BibleProject

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...

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 thi...

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 Form...

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 t...

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.

CHAPTERS

1. Recap of Where We’ve Been (0:00-10:50)
2. Cities...

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 ritua...

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 thr...

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 signi...

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 ...

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 wit...

 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 sh...

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...

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!

View all of our resources for The Exodus...

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.

View all of our resources for The Exodus Way →

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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...

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 exodu...

The Exodus Way E10 — 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 Sp...

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 P...

The Exodus Way E8 — 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 ...