The Bible For Normal People

By Peter Enns and Jared Byas

Religion & Spirituality Christianity

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The Bible for Normal People is hosted by Peter Enns and Jared Byas.

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Episode 162: Jared & Sarah ...

04.12.2021

Wondering how Jared and his wife, Sarah, have navigated parenting amidst their transitions of faith? They cover what they tell their kids about Christianity, the Bible, and how their parenting is different because of it. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/episode-162-parenting-in-a-faith-transition-feat-sarah-byas/ ...

The Bible For Normal People episodes:

04.12.2021 Episode 162: Jared & Sarah Byas - Parenting in a Faith Transition Wondering how Jared and his wife, Sarah, have navigated parenting amidst their transitions of faith? They cover what they tell their kids about Christianity, the Bible, and how their parenting is different because of it. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/episode-162-parenting-in-a-faith-transition-feat-sarah-byas/ ...
04.05.2021 Episode 161: Amanda Mbuvi - Finding Ourselves in the Stories of the Bible Why were the stories of the Bible written down? On this episode Amanda Mbuvi shares about how the Bible plays a role in identity formation and how that affects how we read it. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/interview-with-amanda-mbuvi-finding-ourselves-in-the-stories-of-the-bible/ ) Support ...
03.29.2021 Episode 160: Pete and Jared - The Risk of an "Errant" Bible Why is Bible inerrancy so hard for people to give up? Pete and Jared dive into some possible explanations and take a look at the history of the belief that the Bible is inerrant. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/episode-160-the-risk-of-an-errant-bible/ ) ...
03.22.2021 Episode 159: Richard Elliott Friedman - Who Wrote the Pentateuch? We love a good discussion on the formation of the Bible. Listen in as we talk to scholar Richard Elliott Friedman about the various texts that make up the Hebrew Bible, what clues we have to date them, and what ...
03.15.2021 Episode 158: Maria Doerfler - Reading the Bible in Times of Crisis There’s many difficult stories the Bible but one people struggle with the most are those dealing with the death of children. On this episode, we are joined by Maria Doerfler who shares rich perspectives on the stories of Jephthah’s daughter, ...
03.08.2021 Episode 157: Nadia Bolz-Weber - Being a Christian in the Messiness We had a great conversation with Nadia Bolz-Weber about what is compelling about Christianity, why we all need to stop trying so hard, and what in the world there is to be hopeful about. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/interview-with-nadia-bolz-weber-being-a-christian-in-the-messiness/ ) ...
03.01.2021 Episode 156: Pete and Jared - Your Questions About Prayer, Marriage, White Jesus, an Angry God, and a Murky Bible In this episode we are answering some of the most asked questions on our Ask Pete ( https://peteenns.com/ask-pete/ ) page. We get into a lot of topics like how other cultures interpret Jesus, how normal people can study the Bible ...
02.22.2021 Episode 155: Sarah Bessey - Why Bother Praying? Praying can feel difficult during hard times and especially after a faith deconstruction. Sarah Bessey joins us on this episode of the podcast to talk about what inspired her to write a book on prayer and shares what has been ...
02.15.2021 Episode 154: Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler - How Jews & Christians Read the Bible Differently It shouldn’t be a surprise to us now that people can read the same text and walk away with vastly different meanings. On this episode of the podcast, we’re talking with Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler who share some reasons ...
02.08.2021 Episode 153: James Kugel - Shifting Perspectives on God in the Bible James Kugel is back on the podcast sharing about how people during the biblical period understood God and how their views changed overtime. How does their understanding of God influence our understandings today? Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/interview-with-james-kugel-shifting-perspectives-on-god-in-the-bible/ ) Support ...
02.01.2021 Episode 152: Pete Enns - What Makes Christianity Different? We’re back with Season 5! On this episode, Pete shares what makes Christianity distinct for him. He discusses the beginning of the Jesus movement, explains how New Testament writers probably understood their faith, and how first century Christians made sense ...
12.14.2020 Episode 151: 2020 - Let's Not and Say We Did 2020— What a year. We’re wrapping up the year and the fourth season of the podcast with a look back onto what we learned from this season and from the year as a whole. Show Notes → ( https://peteenns.com/episode-151-2020-lets-not-and-say-we-did/ ) ...
12.07.2020 Episode 150: Christopher Rollston - Where Does Hebrew Come From? This episode features linguist and professor Christopher Rollston who helps us understand the importance of studying languages when it comes to dating and understanding the Bible. We talk about other ancient Near Eastern languages, biblical manuscripts, inscriptions, and more! Show ...
11.30.2020 Episode 149: Dan Koch - The End Times & American Christian Culture Many of us have encountered a type of Christianity that preaches an impending rapture and a call to repent of our sins as soon as possible. But where did that interpretation of Christianity come from? On this episode we ask ...
11.23.2020 Episode 148: Pete Enns - Adam, Evangelicalism, & the Metanarrative of Evolution How has theology developed alongside the findings of science? On this episode, Pete is sharing his reflections on what quantum physics and the theory of evolution tell us about the Bible and how we should interpret it light of scientific ...
11.16.2020 Episode 147: Benjamin D. Sommer - Does God Have a Body? Benjamin D. Sommer is back on the podcast telling us all about his work on a biblical understanding of God’s body. He takes us through the history of thought on God’s body, the material God’s body is made out of, ...
11.09.2020 Episode 146: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 3 Jared has been breaking down Jonah for us on his solo episodes this year and this is his last segment! He delves into what the over all message of Jonah is, what questions it leaves us with, and what it ...
11.02.2020 Episode 145: Emilie Townes - The Wisdom of Hope We invited Emilie Townes on the podcast to talk about womanist ethics but our conversation morphed into so much more. We touched on the role of the Bible in ethics, the relevance of the Bible in our lives today, and ...
10.26.2020 Episode 144: Austen Hartke - The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians (REISSUE) In this reissued episode, Pete and Jared sit down with Austen Hartke to discuss what the Bible has to say about transgender people. They get into unexamined Bible passages, mysterious Hebrew words, and how to make your church a welcoming ...
10.19.2020 Episode 143: Martha Himmelfarb - Second Temple Judaism & Apocalyptic Literature Getting into the Halloween spirit? Don’t miss this spooky episode talking about all things apocalypse in Second Temple Judaism! Our guest Martha Himmelfarb is an expert on the subject and she tells us all about the key features of apocalyptic ...
10.12.2020 Episode 142: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 2 This episode is the second installment of Jared’s deep dive (no pun intended) into the book of Jonah. In this episode, Jared gives us a taste of how rich this book is in metaphors and how a fuller understanding of ...
10.05.2020 Episode 141: John Franke - God Is On a Mission and So Can You John Franke joins the podcast to discussing his new book, Missional Theology ( http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/missional-theology/289300 ). John shares some key components of missional theology and discusses how to overcome plurality, what evangelizing looks like through a missional lens, and why the ...
10.01.2020 BONUS Episode: Cynthia Shafer-Elliott - What Archaeologists Do & Why it Matters We are so excited about the Everyday Life in Ancient Israel class Cynthia is teaching for us we just had to reissue her podcast episode from back in season 2. Cynthia talks with Pete and Jared about what she does ...
09.28.2020 Episode 140: Paula Fredriksen - When Christians Were Jews What separated Judaism from the Christian movement during the Second Temple Period? In this episode, Paula Fredriksen breaks down the beginnings of the Jesus movement and how it came to flourish. She gets into what religion looked like in the ...
09.21.2020 Episode 139: Pete Enns - You Have Questions, Pete Has Answers This episode of the podcast is filled with listener question from our Ask Pete and Jared page on the website. Pete answers questions about Job, ancient Egyptian letters, the world of biblical scholarship, shifting faith views, and much more! Show ...
09.14.2020 Episode 138: Pete & Jared - How Love Changes the Meaning of the Bible What does it mean to “speak the truth in love?” On this episode we’re taking about Jared’s new book Love Matters More ( https://www.jaredbyas.com/book/ ) and what it should actually look like for Christians to interact with people they disagree ...
09.07.2020 Episode 137: James Kugel - Challenging Our Assumptions About the Bible Ancient interpreters made all sort of assumptions about the Bible much like we do today. What do their assumptions tell us about how to interpret the Bible today? James Kugel breaks down the function of the Bible throughout history and ...
08.24.2020 Episode 136: Ariel Sabar - Telling the Truth About Jesus' Wife Just because someone claims to hold the truth doesn't mean they actually do. On this episode, investigative journalist Ariel Sabar tells us the fascinating story of how a Harvard professor was duped into believing she made a discovery that would ...
08.10.2020 Episode 135: Gary Anderson - How the Bible Talks About Sin What is sin? It’s something we talk about often but rarely take the time to define. Gary Anderson has written a book on the subject so we brought him on the show to explain it to all us normal people. ...
07.27.2020 Episode 134: Ilia Delio - Grounding God in Evolution On this episode, Pete and Jared discuss the intersection of faith and science with scientist and theologian Ilia Delio. They get into why these two subjects have historically been at odds and why it holds us back to continue believing ...
07.13.2020 Episode 133: Pete Enns - The Book of Job What's the deal with Job? In this episode, Pete gives an overview of the book, pushes back on some readings you might have heard in the past, and points out some significant features that can help us better understand it. ...
06.29.2020 Episode 132: Joe Gordon - A Conversation About Inspiration Joe Gordon is a professor at Johnson University in Tennessee. In this episode, we talk with him about his book Divine Scripture in Human Understanding. We discuss what it means for the Bible to be inspired and how that affects ...
06.15.2020 Episode 131: Pete & Jared - Did the Bible Get it Wrong? We’re answering some listener questions from the Ask Pete ( https://peteenns.com/ask-pete/ ) page and answering the bigger question: Did the Bible get it wrong? We talk about the return of Jesus, David being a man after God’s own heart, and ...
06.08.2020 Episode 130: Drew Hart - The Bible, Race, & White Supremacy (REISSUE) We’re revisiting an episode from Season 1 in which Dr. Drew G. I. Hart shares about the Bible and white supremacy. We get into what exactly white supremacy is and how it has influenced how we read the Bible and ...
05.25.2020 Episode 129: Brooke Prentis - Reading the Bible Through Aboriginal Eyes Brooke Prentis is an Aboriginal leader and CEO of a Christian organization in Australia called Common Grace. On this episode, she shares with us some Aboriginal perspectives on the Bible and how the Bible speaks to the injustices that Aboriginal ...
05.18.2020 Episode 128: Matthias Henze - The Bible & Second Temple Judaism What happened during the time the writings of the Old Testament stopped and the New Testament writings began? People didn’t stop writing and what they wrote helps us better understand the context of the Bible. On this episode we talk ...
05.11.2020 Episode 127: Miguel De La Torre - Diverse Voices in Biblical Scholarship Many of us believe that our interpretations of the Bible are generally the same as everyone else's. But does that make them them good? On this podcast episode, we talk with Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies, Miguel De ...
05.04.2020 Episode 126: Kirsten Powers - The Journey To Grace In this episode, Jared and Pete are joined by political correspondent Kirsten Powers, to talk about her journey of faith, her openness to the mystery of God, and how she’s learning to treat others with a higher level of grace. ...
04.27.2020 Episode 125: Pete Enns - Big Ideas that Shaped Biblical Scholarship: Julius Wellhausen and the Pentateuch Biblical scholarship has grown a lot over the centuries but there are some ideas that are just so good they never go away! On this episode of the podcast, Pete looks at one of those foundational ideas: Julius Wellhausen’s documentary ...
04.20.2020 Episode 124: Yii-Jan Lin - Immigration & the Book of Revelation Under the hood of America, we see an interesting history of using the book of Revelation to talk about immigration. Our guest, NT scholar Yii-Jan Lin walks us through the profound impact the book of Revelation has had on the ...
04.13.2020 Episode 123: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 1 In this episode Jared begins to tackle the book of Jonah by asking, “What kind of book is this?” as well as introducing the first chapter. Just because Jesus mentions Jonah does that mean we have to believe it’s historical? ...
04.06.2020 Episode 122: Emerson Powery - The Bible as a Source of Liberation The writings of formerly enslaved people tell us a lot about how they viewed the Bible. We sat down with Professor Emerson Powery to talk about how the Bible was used around the institution of slavery and how it can ...
03.30.2020 Episode 121: Pete and Jared - Pete and Jared Talk About the Afterlife On this week's episode, Pete and Jared are talking about the afterlife. What is it and what does the Bible say about it? Show Notes → Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-bible-for-normal-people/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
03.23.2020 Episode 120: Jack Levison - The Spirit, Wind, & Breath of God in the Bible If we look under the surface, we find a fascinating conversation about the Spirit of God in the Bible. Considering the word for Spirit, Wind, and Breath of God is often the same in the Bible, how are we to ...
03.16.2020 Episode 119: Xavier Ramey - Diversity, Social Justice, and the Gospel Dr. Martin Luther King says “All people are caught in an Inescapable network of mutuality.” So what does that mean when it comes to the gospel, the Bible, and how we navigate racial equality? In this episode, we talk to ...
03.09.2020 Episode 118: Meghan Henning - Does Hell Exist? This week Pete & Jared talk to Meghan Henning about hell. She shares with us her knowledge of the ancient world Jesus and the New Testament writers were familiar with and how they might have understood hell. Show Notes → ...
03.02.2020 Episode 117: Pete Enns - Reading the Old Testament Christotelicly That 50 cent word describes something many Bible readers have noticed: the way the New Testament writers quote the Old often has little to do with what the Old Testament writers were actually trying to say. Jesus was in fact ...
02.24.2020 Episode 116: Sarah Ruden - Getting Inside the Head of Paul & Jesus Translating the Bible is more than just about being woodenly accurate. We’re humans after all. In this episode, Pete and Jared talk to Sarah Ruden, who talks about using our imaginations to put ourselves in the place of the biblical ...
02.17.2020 Episode 115: Alison Cook - Your Emotions Are Not Your Spiritual Enemy Sometimes it can be easy to forget the psychological ramifications of our faith. The way our faith shapes the language we use to talk about tragedies and sadnesses in our life can be life-giving or it can really mess us ...
02.10.2020 Episode 114: Pete and Jared - How to Read the Bible in 2020 It’s hard to know where the Bible fits into our political views, our ethical stances, and how we live out life. Pete and Jared point out how many of us might be using the Bible in disrespectful and irresponsible ways ...

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