This is my favorite Bible Podcast. I have listened through a couple times and always learned something new. Of course if you want dogma or non historically critical Bible podcasts, then go back to Billy Graham and the lies.

very grateful that Gary did all this work to provide this podcast for nine years. It wasn’t enlightening and thoroughly entertaining production. Thanks Gary. if you’re thinking about listening, go ahead and listen, you’ll love it

I don't know if this guy faces an entire blunt before he starts recording or what, but there are so many cotton mouth noises while he's talking that I can't give it a 5-star review. The losers who gave it a 1-star review are dishonest people so prefer lies to truth, though. Why are religious people always so dishonest?

Worst podcast on biblical history.

Wonderful podcast. Simple yet engaging. It’s so nice to have someone just lay out the multivocality of the Bible instead of trying to claim that all 66 books speak with one voice. Peace and love to Gary and to all who listen, past and future.

Love this podcast and wish there was more!! Gary was such an amazing host with top notch scholarship. He made everything easy to understand and did so in a way that has allowed me to remember even a year later. Hope to see him return dive back into the history in the Bible. Thanks for making this podcast.

Entertaining introduction to biblical scholarship. Worth listening to many times. Thanks Gary!

Thanks for all the fun times listening to your show! Thank you for all your work, and I’ve enjoyed listening to the whole journey.

Love this podcast. Love the host’s voice, his little quips, and the great overview of the history IN the Bible. Thanks much for all of your hard work!

Incredibly well-researched and enriching podcast for lovers of Christian history and antiquity. It’s the biblical education I never got in church and goes deeper than you’d get in several semesters of college lectures. It may even deepen your faith, although Garry doesn’t come at the material from a proselytizing or skeptical tone—he is professorial but friendly with a bit of wit and dry humor, and his appreciation for the source material is evident. Bravo and thank you Dr. Stevens!

If you are a practicing Jew or Christian what a fantastic podcast to put the foundations of your religion in context. Even for the a-religious, knowledge of the historical context of biblical and post biblical judaism and Christianity gives the listener a solid basis from which to understand major aspects of history often ignored by secular historians.

One of the best history podcasts and a real treasure for anyone who’s ever wondered how much real history is behind those Bible stories. And to top it off, no ads - a pure labor of love by a brilliant amateur historian.

Gary is just an absolute work engine over here putting out all kinds of analysis and commentary on the books of the many bibles, as well as supplemental documents and research and (at least to this point) without any ads! He takes a critical position towards the text and is very forthcoming about that, but his perspective is well justified and regardless of whether you agree with him, his work is deeply informative and insightful. Thanks so much Gary!

Stevens’ distain for Christian tradition is palpable. His scholarship is sophomore at best. I suspect he’s paraphrasing a university introductory textbook.

Where is the final episode? It has been two months!

This podcast is about 10% history and 90% the author’s commentary. Said commentary is largely sarcastic, always hostile, and occasionally anti-Semitic. Perhaps a better a better title would be “Why I hate the Bible and everything derived from it.”

Not sure where this dude gets his info but his dateline is from a secular science view.

I really enjoy this podcast. The subjects are interesting and the host speaks well with a nice pace. I’ve listened to all the episodes and find myself repeating them!

While Gary does a wonderful job reading whatever textbook he gets his details from his commentary lacks any real depth into a subject such as text genre or cultural norms at the time of authorship. He also makes leaps of understanding based on loose facts which are at the very least contested such as the multi-author theory for the Pentateuch. This podcast is not to be relied upon without severe augmentation of many more texts.

Garry Stevens is not a professional Biblical scholar, but he has digested an impressive amount of Biblical scholarship, and his podcast presents it in a clear, concise, and well-organized fashion. It is like a graduate survey course on Biblical and Middle Eastern history and archaeology. A word of warning to my fellow lovers of the Bible who take a literal approach to its interpretation: you will not like many of his conclusions, and you will probably be wasting your time listening to it; there are other podcasts that will give you more of what you want. For those like me who find room for human intervention in the story — who, for example, are intrigued rather than offended by the “documentary hypothesis”, by the idea that Judah was not the great kingdom the books of Samuel and Kings make it out to be, by the idea that the books of Job and Jonah are poetic meditations rather than factual transcripts — who can take all that in and still be motivated to read and study the Bible every day — this is a treasure trove.

Thank you for your enjoyable podcasts. I listen to them as I fall asleep at night, or taking an afternoon nap. I fall into slumber thinking on good things, turning my mind off of the things of this world.

A lot of information but he comes with his prejudices due to the secular approach to cross examination of the primary sources. Makes varying vocalizations of condescending nature after reading biblical passages. More than once, This author mischaracterizes the content of biblical books he discusses.

The best scholarly podcast I've listened to on the Bible the entire Bible with all of it's history, characters, mistakes, and a ton of repetitions in different books from authors you would not have thought of. Archaeological finds included and all rolled nicely into one sweet sweet package. One of the finest podcasts available for biblical knowledge for those that want to dig deeper than the average person might care too. Also including collaborations from other find Podcasters working on the same biblical knowledge heritage archaeological findings and ancient languages.

My trips to the book store and purchases from Amazon and Walmart increased because of this podcast.

Garry is god's gift to biblical interpretation;-) Seriously, he isn't trying to interpret the bible. The idea is to give an overview of the bible stories and offer some of the popular modern theories about those stories. If you are crazy, and think the bible is a literal historically accurate book, you are going to be unhappy with this. If you want A LOT of good information presented in a fun and engaging way, dive in. The Aussie accent really adds to the listening pleasure.

Interesting concept. Read part of a book you obviously don’t believe. Have a bonus podcast where you say “Everything I just talked about couldn’t have possibly happened.”. Repeat.

This guy thinks he is god’s gift to bible interpretation. Better to have Captain Kangaroo’s Explains It All To You. This guy and his “special friend”, Steven Agularua, will opine on just about anything.

I have enjoyed this podcast so much! I’m a history lover and wanted to learn more about Christianity. This podcast delivered.

I just thought these individuals would remain in their lane .. podcast a year old. I hope they’ve come to realize how idiotic their childish comments

Too much “Gerry Stevens in the Bible". The modernist viewpoint that Stevens subscribes to is often pushed as the most up-to-date approach. But it misses many recent developments in archaeology and ancient literature (the danger of naming something “Modern”). A much better breakdown of faith and the Bible can be found at YouTube.com/c/InspiringPhilosophy

Commentary is poor quality and lopsided. There are much better historical accounts. Don’t waste your time.

I’m disappointed by ignorance of basic facts about Judaism but much more distressed by anti-Jewish distortions and allegations about the “bad” Old Testament God. Find your information about Judaism and Hebrew Bible from a less hostile source!

I have grown to love this podcast. I wasn’t convinced at the beginning, but I kept returning and learning. Love the Aussie greeting. Dear Gary, I cannot believe the unkind comments. You are amazing. Psalm 23 was my favorite until I listened to members of a bible study, conducted by Reverend Rhys. I was shouted down! “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” was interpreted as David, kindly soul, invited them to dinner. When I suggested that his conquered enemies, thirsty, hungry, and perhaps in chains, were tortured and humiliated by being made to watch David, savor the delectables. He was no better than any cruel conqueror. (Except, perhaps, the Assyrians.)

I’ve always wanted to learn about the bible, it’s history etc! Wasn’t raised religious (American upper middle class atheist Jewish) and organized religion has never appealed to me. Yet, religion fascinates me as an adult. Unfortunately, I find Christianity and the bible really confusing. This podcast is perfect for me! Thanks!

This podcast is completely filled with one mans ignorance. It’s all his own opinions throughout and very little facts. This should Not be in the history category.

This is not a religious podcast although you will learn a lot about religion. And history. In segments averaging about 30 minutes or less. No commercials. No pleas for money, although this level of expertise and entertainment are well worth paying for. This podcast is literally priceless. With a voice ‘like butter’ and a surprising dry wit, this is without a doubt the best podcast you will ever listen to.

If you are looking for solid historical reference and insight to help you with timelines, cultural understandings, etc, then this podcast provides a lot. However, if you have a hardline, traditional Christian view, you might want to venture elsewhere. Though the tag line for this pod says, “not one ounce of objectivity”, there is easily an 80/20 skew against those more traditional concepts. That being said, if you are an open minded Christian who feels you can remain true to the gospel while entertaining some of the skepticism of the world that questions, you will find a great resource to help you expand your ministry, testimony, etc.

I love this podcast! I learn more from this podcast than I did from 2 semesters of Old and New Testaments back in college.

Wow. I was pretty surprised to hear how much one could absolutely loathe an inspired book of Scripture. It’s God’s revelation to us and you hate it? Unbelievable. And then came the shocking statement to say that the Bible contains fantasies? That’s God’s Word you’re talking about! Certainly the Lord Jesus held a different view on Scripture than this podcast does and that should trouble you.

I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I expected some historical deconstruction of the events mentioned in the Bible, how that might compare to other texts written at the time, what archeological evidence there may or may not be for these events, and what non-literal interpretations have been made about these events by both the writers and modern scholars. I did not expect a summary of the Bible with the occasional biased quip like “according to the Bible, slavery is good” without any further context into the culture of the day. Gary is a good storyteller and I enjoy the podcast to a degree, it just doesnt go into “All the history in all the books in all the Bible’s” as it claims to do.

...is he *trying* to sound like Adam Curtis?!

love the podcast, excited for the new season! but! you have set your mic gate wrong in the new episode and it’s cutting off the ends of your words. hope you can fix it.

So happy to find such a detailed explanation of Bible history. Thank you for spending many years researching the Bible and explaining its history to others.

I am a liberal Protestant with a graduate-level theology degree. I am perfectly happy to lean about textual traditions and places where the Bible differs from other sources. I am glad this podcast digs into those subjects. But when he makes offhand comments such as Protestants other than Episcopalians and Lutherans not having a liturgical year, or says that the “simplest” explanation for Jesus having siblings is that they're products of Joseph’s 1st marriage, then I worry about what other details he’s getting wrong and assumptions he's making. His lack of use of the NRSV Bible is also a major red flag. That is the standard translation used in non-doctrinal academic settings. I do applaud his frequent references to and quotes from Jewish translations. Few people bother. He’s a good storyteller. So if you're here for the story, great. Get the academic analysis from someone else.

I love this podcast so much! Garry has great wit and is a great storyteller... TWO THUMBS UP!

Garry does an excellent job weaving his research into a compelling narrative in each episode. I started listening last year and have been binging this podcast incessantly ever since. Garry does not pretend to be objective, but as a person of faith, it's hard to find his positions offensive, unless you're extremely sensitive. Be prepared to have your preconceived notions about the world of the Bible challenged. Oh, and I see someone complained about the music for the second series... I highly disagree. It's just the right balance of serious and fun... just like the podcast. Keep it up Garry, can't wait for the final series!

I really enjoy and appreciate this AEP. I wanted a little something to fall asleep to that would educate me at the same time. These programs are short relatively but quite informative and very well presented. My listening to the whole series a person can increase their knowledge considerably as well as gain a better understanding of the Scriptures!

He is mentioning that part 3 will be the last. I’ve never wanted the Bible to be longer - until now. So well done.

Have spent many hours with you and have loved all the subjects. Thank you.

Very much enjoying this overview of the Bible with history thrown in. Entertaining and smooth listening.