Revelation 17:1-19:10 with Dr. Michelle Fletcher

Listen here as Dr. Michelle Fletcher (King's College London) guides us through Revelation 17:1-19:10 we discuss:

* The city represented by the woman sitting on the beast, and the accusations against her (17:1–6)

* The beast and its seven heads and ten horns (17:3, 7–9)

* The cooperative relationship between the woman and the beast, and then the beast and kings turn on the woman (17:12–18)

* The lament and rejoicing over Babylon (18:1–24)

* The indictment against Babylon for fornication (17:2; 18:3, 9)

* The lamb’s battle and marriage (17:14; 19:6–9)

Works by Dr. Michelle Fletcher

* "Exodus in Revelation." In Exodus in the New Testament. Edited by S. Ehorn and S. Whittle. T&T Clark, 2022.

* "Revelation." In The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries. Edited by J. Schröter et al. Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019.

* "Apocalypse Noir: The Book of Revelation and Genre." In T&T Clark Companion to The Bible and Film. Edited by R. Walsh. Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018.

* Reading Revelation as Pastiche: Imitating the Past. T&T Clark, 2017.

* “Flesh for Frankenwhore: Reading Babylon’s Body in Revelation 17.” In The Body in Biblical, Christian, and Jewish Texts. Ed. Joan E. Taylor. T&T Clark, 2014

* “Behold, I’ll Be Back: Terminator, the Book of Revelation and the Power of Sequels.” In Now Showing: Film Theory in Biblical Studies. Ed. Caroline Vander Stichele and Laura Copier. SBL Press, 2016.

Dr. Michelle Fletcher recommends

* Taking a cross country trip by train.

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The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

Visit our website at thetwotestaments.com, where you can subscribe, access all episodes, and meet our guides through Scripture. Sign up now so you don’t miss an episode.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Vurbl, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts.

You can also watch us on Youtube.

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.

Revelation 15–16 (The Seven Bowls) with Dr. Jamie Davies

Dr. Jamie Davies (Trinity College) guides us through Revelation 15-16. We discuss:

* God’s wrath coming to end (15:1)

* The sea of glass mixed with fire (15:2)

* Those who conquer sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb (15:3–4)

* The temple of the tent of witness in heaven (15:5)

* The bowls being poured into the earth and the sea and the resulting “ecological collateral damage,” and the altar crying out (16:1–3)

* The people cursing God for his judgments (16:9, 11, 21)

* The interlude of Jesus coming like a thief (16:15)

* The beast, the prophet, and the dragon from whose mouths comes three frogs who gather the kings of the earth for the final battle of Armageddon (16:10–16)

* The final angel pours the bowl that splits Babylon in three parts, and the islands fleeing and the mountains disappearing (16:17–21)

Works by Dr. Jamie Davies

* Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Smyth & Helwys, 2023.

* The Apocalyptic Paul. Cascade Companions. Cascade, 2022

* Paul Among the Apocalypses? An Evaluation of the ‘Apocalyptic Paul’ in the Context of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature. LNTS 562. T&T Clark, 2016.

Jamie Davies recommends

* Saint Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions, Books 10 and 11

Subscribe and don't miss an episode

The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

Visit our website at thetwotestaments.com, where you can subscribe, access all episodes, and meet our guides through Scripture. Sign up now so you don’t miss an episode.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Vurbl, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. You can also watch us on Youtube.

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.

Zephaniah with Dr. Heath Thomas

Dr. Heath Thomas (Oklahoma Baptist University) guides us through the book of Zephaniah. We discuss:

* Zephaniah’s context and major themes including the idea that God is sovereign over all the nations

* The day of the LORD as a coming event (1:1–18)

* God as an agent of violence

* The “perhaps” of escaping God’s wrath (2:3)

* Israel’s corporate identity and the rescue of the remnant (2:7, 9; 3:12)

* God’s judgment as disciplinary

Works by Dr. Heath Thomas

* A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation. Edited with C. Bartholomew. Baker Academic, 2016

* Faith Amid the Ruins: The Book of Habakkuk. Lexham Press, 2016

* Poetry & Theology in the Book of Lamentations: The Aesthetics of an Open Text. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013

* Holy War in the Bible: Christian Morality and an Old Testament Problem. Edited by Heath Thomas et al. IVP Academic, 2013

Dr. Heath Thomas recommends

* The works of Umberto Eco

* Art and Faith: A Theology of Making written by Makoto Fujimura

Subscribe and don't miss an episode

The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

Visit our website at thetwotestaments.com, where you can subscribe, access all episodes, and meet our guides through Scripture. Sign up now so you don’t miss an episode.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Vurbl, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts.

You can also watch us on Youtube.

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.

Habakkuk with Dr. Heath Thomas

Dr. Heath Thomas (Oklahoma Baptist University) guides us through the book of Habakkuk. We discuss:

* The historical context of Habakkuk

* Major themes of: divine judgment and the use of foreign nations to execute God’s judgment; the significance of payer and praise; divine and human faithfulness;

* God using a foreign nation to discipline his people (1:6). and Habakkuk’s complaint against God doing this (1:13)

* The vision that Habakkuk is to write down (2:2)

* The meaning of Habakkuk 2:4: “the just will live by his faith”

* The divine theophany in which God touches down to earth and marches through the wilderness to rescue his people (3:1–15)

Works by Dr. Heath Thomas

* A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation. Edited with C. Bartholomew. Baker Academic, 2016

* Faith Amid the Ruins: The Book of Habakkuk. Lexham Press, 2016

* Poetry & Theology in the Book of Lamentations: The Aesthetics of an Open Text. Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013

* Holy War in the Bible: Christian Morality and an Old Testament Problem. Edited by Heath Thomas et al. IVP Academic, 2013

Dr. Heath Thomas recommends

* The works of Umberto Eco

* Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making, Yale University Press, 2021

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.

Dr. Olivia Stewart Lester (Loyola University Chicago) guides us through Revelation 12-14. We discuss:

* The woman who gives birth and is chased by the dragon (12:1–6, 13–16)

* The conflict between the woman’s child and the dragon as a combat myth and how Revelation critiques the Apollo-Python combat myth

* The two wings of the great eagle that the woman receives, and her escape to the wilderness (12:14)

* The beast who receives its authority from the dragon, the beast’s mortal wound (13:1–8), and how Daniel 7 helps us understand the beast

* The prophetic warning and call to endurance in 13:9–10.

* The second beast that marks people’s foreheads with the number 666 (13:11–18)

* The 144,000 who have the name of the lamb and of the Father on their foreheads and their masculine-virginal description (14:1–5)

* The mysterious song that John hears (14:3)

* The three angels who speak and deliver messages of God’s judgment (14:6–12)

* Whether the description that “the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever” indicates a never-ending conscious punishment (14:11); and how to understand the depiction of God’s violence (14:10–11)

* The Son of Man, the angels, and their sickles for harvest (i.e., judgment; 14:14–20)

Works by Dr. Olivia Stewart Lester

* "Revealed History as Prophetic Rivalry: John's Apocalypse, the Sibylline Oracles, and the Prophecy of Apollo," Early Christianity 10 (2019): 461–480

* Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4–5. WUNT 2/466. Mohr Siebeck, 2018.

Dr. Olivia Stewart Lester recommends

* The TV show, The Bear

Subscribe and don't miss an episode

The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

Visit our website at thetwotestaments.com, where you can subscribe, access all episodes, and meet our guides through Scripture. Sign up now so you don’t miss an episode.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Vurbl, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts.

You can also watch us on Youtube.

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.

Dr. Beth Stovell (Ambrose University) guides us through the book of Nahum. We discuss:

* Nahum’s emphasis on God’s anger

* The vivid description of a battle scene (Nahum 2)

* Nahum’s metaphor of the city of Nineveh as a prostitute (3:4)

* What it means that "her infants were dashed to pieces" (Nahum 3:10)

* How Nahum is hopeful

Works by Dr. Beth Stovell

* The Book of the Twelve, with David Fuller. Cascade, 2022

* Theodicy and Hope in the Book of the Twelve. Edited with G. Athas et al. T&T Clark, 2021

* Minor Prophets I (Hosea-Micah) and Minor Prophets II (Nahum-Malachi). The Story of God Bible Commentary Series: Old Testament. Zondervan, forthcoming

* Mapping Metaphorical Discourse in the Fourth Gospel: John's Eternal King. Brill, 2012

Dr. Beth Stovell recommends

* The works of Dr. Juliana Claassens, Professor of Old Testament at Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

* The Africana Bible: Reading Israel's Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora. Fortress Press, 2009

Subscribe and don't miss an episode

The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

Visit our website at thetwotestaments.com, where you can subscribe, access all episodes, and meet our guides through Scripture. Sign up now so you don’t miss an episode.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Vurbl, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts.

You can also watch us on Youtube.

This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.