Were the authors of the Bible just writing firsthand accounts of events that actually happened? That's a pretty tough case to make. As a matter of fact, we have very good reason to believe that many of the stories of the bible have shared roots with many other stories/myths of ancient southwest Asia and northern Africa.

This week, we'll look at many of those stories, and discuss their parallels and origins from around the region. We'll discuss what evidence scholars use to come to these conclusions, and have some fun trying to figure out who came up with what first.

Then in our second segment, we'll look at Haggai. It's a book of only two chapters, and those chapters frankly don't seem like much on first blush. Is there more to Haggai than meets the eye?

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Welp it's June, and that means LGBTQIA+ Pride month! At least that's what it means for many. For a minority of people, June is national grumpy homophobe month.

One thing about the grumpy set is that they really love to use the Bible to shore up their dogmatic belief that gay folks (and trans and bi and all the other acronym-represented people) are going against God. So let's talk about it.

Our first segment is about pride itself. The word, that is. Is the rainbow community committing the worst of the 7 deadly sins every June? Pastor Mark Driscoll sure seems to think so.

Then we'll dive into some of the passages of the Bible folks use to justify their anti-LGBTQIA+ stance. Do those passages mean what those people say they mean? And even if they do, are modern believers required to follow them?

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For episode 116, we're venturing into the spooky world of divination! Many a Christian pastor has railed against this practice, but what if the medium used for divining isn't a rod or a stick, but THE BIBLE ITSELF!? Does that take the curse off it? Make it worse? Will it work to provide other-worldly guidance in your life? Is it forbidden? We... well, we might answer some of these questions...

But first, we take issue with one Mr Charlie Kirk. Ol' Chuck was pretty pleased with himself when he steamrolled over a college kid's question about whether Christians should be making a grab for the levers of political power. Brother Kirk's defense of Christian Nationalism was Biblical, in that it used scripture from the Bible as support, but was it correct? We'll see!

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This week we're getting all apocryphal, and diving headlong into Maccabees. Specifically, we're discussing the story of a mother and her sons in 2 Maccabees, chapter 7. This is the inspiring (?) tale of a family defying tyranny by refusing to eat, and all being brutally murdered for their trouble. And while the story itself is quite harrowing (and graphic!), it's small moments along the way that are actually worthy of some fascinating discussion.

Then we go to the gospel of John, where there might be something fishy going on. We have talked about other parts of the Bible where references to feet have actually been euphemisms for genitals. So what are we to make of the moment in John where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples?

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Well kids, this one's a doozy! This week we're talking about a controversial Biblical practice that is still done by many today (and the truth is that it should probably be more controversial than it is). That's right, this week we're talking circumcision!

It's such a strange practice, if you think about it, cutting off a piece of your child's flesh. And it leaves us with a load of questions: Where did it come from? Why did God command it? Who was supposed to do it?

But before that, we're diving into one of the Bible's most confusing stories. Jephthah was a powerful commander who, with the Lord's help, was able to defeat his enemies and become one of the judges of Israel. But to get it all done, he made a deal with God that ended tragically.

How did this happen? Why didn't God stop it? Is this a story of a haughty man making a foolish promise, or is there more to it?

----

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Remember when you were a kid, and your parents told you not to used certain words, but then sometimes THEY would use those words, and you didn't think that was ok because it seemed like a double-standard, but there was nothing you could do because they were big and you were small so you secretly said those words with your friends as a rebellion, but then your next-door neighbor overheard you and said something weird over your fence and you and your buddy got super wide-eyed and really didn't know what to make of it? No? Just me?

Anyway, that's kind of how it feels to find out that the Bible has profanity in it. How much profanity? Enough to make a pretty fun segment about it on our show.

But before that, we're talking about the Didache. If you haven't heard of it you're not alone, but it is a fascinating document. Is it an authentic account of the words of the twelve apostles? If not, what is it? Should it have been included as a book in the New Testament?

----

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Have you ever been confused about why Easter happens when it happens? End of March? Mid April? July? And as if it's not already complicated enough, the eastern church celebrates on a different day than the western church. Except the days that they don't... Thank goodness for our phone calendars, because without them, none of us would have any idea when to break out the Peeps and Cadbury eggs!

Well, in our first segment this week, we're going to discuss the dating of Easter. Why it happens when it happens, how to calculate it, and whether pastels will be back in fashion next Spring.

Then, we're looking at Exodus and a very peculiar series of moments. God sends Moses in to confront pharaoh, but then God... hardens pharaoh's heart against him? That can't be right, can it? Well, we'll parse it out for you and let you know!

----

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Love and marriage: it's an institute you can't disparage, as the poet once said. There's a lot of talk these days about marriage. What it is, what it should be, and whether this or that kind of marriage counts as "biblical". So what is a biblical marriage, and perhaps more interestingly, is such a marriage something you would actually want?

But marriage is only one side of the coin. What happens when the relationship doesn't work out to plan? Does the Bible have anything to say about divorce, and if so... is it authoritative?

----

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The way many people talk about immigration in the United States, you'd assume that it was an apocalyptic event. And actually, many of the most extreme voices in our society are literally saying as much. But this is not the first time American immigration has been linked to Biblical apocalypse.

This week, we're bringing in Dr. Yii-Jan Lin, whose new book Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration chronicles the many twists and turns of the eschatological mindset from Columbus straight through to the present.

Did the first immigrants (the Europeans) think of their own journey as hastening the end times? How did that story change as time passed and they started to think of themselves as the "natives" of the land? What happened when other, non-European, non-Christians started landing on American shores?

Find Dr Lin's book here:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300253184/immigration-and-apocalypse/

----

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It's a sin so egregious that Christians weren't allowed to do it, BY LAW, for centuries! But now? Totally fine. Everybody participates. No big deal at all!

The next time you meet a Bible literalist who is certain that you have to follow the laws of the Bible to the letter, but who is also pretty excited about capitalism, ask them about usury, and watch them fall all over themselves to pretend like it's fine. Because MAN, the Bible is just adamant that people shouldn't do that. Like, death penalty adamant.

But what, technically, is usury? Is it just charging too much interest for a loan, or is it charging any interest at all? Who does the Bible allow to engage in usury, and under what circumstances? We're going to find out!

Then we're moving on to one of the most misunderstood, and possibly confusing of Jesus' parables: the parable of the talents. Is it about maximizing your God-given gifts? Is it about money? Who is God in the metaphor? What's really going on?

----

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Anybody want to take a long walk in the desert? Well, this week we've brought in Angela Roskop Erisman to guide us through the wilderness! In her new book, The Wilderness Narratives: Religion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation, Dr Erisman discusses the exodus as you may not have heard it discussed before.

Far from being the actual writings of a literal Moses, Dr Erisman uses genre analysis to propose a far more allegorical explanation for the story. Could it be that the beloved tale of Israel escaping their Egyptian captors was actually written or compiled as a means of serving far more political ends?

Find Dr Erisman's book here:

https://angelaroskoperisman.com/the-wilderness-narratives-in-the-hebrew-bible-religion-politics-and-biblical-interpretation/

----

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