The Hebrew Bible wasn't created by one of the mighty empires of the ancient world — Egypt,  Assyria or Babylon — but written in the rubble of a small, conquered kingdom. So how has this "epic monument to defeat" not only survived for 2,600 years, but spawned three world religions and influenced countless lives? Because the authors of the Hebrew Bible invented something completely new. They created a "people."

Helen and Dave were thrilled to talk with Jacob Wright, biblical scholar and author of the mind-blowing new book, Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins. Jacob turns the Hebrew Bible on its head, explaining how a group of creative scribes used the power of literature to reinvent a fallen kingdom as God's chosen people.

Book Giveaway! Win a Copy of Why the Bible Began

We're giving away 3 copies of Why the Bible Began to Patreon members of the Time Travelers Club. One copy will go to a new member who joins this week and the other two copies will be given to existing members. Thanks to all members of the Time Travelers Club for your generous support!

More on Bible Odyssey

Check out some great articles written by Jacob for our content partner, Bible Odyssey:

• How Was the Bible Formed?
• In What Ways is the Bible a Religious Text?
• How is David a Symbolic Figure?

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There's so much we get wrong about clothing and dress in the 1st Century. Did Jewish people dress differently than gentiles? No. Did most men have long hair and beards? No. Did Jesus and the disciples rock sandals with socks? Yes!

Clothing is an essential component of culture, yet it's been woefully ignored by historians. Today we change all that. Helen and Dave are excited to welcome Katie Turner to the podcast. Katie dispels 1st-Century fashion myths and answers our burning questions about ancient underwear, veiling and yes — socks!

To hear more from Katie, check out her podcast Gods & Moviemakers about the best and worst Bible movies. 

We know you want to see pics of those ancient sandal socks...

• Red Socks from Egypt 
• Striped Socks from Egypt
• Fragments of a Linen Sock from Masada (Israel)
• Leather Sandal from Masada

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The Bible is literally crawling with animals — from the crafty serpent of Genesis to Jesus's parable of the lost sheep. That's because animals (both wild and domesticated) were an integral part of life in the ancient world. In today's episode,  Lloyd Llewelyn-Jones is back to explain what lions, donkeys, doves and dogs really meant to the ancient authors of the Bible (and also what a locust and honey sandwich actually tastes like).

For more of Lloyd's fascinating insights, check out the sweeping reference book he co-authored with Sian Lewis, The Culture of Animals in Antiquity: A Sourcebook with Commentaries. 

And if you want to dive deeper into some of the animal references from today's episode,  try these articles from our content partner Bible Odyssey:

• The Creation of the Animals
• Shepherds in the Bible
• Animal Sacrifice in Ancient Israel
• Like Swarming Locusts (Joel 1-2)
• The Story of Balaam

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Try as you might, you won't find Santa Claus in the Bible. Or Christmas trees, or camel-riding Magi, or even December 25th! In the first centuries of Christianity, Christmas wasn't really a "thing." The birth of Jesus was far less important than his death and resurrection. So how did Christmas evolve from an afterthought into the biggest holiday on the planet?

We're thrilled to have Kyle Smith back on the podcast to present a deep-dive cultural history of Christmas. Why do we have so many different dates for Christmas? (12/25, 1/6, even 1/19!) Did the Three Kings have names (and were there actually three)? And how did St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop from Turkey, transform into rosy-cheeked St. Nick?

Kyle is hard at work on a cultural biography called The Many Lives of Saint Nick, which should be coming out in the next year. In the meantime, enjoy these fascinating articles from our content partner Bible Odyssey:

• Luke's Nativity and the Battle Over Christmas
• The Nativity (written by Helen!)
• The Political Significance of Luke's Christmas Story

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In the first of two Christmas episodes, Helen and Dave take another look at arguably the "best-known and least-known" woman in history: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Our guest, the fantastic James Tabor, collects the few breadcrumbs of information about Mary in the New Testament and weaves together a compelling narrative about a Jewish matriarch at the center of the Jesus movement.

James Tabor's latest book, The Lost Mary: How the Jewish Mother of Jesus Became the Virgin Mother of God, will be published in 2025 (the French version is available now!). 

More on Mary from Bible Odyssey:

• Mary, the Mother of Jesus
• Portraits of Mary in the Gospels
• Virgin Birth and What It Means

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The Jewish festival of Hanukkah is based on real historical events — the Maccabean Revolt of 167-160 BCE. In today's episode, Helen and Dave travel back to a time when Judaea was ruled by the Hellenized (Greek) Seleucid Empire. When a Jewish priest named Mattathias refused to make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, it sparked a violent revolution led by Judah "The Hammer" Maccabee. 

Learn More About Hanukkah at Bible Odyssey

• Hanukkah
• Maccabees
• The Commemoration of War in Early Jewish Festivals
• Life Under Empire

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The Bible is largely silent about race. People are identified by their lands of origin and beliefs, not their skin color. Yet centuries of biblical interpreters have read race into the Bible, for good and for ill.

As our guest Stacy Davis explains, the biblical land of Cush (sometimes translated as Ethiopia) has long been associated with Black people, a point of pride for African and African-American Christians. And Josephus believed that the legendary Queen of Sheba was Black.

But the Bible has also been misused for racist purposes. In the 1800s, pro-slavery forces in America cited a convoluted reading of Genesis 9 and 10 to justify the enslavement of Black people under the so-called "Curse of Ham."

To learn more, check out Stacy's excellent book, This Strange Story: Jewish and Christian Interpretation of the Curse of Canaan from Antiquity to 1865.

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Starting in the 1st century CE, there was an explosion of Christian literature — dozens of gospels, letters, apocalypses and more — but only a fraction of those texts made it into the New Testament canon. Who decided which books were in and which books were out?

For this episode, Helen and Dave welcome New Testament scholar Francis Watson, who introduces us to important figures like Athanasius of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, some of the earliest influential Christian writers to weigh in on which texts were authoritative and which were "spurious."

Check out Francis's excellent books on the making of the NT canon: Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective and The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus .

To learn more about how the NT canon came together, here are some great articles from Bible Odyssey:

• Noncanonical Gospels
• The New Testament Canon
• Why Does the Bible Look the Way It Does?

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When we recognize the Bible as a product of the ancient world, we can look for subtle ways that biblical authors incorporated elements of everyday life — including coins! We spoke with historian Michael Theophilos about everything we can learn from ancient coins (politics, economics, visual culture, propaganda), and then we found some fascinating examples of how language and symbols from coins made their way into the Bible.

If you want to dive deeper into coins and the New Testament, check out Michael's book, Numismatics and Greek Lexicography. 

Here are some cool images of coins Michael described in the episode:

• A denarius minted by Caesar Augustus with the image of the comet or bright star
• An ancient coin from Yehud (Persian-ruled Judaea) featuring a disembodied ear

Also, the newly redesigned Bible Odyssey website has some great articles about coins, taxes and the Temple in the 1st Century:

• Money
• Commerce and the Temple in First-Century Jerusalem
• Taxes in First-Century Palestine

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It's easy to read the New Testament and come away with the idea that Jesus was in opposition to the Jewish ritual impurity laws. In fact, that's what most Christian theologians have taught for the past 2,000 years. Is it possible that we've (gasp!) been misreading the Bible this whole time?  Our guest Matt Thiessen says, "Yep."

In today's episode, we travel back to the 1st century to understand how everyday Jewish people understood ritual impurity, and what Jesus's miracles — healing a leper, curing a woman of a hemorrhaging condition — would have meant in that historical context. 

Matt's excellent book on this subject is Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels' Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism. And if you're a fan of funny Twitter accounts — like, actually funny — follow Matt at @MattThiessenNT. 

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos