You might not realize all the examples of Greco-Roman culture that we see in the Bible, including how the Bible quotes itself, where and how it quotes extra-biblical books and philosophers, and ancient apartment buildings.  Join us for me using a baby voice and using the word ghetto way too many times.

Resources Used for this Episode:

• Epimenides in the Bible

Contact me at:

[email protected]

When you hear that the New Testament is in a Greek/Roman time period, what does that mean to you?  How do you imagine those cultures affect the Bible and the people that lived at that time?  In this episode, we'll explore some tangible ways that Greek and Roman culture affected both the Bible and the people of Israel.

Resources Used in this Episode:

• A Getty Blog about Triclinium

Contact me at:

[email protected]

What are the differences in how emotions are expressed in modern English vs. biblical Hebrew?  Do we have any ways in common?  And what are some other unique expressions in Biblical Hebrew?  

Some resources used in this episode:

• Their Eyes Swell Out With Fatness: Metaphor and Emotion in Psalm 73: Richard Liantonio  Article Here

Contact me at:

[email protected]

Language is so diverse!  The basic building blocks of language that we can all take for granted... shouldn't be.  Learn how Biblical Hebrew says yes, and how it doesn't.  It matters!

Resources Used for Today's Episode:

• Christo H. J. van der Merwe, Jacobus A. Naudé, and Jan H. Kroeze, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar, Second Edition. (London; Oxford; New York; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury T&T Clark: An Imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017), iii.

Contact me at:

[email protected]

Have you ever thought that Bible characters must be pretty boring and formal?  That maybe they were always serious and made speeches?  There actually may be a few reasons for that, and we'll explore a few in today's episode, including how the Hebrew verb system isn't as fun sounding as English speakers might accidentally expect it to be.

Resources for this episode:

“The change in Hebrew from a V-framed to an S-framed language” by Malka Rappaport Hovav, Hebrew University

The Article About Turkish/English Verbs and Sign Language

Contact me at:

[email protected]

I'm sure you've noticed the quasi-poetry of Proverbs.  But what's going on in there?  And other than the beautiful (though weird stuff) going on in Song of Solomon, where else do we see poetry?  What exactly is a Biblical Hebrew writing style?

That Author's Novel Ideas

The Hermeneutics Course I Took (it's free and online if you want to give it a go)

Contact me at:

[email protected]

Do you know what features define Biblical Hebrew poetry?  Or that there is essentially no word for yes in Biblical Hebrew?  We're kicking off a mini season on literary, linguistic and cultural features of the Bible and how they effect our English Bibles.

Contact me at:

[email protected]

What's going on with the podcast, what I'm up to next and Eli jumping on the couch.

Contact me at:

[email protected]

This is a pretty odd Q&A episode: we have questions that nobody asked, and some questions that nobody answered.  It's all good!  At least we talk about ice cream and hell! 

Contact me at:

[email protected]

We got some really good questions in here!  You guys are serious thinkers.  I'm a little intimidated.

Note:  When I mention that "Yahweh" is not said in Greek, I'm mostly talking about how the word Yahweh is not transliterated into Greek, neither in the Greek New Testament nor in the Septuagint.  Instead, Greek writers wrote "Theos" (the Greek word for God/god) or "Kurios" (the Greek word for Lord).  The name Yahweh was not spoken much at all by anyone since it was not culturally acceptable to say God's name out loud.

Some resources for this episode:

• A Bible Project video about the son of man

Contact me at:

[email protected]