The Bible Geek Show

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The Bible Geek Podcast 22-015 Dec 10, 2022

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Is the passage in Revelation 11:7-12 about the 2 witnesses somehow related to the Passion and Resurrection narratives of the gospels? How do you think we can discern if a text critical method produces sound (or sound enough) readings and/or artificially constrains the possible meanings of a text? In the Pistis Sophia, there are references to "five trees," from which five divine beings apparently came (with Melchizedek from the fifth). He also notes that Jesus is made to say in the Gospel of Thomas that "there are five trees in Paradise ... and one who knows them will not taste death." What are they? Doesn't there come a point where the reader interprets the story in a way that the author does not intend, but is still a valid interpretation?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-014 Dec 10, 2022

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Bible Geek Holiday Special Dr. Price reads a sermon about the 1947 movie "Miracle on 34th Street" titled "He Really is Santa Claus"

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-013 Dec 09, 2022

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Who are Gog and Magog? It seems like angels have been largely written out of the script for fundamentalists. Is that your experience? Do you think this is a way for fundamentalists to avoid seeming Roman Catholic? What happened to the early Jewish Christians? How did your family react to your apostasy or backsliding or de-conversion or however you describe it? How could Jesus have been genuinely human if he never sinned? Tell us about Bruno Bauer. Do you know whether anyone has made a serious, well researched argument to change the BCE/CE dating scheme to something more centered in the Western/Hellenistic/Enlightenment Eras? Might the Emmaus story be based on a dream? Or the resurrection appearance of Romulus on the Alba Longa? What do you make of the references to anti-natalism in the Bible?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-012 Nov 20, 2022

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Could you explain the story of Oedipus Rex as a religious figure, who had all the "signs and trappings of a deity" (Alan Dundes) I think I heard you say that the OT doesn't prophesy about a Messiah. Did I misunderstand you or did you say this? Does Matthew 19:13-15 seem to not fit between the other verses? Seems like it was added much later. How would Pilate be able to converse with Jesus? Could Jesus have known Greek? Why no updates to the Bible? Is there any proof that the Bible was ever intended to be anything but a fictional endeavor? If so, where can that be found? Deuteronomy 34:5-6 say Moses died and was buried. Some say that’s a sneaky way of saying he didn’t die but was taken up to heaven alive, so he was still available to be one of the Two Witnesses in Revelation. But is that cogent? Maybe some non-canonical scripture told it differently? You’ve mentioned some influences that took you from liberal Christianity to atheism. These were Derrida, Don Cupitt, and the 19th Century critics of the New Testament. What were some ideas these individuals shared that were significant in your transition from liberal Christianity to atheism? Do you have any references you could share concerning the nineteenth-century circuit-riding preachers and their “behaviors” when moving from town to town? What do fundamentalists make of Jude 9, where the writer alludes to an apocryphal story? Whence the belief that angels do not sing? Some speculate that the Holy Spirit was included in the Trinity in order to mirror the theology of Neoplatonism, where it speaks of a World Soul poised between the First Father and the Demiurge/Logos. Thoughts? In what book(s) do you discuss “hermeneutical ventriloquism”? What is your view on Roland Barthes’s “death of the author” position against pursuing authorial intent as it relates to the Bible? What are the most important aspects of Derrida’s poststructuralism for critical textual scholarship generally? Is there any indication in the Bible that the messiah might return as a female? Is there any indication in the Bible that the messiah could not possibly return as a female?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-011 Oct 15, 2022

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Do you know if the term "beyond time and space" began to be used to describe God after Einstein's theories were proven? In the Pistis Sophia, there are references to "five trees," from which five divine beings apparently came (with Melchizedek from the fifth). And Jesus is made to say in the Gospel of Thomas that "there are five trees in Paradise ... and one who knows them will not taste death." What might they have been? Gnosticism taught that one gains salvation through knowledge, as opposed to grace, faith, works, etc. But isn’t that equally true for any Christian church that requires one to accept a particular creed? You have several times mentioned the similarities between certain gospel stories and novels from the same period. Is there a list of, or source for, said novels? In Strauss's "Life of Jesus Critically Examined it reads "Numerous rabbinical passages were cited to demonstrate, that it was consonant with Jewish notions to consider a son of pious parents to be conceived by the divine co-operation, and that he should be called the son of the Holy Spirit, without its being ever imagined that paternal participation was thereby excluded." Are you aware of these rabbinical passages? Is the story of Cain and Abel about the clash of the farmer archetype and the hunter/gatherer archetype? In Paul: A Critical Life Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, in his discussion of Acts' claim that Paul studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, raises John Knox's objections to the claim. What you make of Knox's points, as well as Murphy-O'Connor's comments?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-010 Sep 17, 2022

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One topic: Universalism/Universal Salvation

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-009 Aug 30, 2022

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Birger Pearson argues for a Jewish pre-Christian origin for Gnosticism, but Bart Ehrman says that view is passé. Why do you agree with Pearson? Did some Gnostics use Son of Man as an important title as opposed to the ways Vermes said? Or am I just taking "title" too seriously, since it's on the brain because I just read Vermes? Is the doctrine of the Trinity more of a Catholic device than other faiths? What is your assessment of the hypothesis that Matthew and Luke both drew independently from Didache, at least for portions of what scholars would later call "Q" ? What sort of model of the Earth and the broader cosmos would a person construct if one had only the Bible as a description of the world? Are the Flat-Earthers right about the biblical account of Earth’s shape? Most people believe that Jesus foresaw his own death. I have been searching the internet and there doesn't seem to be any passages before Matthew 16:21–23 that would fit this narrative.

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-008 Aug 29, 2022

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In Geza Vermes's Jesus the Jew he says many scholars reject his understanding of Jesus as a Galilean charismatic sage like Honi or Hanina ben Dosa, as well the contention that “son of man” was not a title. Please explain. Do you have any wisdom to impart in the subject of full Holiness? Do you see any reason to believe the traditional stories of the martyrdoms of Paul and Peter? Could the Gospel of John be considered Pauline?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-007 Jul 19, 2022

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Tell us about Bruno Bauer. Do you know whether anyone has made a serious, well researched argument to change the BCE/CE dating scheme to something more centered in the Western/Hellenistic/Enlightenment Eras? Might the Emmaus story be based on a dream? Or the resurrection appearance of Romulus on the Alba Longa? What do you make of the references to anti-natalism in the Bible? Is the passage in Revelation 11:7-12 about the 2 witnesses somehow related to the Passion and Resurrection narratives of the gospels?

The Bible Geek Podcast 22-006 Jun 29, 2022

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Mark has the crowd hail “the kingdom of our father that is coming,” while Matthew has “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” Is it possible that Mark believed Jesus was the Messiah ben Joseph and still expected that Simon bar Kochba would appear as the Messiah ben David? And that Matthew wrote after bar Kochba was defeated and makes Jesus fulfill both roles? Don’t you realize that the Clementines were written in the 4th century, not the 2nd as your heroes F.C. Baur and Bruno Bauer thought? Why the seeming neglect of Nehemiah?? Could the writing ascribed to Mark by Papias be something other than our canonical Mark? You mentioned that Karl Marx had a death bed religious conversion. I could not find anything about that online. Did you confuse him with someone else? Pope Gregory I identified Mary Magdalene with the woman who washed Jesus's feet in Luke 7:38. Why think either was a prostitute?

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