147 episodes
- How bad did Ancient Rome really smell? This week, historian Garrett Ryan of Toldinstone joins Bible & Archaeology to explore everyday life in the Roman Empire! From Roman sewers and sanitation, to free bread, retired gladiators, and the role rats and mosquitoes played in the fall of Rome, we'll explore how seemingly trivial questions reveal surprising connections between Roman history, culture, religion, and daily life. Because in the ancient world, there is no trivia.
📚 Reading Recommendations
Leaky Aqueducts, Battle Pigeons, and Mystery Cults: More Frequently Asked Questions About the Ancient Greeks and Romans by Garrett Ryan
📺 You can hear more from Garrett on his YouTube Channel Toldinstone
✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
✉️ Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
🌐 Everywhere you can find us: Linktree
🎙️ Credits
Guest: Dr. Garrett Ryan
Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones
Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa. - The story of Noah's Flood has striking parallels in ancient Mesopotamia, but some of those flood traditions predate the biblical text by more than a thousand years. This week, Joseph Lam joins Bible & Archaeology to explore the flood stories of Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and ancient Mesopotamia.
Why did the gods send the flood? What did an ancient ark supposedly look like? And does the evidence really mean that the Bible simply “copied” an older story? We look beyond the familiar similarities to ask what these different versions of the flood share and what the biblical authors are actually trying to say when they retell the flood story.
🔗 Resources & Links
Watch Joseph's episode on Why Creation Stories All Look the Same
Check out Joseph's Creation Stories of the Ancient World with Great Courses
✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
✉️ Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
🌐 Everywhere you can find us: Linktree
🎙️ Credits
Guest: Dr. Joseph Lam
Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones
Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa. - Did Paul think his followers would become angels? Scholar David Burnett says no. He argues Paul thought they'd outrank them.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul says his followers will judge the angels and describes resurrection bodies that shine like stars. David Burnett argues that this reflects an ancient cosmic hierarchy in which the stars were understood as celestial beings, and that Paul's vision radically extends this transformation to ordinary followers, including Gentiles. This week, David Burnett joins the podcast to talk about Paul's cosmos, why "monotheism" may be the wrong category, what Paul was fighting against in Corinth, and why Paul thought some people would shine brighter than others.
David is a PhD candidate in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. You can check out David's published work, follow him on social media, and/or support his research via his LinkTree here: https://linktr.ee/davidaburnett
✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
✉️ Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
🌐 Everywhere you can find us: Linktree
🎙️ Credits
Guest: David Burnett
Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones
Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa. - The Dead Sea Scrolls are famous for the story of how they were discovered, but how much of that story is really about the texts themselves? Eva Mroczek joins Bible & Archaeology to explore why we’re fascinated by lost and hidden texts, how discovery stories turn ancient sources into mysteries, and what these stories reveal about our hopes for recovering the past. From the Dead Sea Scrolls to ancient stories of hidden Bibles and the modern search for lost texts, we explore why the story of discovery can become the content itself.
✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
📚 Reading Recommendations:
Hidden Scrolls, Buried Bibles: How We Discover the Sacred Past by Eva Mroczek
What do the Dead Sea Scrolls really prove? Forgers, smugglers, and the myth of discovery by Eva Mroczek
✉️ Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
🌐 Everywhere you can find us: Linktree
🎙️ Credits
Guest: Dr. Eva Mroczek
Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones
Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa. - The Assyrians built one of the ancient world’s most powerfulempires, but what drove the Assyrian Empire's dramatic rise? And why did it fall so quickly? This week, Eckart Frahm joins Bible & Archaeology to trace Assyria's history, from its emergence as a major power to its eventual collapse. Along the way, we explore the reigns of famous Assyrian kings likeTiglath-Pileser III and Ashurbanipal, the Assyrians’ impact on the ancient Near East, what the Bible gets right (and wrong) about the Assyrian Empire, and how encounters with Assyria may have shaped the biblical idea of God.
✨ Support what we do and help make videos like this possible by joining the Bible & Archaeology Patreon community. Members receive early access, exclusive bonus content, and more: http://www.patreon.com/bibleandarch
📚 Reading Recommendations
Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire by Eckart Frahm
Three New Kings of Assyria by Alexander Johannes Edmonds and Eckart Frahm
✉️ Send us your questions: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
🌐 Everywhere you can find us: Linktree
🎙️ Credits
Guest: Dr. Eckart Frahm
Edited and Produced by Dr. Jordan Jones
Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.
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About Bible and Archaeology
The place for anything and everything about the lands, civilizations, and archaeology of the Bible. Join Biblical scholar Dr. Jordan Jones and guests as they discuss the stories, people, and objects we all think we know.
Have a question? You can send it to us at: bible-archaeology@uiowa.edu
Where to find us: https://linktr.ee/bibleandarchaeology
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