The Bible For Normal People

By Peter Enns and Jared Byas

Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's The Bible For Normal People about?

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

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Episode 151: 2020 - Let's N...

12.14.2020

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/ ) ...

The Bible For Normal People episodes:

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 ...
02.03.2020 Episode 113: James Martin - The Gift of Imagination in Reading Scripture Christianity is diverse and so are all the ways Christians have read the Bible through the centuries. James Martin helps us understand a Jesuit practice of reading Scripture that engages both the head and heart. Also, he’s met with the ...
01.27.2020 Season 4 Teaser Here's what's coming up in Season 4 of The Bible For Normal People podcast Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-bible-for-normal-people/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
12.16.2019 Episode 112: Pete and Jared - How “How the Bible Actually Works” Works Here in our last episode for Season 3, Pete & Jared take a deeper dive into Pete’s latest book and how we can further answer these questions, “What is the Bible and what do we do with it?” Show Notes ...
12.09.2019 Episode 111: Tom Oord - Uncontrolling Love of God This week, Pete & Jared sit down with Tom Oord and discuss the things God can and cannot do and how that affects our view of the world, the Bible, and salvation. Show Notes → Support this podcast at — ...
12.02.2019 Episode 110: Pete Enns - Pete Ruins Exodus (Part 6) In this final episode of the Dundee Award Winning series, Pete looks at the significance and symbolism of the tabernacle, which takes up a whopping 13 chapters, and the Golden Calf episode, which threatens to derail the entire plan—were it ...
11.25.2019 Episode 109: Megan DeFranza - The Bible and Intersex Believers On this episode of the Bible For Normal People, we look back to Season 1 when Pete and Jared talked with theologian Megan DeFranza on a topic that deeply affects the lives of many, but that few Christians are even ...
11.18.2019 Episode 108: Pete Wehner - Faith, Politics, & Polarization You may have noticed that we’re in a political season with a lot of charged rhetoric, so we decided to bring on someone who isn’t like that. Like at all. We have Pete Wehner, political commentator and columnist joining us ...
11.11.2019 Episode 107: Cindy Wang Brandt - Raising Children in the Faith A lot of parents who no longer hold to the same beliefs about the Bible and God they did when they were children are left wondering, “But how do we raise our kids?” Author and speaker Cindy Wang Brandt helps ...
11.04.2019 Episode 106: Jared Byas - 5 Principles for Biblical Interpretation When we ask, “What does this passage mean?” the answer is a little more complicated than we might expect. Jared looks at some basic principles of biblical interpretation and how they might help us better read our Bibles. Show Notes ...
10.28.2019 Episode 105: Wil Gafney - Womanist Midrash (Reissue) This episode originally aired as Episode 46 on April 23, 2018 This week, Jared & Pete talk to Wil Gafney about womanist interpretation of the Bible. In their discussion, Wil brings up fascinating nuances in the text and challenges the ...
10.21.2019 Episode 104: Jeff Chu - Grief As A Biblical Practice This week’s guest is Jeff Chu—author, journalist, advocate, co-creator of Evolving Faith—and our topic is grief, a universal experience that is often difficult to talk about it. We experience grief when confronted with death, of course, but grief is also ...

Older episodes

The Bible For Normal People

What's The Bible For Normal People about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Bible For Normal People episodes:

Episode 151: 2020 - Let's Not and Say We Did

Episode 150: Christopher Rollston - Where Does Hebrew Come From?

Episode 149: Dan Koch - The End Times & American Christian Culture

Episode 148: Pete Enns - Adam, Evangelicalism, & the Metanarrative of Evolution

Episode 147: Benjamin D. Sommer - Does God Have a Body?

Episode 146: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 3

Episode 145: Emilie Townes - The Wisdom of Hope

Episode 144: Austen Hartke - The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians (REISSUE)

Episode 143: Martha Himmelfarb - Second Temple Judaism & Apocalyptic Literature

Episode 142: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 2

Episode 141: John Franke - God Is On a Mission and So Can You

BONUS Episode: Cynthia Shafer-Elliott - What Archaeologists Do & Why it Matters

Episode 140: Paula Fredriksen - When Christians Were Jews

Episode 139: Pete Enns - You Have Questions, Pete Has Answers

Episode 138: Pete & Jared - How Love Changes the Meaning of the Bible

Episode 137: James Kugel - Challenging Our Assumptions About the Bible

Episode 136: Ariel Sabar - Telling the Truth About Jesus' Wife

Episode 135: Gary Anderson - How the Bible Talks About Sin

Episode 134: Ilia Delio - Grounding God in Evolution

Episode 133: Pete Enns - The Book of Job

Episode 132: Joe Gordon - A Conversation About Inspiration

Episode 131: Pete & Jared - Did the Bible Get it Wrong?

Episode 130: Drew Hart - The Bible, Race, & White Supremacy (REISSUE)

Episode 129: Brooke Prentis - Reading the Bible Through Aboriginal Eyes

Episode 128: Matthias Henze - The Bible & Second Temple Judaism

Episode 127: Miguel De La Torre - Diverse Voices in Biblical Scholarship

Episode 126: Kirsten Powers - The Journey To Grace

Episode 125: Pete Enns - Big Ideas that Shaped Biblical Scholarship: Julius Wellhausen and the Pentateuch

Episode 124: Yii-Jan Lin - Immigration & the Book of Revelation

Episode 123: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 1

Episode 122: Emerson Powery - The Bible as a Source of Liberation

Episode 121: Pete and Jared - Pete and Jared Talk About the Afterlife

Episode 120: Jack Levison - The Spirit, Wind, & Breath of God in the Bible

Episode 119: Xavier Ramey - Diversity, Social Justice, and the Gospel

Episode 118: Meghan Henning - Does Hell Exist?

Episode 117: Pete Enns - Reading the Old Testament Christotelicly

Episode 116: Sarah Ruden - Getting Inside the Head of Paul & Jesus

Episode 115: Alison Cook - Your Emotions Are Not Your Spiritual Enemy

Episode 114: Pete and Jared - How to Read the Bible in 2020

Episode 113: James Martin - The Gift of Imagination in Reading Scripture

Season 4 Teaser

Episode 112: Pete and Jared - How “How the Bible Actually Works” Works

Episode 111: Tom Oord - Uncontrolling Love of God

Episode 110: Pete Enns - Pete Ruins Exodus (Part 6)

Episode 109: Megan DeFranza - The Bible and Intersex Believers

Episode 108: Pete Wehner - Faith, Politics, & Polarization

Episode 107: Cindy Wang Brandt - Raising Children in the Faith

Episode 106: Jared Byas - 5 Principles for Biblical Interpretation

Episode 105: Wil Gafney - Womanist Midrash (Reissue)

Episode 104: Jeff Chu - Grief As A Biblical Practice

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