Data Over Dogma

Do you find yourself worried about a demon-haunted world? Do you look to angels for protection? This week, we're going to the source to see what the Bible actually says about all that. Forget the adorable winged toddlers your mother in law has hanging in her kitchen, because biblical angels are a whole 'nother type of celestial being! And as for demons... well, maybe you don't have to worry quite as much as certain megachurch pastors want you to believe you do.

For an ad-free version of the show, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:

https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma   

Also, follow us on the various social media places:

https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welp, armageddon is coming. Again. At least according to people who are watching for signs in the Euphrates river.

This week the internet is taking biblical stories and really running with them, and we're here to check the facts and do the math. First, it's the great escape as angels attempt to free themselves from from their fluvial Alcatraz. Then, we fee-fi-fo-fum our way through the story of the Nephilim. Did divine beings really have sex with human women? What did they have to talk about?

For an ad-free version of the show, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:

https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma   

Also, follow us on the various social media places:

https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we welcome scholar and author Matthew Thiessen to talk about his new book A Jewish Paul: the Messiah's Herald to the Gentiles. Thiessen goes into the hotly contested realm of Pauline interpretation, and discusses how deeply problematic (read: antisemitic) some of those interpretations can be.

You can find Dr. Thiessen's books wherever you find your great books. Go follow him on Twitter

https://twitter.com/MattThiessenNT

For an ad-free version of the show, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:

https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma   

Also, follow us on the various social media places:

https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jordan Peterson is a monster. Or at least he wants to be, and he wants you to be one too!

This week on Data Over Dogma, we discuss the most famous sermon given by Jesus, and incredibly inaccurate (and frankly disgusting) way that J.P. decided to interpret it. We'll go through the sermon on the mount beatitude-by-beatitude, to explicate what each of them mean. We'll learn about how Jesus valued kindness and gentleness and yes, meekness. And then we'll learn that Dr. Peterson absolutely HATES that message.

For an ad-free version of the show, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:

https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma   

Also, follow us on the various social media places:

https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we say shalom to TikToker and self-proclaimed "massive Jewish nerd" Miriam Anzovin. Miriam has delighted many and enraged others in the Jewish world with her unorthodox (in all the ways) take on important Jewish texts. In her TikTok series "Daf Reactions" Miriam goes through the Daf Yomi, a page-a-day cycle of Talmudic study, tying the Talmud in to her daily life as a milennial in modern society. Her videos take a critical look at the writings of the ancient sages, and connect the stories to what's happening in modern pop culture, politics, and society. Sometimes a lightning rod for controversy, and sometimes just the breath of fresh air that those studying the Talmud need, her work has gotten attention from around the world.

For more Miriam, you can visit her website https://www.miriamanzovin.com/ Or check her out in the various places: TikTok Instagram Youtube BlueSky Threads Mastodon

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's one of the big issues of our time. A great dividing line in our society. In fact, at this point it's almost impossible not to have big feelings about the issue of abortion. And one of the big weapons used in galvanizing people in the culture war is the Bible. But does it actually say what people on both sides of the issue claim it says? This week, Data Over Dogma dives into the deep end of this controversial pool to explore whether the Bible actually takes a stance on abortion. Many in the pro-life (or more accurately the anti-abortion) camp are absolutely certain that the Bible is in their corner. How defensible is their position. On the other side, many pro-choice folks say that the Bible not only doesn't condemn abortion, it actually has at least one place where it actually condones it. Are they misreading that passage? The abortion debate can feel very black and white in our time, and people are making biblical arguments about it left and right. On this week's show, we're stepping into the fray to see whose arguments hold up, and whose should be terminated.

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to know why the first two books of the Bible conflict with each other? Confused by the story of Joseph that seems to keep switching its narrative mid-stream? Looking for an explanation for why the pentateuch (that's the first five books of the Bible) seems like it's a bunch of different traditions all smashed together? Well, this week on D>D, we've brought in Princeton University's Dr. Liane M. Feldman to talk about--brace yourself--neodocumentarianism! That's right, neodocumentarianism. That's a MINIMUM of 26 Scrabble points, but it would take some extraordinary events to be able to play it... Anyway, if you don't know anything about the Neo-Documentary Hypothesis (and really, who does?), you're not alone. But you're definitely going to have some fun learning about it!

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Look out, Cecil B. DeMille, because the Dans are coming for you! That's right--making absolutely zero apologies to Messrs DeMille, Heston, or even Kilmer (for all you Dreamworks fans), we're letting the data run roughshod over the story of the biblical exodus. The tale is beloved: a man of lowly birth but raised among royalty returns to his roots to save his enslaved people from bondage, but did any of it actually happen? How much do we actually know, and how do we know it? 

Then we dive deep into Exodus 22:29... because it's horrifying. Is it possible that God commanded his chosen people to sacrifice their own children to Him? That doesn't sound right. Maybe there's another way to interpret that, right? Right???

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How old was he? Well, he was so old that Dr. Dan is sick of getting asked about him all the time!

That's right, this week we're starting the show discussing the ages of the patriarchs. Did Noah and his ancestors really live over nine hundred years each? Could Adam actually have celebrated his great, great, great, great, great, great grandson's 50th birthday with him? If not, why would the Bible say that? 

Then we move on to another tricky topic: the apocrypha! Why were some books kept in the Bible, and others rejected? Who gets to make the call when a book is called into question? Are there set criteria? Are those criteria better than just "Martin Luther didn't like that one"? Find out the answer to these questions and more!

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're not going to want to miss this one! This week, the Dans are resurrected as star stuff when they interview scholar and friend David A. Burnett. You're not going to want to miss this one, as David connects Paul's ideas of the afterlife with the deposing of the divine council, and a new arrangement in the firmament. Will you make the cut as a celestial body? They'll also dig deep into the scholarship to discover whether monotheism was ever actually a thing in ancient southwest Asia, or if that was an imposition of much later interpreters of the text. To find more of David Burnett, check out his academia.edu page here:

https://www.edinburgh.academia.edu/DavidBurnett

Or follow him on the socials: https://twitter.com/dburnett51 https://www.facebook.com/david.burnett.50

If you want to support our show, please consider becoming a monthly patron at

www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma

Also, follow us on the various social media places: 

facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod

twitter.com/data_over_dogma

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices