Announcing the publication of the final volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion series of books. The book contains the entire scripts of the show’s third and final season. It follows the history of the two heirs of Abraham, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, to the year 200. By that year, the rabbis had formed their foundational document, the Mishnah;, and Christianity had created the imperial church incorporate. The volume also discusses Gnosticism at length, the many books that almost made into the New Testament, and the early years of the rabbinic movement. All the information you need is at https://www.historyinthebible.com/books.html

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss some of our favourite crazy theories.

In this Afterlife episode, Steve Guerra of History of the Papacy (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-of-the-papacy-podcast--4899207) and I discuss history podcasting.

I introduce the New Testament to Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com).

Here are the Amazon US links for the books mentioned in this episode:

Vol 1 Genesis to Babylon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950734 Vol 2 Age of the Second Temple https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 Vol 4 Essential Resources https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950726

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history), Gil Kidron of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions (https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com), and I discuss why we love ancient history.

I have published another volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books. It contains the complete scripts of the second season of my podcast. This is the Age of the Second Temple. It covers the books in the Old Testament written after the return from Babylon.  The volume explores the history of Judea from Persian to Roman times. It investigates in depth the rich apocalyptic literature of the time. Then the book examines all the books of the New Testament to see what we can reliably know of the history of Jesus and the disciples, and the great apostle Paul.

You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.de/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.fr/dp/0645950769 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0645950769

Announcing the publication of a new volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Genesis to Babylon”. This contains the complete scripts of the first season of the show. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950734 https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734 ttps://www.amazon.com.au/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Genesis/dp/0645950734

In this Afterlife episode, Bernie Maopolski of Fan of History (https://shows.acast.com/history) and I discuss history podcasting.

Announcing the publication of the first volume in the History in the Bible Podcast Companion set of books, “Essential Resources”. You can get it from these Amazon marketplaces:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.ca/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Garry-Stevens-PhD/dp/0645950726/ https://www.amazon.fr/History-Bible-Podcast-Companion-Essential/dp/0645950726/

The last episode in the show. I give a big thank you to all my listeners, and a brief biographical sketch. Then I finish the series with three more speculations. First, what if Marcionism had become the orthodoxy of the imperial church incorporate? Second, could Manichaeism have swallowed up the church? And finally, could the church have survived and prospered had it not become the state religion of the Roman empire?

Four more speculations.  I argue that an important element of Christianity’s success was that it quickly transformed itself into what I call the imperial church incorporate. Would Christianity have succeeded had it not done so?  Second, could Mithraism have triumphed over the church?  Third, could the Gnostic variants of Christianity come to dominate?  Finally, the Jewish arm of the church vanished after the Bar Kosiva revolt of 132. What might have happened had that group survived and thrived?