Lots More NT Pod Shorts

Since my last post here, on July 30, I have posted nine more NT Pod Shorts on my YouTube Channel. I have realized that posting every link here is going to be a bit too time-consuming, not least given that I will be posting three or four each week. 

And to be frank, I forgot to post them here, and now they are mounting up. 

So if you'd like to watch my NT Pod Shorts, please subscribe to my YouTube channel (@podacre). 

I am also uploading them to other social media -- Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, TikTok, Instagram -- all easy to find.

I am also continuing to record the longer format NT Pod episodes, and I'll release them really soon. 

Thanks so much for your support!

More NT Pod Shorts: Triple Tradition; Double Tradition; Marcan Priority

I've uploaded three more NT Pod Shorts on the Synoptic Problem:

What is the "triple tradition"? 

What is the "double tradition"?

Was Mark the First Gospel? 

These are all on my Youtube Channel. If you like it, please subscribe and "like" so that I can grow the channel, i.e. produce more videos. 

I am also uploading them to TikTok and to other social media. 

NT Pod Shorts: What is the Synoptic Problem?

 My next NT Pod Short goes back to the beginning and asks "What is the Synoptic Problem?"

NT Pod Shorts: Why is Q so Appealing?

I'm trying something new: NT Pod Shorts. These are short (less than three minute) videos about topics connected with the podcast, and the first few are going to be focused on the Synoptic Problem. Here is the first:

 The topic is: Why is Q so appealing? 

NT Pod Woes!

This follows on from my relatively optimistic post the other day on the NT Pod's birthday. You don't need to know any of this, but I thought that writing about it might be cathartic. Back in 2009, I made what turned out to be a terrible decision in choosing Google's Blogger (blogspot) to host my new podcast. I had already used Blogger for years here on the NT Blog, and Google was in the ascendant, so it seemed like a good idea. Alas, over the years, Blogger turned out to be a pretty poor option for podcasting. Feedburner actually fixed some of the issues, so you could take your Blogger feed, and burn a better feed in Feedburner, and for years, that helped. But then Google purchased Feedburner, and Feedburner has been sadly neglected.

My Blogger / Feedburner feed has hobbled along over the years, but has just about done the job, so I just stuck with it. Until Spotify came along. Most of my subscribers used to come through Apple Podcasts, but in recent years, Spotify has become a massive player in the podcast world. Several people asked me if I could get the NT Pod onto Spotify.

Well, I tried. I really tried. Spotify just hates Feedburner and Blogger, and try what you can, you just can't get Spotify to read their RSS feed properly. And I understand why -- Blogger is not really designed for podcasts, and Feedburner doesn't care any more.

Given that I am at last trying to invest some more time in the podcast (new episode!), I decided that I really should get the existing configuration sorted in planning for the future (and you can still hear some of that optimism in the post from last week). After many, many, many hours working on this, I am beginning to think that a neat solution is impossible. 

My first idea was to try to port over all the Blogger content to RSS.com, but they could not process all of the Blogger content, and it was a no-go. So I tried WordPress. They have a dedicated tool to redirect blogger content, and it seemed to work. I was very encouraged. I did a bit of a redesign in WordPress, and moved the hosting all to my own new subdomain. OK, the redesign needed work, but the tech side seemed to be working. 

Happy with where things were, I tried submitting the new WordPress feed to Spotify. They rejected it. No "author" or "email" attributes in the new feed. So I worked out how to add those, and pinged them again. Still no good: you have no "enclosures" in your feed, they said. Somehow, the port over from Blogger had not included any of the enclosures.

More research. It turned out it was virtually impossible to automate all those "enclosures" (the actual audio files). I'd have to add them manually to the RSS feed. By this point, I was getting better at manipulating RSS feeds in WordPress, using a plug-in called All-in-one SEO, and after a lot of experimentation, I worked out not only how to add the enclosures, but also how to add the "length" of each episode, something that is impossible to do in Blogger or Feedburner, and which really improves the feed. 

I manually added the relevant enclosures to every episode (going back to Ep. #83; I wanted to see if this fix would work first), and had to find the length of each ep., again manually, and added it all in (in bytes -- that's how it's done in enclosures in RSS). The RSS feed validated, and I felt like it was an Alleluia moment. I submitted the new beautiful feed to Spotify and guess what? 

More problems. Now Spotify was only showing seven episodes, eps. #83-89. I got in touch with their support team for the umpteenth time and they told me that there were problems with the "GUIDs" in the feed, the "Globally Unique Identifier". More research; more googling. Even more difficult than the previous issues. Why does no one else on the internet seem to have these issues? Perhaps because they were sensible enough not to choose Blogger for their podcast back in 2009. 

So where do we go from here? Pretty close to giving up and going back to the status quo, but the difficulties here are that it does not solve the Spotify problem, and I'm stuck with a poor option, on Blogger, for the longer term future. 

I still have a couple of things to try, and it's not impossible that I could still fix everything, but my optimism is waning. If the worst comes to the worst, I may simply have to stick with Blogger with all its issues, and simply begin a fresh podcast on Spotify, and submit it directly, beginning from ep. 110. 

In the process, I've learned a huge amount about the tech of podcasting. When I attempted to switch to the new feed on Apple podcasts, it eliminated every episode except those that were appearing on the new WordPress feed. And do I really want an RSS feed that goes on for 50 pages?

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that I had dedicated the time to recording several new episodes. Hey-ho. 

This post is mainly for my own catharsis. Somehow writing about these things helps. I really should not have abandoned this blog for so long! 

The Latest NT Pod News on Its 16th Birthday

 

It's the NT Pod's birthday! I released my first podcast 16 years ago today. There 109 episodes so far, though there are a few more "extended episodes" too from when I was numbering those differently. I actually wish I'd done far more episodes. The day job gets in the way more than I would like, and there are always more pressing and less enjoyable things to do. Occasionally, I prophesy a resurrection, only for the podcast to go back on hiatus. 

Well, recently I have been working hard to get it relaunched properly. I'm in the middle of porting all 16 years' worth over to WordPress, with a new URL, but I want to make sure that it's working properly, and that those subscribed through Apple, Amazon, etc., won't notice any difference, and that new episodes will arrive on time in the same place. The biggest headache that I am having is with Spotify, which has stopped picking up the feed altogether since ep. 107. Once I have everything sorted out, I'll do a proper relaunch. 

In the mean time, the last episode I mentioned here was NT Pod 104: The Synoptic Translation Problem. Since then, there have been five more episodes:

NT Pod 105: What is Translation Inertia? 

NT Pod 106: NT Introductions & Johannine Communities with Hugo Méndez

NT Pod 107: Why Do We Translate New Testament Names the Way We Do?

NT Pod 108: The Jesus / Joshua Problem

NT Pod 109: The Last Supper (2025)

Episodes 105, 107 and 109 continue the theme begun in 104 on problems with Bible translation. I have at least one more episode to come on that theme. The most recent episode is my review of a recent Jesus film, and I have a couple more coming on that theme too. 

I have also begun exploring the idea of recording NT Pod Shorts over on my Youtube Channel. So far they are mainly hot takes on recent Jesus films like The Chosen: Last Supper but I am hoping to do more of these in the coming weeks and months. 

NT Pod 104: The Synoptic Translation Problem

There are lots of Synoptic Problems! The latest episode of my podcast focuses on one of them, "The Synoptic Translation Problem." It  investigates a problem in English translations of the Gospels. The translations frequently mangle the agreements and disagreements between the Synoptic Gospels, and between the Synoptics and John. The podcast attempts to show how pervasive the problem is by drawing attention to conflicting translations in the NRSVUE (the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition), and proposing a way forward for future translations of the New Testament. 

NT Pod 104: The Synoptic Translation Problem (mp3)

Key texts:

(1) Matt. 27.50 // Mark 15.37 // Luke 23.46; Psalm 31.5

(2) Matt. 26.51 // Mark 14.47 // Luke 22.50 // John 18.10

(3) Matt. 26.6-13 // Mark 14.3-9 // Luke 7.36-50 // John 12.1-8

(4) Matt. 28.10 // John 20.17

Feel free to leave your feedback below, on our Youtube channel, or on social media.

Thanks to Ram2000, "Me and You", for the opening theme, released under a Creative Commons agreement.

The Resurrection of the NT Pod

After spending a lot of time in university administrative jobs (Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department Chair, and so on), I find myself back in the happy position this semester of being able to devote time to the things I love doing, like teaching, research -- and my too long neglected podcast! 

I began podcasting back in 2009, and in the early years I was fairly prolific, but as life took over, I produced fewer and fewer episodes. There have been a few false dawns before, but I am happy to say that this one seems to be real!

There are three new episodes so far, one for each of the last three weeks. These are the new episodes:

NT Pod 100: New Ways Through the Maze

NT Pod 101: 100 Bible Films: In Conversation with Matthew Page

NT Pod 102: Has Q Been Discovered?

Eps. 100 and 102 are both the traditional short episodes with me talking about something, but Ep. 101 is an extended episode featuring a conversation with the brilliant Matthew Page about his new BFI book on Bible Films. Episode 103 is currently in what they call "post production" (it's another extended episode), but it will be out by the end of the week. 

To coincide with the NT Pod's resurrection, I've been finding ways of making it easier to find. It's now on Amazon Music, Spotify, and Google Podcasts, as well as Apple Podcasts, where it has always had a home (back when it was iTunes, and iTunes U). 

And today, I finished the Herculean task of getting the entire archive uploaded to Youtube. You can find every episode now on my Youtube Channel, @podacre. Please head over there to subscribe if you'd like to see some of the forthcoming video episodes of the NT Pod. 

As well as the Facebook and Twitter pages, there is now a new Instagram page. So if you'd like to stay bang up to date, please follow one of these. And huge thanks to Lauren Aguilar for her work on the NT Pod's social media profile in recent weeks. 

I am hugely grateful too to Viola Goodacre for the revised version of the NT Pod logo.

Interview with Ariel Sabar on the NT Pod

Over on my podcast, I enjoyed a conversation earlier today with Ariel Sabar, author of Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife. It is an hour and thirteen minutes long and you can find it here:

NT Pod 95: Interview with Ariel Sabar, Author of Veritas (mp3) 

Or go to that page to find links to Apple Podcasts, Duke's Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, etc. 

The book is: Ariel Sabar, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife (New York: Doubleday, 2020)

This is the sixth in a series of podcasts on the Gospel of Jesus's Wife. The links to the others are here:

NT Pod 87: What is the Gospel of Jesus's Wife?

NT Pod 88: Is the Gospel of Jesus's Wife a forgery?

NT Pod 89: How was the forgery of the Gospel of Jesus's Wife proved?

NT Pod 90: How was the forgery of the Gospel of Jesus's Wife confirmed?

NT Pod 94: Review of Ariel Sabar's Veritas

Previous NT blog posts on the Gospel of Jesus's wife (55 or so) are here (most recent first):

NT Blog: Gospel of Jesus's Wife

St Thomas Basilica

Following on from my recent posts about St Thomas Mount and Little Mount, this one explores another key Thomas location, St Thomas Basilica in Mylapore, Chennai, India. This is the place where Thomas's tomb is allegedly located and an impressive neo-Gothic cathedral is on the site.

Once again, I recorded my thoughts and edited them in the latest episode of the NT Pod:

NT Pod 79: Santhome Basilica

The magnificent white church building was built by the British in the late nineteenth century but the basilica was built by the Portuguese in the 16th century (cf. the church at Little Mount). I decided to make the journey by bus, which is something of a challenge, not least because the buses in Chennai are so unbelievably crowded. But they are also unbelievably cheap. A one-way journey lasting an hour (over about 17 km) cost me just 12 rupees (about 12p or 18c).

There is one huge advantage that this site has over the previous two that I visited -- it has a museum dedicated to the Apostle Thomas. And the museum features several items of interest. Unlike St Thomas Mount, it is not just about John 20 and "My Lord and My God". There is much more by way of the apocryphal Thomas traditions, perhaps most interestingly this relic of the lancehead that supposedly killed Thomas.

There is also a double-sided pedestal that references King Gondophores and the legend of the log on the one side (a legend also illustrated in a relief that is on the wall of the museum), and Thomas in teaching mode on the other side.

Somewhat frustratingly, a lot of the other material in the museum is labelled only in the most vague way imaginable. So there is an entire display of ancient pottery apparently discovered at the site, with dating only to "the olden days"! So too another display of bones is said to be from that same period.

The museum itself is situated above Thomas's tomb. The tomb is at the front of a chapel with pews where people pray and reflect. There is not a lot to see -- it's a colourful, relatively modern representation of Thomas in glass casing.

Although in the podcast I say that I could not take a photograph in there, I later managed to return to the site when it was empty and I took a quick pic while no one was looking.

I should also mention the large golden "pole of St Thomas" which stands tall to the side of the cathedral. It is reminiscent of the similar poll at St Thomas' Mount, although this one is taller and has a much smaller cross at the top.

Inside the cathedral itself, I should mention a nice statue of Thomas that sits to the left of the altar. Thomas is holding the legend "Deus Meus" (My God), so here, for once, we do not get the whole Johannine confession. Again, we were not supposed to be taking photographs, but my visit happened to coincide with a coachload of pilgrims from Nagaland, all of whom were snapping away with gay abandon (and rather bizarrely, they also all wanted to get pictures with me! I sat with various members of the group outside the cathedral for a good ten or fifteen photos!).

I was a touch disappointed that the promised twenty minute film about Thomas, which is very proudly advertised just outside the museum, was nowhere in evidence. At least I found it impossible to find anyone who could tell me any more about it.

Another curiosity of my visit, and this is partly reflected in the podcast, is the pursuit (one might say harassment) by several auto rickshaw drivers. One of them followed me around the entire site, usually on foot, but sometimes in his auto. At first, he made out that he was connected with the site and I foolishly engaged him in conversation. But soon it became clear that he wanted my business.

Once I'd shaken him, I got another, who even sat next to me in the cathedral. Once rid of him, and after the photographing session with the people from Nagaland, a third one began to pursue me. This one was the worst, and pursued me down the road after I left the site, even driving ahead of me, hiding behind a tree and jumping out in front of me.

Gandhi, on the beach at Mylapore, Chennai

A fourth auto driver was honest enough to tell me why they were so keen for business -- a group of four local shops selling hand-crafted goods were offering a 5kg bag of rice to any auto driver who brought them a new customer. Much later in the day, after my Veg Maharaja Mac at McDonald's, I happened to meet this guy again at the beach, where I was heading in the direction of the bus-stop for my journey back, and I rewarded his honesty by going on the little shop-tour so that he could pick up his bag of rice. But of course no good deed goes unpunished. We parted on bad terms because I would not also pay his rent for the next month.

Little Mount

Following on from my recent post about St Thomas Mount, this one explores another key Thomas location, Little Mount (Chinnamalai), also in Chennai.

It's the place where Thomas allegedly faced his death, and the church is built over the cave where he hid from persecution.

As before, I recorded my impressions of the site as I visited it, and I have released it as an episode of the NT Pod:

NT Pod 78: Little Mount

The site itself is tucked away down a side street (the "L.D.G. Road") with no sign-posts in sight. It caused my driver some degree of stress, to the point where I eventually got out of the car and walked. I could see where it was on my Sat Nav on my phone, but he was not inclined to trust it.

"Little Mount" really is only a few steps up from the road, and is nothing like the climb up to St Thomas Mount. Although it is the large round twentieth century church that makes the big impression, it's the old chapel built by the Portuguese in 1551 that houses Thomas's cave.

The chapel is small, but pleasantly cool if you are visiting on a hot day. A few pews look up towards a shrine of the Virgin Mary, but down to the left is St Thomas's cave.

I did not try recording in the chapel or the cave, not least because a gentleman hovered around me looking anxious when I had my phone out. But I did manage to grab a couple of quick pics.

There's a nice old explanatory placard before you go down to the cave. It's just the kind of thing one wants to see on these occasions.

The old marble placard reads, as best I can decipher it, as follows:

The cave where lay hid persecuted just before being martyred by Rajah Mahadevan, king of Mylapore, A.D. 68, Thomas, one of the twelve, the great Apostle of India, the very one who put his finger into the wounds of his Lord and God. Drop your penny for this great historical and archaeological monument.

While I was there, a woman went down into the cave to do some sweeping (I have seen a lot of women sweeping in India) and to collect up the pennies that had been dropped.

The cave itself is not for the claustrophobic. It has a proper bend-down-low entrance. There is a small shrine inside the cave, and a red circle marks the spot where Thomas was allegedly martyred.

The cave is without doubt the major attraction. I wondered whether it gets horribly crowded at busy times. I was happy to have it to all to myself. There were several praying in the chapel while I was there but none went down to the cave. I think I may have been the only tourist type there. 

While I was sitting outside the chapel, by this sign pointing to "St. Thomas Cave", a gentleman approached me and pointed to "water". I thought he was worried that I was overheating, but in retrospect, I think he may have been directing my attention to the miraculous spring. 

On the way there, one sees a rocky feature that draws attention to Thomas's footprint.

Up a few steps, one enters a separate chamber that has two key features. This is one -- a fountain with water that "cures diseases". The water is now behind bars and presumably inaccessible to present-day pilgrims.

The other is also a rocky crag, and it features a cross that is cut out of the rock.

This cross is behind glass and has the header "cross made by St. Thomas". Above it is a sign that says that the cross bled for many years in the 16th and 17th centuries.

There was a lady hovering around me the whole time that I was looking at these things, and I realized after a while that she was waiting for a contribution. It was rather a formal process -- she wrote it all down in her book and handed me a receipt. But once given, she allowed me to take my pics and do my recordings without hassle.

Little Mount also has a park it labels "Holy Land", accessible through some large pink gates. The idea of the park is that it imitates Jerusalem, and features colourfully represented elements from the Passion Narrative.

The most striking of these is a trial scene featuring Jesus (with a red robe and a green crown of thorns),  a centurion and two black elephants!

St Thomas Mount

The NT Pod and the NT Blog go on the road! It's long been an ambition of mine to visit the sites connected with the Apostle Thomas out in Chennai (formerly Madras) in India. I decided to photograph my visit and also to record my reflections.

You can listen to my first ever "on the road" episode of the NT Pod here:

NT Pod 77: St Thomas Mount

It is about 14 minutes long. The audio quality is of course much worse than usual. I was recording on my iPhone and I am a bit breathless as I climb the steps early the episode. And the wind at the top of the mount also interferes with the recording, as do the sounds of the planes above. But I hope that you enjoy a bit of the Chennai ambience, especially all those honking cars.

I arrived at the mount by taxi after a getting stuck in a very long traffic jam. Chennai traffic can be choc-a-bloc. I must admit that there is no way that I would want to drive here. It can be pretty terrifying to see how India drivers drive, and it's amazing that there are not more accidents. It's a question of experience, I suppose.

St Thomas Mount is in Chennai and is pretty close to the airport. There's a enjoyably battered old sign that greets you on entry (right), with a "tiffin" stall just underneath.

Beyond the battered old sign, to the left as we look, is the facade at the bottom of the mount that marks the beginning of the journey to the top. This nicely white-washed appearance is characteristic of the whole, including the walls either side of the steps on the way to the top, and the chapel building on top of the mount.

As one walks up the steps, the stations of the cross appear at regular intervals.

I visited the site on a Monday afternoon in February and there were only a few people around. And few of those were real tourists. The small shop selling religious artefacts was hardly doing any business at all.

Most of the visitors appeared to be there to pray. I think I saw more people inside the chapel than anywhere else.

It is striking to see how strongly the Thomas tradition has taken hold in the region. The tradition is at least as old as the Acts of Thomas which tells the story of the apostle's pilgrimage to India, at first with great reluctance.

St Thomas Mount itself offers very little by way of explanatory history. I didn't see a single placard giving anything of the apostle's story. His connection with the location is simply taken for granted.

A colourful statue of Thomas, with a gold, red and pink garment greets the pilgrim towards the top of the steps. He holds in his hand a book open to the words "My Lord, My God" (John 20.28). This is the first time we see these words, but then they appear again and again all over the shrine.

Once at the top of the mount, one of the more striking features is a tall, golden crucifix, on the far side of the mount, overlooking the city.

Just below it, as one looks down towards the city, the words "My Lord, My God" are spelled out in white stones.

The central piece is the church itself, which stands with a bronze relief of the Last Supper above its door. Once again, "My Lord, My God" are repeated here.








The chapel has an entrance called "the door of mercy", again with "My Lord and My God" over it, and a recent (2011) statue of Jesus and Thomas several feet in front of it.

Inside the chapel, there are individual pictures of the twelve apostles, right down to Thaddaeus, surely the more overlooked of the twelve!

I was perhaps a touch disappointed that the mount was so thoroughly focused on the one passage in John 20 and that there was so little influence from texts like the Acts of Thomas, and remarkably little on the apostle's connection with India.

One of the only depictions of Thomas not taken from John 20 is this scene of the apostle praying. It appears after the door of mercy on the entry into the chapel, opposite a depiction of Thomas and Jesus drawn from John 20. of the only depictions of Thomas not taken from John 20 is this scene of the apostle praying. It appears after the door of mercy on the entry into the chapel, opposite a depiction of Thomas and Jesus drawn from John 20.

There is also a convent on top of the mount. It speaks rather invitingly of "cool drinks" but nothing was on offer when I entered, and although there were several people in there, they appeared to be deep in their own conversations.

Elsewhere on the mount there is a stall that sells souvenirs but they were not really to my taste -- the kinds of garish mini-statues of Thomas and of Jesus that one would only buy to prove that one has visited the site.

There are loos just around the corner from the convent but it has to be said that they are a touch on the primitive side, perhaps dating back in time to when Thomas first visited India.

Overall, though, St Thomas Mount is well worth a visit. If you're anywhere near Chennai airport, it's a pretty short journey. Unless I missed it, disability access is poor to non-existent, so it is sadly only for those who can tackle the walk.

Although there are not that many steps, you may find yourself puffing and panting a bit (as you hear on my podcast), especially if you go along, as I did, during the heat of the day.

NT Pod 76: This year's Christmas episode

The Christmas episode of the NT Pod has landed!

NT Pod 76: The Magi in Matthew's Gospel

This time with sleigh bells! And Johnny Cash! And Ella Fitzgerald! And me yabbering on about Matthew 2.1-12.

You can find it in the usual places -- at podacre, on iTunes, on Stitcher, on your RSS reader, and (if it ever updates) Duke's iTunes U.

Podcasting Jesus on Duke devilTech

I sat down yesterday to talk to my friend and colleague Stephen Toback about my NT Pod and my future plans for the podcast, including venturing into video podcasting. We talked in Duke's new MPS studio, which I am greatly looking forward to using in the coming weeks. Our discussion, on the latest Duke devilTech, is available here:





Many thanks to Stephen for the invitation to appear on Duke devilTech and the chance to learn more about the MPS studio.

Latest NT Pod on the ending of Mark

I've been pleased to get back to a regular schedule of releases again on the NT Pod. I've been meaning to record one for a while on the question of the ending of Mark, and this is the topic of the latest episode:

NT Pod 71: Was the ending of Mark's Gospel lost?

Towards the end of the episode, I couldn't resist chatting about one of my favourite adverts from the 1970s, in which Schubert is unable to complete his unfinished symphony because he is down the pub with his mates.  Sadly, the only version of it that I can find online is a bit grainy and has terrible sound quality, but it's good enough:



If anyone knows of a better version, please let me know.

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.  You can also find the NT Pod on Facebook, or follow the NT Pod on Twitter.

Historical Jesus Criteria Podcasts

I commented here the other day (Snow and Podcasts) on the latest episodes of the NT Pod, which is finally back after a hiatus of several months.

I have released a couple more episodes since then (NT Pod 69 and NT Pod 70), also both on the discussion about historical Jesus criteria.

Now seems like a good time to gather the links together on all of these:


NT Pod 59: Historical Jesus Criteria
NT Pod 60: The Criterion of Embarrassment
NT Pod 61: The Criterion of Multiple Attestation
NT Pod 69: The Criterion of Discontinuity
NT Pod 70: Views Common to Friend and Foe

Or, if it is easier, I have them together under one label: Historical Jesus Criteria.

I'm a bit bored with the discussion about criteria now, so I'll leave it for a while, perhaps until I teach Historical Jesus again next year.  Episode 71 will be about something different.  I have a couple of ideas and I'll make my mind up over the next day or so.

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.  You can also find the NT Pod on Facebook, or follow the NT Pod on Twitter.

Snow and Podcasts

I have been meaning to get back to the podcast for a long time and finally, this week, it happened. First, I recorded a new episode, NT Pod 67, on John's Gospel and the Historical Jesus. I've been teaching the Historical Jesus here at Duke this semester and the topics are often conducive to podcasting, and this one ran alongside one of my classes on materials for Jesus research (including Paul, the Synoptics, Thomas, John). Then yesterday, Duke cancelled afternoon classes because of the snow, and for the second time this semester, this affected my Historical Jesus class. Instead of just trying to re-jig the syllabus, I decided to use the occasion to record another podcast.

Traffic at a standstill on my four hour
commute home yesterday!

NT Pod 68 asks "Where do we begin Historical Jesus Research?" The topic was less congenial to podcasting because I was planning, in class, to introduce several different approaches to the Historical Jesus, contrasting the starting points of E. P. Sanders, John Dominic Crossan and N. T. Wright.  But I had a go anyway and recorded a kind of hybrid episode, going to twenty minutes rather than the usual 10-12 minutes.

The second half of yesterday's class was going to begin looking at Historical Jesus criteria.  This is something I began podcasting on last time I taught the course, in 2012 (see NT Pod 59: Historical Jesus Criteria, NT Pod 60: the Criterion of Embarrassment and NT Pod 61: the Criterion of Multiple Attestation).  I am planning to continue this series now with an episode on the Criterion of Dissimilarity.  I hope to have that episode online by this evening.

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.  You can also find the NT Pod on Facebook, or follow the NT Pod on Twitter.

NT Pod 66: Oral Tradition and the Game of "Telephone"

It's been far too long since we've had an NT Pod!

I've put out a new episode tonight, NT Pod 66: Oral Tradition and the Game of "Telephone".

It relates to something that has come up here before, the question of whether the game of "telephone" (known in the UK as "Chinese Whispers") is a good analogy for the early Christian traditioning process, discussed in a post on The Gospels and the Telephone Game.  See too Missives from Marx.

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.  You can also find the NT Pod on Facebook, or follow the NT Pod on Twitter.

NT Pod 65: The Women at the Cross

It's about time we had a new episode of the NT Pod. I've just released NT Pod 65: The Women at the Cross. Details over on the NT Pod page.

NT Pod 63: Conflicting Christmas Stories

It's that time of year again, the time for the release of the Christmas episode of the NT Pod!  So I have interrupted the series on the Gospel of Thomas, for NT Pod 63: Conflicting Christmas Stories.

The episode explores the differences between the Birth Narratives in Matt. 1-2 and Luke 1-2 and asks how this can be the case if Luke is familiar with Matthew.

This is now the fourth year of the NT Pod Christmas episode.  You can find the others here: NT Pod Christmas episodes.

You can listen to the NT Pod online or subscribe in your preferred reader or subscribe via iTunes.  You can also find the NT Pod on Facebook, or follow the NT Pod on Twitter.