The Bible Lore Podcast
The Bible Lore podcast takes listeners deep into the hidden mythology and lore of the Bible, with a journey through the chronological history of what is today known as the Middle East.
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Episode 14: Listomania and the Son of None
04/25/2025
Episode 14: Listomania and the Son of None
Today we say farewell to one last Omride queen while watching the brief fall of Assyria and the brief rise of Aram-Damascus. Along the way I talk about another two identically-named kings who might be the same guy, as well as a lot of lists! Tap in, gang, it's Bible Lore Day once again! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast Bibliography: Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’; Shuichi Hasegawa - ‘Aram and Israel During the Jehuite Dynasty’; Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’; David Carr - ‘The Formation of Genesis 1-11’; Berlin, Brettler, Fishbane, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’; Liane Feldman - ‘The Consuming Fire’; Cogan & Tadmor - ‘II Kings: A New Translation with Commentary’; James Charlesworth - ‘The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha’; Some bible quotations taken from the NRSVue with adaptations
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Episode 13: One Man's Revolution...
04/14/2025
Episode 13: One Man's Revolution...
This week, we're going Rashomon mode as I examine the end of the Omrides and the rise of Jehu from several different angles, bringing in contemporary inscriptions and conflicting biblical narratives on the same events - one author considers Jehu's rise as direct divine providence, while another calls it a blood-soaked coup and the first domino that would lead to the Israelite kingdom's eventual collapse. Come along for a wild ride as I try to figure out just what happened at Jezreel in 841 BCE. Bibliography: Van Der Toorn, Becking, et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’; Berlin, Brettler, Fishbane, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’; Coogan, Smith, et al - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’; Shuichi Hasegawa - ‘Aram and Israel During the Jehuite Dynasty’ Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary’; David J. A. Clines - ;
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Episode 12: Bury Your Queens, Pt. 2 (Feat. Dr. Jonathan Stökl) (REUPLOAD)
04/05/2025
Episode 12: Bury Your Queens, Pt. 2 (Feat. Dr. Jonathan Stökl) (REUPLOAD)
Apologies for the reupload, ran into a Spotify issue. This time, I bring Jezebel's story to a close and inch us closer to the end of the Omride Dynasty, with special guest scholar Dr. Jonathan Stökl giving context to just what prophecy was in Biblical times. Check out Dr. Stökl's work here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/jonathan-stokl#tab-1 Support the show by becoming a Patreon member: https://patreon.com/biblelorepodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haydentank/ Bibliography: Jennifer Knust - ‘Unprotected Texts’; John Day - ‘Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan’; Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Near East’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’; Jonathan Stökl - ‘Prophecy in the Ancient Near East’; Mordechai Cogan - ‘I Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary’; Cogan & Tadmor - ‘II Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary’; Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Christian Frevel - ‘Recent Issues in History: Can We Speak of a United Monarchy or an Independent Judah?’ (Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings) Coogan & Smith - ‘Stories from Ancient Canaan’; Berlin, Brettler, Fishbane, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’; Marsha C. White - ‘The Elijah Legends and Jehu's Coup’; Christian E. Hauer - AJS Review of Marsha C. White. ‘The Elijah Legends and Jehu's Coup’; Theodore Lewis - ‘The Origin and Character of God’; The Inquisitive Bible Reader - ‘Did Jezebel Murder Naboth? A 3,000-Year-Old Murder Mystery’:
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Episode 11: The Gods of Israel
03/24/2025
Episode 11: The Gods of Israel
Before we get to the end of Ahab and Jezebel, let's finally introduce Yahweh, the god of Israel, and compare him to Ba'al and El, his predecessors. RIP Ka - check out his album Descendants of Cain. Bibliography: Coogan, Smith, et al - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’; Theodore J. Lewis - ‘The Origin and Character of God’; John Barton - ‘A History of the Bible’; Daniel McClellan - ‘YHWH's Divine Images’; Annette Yoshiko Reed - ‘Demons, Angels, and Writing in Ancient Judaism’; Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’; Andrew George - ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’; John Day - ‘Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan’; Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary’; Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’; Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’; Christian Frevel - ‘’; Van Der Toorn, Becking, et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’; Berlin, Brettler, Fishbane, et al - ‘The Jewish Study Bible’; Nissim Amzallag - ‘’; Chrissy Hansen - ‘’
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Episode 10: Bury Your Queens, Pt. 1
03/14/2025
Episode 10: Bury Your Queens, Pt. 1
We made it to ten, gang! And we've mostly made it out of the Bronze Age Collapse. In this, my first completely solo episode, the Bible gets its earliest confirmed real characters who existed outside of legend, but it's not all sunshine and roses as we immediately confront three women who get a pretty unfair rap in the book of Kings: Ma'acah, Asherah, and Jezebel. Check out my Instagram account for this week's accompanying post, which includes archaeological images and a map of West Asia in the early Iron Age. Support the show, subscribe on Patreon: Bibliography: Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’; Finkelstein & Silberman - ‘The Bible Unearthed’; Israel Finkelstein - ‘The Forgotten Kingdom’; Theodore J. Lewis - ‘The Origin and Character of God’; Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’; Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary’; Emanuel Pfoh - ‘The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine’; Benjamin Sommer - ‘The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel’ Andrew Tobolowsky - ‘The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles’; William Dever - ‘Did God Have A Wife?’; Susan Ackerman - ‘Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen’; Susan Ackerman - ‘Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them’; Coogan & Smith - ‘Stories from Ancient Canaan’; Rashid Khalidi - ‘The 100 Years’ War on Palestine’; Raanan Eichler - ; John Day - ‘’; Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and the NJPS with adaptations
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Bonus: Take Me to the River (feat. Moudhy Al-Rashid)
03/03/2025
Bonus: Take Me to the River (feat. Moudhy Al-Rashid)
In this bonus episode, Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid takes us on a deep dive into the material culture and cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia, as detailed in her wonderful book 'Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History'. Pre-order Moudhy's book (available now globally, releases in August in the US): Follow her on BlueSky:
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Episode 9: The Bull, the Goat, and the Donkey (feat. Seth Sanders)
02/21/2025
Episode 9: The Bull, the Goat, and the Donkey (feat. Seth Sanders)
This time we pick back up on the history of the emergence of Israel and the Hebrew language before diving deep into the complicated lore that connects Jeroboam I, Jeroboam II, Moses, Aaron, and Jacob/Israel. Along the way we look at early Hebrew and West Semitic alphabetic inscriptions with the brilliant Seth Sanders here to guide us. Check out Seth's blog here: Bibliography: Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’; Shinan & Zakovitch - ‘From Gods to God’; Finkelstein & Silberman - ‘The Bible Unearthed’; Theodore J. Lewis - ‘The Origin and Character of God’; Van der Toorn et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’; Esther Hamori - ‘God’s Monsters’; David Wright - ‘Inventing God’s Law’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary’; Youn Ho Chung - ‘The Sin of the Calf’; Coogan & Metzger - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’; John E. Anderson - ‘Jacob and the Divine Trickster’; Seth L. Sanders - ‘The Invention of Hebrew’; Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and the JPS Jewish Study Bible with adaptations
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Episode 8: The Bible, Slavery, & You (feat. Josh Bowen)
02/07/2025
Episode 8: The Bible, Slavery, & You (feat. Josh Bowen)
This week, we're talking about the historical Solomon, the city of Jerusalem, and the practice of slavery as described in the Bible and practiced in Ancient West Asia. Special guest Dr. Josh Bowen stops by to talk about all things slavery, debt servitude, and corvee labor. Digital Hammurabi website: Digital Hammurabi Instagram: Digital Hammurabi Facebook: Bibliography: Joshua Bowen - ‘Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery?’; Drescher & Engerman - ‘A Historical Guide to World Slavery’; Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Joel Baden - ‘The Historical David’; Finkelstein & Silbermann - ‘The Bible Unearthed’; Coogan & Smith - ‘Stories From Ancient Canaan’; Metzger & Coogan - ‘The Oxford Companion to the Bible’; Van der Toorn et al - ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible’; ‘The SBL Study Bible’
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Episode 7: Hell of a King (feat. Chris Wade)
01/31/2025
Episode 7: Hell of a King (feat. Chris Wade)
This time I bring Chapo Trap House's Chris Wade along as we dive into the story of David's ascension to king in both history and legend. Check out Chris and Molly's other podcasts here: Bibliography: Christian Frevel - ‘History of Ancient Israel’; Mario Liverani - ‘Israel’s History and the History of Israel’; Joel Baden - ‘The Historical David’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’; Emanuel Pfoh - ‘The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine’; Andrew Tobolowsky - ‘The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles’; Andrew Tobolowsky - ‘The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel’; Kyle McCarter - ‘I Samuel’; Kyle McCarter - ‘II Samuel’; Susan Ackerman - ‘When Heroes Love’; Jennifer Knust - ‘Unprotected Texts’; Sara Diamond - ’Spiritual Warfare’; Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and the NJPS with adaptations;
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Episode 6: Conquest (feat. Kipp Davis)
01/17/2025
Episode 6: Conquest (feat. Kipp Davis)
It's history week on the Bible Lore Podcast. This time, Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Kipp Davis talks with me about the real and invented history of the conquest of Israel set in the book of Joshua. This episode serves as a sort of bird's eye view of all the history we're going to see between now and the mid-Second Temple Period, because in order to understand the Bible as a book, we have to understand the perspective of the people who wrote, collected, edited, and venerated these texts. Check out Kipp's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrKippDavis Our full interview will be on the Patreon in a few days for members: https://patreon.com/biblelorepodcast Bibliography: Christian Frevel - 'History of Ancient Israel'; Mario Liverani - 'Israel's History and the History of Israel'; Finkelstein and Silbermann - 'The Bible Unearthed'; John Barton - 'A History of the Bible'
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Episode 5: Gilgamesh & the Deluge
01/10/2025
Episode 5: Gilgamesh & the Deluge
This week's a special episode, where we take a break from history (mostly) and spend our time recounting the Epic of Gilgamesh, the GOAT of ancient literature that gets referenced and quoted in the biblical texts. I've got brief portions of my interview with Professor Susan Ackerman, where we talk about the liminality that allows for potentially homoerotic readings in both Gilgamesh and the story of David and Jonathan in the book of Samuel. For the full interview with Susan Ackerman and to support the show, become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/BibleLorePodcast Bibliography: Andrew George - ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’; Irving Finkel - ‘The Ark Before Noah’; Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’; Susan Ackerman - ‘When Heroes Love’; Kerry Sonia - ‘Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel’; Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’; Shinan & Zakovitch - ‘From Gods to God’; Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and the NJPS with adaptations
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Episode 4: Disintegration feat. Kerry Sonia
12/31/2024
Episode 4: Disintegration feat. Kerry Sonia
This time on the Bible Lore Podcast, we bid our farewell to the Bronze Age. Joining today is Dr. Kerry Sonia, who is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Colby College and author of the wonderful book 'Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel'. Join us as we check out the Baal Cycle, El's Drinking Party, and other Ugaritic texts, and definitively answer your most pressing existential question: what happens when we die (in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age)? Buy Kerry's book here: https://cart.sbl-site.org/books/061731P Support the Bible Lore Podcast by subscribing to the Patreon, which gives you access to my full interview with Dr. Sonia and more bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/biblelorepodcast Bibliography: Kerry M. Sonia - 'Caring for the Dead in Ancient Israel'; Marc van de Mieroop - 'A History of the Ancient Near East'; Hallo and Younger - 'The Context of Scripture'; Daniel Fleming - 'Yahweh Before Israel'; Donald Redford - 'Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times'; Eric Cline - '1177 B.C.'; Van der Toorn et al - 'Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible'; Robert Alter - 'The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary'; Francesca Stavrakopoulou - 'God: An Anatomy'; Andrew Tobolowsky - 'The Sons of Jacob and The Sons of Herakles'; Coogan & Smith - 'Stories from Ancient Canaan'; Theodore Lewis - 'The Origin and Character of God'; John Day - 'Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan'; Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue and the NJPS with adaptations
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Episode 3: Sundown feat. Dan McClellan
12/12/2024
Episode 3: Sundown feat. Dan McClellan
The Bible Lore Podcast Episode 3: Sundown - This time, we finish the story of Akhenaten’s brief religious/political heresy, inducting a new Egyptian dynasty from the ashes of the Aten and setting the stage for the Bronze Age Collapse. Discover the TRUE origins of monotheism and Steve Martin’s SNL King Tut sketch. Thanks again to Dan McClellan - pre-order his book, The Bible Says So here: Check out Dan’s podcast, Data Over Dogma: Written and edited by Hayden Tank Artwork by Amanda Tank - amandatank.com Christopher Hayes - ‘Hidden Riches’ Ronald Ridley - ‘Akhenaten: A Historian's View’ Donald Redford - ‘Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times’ Eric Cline - ‘1177 B.C.’ Theodore J. Lewis - ‘The Origin and Character of God’ Daniel McClellan - ‘YHWH's Divine Images: A Cognitive Approach’ Reza Aslan - ‘God: A Human History’ Robert Alter - ‘The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary’ Marc van de Mieroop - ‘A History of the Ancient Near East’ Francesca Stavrakopoulou - ‘God: An Anatomy’ Emanuel Pfoh - ‘Syria-Palestine in The Late Bronze Age’ Richard Elliott Friedman - ‘The Exodus’ Daniel Fleming - ‘Yahweh Before Israel’ Konrad Schmid - ‘Genesis and the Moses Story’ Hallo and Younger - ‘The Context of Scripture’ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-queen-who-would-be-king-130328511/ Additional Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue with adaptations
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Episode 2: Praise the Sun! feat. Dan McClellan
12/05/2024
Episode 2: Praise the Sun! feat. Dan McClellan
Written and edited by Hayden Tank Artwork by Bibliography: Christopher Hayes - Hidden Riches Ronald Ridley - Akhenaten: A Historian's View Donald Redford - Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times Eric Cline - 1177 B.C. Theodore J. Lewis - The Origin and Character of God Daniel McClellan - Reza Aslan - God: A Human History Robert Alter - The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary Marc van de Mieroop - A History of the Ancient Near East Francesca Stavrakopoulou - God: An Anatomy Emanuel Pfoh - Syria-Palestine in The Late Bronze Age Richard Elliott Friedman - The Exodus Daniel Fleming - Yahweh Before Israel Schmid - Genesis and the Moses Story Hallo and Younger - The Context of Scripture Additional Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue with adaptations
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Patreon Preview: Megan Lewis Interview
11/29/2024
Patreon Preview: Megan Lewis Interview
In our first bonus episode, Patrons will be able to check out the full interview with Assyriologist Megan Lewis that I used for our Hammurabi episode. Check it out! https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-interview-116972200
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Episode 1 - Hammurabi feat. Megan Lewis
11/20/2024
Episode 1 - Hammurabi feat. Megan Lewis
In the beginning... Bibliography: David Carr, The Formation of Genesis 1-11 Marc van de Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East Marc van de Mieroop, King Hammurabi of Babylon Christopher Hayes, Hidden Riches Theodore Lewis, The Origin and Character of God Wilfred Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths David Wright, Inventing God’s Law John Barton, A History of the Bible Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary Van der Toorn et al, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea Hallo and Younger, The Context of Scripture Kyle McCarter, II Samuel Pete Enns, ‘’ Paul Davidson, ‘’ Berlin, Brettler, et al, The JPS Jewish Study Bible Other Bible quotations taken from the NRSVue with adaptations
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