Welcome to The History in the Bible Podcast

G'day! I'm Garry Stevens. Welcome to my podcast, the History in the Bible. In my three seasons I presented a layman's guide to a century and more of research into the Biblical texts and the archaeological evidence behind them. I explored the religion of ancient Israel, the development of Christianity, and the co-evolution of Judaism and Christianity.

• Download all the episodes from all the seasons.
• Explore my comprehensive show notes with tables, timelines charts, and maps.
• My living bibliography lists my sources, and all sorts of other bits and pieces.
• Buy the History in the Bible Companion books.
• Search the site.

News

The History in the Bible Podcast Companion books

The History in the Bible Podcast Companion is a set of books to accompany the show, published by Chippendale Books, and available only from Amazon. There are four volumes, one for each of the three seasons of the show, and one containing all the maps, timelines, and charts on this website. You can find out more on this page.

Spanish language translation now available

Thanks to the kind offices of Mr José Rivera, you can now download a Spanish language pdf of seasons one and two. He did the work for free and without telling me! Thanks, José.

The Revolutions in Biblical Studies

We have learnt a lot in the past century. The revolution comes in two parts:

The Tanakh

Until the 1970s, archaeologists of Israel and Palestine saw their job as demonstrating the historical validity of the Bible. A new band of archaeologists and scholars has overturned that notion. The Bible is no longer seen as a document whose words must be proven, but as a starting point in providing a new and reliable history of the Jews, and the development of Judaism.

Their conclusions are radical: that the Israelites are Canaanites who forged a new identity, that there was no Exodus, that King David was not much more than a bandit, that the empire of Solomon never existed, and that the God of Israel may have had a wife, Asherah. All this, the new wave say, was whitewashed by the authors, editors, and redactors of the Old Testament (Tanakh), who only put pen to papyrus centuries after the events they wrote about.

As you can imagine, the work of the new wave of scholars has been immensely controversial. Let me make one thing clear: the new wave are not complete crazies. They hold eminent positions in prestigious universities. Many are Jewish. But, as Philip Davies explains, their work is fraught with political implications:

Debate about ancient Israel is also debate about modern Israel, and in the eyes of many people, the legitimacy of the latter depends on the credibility of the biblical portrait. Still, what is worrying to many Israelis and Jews about the “ancient Israel” debate is that biblical studies, having for so long been a natural advocate of the land always being “the land of Israel”, is now (and I think rightly) bringing the notion under critical scrutiny that Israel was the natural or rightful owner of this piece of land.

What is important is not to politicize biblical studies but to de-politicize it, to distance it from any political stance…. Israel is part of the history, as well as the present, of Palestine. I think the Bible should not interfere in this way with modern politics. … But this does not entail being anti-Jewish…. The State of Israel was the result of things more tangible and imperative than divine promises and ancient occupations.

The New Testament

A quite separate and distinct re-evaluation of the New Testament has been bubbling along since the late 1700's. The archaeologists have little do with this. This battle has been conducted on a literary level, between people sitting in comfy chairs; not trench-workers in the desert heat digging in the dusty earth for weeks at a time. I will explore the exotically named Third Quest for the Historical Jesus, and the New Perspectives on Paul approach.

The Third Quest kicked off 50 years ago. Before the Third Quest, the Jewishness of Jesus was a real matter of dispute. Throughout the entire history of the Christian church, Jesus' Jewish identity was downplayed, if not denied. Today, few scholars see Jesus’ Jewishness as contentious. Jesus was a Jew, and any evaluation of his words and deeds must keep that in mind. The Third Quest scholars were the first to mine books outside the canon. Previous generations had poo-poohed any source outside the NT. Contemporary scholars embrace every papyrus find.

About the Podcast

In the History in the Bible Podcast I took you inside these revolutions in Biblical studies in a series of podcasts. Each episode is a 20 or 30 minute chunk just right for your morning or afternoon commute. Download any episode from any season.

Season 1: From Genesis to Babylon

The first season consists of 57 episodes. I covered the history and archaeology of the Old Testament (Tanakh); from the Patriarchs and the origins of the Hebrews; then the Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan; through David and Solomon, to the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their prophets.

I showed how scholars think that the various threads of the books we now know as the Bible came together, and what the latest archaeological discoveries and controversies can tell us about this long history.

The first season ends at the beginning of the Exile.

Season 2: Age of the Second Temple

The second season consists of 61 episodes. I discussed the Babylonian exile, the return, and the subsequent history of the Jews from the Persian period through the Hasmonean kingdom, to conclude with Judea as a Roman province. I also covered the vast literature that was produced after the Babylonian Exile, sometimes called the pseudepigraphical works. None of these works made it into either the Old or New Testaments but they influenced both of the daughter religions of the ancient Israelite faith: rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity.

I then launched into the history chronicled in all the versions of the New Testament. I stuck my teeth into the gospels, the letters, and Acts; showing what modern scholarship has to say about their complex history and interrelationships. I made of a point of looking into the books that only the Ethiopian Orthodox church includes as canonical.

The second season ends with the New Testament as we have it. But I am not finished yet!

Season 3: The Heirs of Abraham

The third and final season is an extended denouement to the show. The first episode was published in March 2021, and the last in January 2024. It contains 34 episodes.

I explored the co-evolution of Judaism and Christianity in the 150 years after the death of Jesus, and the destruction of the Temple.

I also covered the many books that almost made it into the New Testament. I presented the latest scholarly explorations and re-interpretations of the origins of the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 AD/CE, and how Christianity was not just a new religion in the Roman empire, but a novel social phenomenon.

Can I use audio from the podcast or material from the show notes?

Sure!

The History in the Bible audio podcast and website by Garry Stevens is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. You can read the full details there.

In brief, you can copy and redistribute my audio in any medium. You can even transform and build upon it. And all for free! How good is that? Ok, there are conditions.

You must give me (Garry Stevens) and my podcast (History in the Bible) credit, not use my work for commercial purposes, and not apply legal terms or other measures that restrict others from doing anything my license permits. So you cannot use an audio clip from my show in any work that you sell; or any material from my show notes in a medium that you make money from. The copyright laws in your country may change all that.

Can I use material from the books?

Unlike the audio podcast, and the show notes on this website, the History in the Bible Companion books are copyright 2024 by me, Garry Stevens. You can only use text and graphics from the books in line with your country's copyright laws.

Contact

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