Biblical World

Episode: Jonathan Greer joins the show to talk about a big project he just co-edited on the history, context, archaeology, culture, and world of the Old Testament. Jonathan shares from his own work digging at Tel Dan, a very significant site for understanding the Jerusalem Temple and worship in ancient Israel. They discuss major archaeologists, the historicity of events in the Bible, the interaction of faith and critical study, and much more. This episode is republished from our OnScript podcast. Guest: Jonathan Greer is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Director of the Hesse Memorial Archaeological Laboratory at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He has written extensively on the history and context of the Bible. He's the author of Dinner at Dan: Biblical and Archaeological Evidence for Sacred Feasts at Iron Age II Tel Dan and Their Significance  (Brill, 2013) and the co-editor with John Hilber and John Walton of Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts (Baker Academic, 2018). Give: Visit our Donate Page if you’d like to support the Biblical World podcast as we grow and develop. If you like this episode: Check out our OnScript episodes on the Isaiah Seal Impression, and The Ancient World of the Bible.

Episode: This is part 5 in our look at views on the Exodus from Egypt. In this episode, Chris and Kyle speak with Peter Feinman about the Levite-Hyksos view. Peter Feinman is the author of The Exodus: An Egyptian Story.  Hosts: Mark Janzen (Louisiana College) and Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) Summary: In this episode, Mark and Chris interview Peter Feinman about the following: - The Egyptian evidence for the Israelite Exodus - The Hyksos and their possible connection to the Exodus - The importance of the Exodus to Jewish and Christian believes and its connection to Passover and Easter Additional Resources: 2021 Janzen, Mark (ed.). Five Views of the Exodus. Zondervan Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

Episode: Chris McKinny sits down with Kyle Keimer to discuss the Tel Burna Archaeological Project, where he's been digging for over a decade. This important borderland site of biblical Libnah offers some important insights into historical Judah. They discuss the following topics: - The identification of Tel Burna with biblical Libnah - The Canaanite cultic remains found at Tel Burna  - The Judahite fortress and gate with destructions from the 10th (Shishak?), 8th (Sennacherib), and early 6th centuries (Nebuchadnezzar) BC Links: Tel Burna Archaeological Project; Itzick Shai’s (Tel Burna director) academia page Give: Visit our Donate Page if you'd like to support the Biblical World podcast as we grow and develop.

Episode: In this episode Chris and Kyle discuss the archaeology of Khirbet er-Ra‘i/Arai, a small site in the southern part of Israel that dates from the end of the Late Bronze Age into the early Iron Age IIA (ca. 13th-10th c. BC). This site is proving to be exceptional for this time period and appears to be the key site in the region, having taken over this role from the nearby site of Lachish following its destruction in the mid-/late-12th c. BC. Specific finds, including the recent Jerubba’al inscription, as well as the ancient name of the site are also covered. Chris and Kyle discuss whether or not Arai was biblical Ziklag. Hosts: Kyle Keimer (MacQuarie University) and Chris McKinny (Geshur Media) Detail: Chris and Kyle discuss the following topics: - The archaeology of Khirbet Arai; the Iron Age I context of the site - identity/ethnicity of, and cultural interaction between Canaanites, Philistines, and Israelites - the early Iron Age chronology debate; Dating the arrival of the Sea Peoples/Philistines - the recently discovered Jerubba’al inscription - the ancient name of Khirbet Arai—is it biblical Ziklag? More information about Khirbet El-Rai. Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

Episode: This is Part 4 of our look at Five Views on the Exodus, this time with James Hoffmeier. Hoffmeier makes the case for a 13th century BC exodus from Egypt. In this episode, Mark and Chris interview James Hoffmeier about the following: - The Egyptian evidence for the Israelite Exodus - “Egyptianisms” in the Pentateuch - The historicity of the Exodus events and its importance to the Old Testament as a whole - The importance of the Exodus to Jewish and Christian believes and its connection to Passover and Easter Hosts: Mark Janzen (Louisiana College) and Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) Guest: James K. Hoffmeier Additional Resources: 2021 Janzen, Mark (ed.). Five Views on the Exodus. Zondervan; (podcast) Thinking Exodus: Egyptology and the Bible (James K. Hoffmeier) Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

Professor Gary Rendsburg discusses the Egyptian evidence for the Israelite Exodus, 'Egyptianisms' in the Pentateuch, and the historicity of Exodus events. They explore the importance of Exodus to Jewish and Christian beliefs and its connection to Passover and Easter.

Archaeology and architecture expert Chris McKinny and Mary Buck delve into the topography of ancient Jerusalem, the history of the Millo, the identification of the Millo with the Spring Tower, narrative implications of key locations, and the significance of Gihon Spring. Exploring the correlations between biblical narratives and historical events, they discuss Solomon's rise, Joab's character, and the construction of the city of David, intertwined with references to The Godfather and the water shaft theory.

Episode: In this episode Jewish scholar Amy-Jill Levine engages some of the hard words of Jesus that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil’s children (John 8:44). How did these words sound in their own time, and how might that impact our interpretation of difficult texts? In this episode Biblical World host Lynn Cohick engages these questions with Amy-Jill Levine and her new book The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings (Abingdon, 2021).  Guest: Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and  Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Graduate Department of Religion, and Department of Jewish Studies; she is also Affiliated Professor, Woolf Institute, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Holding a B.A. from Smith College, M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Richmond, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Drury University, Christian Theological Seminary, and Franklin College, Professor Levine has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies.  She served as Alexander Robertson Fellow (University of Glasgow), and the Catholic Biblical Association Scholar to the Philippines. She has given over 500 lectures on the Bible, Christian-Jewish relations, and Religion, Gender, and Sexuality across the globe. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2007; audio books); Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (Catholic Book Club; translations: Spanish, Italian; audio books); The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (with Douglas Knight; translation: Chinese); The New Testament, Methods and Meanings (with Warren Carter); and The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III -- the first full-length biblical commentary co-authored by a Jew and an Evangelical). Her most recent book is The Bible With and Without Jesus, co-authored with Marc Z. Brettler. With Marc Brettler, she co-edited The Jewish Annotated New Testament; she is also the editor of the 13-volume Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writings, and The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton Readings in Religion; translation: Japanese). Presently she is editing several volumes in the Wisdom Commentary series, and she is the New Testament editor of the new Oxford Biblical Commentary Series. With Joseph Sievers, she is co-editing a collection of essays on the Pharisees. (from the Vanderbilt website) Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.  

Episode: This episode continues our series on five views on the exodus based on a book by that named that Biblical World host Mark Janzen just edited. Our second guest in this series is Scott Stripling, who presents the early (15th century) exodus view.  Hosts: Mark Janzen (Louisiana College) and Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) Guest: Scott Stripling serves as the provost at The Bible Seminary in Katy (Houston), Texas and as the Director of Excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at Khirbet el-Maqatir and Shiloh, Israel. Summary: In this episode, Mark and Chris interview Scott about the early date theory, how we read dates and numbers in the Bible, and archaeological evidence for or against the early date.   Additional Resources: 2021 Janzen, Mark (ed.). Five Views of the Exodus. Zondervan; Ron Hendel’s Academia page. Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

Episode: This begins the first of a series on five views on the exodus based on a book by that named that Biblical World host Mark Janzen just edited. Our first guest in this series is Ron Hendel, who presents the cultural memory view.  Hosts: Mark Janzen (Louisiana College) and Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) Guest: Ron Hendel is Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of Berkeley. Professor Hendel has been a member of the Berkeley faculty since 1999 and has served as chair of Jewish Studies, the Department of Near Eastern Studies, and the Graduate Program in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. Hendel approaches the Hebrew Bible from a variety of angles – history of religions, textual criticism, linguistics, comparative mythology, literature, and cultural memory. He is the editor-in-chief of The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition, a new critical edition of the Hebrew text, whose first volume (Proverbs, by Michael V. Fox) was published in 2015. He is also writing a new commentary on Genesis for the Yale Anchor Bible. In 1999, he received the Frank Moore Cross Publications Award from the American Schools of Oriental Research. His books include The Text of Genesis 1-11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition (Oxford, 1998), Remembering Abraham: Culture, History, and Memory in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford, 2005), Reading Genesis: Ten Methods (editor and contributor; Cambridge, 2010), The Book of Genesis: A Biography (Princeton, 2013), Steps to a New Edition of the Hebrew Bible (SBL Press, 2016), and How Old is the Hebrew Bible? A Linguistic, Textual, and Historical Study (Yale, 2018). (from the University of Berkeley website) Summary: In this episode, Mark and Chris interview Ron Hendel about the following: The Egyptian evidence for the Israelite Exodus “Egyptianisms” in the Pentateuch The historicity of the Exodus events and its importance to the Old Testament as a whole The importance of the Exodus to Jewish and Christian believers and its connection to Passover and Easter Additional Resources: 2021 Janzen, Mark (ed.). Five Views of the Exodus. Zondervan; Ron Hendel’s Academia page. Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World as we grow and develop. Click HERE.