Episódios
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As you can probably tell from my incredibly strong accent, I (Megan) am an immigrant to the United States. As such, the US immigration system has been a rather large feature in my adult life…but I’ve never before considered the relationship between American immigration and the Bible, or more specifically, the book of Revelation.
It’s never really occurred to me that such a relationship even exists. In contrast, my guest today has written an entire - and absolutely fascinating - book on the subject, and we’re going to be diving right into it!
We’ll be exploring how Revelation has been used throughout US history to categorize, demonize, and vilify immigrants, while also painting the US as the New Jerusalem, sanctuary for God’s chosen, which must be defended at all costs.
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The book of Revelation is by far the most violent book of the New Testament.
The blood-soaked narrative calls for the death and destruction of non-believers and even of many Christians. Some Christians over the reveled in the horrific torments and the rivers of blood described in the book; but what would the historical Jesus have thought of it?
Would the Savior who instructed his followers to love their neighbors, to give up all their worldly possessions for those in need, and to care deeply for strangers and outcasts? have been on board with the wholesale slaughter of those who don’t fit the mold? Let’s find out!
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How would you respond if I told you that, actually, Judas was the only disciple who understood what Jesus was doing on earth? Or that I said that Jesus is unrelated to the God who created the world? Or that the God who created the world is not the same as the one who created humans?
From a modern Christian point of view, those are blasphemous statements - some more so than others, yet they are all paraphrasing an early Christian Gnostic text, known as the Gospel of Judas. Join us today on Misquoting Jesus to find out more about this surprising, esoteric gospel, and to learn the secrets of the world according to the Gnostics.
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Writings attributed to the apostle Paul make up a large swathe of the New Testament, and have been of fundamental importance in the development of Christian theology.
However, there are some serious questions over whether Paul actually wrote everything attributed to him. What texts do scholars think are not as…legitimate as they could be, and what texts do experts think were actually written by the man himself?
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The Apostle Paul is a central figure in early Christianity, and features strongly in the New Testament in his own letters, and as a character in the Acts of the Apostles. But is the Paul of Acts the same man as the Paul of the Epistles?
Does the writer of Acts change Paul's character and teachings, and why?
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The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles are widely understood to be a two-volume set, written by a single author.
Given that we’ve spoken before on Misquoting Jesus about how difficult it is to identify authors of ancient texts, why are scholars so sure that these two texts share the same author?
Who was that author, and why write two books when they could have written one?!
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Pontius Pilate is a relatively minor figure in the gospels of the New Testament, but one who plays a vital role as the Roman official in charge of Jesus’ sentencing.
Given that he’s the face of Rome in the New Testament Gospels, he’s presented in a surprisingly positive light! The same is true for his appearances in some other early Christian writings. To try and get to the bottom of exactly why the official representative of the big, bad Roman empire is presented as such a sympathetic figure, we’re going to be taking a look at one of these non-canonical texts in a bit more detail.
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The phrase "synoptic gospels" is thrown around a lot in Biblical scholarship, but what does it mean, and why are they important?
Are they as similar as people seem to think, and what do non-academics get wrong about them? Today, Megan is joined by Dr. Mark Goodacre, professor of Religious Studies and expert in all things synoptic, to answer these questions and to investigate some of his favorite differences between these fascinating texts.
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Many people in the modern western world view reincarnation as a belief predominately from eastern religions - especially buddhism and hinduism.
Believe it or not, reincarnation was also a theological concept for some early Christians! How does what early Christians taught about reincarnation differ from what we understand it to be?
Was it a common idea, or did those who espoused it receive pushback and censorship from their fellow Christians?
Why isn’t reincarnation still a widely held view in Christian circles?
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Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Misquoting Jesus - our 100th episode!
In keeping with our centesimal celebration (hey, it's a word!), we’re going to be exploring the world of Christianity 100 years after Jesus’ death.
Was Christianity still a small, persecuted offshoot of apocalyptic Judaism, or had it spread far and wide? Was it still an apocalyptic religion, and what theological disagreements had occurred? Megan has the questions, and Bart, as always, has the answers.
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The Bible is frequently invoked in the ongoing national debates about abortion, almost always to show that abortion is murder and strictly forbidden. Is that true?
This episode is not meant to resolve the issue about whether abortion should ever be considered a legitimate procedure or not.
The focus is on what the Bible actually says. Does it condemn abortion? Does it indicate that the fetus is to be considered a human with human rights, so that abortion constitutes murder? When, according to the Bible, does life begin. The overarching point of the episode is that those who cite the Bible in support of their social and political views should at least read what it says and be clear about what it means.
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New manuscripts discoveries in Biblical studies are often outed as forgeries, But sometimes -- rarely -- they turn out to be authentic.
How do scholars distinguish between fact and fiction, especially when they only have access to photographs or copies? Is it possible for a text to pass all authenticity tests and still be a clever forgery?
Today we’re back with Dr. Morton Smith and the Secret Gospel of Mark to discuss he discovered an actual ancient document with unknown information about Jesus, or turned up a forgery of some kind, or possibly even forged it himself.
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When a scholar claims to have discovered a new text from early Christianity, it can send shockwaves through the academic community.
In the case of the "Secret Gospel of Mark," the shockwaves are still being felt today after over 65 years later. And scholars still can't agree on whether the text in question is authentically ancient, a modern forgery, or something else.
There are huge implications. The traces of this "secret Gospel" allegedly discovered in 1958 by Morton Smith, a professor of ancient history at Columbia University, have been interpreted (by Smith himself) to indicate that Jesus engaged in homosexual rituals with the followers he baptized in the nude. In this week’s episode, we’re discussing the discovery of this amazing text, what it actually says, and how scholars have interpreted the intriguing passages it contain
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Why do so many Christians claim that other Christians are not really Christians? Is there a definition written in the sky somewhere?
Here we talk about the history of the problem, from its very beginning. Among other things we'll discuss why some biblical scholars today refuse to use the word "Christian" for the apostle Paul, the members of his churches, and for followers of Jesus in the first century altogether; and we'll ask whether there is something about "Christianity" in particular that leads to debates about what it actually means; and we'll try to work out if there's any satisfactory answer to the questions: "Is it possible to define the term to everyone's satisfaction?" and "Does it matter?"
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The Antiquities of the Jews, written by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in 93 CE, is our most important resource for knowing about the history of Israel around the time of Jesus and his earliest followers.
This twenty-volume work contains two brief references to Jesus himself, and are in fact the only two mentions of Jesus in any non-Christian writing of the entire first century. But there are many questions surrounding these statements.
Are they authentic to Josephus? Were they added to his writings by later Christian scribes? Could the be authentic in part but altered by scribes. If they are authentic do they strengthen the case for the historicity of Jesus, or are they merely records of hearsay? Do they provide us with any valuable informatioin about Jesus that we otherwise would never know?
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Jesus is usually credited with starting the Christian movement, but were his ideas orignally his? It appears that John the Baptist preached a similar message and that Jesus was originally a follower of his. So who started Christianity?
In this episode we consider what we can know about John, why he engaged in his ministry, and what influence he had on his follower Jesus. If John started the movement, why isn't there a religion in his name?
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Anyone familiar with American politics and the empty rhetoric used to promote divisive views is never much surprised when politicians appeals to the Bible to support their own social agendas. Depending on who you listen to, the bible is both pro life and pro choice, pro and anti immigrant, pro and anti homosexuality…the list goes on.
On today’s episode, we explore how people use and, oh so frequently misuse, ancient texts of Scripture to promote their agenda, and consider the question of whether it might help to read the Bible before claiming to know what it says.
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Everyone watching is familiar with Dr. Bart Ehrman, renowned New Testament scholar and New York Times bestselling author…but who on earth is Megan? How did she make her way from the study of ancient Mesopotamia to host a New Testament and Early Christianity podcast?
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Today we take it for granted that an important and influential person can write. Not so for the ancient world. Would a fisherman from rural Galilee have been able to write well enough to compose whole texts?
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