Exorcisms on the big screen are terrifying – but what did exorcisms mean in first-century Palestine? Join Helen and Lloyd in the Biblical Time Machine as they uncover the strange world of Greek magical papyri, the Dead Sea Scrolls and charismatic figures viewed as magicians. Joining them in the Time Machine is Professor Graham Twelftree, a leading Jesus historian, who argues that Jesus was perceived in his own lifetime as an exorcist.

Graham H. Twelftree is Professor Emeritus of New testament Theology and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity, Regent University in Virginia, and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the London School of Theology. His many works include Jesus the Exorcist: A Contribution to the Study of the Historical Jesus (1991), Jesus the Miracle Worker and Paul and the Miraculous, and edited volumes such as The Nature Miracles of Jesus: Problems, Perspectives and Prospects and The Cambridge Companion to Miracles.

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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.

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine

What does it mean to read the New Testament through the lens of disability and mental health? In this episode of Biblical Time Machine, Helen Bond is joined by Professor Louise Lawrence (University of Exeter), whose groundbreaking 2018 book Bible and Bedlam explores how the ancient world understood “madness” and how modern interpretations can carry ableist and sanist assumptions.

Together, they discuss different models of disability, whether Jesus’ healings reinforce or subvert stigma, and how metaphors of disability shape the language of the New Testament. Louise also reflects on “sane privilege” in biblical scholarship, how autism has been read into Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus, and what we might learn from Africana writer Bessie Head.

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.

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine

From the royal courts of Babylon to the Acts of the Apostles, eunuchs appear in some of the most intriguing corners of the biblical story. But what did it really mean to be a eunuch in antiquity? Were they trusted chamberlains at the heart of ancient empires, symbols of inclusion at the edges of faith, or even 'angel'-like beings transcending the ordinary categories of gender?

In this episode, Helen and Lloyd are joined by Shaun Tougher to explore the lives of eunuchs in the ancient world and their reception in early Christianity. Shaun Tougher is Professor or Late Roman Byzantine History at Cardiff University and the author of The Roman Castrati: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire (2022). He is a world-leading expert in the study of eunuchs.

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.

DOWNLOAD OUR STUDY GUIDE: MARK AS ANCIENT BIOGRAPHY

Check out our 4-part audio study guide called "The Gospel of Mark as an Ancient Biography." While you're there, get yourself a Biblical Time Machine mug or a cool sticker for your water bottle.

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine