Postbiblical

In this episode Jonathon interviews guest Rev. Michael Carpenter about his new book "We Believe: How The Nicene Creed Can Deepen Your Faith." It's a fantastic episode, unfortunately Michael DOES dispel Jonathon's favorite myth about Santa Claus...For more info on "We Believe", check out Michael's webpage www.revmichaelcarpenter.com

In this episode Jonathon takes a break from the narrative to explore the history of Christmas. Well, some of it. It's a pretty long history. No potluck guests this week. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/postbiblical/support

In this week's episode we meet some really friendly characters like Nero and Domitian, Christians start to be called Christians, and something bad happens to Jerusalem...again. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/postbiblical/support

In this episode, Jonathon is joined by Diandra Nelson to talk about the apostle Paul, who seemed to go by many names and who may have been kind of ugly. Also, he wrote a third of the New Testament and has had a huge role in shaping our understanding of the Christian faith, so he's kind of a big deal... --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/postbiblical/support

So, we got ALL of the back story out of the way, now we can start to get to the meat of the podcast: telling the story of the church. But exactly where do we start? The logical place seems to be Jerusalem, since this is where the church as a post-Jesus organization seemed to have gotten its start. There’s just one problem: in many ways, the Jesus movement of 1st century Jerusalem has gone missing. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support

So, using historical-critical methodology, what can we feel confident saying about the Jesus of history? There are a few things. Friend of the show Jimmy Doyle pointed me towards the works of Luke Timothy Johnson and EP Sanders, who, independently of each other, tried to deal with the question of what we can reliably know about Jesus. A compounded version of their findings would look something like this: 1. Jesus was from Galilee. 2. He was Jewish 3. He was associated with John the Baptist. 4. He gathered a number of followers, likely with a core of 12. 5. He taught about the Kingdom of God. 6. His life was associated with miraculous healing. 7. He had conflict with Jewish political/religious leaders, likely associated with critique of the temple. 8. He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate near Passover. 9. His followers claimed that he was resurrected. I think these are all valid data points that we can build the episode on. So, let’s dive in. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support

It’s important to remember that Judaism wasn’t a static religion in the first century. In fact, there wasn’t a single Judaism, there were multiple Judaisms. But they all seem to have had a few things in common: number one, they were all fiercely monotheistic, meaning they only believed in and exclusively worshipped one God. This set them apart from the rest of the Roman empire, which was both pagan and extremely pluralistic. Potluck guest: Agnostic Hebrew Bible scholar Moses Dupre. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support

Aristobulus must have felt confident, having deposed his brother and secured the throne. But just outside the borders of his newly won kingdom events were taking place that spelled doom- not just for his reign, but for the independence of the Jewish Kingdom altogether. To the north, Judah’s old enemies the Seleucid Greeks were conquered by a relatively new empire with global ambitions: Rome. Judah was next.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support

Alexander, whether he visited Jerusalem or not, would have a huge impact not only on the geopolitics of the ancient world, but also on its religions. This included Judaism, a faith that did not yet have global renown, and Christianity, a faith that didn’t yet exist. Meanwhile, the Jewish faith has been evolving in a land that is not there own.  Part 2 of our Potluck conversation with Jimmy Doyle.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support

The name of the podcast is “Postbiblical”, and 99% of our time will be spent talking about what happened after the events of the Bible were recorded. But in order to get off on the right foot we actually need to get “pre-biblical:”- that is, we need understand the world in which Jesus, and by extension the church, was born into. Potluck Guest: Jimmy Doyle --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/postbiblical/support