Gil Kidron and I discuss how a small rural priest called Mattathias started an insurgency against Judea's overlords, the mighty Seleucid kingdom, heir to the empire of Alexander the Great. His descendants became rulers of the tiny region. They are known to history as the Maccabeans. In this period, we see the emergence of two political or social groups. First, the Sadducees, or Tsadokites. Second, the Pharisees.

After Irenaeus rescued Paul from the Marcionites and Gnostics, Paul's letters were honoured and uncontroversial documents, testaments to a great missionary and theologian. Martin Luther weaponised them to attack the established church, and so birthed the Protestant movement. In the 1970s, the New Perspective on Paul movement tried to rescue Paul from Luther. I also finish up my discussion of the Acts of Paul, and make an assessment of Paul's real significance to Christianity.

The Conspirinormal podcast people kindly invited me onto their show. The hosts Adam Sayne and Serfiel Stevenson have generously allowed me to publish our conversation here.

In this bonus episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I continue our look at some of our favourite moments in the Old Testament or Tanakh. First, Steve investigates the unfortunate incident of Dinah and the Hebites. Then Garry shows a little-known side to Joseph's rule in Egypt.

During the middle of the 2nd century, Paul was rescued from the Marcionites and Gnostics. He was elevated from honoured missionary to master theologian. I also discuss the Acts of Paul and his acolyte Thecla.

The imperial church of the late 2nd century was bedevilled by external competitors -- Gnostics, Marcionites, Montanists – and vexed by internal division over the nature of Christ. Was he man, god, or both? The church brought forth fighters to defend its corporate markets. These were the heresy hunters. Justin Martyr and Hegesippus the Holy were early soldiers.

Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon was the greatest of these warriors. His works was enormously influential. For a start, he decisively moved the church away from its reliance on the Jewish holy books as divine authorities, and towards a new holy canon.

In his greatest work, "Against Heresies", Irenaeus produced an encyclopedia of the church's enemies. He invented the concept of heresy, incorrect belief. This was a concept unknown to the ancient world. Irenaeus used the concept to set up clear borders between the church incorporate and its rivals.

Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I turn a quizzical eye on Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.

Steve Guerra from the History in the Papacy podcast and I concluded our series on the Twelve minor prophets of the OT some time ago. That was a fake-out. We managed to rope in a real expert to conclude our mini-series. Let me introduce Prof Kip Swinney.

Justin Martyr is the second of the great Christian figures of the second century. He is one of the earliest for whom we have a substantial biography from the man himself. He wrote at length and often, creating the largest body of Christian literature to his time. Later Christians quoted from him endlessly, and lauded him as a writer, apologist, philosopher, and intellectual. But he introduced a pronounced anti-Jewish animus into Christianity. He also creates the concept of "heresy", which would bedevil Christianity for centuries. I also discuss two of Justin's successors: Melito and Tatian.

The rest of the show covers the second half of the second century. In this period, the little Jesus clubs evolved into the imperial church incorporate. This and the next few episodes cover the three dominant personalities of that period. In this episode I investigate the 'heretic' Marcion of Sinope. Marcion shook the church to its foundations when he moved to Rome. He rejected the idea that Christianity was based on Judaism and the Old testament. He constructed the first Christian canon: ten letters of Paul, and a reduced version of the gospel of Luke. Decisively expelled by the imperial church incorporate, Marcion returned to Asia Minor and founded a successful rival to the church, one that persisted for centuries. Marcion forced the church to build its own canon, and to raise Paul from obscure letter-writer and martyr, to pre-eminent apostle.