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)

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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.

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:

Additional Resources: 2021 Janzen, Mark (ed.). Five Views of the Exodus. Zondervan; Ron Hendel’s Academia page.

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Episode: This episode discusses the importance of understanding the cultural backgrounds and context of the Bible for biblical interpretation. We look at examples from Egypt, Mesopotamian law, bedouin ethnography and more!

Hosts: Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) and Oliver Hersey (Jerusalem University College) 

Summary: In this episode, Chris and Oliver discuss the following:

Additional Resources: Jerusalem University College (JUC); JUC Summer Institute; JUC Online; Context of Scripture in Accordance Bible Software; Seti I War Scenes from Hippostyle Hall Project; Mosaic Magazine 2015 Berman, Joshua. “Was there an Exodus?”; OnScript Clinton Bailey – Bedouin Culture in the Bible; TheTorah.com article comparing Biblical and Mesopotamian Law Codes.

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Image by Loretta Rossiter from Pixabay 

Episode: This episode is the final installment in the 3-part archaeology of Passion Week discussion. Chris and Kyle take a detailed look at how archaeological finds in Jerusalem can help us better situate and understand the events of this fateful week. Chris and Kyle discuss the location of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, the Garden Tomb, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and traditions about Jesus’ death and burial.

Hosts: Chris and Kyle

Resources: Archaeology of the Passion Week Bibliography; Archaeology of Passion Week Visuals (pt 3).

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Image by DEZALB from Pixabay 

Episode: This episode is part-two of the three-part series on the archaeology of Passion Week. Chris and Kyle take a detailed look at how archaeological finds in Jerusalem can help us better situate and understand the events of this fateful week. They delve into the Gospel of John, the Last Supper, and Jesus’ trials.

Hosts: Chris and Kyle

Summary: Chris and Kyle discuss the following topics:

Resources: Archaeology of the Passion Week Bibliography; Archaeology of Passion Week Visuals (pt 2).

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Image by Heather Truett from Pixabay

Episode: This episode is the first of a three-part series on the archaeology of the Passion week. Chris and Kyle take a detailed look at how archaeological finds in Jerusalem can help us better situate and understand the events of this fateful week.

Hosts: Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer

Summary: Chris and Kyle discuss the following topics:

Resources: Archaeology of the Passion Week Bibliography; Archaeology of Passion Week Visuals (pt 1).

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Episode: After being forgotten for over 3000 years, the ancient city of Ugarit was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1929. Perhaps the greatest find from the site was the stash of over 2500 texts written in the ancient language of Ugaritic, texts which illuminated the history of the ancient world and the life of the local inhabitants.  Join hosts Mary Buck and Chris McKinny as they discuss the ancient site of Ugarit which ruled over the Northern Levant from 1800 BCE to 1200 BCE.

Hosts: Mary Buck (Shepherds Theological Seminary) and Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) 

Summary: In this episode, Chris and Mary discuss the following:

Additional Resources: 2019 - Buck, Mary - Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit; 2019 - Buck, Mary - The Canaanites; Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts.

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Episode: This episode discusses whether it's possible to recover scenes from the Israel/Merneptah Stele, as well as cutting edge technology at Karnak, Egypt.

Hosts: Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) and Mark Janzen (Louisiana College)

Summary: In this episode, Chris and Mark discuss the following:

Additional Resources: Great Hypostyle Hall Project; Discussion of Cour de la Cachette (Merneptah); Digital Karnak UCLA; BiblePlaces Karnak Temple; Israelite Origins article 2020 by Rendsburg; Battle of Kadesh and World’s First Peace Treaty

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Episode: This inaugural Biblical World episode takes a deep dive into the archaeological background of King Hezekiah’s religious reform (2 Kgs 18:4).

Hosts: Chris McKinny (Gesher Media) and Oliver Hersey (Jerusalem University College) 

Episode Summary: 

In this episode, Chris and Oliver discuss the following: 

The historical background of Assyrian interactions with Israel and Judah in the late 8th century BC;

Additional Resources: 

Jerusalem University College (JUC); JUC Summer Institute; JUC Online; Context of Scripture in Accordance Bible Software; BAS Article on Lachish and BASOR article on same subject; Moulis 2019 “Hezekiah’s Cultic Reforms according to the Archaeological Evidence”

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