Discussion with Jon Dillon (of the Two Trees Podcast) centered on the theme of trees, fruitfulness, and multiplication. What does it mean to be fruitful? Why trees? Is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a “bad” tree?

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Our first Q&A! Timestamps: (1:11) - What do we do when we grew up Christian, or have been in a particular Christian tradition or church for a while, and…we start thinking in terms of biblical theology, of studying the Bible in its ancient context? (18:00) - In college years ago, I heard about the idea that the Israelite’s religion evolved from polytheism to monotheism. It looks to me like you’d disagree with this, but the professor made it seem like such a sensible idea, and when I look at all this parallel literature, I really can see a point there, so maybe could you talk about that? (38:56) - How do I find good resources? And how can I judge a resource well so that I am not wasting my time? (48:48) - Do you reject young earth creationism? (50:30) - If you reject young earth creationism, are you sold on old earth creationism? (51:21) - If the gods of the nations are real, if God gave them authority, and if Christ defeated them, then…why doesn’t it seem like they’re defeated? Why are they still around?

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Joshua Sherman joins the podcast to talk about the image of Christ.  We discuss how we can trace the image of God through the Bible forward into its ultimate picture in the incarnation of Jesus and how we ought to think of both the image of God and the image of Christ in relationship to who we are and how we live our lives.

“You are called to this purpose because of who God created you to be. And we're inviting you to live into that through Christ because he is the one that makes it possible.” —Joshua Sherman

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

This episode takes a bit of a diversion from biblical theology into the question of “What is the image of God?” Does God have a physical aspect that we copy (could the LDS church be right about us becoming gods)? Is the image of God proof against evolution? Is the image of God the soul of man? What about relationality or rationality or consciousness or morality, are any of those the image of God? Is the image of God a status or a function?

Main podcast site with bonus files: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/ Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Several views of creation are introduced and in particular John Walton’s “functional” or “identity” view of creation is discussed. We look at how that fits into the Bible and explore whether or not this is the likeliest way the ancient person would have thought regarding the creation of the cosmos by looking at some ancient Near Eastern creation accounts.

Main podcast site with bonus files: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Who is Graham Hancock and is his Netflix show, Ancient Apocalypse supposed to mirror the History Channel show, Ancient Aliens? Do his ideas have any basis in reality or the Bible? What does his work have to do with the study of the ancient Near East? And who are the apkallu and why should we care?

These questions and more will be discussed in this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot.

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Piri Reis Map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_Reis_map#/media/File:Piri_reis_world_map_01.jpg

Piri Reis Map (Fringepop 321, YT):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCoivJ1wOgs&ab_channel=FringePop321

On the Origin of the Watchers: https://www.academia.edu/4570714/On_the_Origin_of_Watchers_A_Comparative_Study_of_the_Antediluvian_Wisdom_in_Mesopotamian_and_Jewish_Traditions

Refuting Hancock with real data: https://drmsh.com/graham-hancock-bad-archaeology/

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Reading ancient literature can help us understand the Bible.  Following on from the conversation in episode 7 about how to read myth in relation to the Bible, this episode includes a reading of the Babylonian creation account known as Enuma Elish.

A bonus question at the beginning of the episode: did God really only have 70 “sons of God”?

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

What is mythology and why should the student of the Bible be interested in it? Isn’t mythology just a bunch of made up stories? Or, can mythology actually relate directly to history? In this episode, the concept of mythology is explored along with the field of form criticism, which is a fancy of way of talking about genre. As life-long listeners of stories, we are all capable of looking at a text and finding cues which tell us what kind of a story we are reading or hearing and we can use this information to study Scripture.  However, we need to be aware that genres change over time and what is "history" is not the same from era to era.

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

Did the Bible steal all its ideas from its neighbors? Was Israelite religion merely an off-shoot of Canaanite religion? How do we understand ancient literature that is similar to the Bible? These questions and more are explored, focusing in on how the Bible describes God having a divine council that seems in some respects eerily similar to pagan pantheons. Have a listen to find out how we can read the Bible and pagan literature and reach an even higher understanding of who God is than we might have had previously.

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan

As Christians, we may have a difficult time in seeing the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament and early Christian belief, especially when it comes to understanding the divinity of Christ. How would a Jew of the first century understand a man living amongst them as God? Many Christians have understood appearances of YHWH in the Old Testament as Jesus pre-incarnate, but surely Jews would not have understood these in the same way—would they? As a matter of fact, a Jewish belief in a binitarian godhead did exist at the time of Jesus and only later, when Christianity became popular, was this belief labeled a heresy.

Bonus material: https://genesis-marks-the-spot.castos.com/

Genesis Marks the Spot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesismarksthespot

Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan

Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/

Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan