Today we’re chatting with Steve about one of his favorite topics, Biblical Studies! In this episode, we learn about the Bible from a former Christadelphian brother who left behind Christadelphian dogma for an open-minded scholarly approach to the Bible. In this episode, Dr. Steve reframes and explores many topics that we thought we knew about to see how context, translation, and history play a part in truly understanding the Bible. We learn that the Dead Sea Scrolls do *not* prove that the Bible hasn’t changed (like some of us were told), that the Bible underwent editing, redaction, and other changes throughout history (rather than being the perfect, unchangeable word of God), and that numerous passages in the Bible actually quote texts that are not found in the KJV Bible we read at all (and we never noticed?!) Steve’s expertise also brings about interesting discussion about the evolution of the doctrine of resurrection, the idea of atonement, whether God forbids homosexuality in Leviticus, and whether “Paul” actually wrote that women should be silent in the ecclesia. We also had fun exploring “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” in the Bible, reading “Solomon’s top ten pick-up lines”, and listening to Steve’s memory of a satirical prayer given at a Christadelphian ecclesia. Be warned, you’ll need to leave your Strongs Concordance at home for this episode, otherwise you’ll fail this class!   

Listener discretion advised. 

If you’re interested in coming on the podcast or have comments or questions, you can contact Zinnia at lifeafterleavingpodcast@gmail.com

Resources and References:

Reading the Bible Again For the First Time by Marcus Borg

Grimms’ Fairy Tales

The Documentary Hypothesis

Who wrote the Bible? By Richard Elliot Friedman

Redaction Criticism 

National Treasure

Pseudopigrapha

Catholic Bible

Orthodox Bible

Coptic Bible

Ethiopic Bible

Testament of Moses

Testament of the 12 patriarchs

The Wisdom of Solomon

Solomon's Top Ten Pick-Up Lines

3 books of Isaiah

Wisdom of Sirach/ Ben Sira

The Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith

Hapax legomenon (a word that occurs in only one place)

Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres

Testament of Job 

Strong’s concordance

The Book of Judith

Judith beheading Holofernes (Caravaggio)

Judith Slaying Holofernes (Artemisia Gentileschi)

The Talmud

Cult Bride: How I was Brainwashed- and How I Broke Free by Liz Cameron

Book of Enoch

Instagram video on pseudepigrapha 

The Ancient Greeks and Quotation Marks

The Bible: Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 , James 5:11 , Ezekiel 18:20 ,  2 Tim 3:16 , Song of Solomon 1:9, Isaiah 26:19 , Daniel 12:2, 1 Timothy 2:11-12, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16