Hanukkah celebrates a miraculous event, when the eternal light of the temple burned for 8 days without being extinguished. In this special holiday episode, scholar Gregg Gardner tells Helen and Dave all about ancient oil lamps, including the magnificent and mysterious 7-branched menorah of the Second Temple.

Most biblical scholars — including us! — are quick to dismiss the Nativity stories in Matthew and Luke as later theological additions. But what if there are important cultural and even historical memories handed down through these well-worn Christmas stories? According to our guest Joan Taylor, there may be much more to the Nativity stories than we ever thought.

Every good churchgoer knows that after we die the faithful will be welcomed into a heavenly paradise and the baddies will be consigned to eternal damnation. But don't go looking for any of that stuff in the Bible! As our guest James Tabor explains, ancient people had very different conceptions of the afterlife, including the authors of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.

Mary Magdalene is one of the most intriguing figures in the New Testament. She clearly held a special place in Jesus's heart and in his ministry, but that popularity also made her controversial. In today's episode, scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer presents compelling evidence that someone in the early Church tried to erase (and replace) Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of John.

Scholars have been searching for the Historical Jesus for centuries, but have they been looking in the wrong places? Chris Keith and James Crossley think it's high time to reimagine and reinvigorate the "quest" for the Historical Jesus, opening up the field to entirely new and exciting lines of inquiry.

You're in for a treat. Israeli archeologist Oded Lipschits knows more than anyone about the archeology of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. In this episode, Dave and Helen travel back to the 8th century BCE and learn how the biblical authors interpreted (and reinterpreted) historical events to fit their changing theological and political realities.

Marriage is between one man and one woman. Adultery is bad. (Prostitution is worse.) And divorce should be avoided at all costs. The Bible is perfectly clear on these and other moral topics, right? Ha! As our guest Jennifer Knust explains, the Bible is a product of the ancient world, where laws about sex, marriage, adultery and divorce had more to do with property than morality.

Just in time for Halloween, we're talking magic, incantation bowls and a pinch of necromancy with Gideon Bohak, author of Ancient Jewish Magic: A History.

Across the Ancient Near East, it was common to offer food and sacrifices to appease dead ancestors and "hangry" ghosts, but the Hebrew Bible is largely silent on interactions between the living and the dead. Our guest Kerry Sonia pieces together archeological evidence with clues from the Bible to paint a picture of what she calls the "cult of dead kin" in Ancient Israel.

From the "Last Temptation" to "Life of Brian," so many filmmakers have tried their hand at portraying the greatest story ever told, with mixed results. Matthew Page — author of 100 Bible Films and the creator of the Bible Films Blog — joins Helen and Dave to discuss the best and worst Jesus movies. 

From the "Last Temptation" to "Life of Brian," so many filmmakers have tried their hand at portraying the greatest story ever told, with mixed results. Matthew Page — author of 100 Bible Films and the creator of the Bible Films Blog — joins Helen and Dave to discuss the best and worst Jesus movies. 

The 3 endings of the Gospel of Mark present a real "choose your own adventure." Scholars think that the original text ended at Mark 16:8 with Mary Magdalene and the other women running in terror from the empty tomb on Easter morning. So why do most Bibles continue for 12 more verses? Helen explains why ancient scribes felt the need to tidy up the messy original ending of Mark's gospel.

It's time to re-think the Documentary Hypothesis — the prevailing theory about the authorship of the Torah. Guest Angela Erisman has a fresh take on the literary history of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, showing how these creative texts reflect ancient political realities.

Written in the 2nd Century CE, the non-canonical "Gospel of Mary" gives us a taste of the wild diversity of Early Christianity. Religious historian Sarah Parkhouse joins Helen and Dave in the Time Machine to explain the significance of this mysterious Gnostic tribute to Mary Magdalene. 

People have lived in Jerusalem for 5,000 years. Archeologist Jodi Magness hops in the Time Machine to give Helen and Dave a tour of Jerusalem's long and fascinating history.

The destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 CE was a cataclysmic event for the people of Judaea and the Galilee. Our guest Nathanael Vette argues that all four New Testament gospels were written after 70 when Jewish communities were grappling with the loss of the Temple and an uncertain future under harsh Roman rule. Nathanael has found remarkable evidence in Mark that times the first gospel's authorship during the Jewish-Roman Wars.

Bottoms up! In today's mildly alcoholic episode, we talk with guest Elaine Goodfriend about the role of wine in Ancient Israel, and why the Israelites weren't big beer drinkers like their Egyptian and Mesopotamian neighbors. 

The authors of the New Testament were playing with genres, philosophies and themes that were well-known in Greco-Roman literature. Guest Robyn Faith Walsh teaches us how to read the Bible for what it was in the 1st and 2nd centuries — part and parcel of a wider literary world.

When did this ancient practice begin? Was it unique to the ancient Israelites? And what did Paul really think about circumcision? Helen and Dave cover it all with guest Ryan Collman, author of The Apostle to the Foreskin: Circumcision in the Letters of Paul. 

The gospels claim that John the Baptist was just preparing the way for Jesus, but what if his role was much bigger? In this episode, Helen and Dave are joined by James McGrath, who argues that Jesus started out as John's disciple and only rose to prominence after John's arrest and execution.