Are the resurrection stories in the gospels fact or fiction? To find out, Helen and Lloyd are joined in the Biblical Time Machine by Dr Richard C. Miller, author of Resurrection and Reception in Early Christianity (Routledge, 2017), who argues that the gospel resurrection accounts are similar to ancient 'translation fables.'

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If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

In this week's bonus episode, Dr Richard Miller unpacks parallels between Jesus and Romulus in early Christian literature.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

We have all heard the story of Adam and Eve. But what was the Garden of Eden which they inhabited? In this week's episode, Helen and Lloyd travel back to the dawn of time with Dr Dylan Johnson as their guide to this mythical landscape. Together, they get to the bottom of questions like:

• Was the Garden of Eden meant to be a real place, or a symbolic vision of paradise?
• Is Genesis borrowing from older Mesopotamian stories about divine gardens?
• Was Adam imagined as a king placed in God’s garden to rule on his behalf?
• Is Eve really to blame for “the fall,” or is that a misreading?
• And who exactly is the serpent, before later tradition identified him with Satan?

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

In this week's bonus episode, Dylan Johnson unpacks whether Eden is a Temple.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

We have all heard rumours that ancient religions used children in ritual sacrifice. But did it really happen? To discuss the evidence, Helen and Lloyd are joined in the Time Machine by Dr Eve MacDonald, lecturer at Cardiff University and author of the acclaimed, Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire (Penguin, 2025).

Dr MacDonald answers questions like:

• Did human sacrifice really occur in the ancient world, and what does the archaeological evidence actually show?
• What happened in the Great Death Pit at Ur, and what does it reveal about ancient burial rituals?
• Why do ancient myths and biblical stories so often centre on the sacrifice of young girls?
• Did the Carthaginians really practise child sacrifice, and what does the evidence from the Tophet suggest?
• How did Greeks and Romans use accusations of shocking religious practices to demonise their enemies—and even early Christians?

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.