Bonus 43: Top Moments in the Old Testament/Tanakh I

06/26/22 • 39 min

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In this bonus episode, Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I take a look at some of our favourite moments in the Old Testament or Tanakh. First, Steve wonders what the deal is with Melchizedek. Then Garry shows how a single verse about the patriarch Enoch spawned a whole literature. Back to Steve, who finds some surprising verses in Psalm 137. We conclude with the old she’s not my wife she’s my sister scam, which Abraham and Isaac pull three times

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Bonus 42: The Twelve Minor Prophets VII: Malachi and Joel

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Malachi writes in Persian times. The rebuilt Temple has not ushered in an ideal age, the governors of Yehuda are not Davidic, and the priests and people have lost their watchfulness about God’s coming. Malachi attacks this malaise. The priests are corrupt. The people are unfaithful. All must repent.

Joel writes of locusts and famine. An ecological catastrophe is divine retribution for apostasy. He exhorts the people of Judah to repent, fast, and pray to avert these calamities.

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3.18 Christians Under the Roman Gaze

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In the second century, there were three groups of Jewish-leaning Jesus clubs: the Johhanines, the Nazoreans, and the Ebionities. These had either vanished or been absorbed into gentile Christanity by the year 200. While that was happening, the Christian movement came to the attention of the imperial authorities. Writing in 110, governor Pliny only knew they seemed to be vaguely seditious, and had depraved practices, such as meeting before dawn. Forty years later, Christians had gained an appalling reputation. They refused to participate in any of the state rituals that bonded the emperor, the people, and the state to the gods. They were unpatriotic. Even worse, they were wicked sexual deviants with barbaric rituals. The Romans viewed them as witches. I finish the episode by introducing the earliest Christian apologies, books written to defend the faith from the calumnies made against it.