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The Naked Bible Podcast — Christianity
The Naked Bible Podcast

Biblical theology, stripped bare of denominational confessions and theological systems by exposing context.

Copyright: © 2022 The Naked Bible Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Naked Bible 269: Exodus 8-10 Apr 27, 2019

Show notes

The previous episode discussed the four scholarly approaches to understanding the plagues upon Egypt in the exodus story. Two of those approaches (polemic, de-creation) were deemed more fruitful than the others, for they cast the plagues in terms of Yahweh’s mastery over creation order (the Egyptian concept of Maat) that in turn serves as a polemic against the theology of the ancient Egyptians. In this episode we go through the plagues of Exodus 8-10 (plague numbers 2 through 9) with an eye toward thinking about each plague as de-creation and polemic.

Naked Bible 268: Exodus 7:14-25 Apr 21, 2019

Show notes

Exodus 7:14-25 is the entry point for the series of ten plagues God sent upon the land of Egypt and its people for pharaoh’s defiance of his command to free his people, Israel. This episode includes an introduction to how scholars talk about the plagues and how that discussion translates to the first plague, turning the Nile to blood.

Figure 3 Plagues as Decreation

Naked Bible 267: Exodus 7:1-13 Apr 14, 2019

Show notes

Aside from the date of the exodus event and the revelation of the divine name, one of the most frequently discussed issues in the book of Exodus is the hardening of pharaoh’s heart. The narrative affirms that both God and pharaoh are the agents responsible for the hardening of pharaoh’s heart. How do we understand this in light of moral human responsibility, human free will, and the righteousness of God? This episode focuses on this topic.

Naked Bible 266: Exodus 5-6 Apr 06, 2019

Show notes

This episode of the podcast covers two chapter of Exodus. Aside from some comments that relate to items in previous episodes, our discussion focuses on the biblical motif of the “hand of the Lord” and “outstretched arm” of the Lord. Both expressions are part of the confrontation between Moses and Aaron and Egypt’s pharaoh. Both are also important motifs in Egyptian literature. That isn’t a coincidence.

Naked Bible 265: Exodus 4:18-31 Mar 31, 2019

Show notes

The second half of Exodus 4 presents a series of chronological problems in relation to Moses’ movements to and from Sinai and Jethro’s home and, ultimately, the journey to Egypt. The section includes the bizarre episode in verses 24-26 where God sought to kill Moses. Why was God angry? How does the circumcision of Moses’ son fix the problem? What does it mean that Moses’ wife, Zipporah, touched the foreskin of her son to Moses’ feet? This episode of the podcast unravels all these questions.

Naked Bible 264: Exodus 4:1-17 Mar 23, 2019

Show notes

Exodus 4:1-17 continues Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush after the revelation of the divine name. It is marked by Moses’ unwillingness to do what God has tasked him to do. This episode covers God’s compassionate responses to Moses and also his anger when Moses refuses the job. The conversation takes us into supernatural sign acts, Egyptian magic, and the concession by God of bringing Aaron (and the Aaronic priesthood) into his plan for Israel.

Naked Bible 263: Exodus 3 Part 3 Mar 16, 2019

Show notes

Exodus 3:13-14 are two of the most familiar verses in the Old Testament: “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God reveals his name here in the first person (ehyeh – I AM), but most of the time the Old Testament has the divine name in the third person (Yahweh). Biblical names typically have meanings, so what is the meaning of this name for God?

People can go up to my website for a detailed discussion of this. I favor the second view: “I am he who causes to be all that is,” arguing for a hiphil, a causative, vocalization of the verbal name phrase.

Also a youtube video I created.

Naked Bible 262: Exodus 3 Part 2b Mar 09, 2019

Show notes

This episode builds off Part 2a and our discussion of the Kenite Hypothesis. The episode essentially asks this question: How would a literate ancient Jew, with knowledge of 1 Enoch and the Hebrew Bible, understand the biblical writer’s linkage of the Kenites (relatives of Abraham and Moses) to Cain the murderer, whom the writer of Enoch associated with the sins of the Watchers? The answer may surprise you, and even bless you.

Naked Bible 261: Exodus 3 Part 2a Mar 02, 2019

Show notes

Exodus 3:1 puts Moses in Midian, a land that, as we saw in Part 1, is closely tied to occupants known as Kenites. The Kenites, in fact, overlap in biblical thought with the Midianites (Judg 1:16; 4:11). Midian is also connected with the idea that Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to his land “from the South,” where “South” is defined as Edom, Teman, Paran, and Midian (Hab 3:3-7; Deut 33:1-2; Judg 5:4-5). It is for this reason (and some archaeological data) that many scholars and archaeologists believe that the Kenites / Midianites transmitted the knowledge of Yahweh to Moses (and, hence, Israel). This episode explores the coherence of this idea.

Naked Bible 260: Exodus 3 Part 1 Feb 24, 2019

Show notes

This episode focuses on Exod 3:1 (“Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God”) and how the place names (Horeb, Midian, “mountain of God”) might possibly dovetail with traditions about Yahweh “coming from the South” (from Teman, Paran, Edom, Seir) in other passages (Deut 33:2; Hab 3:3-7; Judg 5:4-5). Biblical critics have used the apparently contradictory nature of these passages to argue for biblical inconsistency with sources and that Yahweh worship did not originate with the Israelites. Others who have rejected the traditional location of Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa in the “V” of the Sinai Peninsula) in favor of Jebel al-Lawz in Midian have ignored or missed these passages.

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