When did this ancient practice begin? Was it unique to the ancient Israelites? And what did Paul really think about circumcision? Helen and Dave cover it all with guest Ryan Collman, author of The Apostle to the Foreskin: Circumcision in the Letters of Paul. 

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!)

BTM BOOK CLUB

We're excited to announce the first meeting of the Biblical Time Machine Book Club! Members of the Time Travelers Club are invited for a live Zoom discussion of Helen and Joan Taylor's book, Women Remembered: Jesus' Female Disciples. Grab your copy of the book and we'll see you on Saturday, September 28 at 10am EDT and 5pm UK. 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MERCH

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

The gospels claim that John the Baptist was just preparing the way for Jesus, but what if his role was much bigger? In this episode, Helen and Dave are joined by James McGrath, who argues that Jesus started out as John's disciple and only rose to prominence after John's arrest and execution.

James has written two new books about John the Baptist! The first book is already out — Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist. And the second, more scholarly volume will be released in October — John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer.

James is also a science fiction writer! Check out his intriguing short story about a time machine, time travelers and a certain tomb in 1st-century Jerusalem... It's called Certainty.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!)

BTM BOOK CLUB

We're excited to announce the first meeting of the Biblical Time Machine Book Club! Members of the Time Travelers Club are invited for a live Zoom discussion of Helen and Joan Taylor's book, Women Remembered: Jesus' Female Disciples. Grab your copy of the book and we'll see you on Saturday, September 28 at 10am EDT and 5pm UK. 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MERCH

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Thank you listeners for another amazing season of Biblical Time Machine! We couldn't do this without you.

EXCITING NEWS FOR SEASON 3

Season 3 is just a few weeks away and we're unveiling some exciting new perks for members of the Time Travelers Club. We're a listener-supported podcast (no ads!), so we rely on our patrons to keep the show going. If you become a subscriber, you'll get all kinds of new perks in Season 3, including:

• bonus content and extended interviews for every episode
• membership in the "BTM Book Club" with live video discussions
• "Backstage Seats" for live podcast tapings

NEW PATREON TIER

It's no fun asking for money. We wish were were stinking rich and could do this for free. But until those lotto numbers hit, the reality of independent podcasting is that we need more listener support.

With that in mind, we're introducing a new Patreon tier called the Full Season Circle of Super Supporters! This is for the super fans. We're looking for a few generous folks willing to pledge support for the entirety of Season 3 at $10/month. In return, you will get all of the perks listed above, plus:

• a free Biblical Time Machine mug 
• an exclusive online hangout with Helen and Dave

Thanks for your support and we'll see you in a few weeks for the launch of Season 3!

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

The Eucharist is such a common part of Christian worship that it's easy to overlook how strange it is — drinking wine that represents Jesus's blood, eating bread that represents His flesh. The ritual would have been even more shocking to Jesus's Jewish followers, for whom consuming blood (even metaphorically) was absolutely forbidden.

The New Testament says that Jesus himself instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but earlier writers like Paul describe something more like a communal meal with ritual components. So our question is: where did the Eucharist originate and what did it mean to the earliest Christians?

Helen and Dave are excited to have Katie Turner back on the podcast. In addition to being a top-notch biblical scholar, Katie is the cohost of Gods and Moviemakers.

For more on the Eucharist, check out this excellent article on Bible Odyssey, our content partner.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Join Helen and Dave as they attempt the impossible — to cover the entirety of biblical history in one fact-packed episode! To help us, we recruited Dan McClellan from the Data Over Dogma podcast to walk us century by century, book by book through the creation of the Bible. It's like listening to a full season of Biblical Time Machine in one sitting. (In a good way!)

For a deeper dive into the biblical history topics discussed on today's show, check out these past podcast episodes --->

Biblical Time Machine:

• How Yahweh Became God
• Why the Bible Was Written
• Are the 12 Tribes of Israel a Myth?
• How the Babylonian Exile Changed Everything
• Who Wrote the New Testament and Why?
• Who Chose the Books of the New Testament?
• Did the Author of John Know the Other Gospels?
• Ancient Manuscripts — The Bible Before It Was the Bible

Data Over Dogma:

• In the Beginning
• The Genesis of Genesis with Dr. David Carr
• Connecting with Source
• The End(s) of Monotheism w/David Burnett
• Jesus in History with Helen Bond
• Who ACTUALLY Wrote the New Testament?

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

The "Song of Miriam" is one of the oldest verses in the Hebrew Bible and it's a prayer. What was the nature and role of prayer in ancient Israelite religion? And how can we trace the evolution of prayer into the New Testament period and Jesus's institution of the "Lord's Prayer"? Guest Judith Newman takes us on a fascinating exploration of the history of prayer in ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Check out Judy's book, Before the Bible: The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in early Judaism. 

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Finally, Helen and Dave turn to the most important topic of any time period — food! What the heck did regular folks in the Levant eat back in the 12th and 11th centuries BCE? The Hebrew Bible is a lousy recipe book, so we talked to Jacob Damm, an archeologist who specializes in the food and foodways of Ancient Israel. Grab a snack for this one. You're gonna get hungry. 

More from our content partner Bible Odyssey:

• Milk and Honey in Ancient Israel

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

If Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is accurate, peering inside the fabled Ark of the Covenant will result in mild to severe face-melting and occasional head exploding. In the Hebrew Bible, the Ark doesn't melt any faces, but it does inflict its fair share of divine violence. Guest Rachelle Gilmour explains the fascinating history and lore behind the Ark of the Covenant. 

More from our content partner Bible Odyssey:

• The Ark of the Covenant
• Shiloh

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

One of the longest-running debates among biblical scholars is over the existence of a hypothetical "lost gospel" called Q. If you compare the synoptic gospels — Mark, Matthew and Luke — there are similarities and differences that can't easily be explained. Was there an even earlier source about Jesus that these gospels were based on? And if so, who wrote it and why was it lost?

Our guest today is Paul Foster, a colleague of Helen's at the University of Edinburgh. Paul is a passionate Q supporter and shares some strong evidence to quiet the Q critics.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos

Of all the problematic heroes in the Hebrew Bible, Samson takes first prize. Samson is hailed as a hero of the Israelites — a "Nazirite" consecrated to God with superhuman strength — but he's also a mass murderer, womanizer and all-around menace to society. Helen and Dave welcome Mahri Leonard-Fleckman to the podcast to try to make sense of the wild (and wildly entertaining) Samson cycle.

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE!

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support through the Time Travelers Club, our Patreon. We love making the show, but since we don't run ads we rely on listener contributions to cover our costs. Please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a $5/month subscription. (Think of it as $1.25 an episode!) 

GET YOUR BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE MUG

The Biblical Time Machine Store  is open! Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." Or get yourself a handsome Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle. 

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos