorah.com/article/hezekiahs-reform-the-archeological-evidence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e2kuETGoOM&list=PLpQ8NT-8yU1qbtN4sHO8I-r4fJI27Adlg  
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Jun 30, 2025 • 52min

Ep. 18: The Pious Kings: Pt. 1 (feat. Eve Feinstein)

This is part 1 of the life and times of the prophet Isaiah, Judahite King Hezekiah, and Assyrian King Sennacherib. A lot of political history in this one, folks. Featuring an interview with Dr. Eve Levavi Feinstein, who provides important context on the concept of purity in the Hebrew Bible. Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/BibleLorePodcast   Check out the Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydentank/   Bibliography: Eve Levavi Feinstein - ‘Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible’;  Berlin, Brettler, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible (Second Edition)’;  Daniel McClellan - ‘YHWH’s Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach’;  Barton & Stavrakopoulou - ‘Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah’;  Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’;  Eckart Frahmn - ‘Assyria’;  Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’;  Finkelstein and Silberman - ‘The Bible Unearthed’;  Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’;  Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’;  Van der Toorn, Becking, van der Hoorst, et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’;  https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/hezekiahs-tunnel-reexamined/ https://thestateoftheology.com/data-explorer/2022/7?AGE=30&MF=14&REGION=30&DENSITY=62&EDUCATION=62&INCOME=254&MARITAL=126&ETHNICITY=62&RELTRAD=62&EVB=2&ATTENDANCE=254 https://www.thetorah.com/article/hezekiahs-reform-the-archeological-evidence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e2kuETGoOM&list=PLpQ8NT-8yU1qbtN4sHO8I-r4fJI27Adlg  

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