Redemption E6 — In the book of Psalms, the Hebrew words for “redemption” are often used to simply mean save, rescue, or release. This is especially true in the psalms of King David, who was never a slave but regularly used redemption language to speak of trials with his enemies. As the collection of psalms grew and shifted over many centuries, David’s personal longings for redemption came to represent something much bigger. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the themes of personal, communal, and cosmic redemption in Psalms.

Redemption E5 — For many centuries, ancient Israel lived in the land of promise but consistently broke their covenant with Yahweh. The prophet Isaiah warned the people that their corruption and idolatry would lead them back into slavery—not to Egypt but to the empires of Assyria and Babylon. After these two exiles happen, the prophecies in the book of Isaiah shift surprisingly from correction and warning to comfort and hope. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore Isaiah 40-66. These chapters contain a higher density of the word “redemption” than any other part of the Hebrew Bible.

How the Bible Was Formed Q+R (E5) — What is the relationship between the written word of the Bible and Jesus as the Word at the beginning of creation? How do we reconcile the Bible’s editing process with Scriptures that forbid adding or taking away from God’s word? And what should we do with other writings that closely followed the New Testament? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from our How the Bible Was Formed series. Thank you to our audience for your thoughtful contributions to this episode!

Redemption E4 — During a dark time in ancient Israel, idolatry, injustice, and death ruled the land and its people. In the midst of a famine, a destitute widow tragically loses her husband and adult sons and is left alone with her immigrant daughter-in-law. It’s a horrible situation, but God uses the faithful, loving, and generous acts of ordinary community members to redeem the widow’s story. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the cosmic redemption playing out in the short but profound story of Ruth.

Redemption E3 — So far in this series, we’ve explored the theme of redemption in the Eden story and in several stories in Exodus. In this episode, Jon and Tim look at how redemption language shows up in Torah laws about cities of refuge and unsolved murders, highlighting God’s provision for justice, the role of the blood redeemer, and communal responsibility in ancient Israel.

Redemption E2 — Redemption involves a transfer of possession, and in the grand story of the Bible, humanity is under the possession of sin and death. But God’s plan is to snatch us back from death and bring us to life—to redeem us. But how does this redemption actually work? In this episode, Jon and Tim look at the Torah rituals of Jubilee and Passover, discovering the life-saving redemption that God is up to in both of these rituals.

Redemption E1 — Following our series on the Exodus Way, we’re going to explore a word that first shows up in the Exodus scroll, redemption. This word can mean lots of things: redeeming a coupon, redeeming an otherwise bad day, or—from a Christian perspective—being redeemed by Jesus. But what does redemption actually refer to in the story of the Bible? Jon and Tim kick off this new theme series by exploring how this word is used throughout Scripture and then defining the two Hebrew words that are translated as “redemption” or “redeem.”

The story of Pentecost in Acts 2 is brimming with rich imagery and hyperlinks from the Hebrew Bible. God’s Spirit dramatically fills a house of Jesus’ followers like a wind, and fire burns over the disciples' heads as they begin speaking languages from across the known world! What is happening here, and how is it a fulfillment of God’s promises? In this re-released episode from our 2018 Luke-Acts series, Jon and Tim trace the significance of Pentecost, revealing how God’s presence now dwells within his people and empowers them to advance his Kingdom mission.

How the Bible Was Formed E4 — In the last three episodes of this short series, we focused on the formation of the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament. We also talked about other works of literature from the Second Temple period, known collectively as the Deuterocanon or Apocrypha. Today, we’ll finally explore yet another collection of Second Temple literature that was formed around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—the New Testament. In this episode, Jon and Tim look at the people in the early Jesus movement who wrote, collected, and distributed these biographies about Jesus and letters to churches across the Roman Empire.

How the Bible Was Formed E3 — Today, most Bibles are a single book that’s easy to carry and flip through. But the Bible started as an assortment of scrolls, bound together into a collection. The Hebrew Bible—or the Old Testament—went through a centuries-long, iterative development process with a variety of scribes and prophets. It didn’t come into its final form until roughly the time of Jesus. So how does this history interact with a view of Scripture as God’s word? In this episode, Jon and Tim continue exploring the formation of the Bible, discussing how to hold a high view of these sacred texts while also acknowledging the humans who shaped them.

How the Bible Was Formed E2 — The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, is a collection of 24 scrolls, passed down for generations, that tells the long, complicated story of ancient Israel. But who wrote these scrolls, and how did they come together in their final form? And how do we understand the claim that these books are the very voice of God? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the formation of the Hebrew Bible and the crew who shaped its stories, poems, and laws into intricately designed literary works.

How the Bible Was Formed E1 — If you’ve ever compared a Protestant Bible to a Catholic Bible, you may notice some additional books in the Catholic Bible, such as Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, etc. These books, called the Deuterocanon by Catholics and the Apocrypha by Protestants, are Jewish Literature from the period after the Babylonian exile but before the time of Jesus. The Jewish people were back in the land, being ruled by Syria and other empires descended from Alexander the Great. As they read the Hebrew Bible, they created many new literary works, reflecting on stories in Scripture and what was happening in their own day. So how do we understand the status and value of these books when compared to the Hebrew Bible and New Testament? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the background, history, and content of this Second-Temple Jewish literature.

The Exodus Way Q+R (E14) — What birth imagery do we find in Exodus? Are there hyperlinks elsewhere in the Bible that connect to Pharaoh’s hardened heart? And is the circumcision story with Zipporah and Moses’ son connected to Passover? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from our Exodus Way series. Thank you to our audience for your thoughtful contributions to this episode!

The Exodus Way E13 (Bonus Interview) — The exodus from Egypt was a foundational story for ancient Israel, but without a special group of seven often overlooked women, the exodus would have never happened! In this episode, Jon and Tim have a conversation with BibleProject Scholarship Fellow Tamara Knudson about the seven women in Exodus 1-4 who save Moses—and by extension—all of Israel.

The Exodus Way E12 (Bonus Interview) — If we come to the New Testament without much knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, we may think that baptism is just something that John the Baptist made up and Jesus carried on for new disciples. But there are multiple levels of meaning in this practice, including ritual purification, Israel’s passage through the Red Sea, entry into the promised land, and, most importantly for Jesus, a symbol of his death on our behalf. In this episode, Jon and Tim have a wide-ranging conversation with prolific author and theologian N.T. Wright about the meaning of baptism and its connections to the Exodus story.

The Exodus Way E11 — After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, his followers grew into a movement known simply as “The Way”—a new exodus people delivered from sin and death, following the narrow way of Jesus through the wilderness of our present world and awaiting entry into a promised new creation. The Apostle Paul is a central figure in this movement, commissioned by the risen Jesus to spread the good news of the new exodus to the nations. He planted churches in several Roman cities and wrote letters to congregations of Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul was a Jewish man steeped in Israel's Scriptures, which is why we see him infusing Exodus language and imagery into his letters to the early Church. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore Paul’s letters to the churches in Corinth, Galatia, and Rome, discovering how Paul saw the death and resurrection of Jesus, the life of the Christian, and the larger story of creation as a cosmic exodus.

The Exodus story was core to the identity of ancient Israel. Inspired by the prophet Isaiah’s words, 1st-century Israelites were awaiting a new exodus, where a new Moses-like figure would deliver them from Roman oppression. The gospels present Jesus as that figure, who saves people from sickness, hunger, spiritual oppression, and even death itself. And following Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the early Jesus movement became known as “The Way,” carrying a message of salvation for all nations. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore how the new exodus people in the book of Acts embody the prophet Isaiah’s vision.

The Exodus Way E9 — All four gospel accounts build anticipation for Jesus to accomplish a new kind of exodus when he arrives in Jerusalem. But later in the gospel narratives, Jesus begins telling his disciples that he will be arrested and killed in Jerusalem before rising on the third day. So Jesus journeys to Jerusalem and confronts the religious establishment—notably only days before Passover! And before his arrest, he shares a Passover meal with his disciples and shockingly reinterprets the bread and wine to be about his coming death. What is Jesus doing, and how is his death related to the climactic Exodus event of Passover? In this episode, Jon and Tim trace the Holy Week story leading up to Passover and explore how Jesus’ death fulfills the cosmic Exodus story of the Bible.

Before the arrival of Jesus, Israelites already viewed their current circumstances and hopes for God’s salvation through the lens of the Exodus. This is why the gospel authors tell the story of Jesus with language that points back to the main beats of the Exodus story. In this first episode of two on the gospels, Jon and Tim explore the many Exodus hyperlinks found in the stories of Jesus’ birth, his baptism in the Jordan River, his testing in the wilderness, and his public ministry in Galilee.

The Exodus Way E7 — In Mark 14, we’re told that Jesus and his disciples celebrated Passover and sang a hymn before going out to the garden of Gethsemane. So what hymn did they sing? Rabbinic tradition going back to the time of Jesus records that during Passover, Jewish people sang Psalm 113-118, a collection of songs known as the Passover Hallel. In this episode, Jon and Tim explore these six psalms’ references to the Exodus story and what they might have meant to Jesus on the night of the last supper.