Bible and Archaeology

How bad did Ancient Rome really smell? This week, historian Garrett Ryan of Toldinstone joins Bible & Archaeology to explore everyday life in the Roman Empire! From Roman sewers and sanitation, to free bread, retired gladiators, and the role rats and mosquitoes played in the fall of Rome, we'll explore how seemingly trivial questions reveal surprising connections between Roman history, culture, religion, and daily life. Because in the ancient world, there is no trivia.

📚 Reading Recommendations
Leaky Aqueducts, Battle Pigeons, and Mystery Cults: More Frequently Asked Questions About the Ancient Greeks and Romans by Garrett Ryan

📺 You can hear more from Garrett on his YouTube Channel Toldinstone

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Garrett Ryan

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

The story of Noah's Flood has striking parallels in ancient Mesopotamia, but some of those flood traditions predate the biblical text by more than a thousand years. This week, Joseph Lam joins Bible & Archaeology to explore the flood stories of Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and ancient Mesopotamia.

Why did the gods send the flood? What did an ancient ark supposedly look like? And does the evidence really mean that the Bible simply “copied” an older story? We look beyond the familiar similarities to ask what these different versions of the flood share and what the biblical authors are actually trying to say when they retell the flood story.

🔗 Resources & Links

Watch Joseph's episode on Why Creation Stories All Look the Same

Check out Joseph's Creation Stories of the Ancient World with Great Courses

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Joseph Lam

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

Did Paul think his followers would become angels? Scholar David Burnett says no. He argues Paul thought they'd outrank them.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says his followers will judge the angels and describes resurrection bodies that shine like stars. David Burnett argues that this reflects an ancient cosmic hierarchy in which the stars were understood as celestial beings, and that Paul's vision radically extends this transformation to ordinary followers, including Gentiles. This week, David Burnett joins the podcast to talk about Paul's cosmos, why "monotheism" may be the wrong category, what Paul was fighting against in Corinth, and why Paul thought some people would shine brighter than others.

David is a PhD candidate in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. You can check out David's published work, follow him on social media, and/or support his research via his LinkTree here: https://linktr.ee/davidaburnett

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: David Burnett

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are famous for the story of how they were discovered, but how much of that story is really about the texts themselves? Eva Mroczek joins Bible & Archaeology to explore why we’re fascinated by lost and hidden texts, how discovery stories turn ancient sources into mysteries, and what these stories reveal about our hopes for recovering the past. From the Dead Sea Scrolls to ancient stories of hidden Bibles and the modern search for lost texts, we explore why the story of discovery can become the content itself.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

📚 Reading Recommendations:

Hidden Scrolls, Buried Bibles: How We Discover the Sacred Past by Eva Mroczek

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls really prove? Forgers, smugglers, and the myth of discovery by Eva Mroczek

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Eva Mroczek

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

The Assyrians built one of the ancient world’s most powerfulempires, but what drove the Assyrian Empire's dramatic rise? And why did it fall so quickly? This week, Eckart Frahm joins Bible & Archaeology to trace Assyria's history, from its emergence as a major power to its eventual collapse. Along the way, we explore the reigns of famous Assyrian kings likeTiglath-Pileser III and Ashurbanipal, the Assyrians’ impact on the ancient Near East, what the Bible gets right (and wrong) about the Assyrian Empire, and how encounters with Assyria may have shaped the biblical idea of God.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

📚 Reading Recommendations

Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire by Eckart Frahm

Three New Kings of Assyria by Alexander Johannes Edmonds and Eckart Frahm

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Eckart Frahm

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

What is the story of Samson really about? Samson is often remembered as the strong man whose power was tied to his hair, but the story in Judges 13–16 is far more complicated. This week, Bob Cargill joins the podcast to explore Samson’s story, from his unusual birth and Nazirite status to his conflicts with the Philistines and his eventual downfall. We look at Samson’s violence and his role as a judge of Israel to find out what this strange and often troubling story is actually trying to say.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Robert Cargill

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

Who controlled religion in ancient Israel? The Israelite priesthood may look like a straightforward institution, but its history is anything but simple. This week, Nathan MacDonald joins the podcast to to trace the development of the ancient Israelite priesthood and present his reconstruction of how the Israelite priesthood developed, drawing on the Hebrew Bible and the broader history of ancient Israel. We explore competing priestly traditions, the role of the temple, and the struggle for religious authority to find how Israel’s priests became such an important part of its religious and political life.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

📚 Reading Recommendations ⁠

The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony by Nathan MacDonald

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Nathan MacDonald

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

Why is Genesis called Genesis when ancient Israelites didn’t call it that? And why didn't books in the Hebrew Bible have titles? This week, Seth Sanders joins the podcast to discuss how writers organized, referenced, and transmitted these titleless biblical texts, and what the absence of titles reveals about the Bible's origins and implications.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

🔗 Read "Why Didn’t Biblical Books Have Titles?" by Seth Sanders

📚 Reading Recommendations From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylon by Seth L. SandersThe Invention of Hebrew by Seth L. Sanders

📺 More podcasts with Seth:The Invention of the Alphabet with Prof. Seth Sanders

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Seth Sanders

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

Satan wasn't always God's greatest enemy. In the Hebrew Bible, “the satan” appears as an agent in God's heavenly court. But by the New Testament, Satan has become the Devil, God's cosmic opponent, and in Revelation, he is a terrifying dragon. This week, Peter Miller returns to Bible & Archaeology to trace the surprising development of Satan across the New Testament. How did this figure evolve from Matthew and Paul to Revelation? Why does Satan become associated with evil, temptation, demons, and cosmic rebellion? And where did the image of the dragon come from?

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

👉 Podcasts Referenced:

Did Christians Get Satan Wrong? Why The Hebrew Bible Says Something Different

The Origins of Demons

The Origins of Lilith

Witch Hunts, Black Cats, and the Bible: The Surprising Connection

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits Guest: Dr. Peter Miller

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.

What happened when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant? In 1 Samuel, the Ark brings plague, mice, death, and toppled idols to the Philistines, forcing them to return it to Israel. But the strange events don’t end there because more Israelites die on its return. But why? This week, Bob Cargill is back to explore one of the Bible’s strangest stories. Join us as we examine what this story of the Ark’s capture and return reveals about the Ark of the Covenant, the Philistines, ancient Israel, and the Hebrew Bible’s formation.

✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch

✉️ Send us your questions: [email protected]

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🎙️ Credits Guest: Dr. Bob Cargill

Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.