John 5 has one of the most bizarre verses in the Bible. I’m talking about verse 4 of that chapter. This verse is so bizarre, it doesn’t even appear in a lot of versions of the Bible. Go open up your Bible and check right now; it might just say verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 5.

It’s like your Bible forgot to count. But actually, some versions just take verse 4 right out and pretend it isn’t there.

What is so bizarre about John 5, verse 4? Well, this is the story about the man who had been lame since birth. He laid every day by the pool of Bethesda. Jesus comes along and heals this man in this story and says, “pick up your mat and walk.”

So it’s a very well-known story, but verse 4 stands out as particularly odd.

I’ll pick it up starting at John 5:3

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

This strange reference to an angel who created healing waters on a regular basis is not really mentioned ever again after this, it raises some provoking questions, and then it never answers them. And as I said, many versions of the Bible don’t even include this verse because it’s just too out-of-left-field.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. But also why it’s not in every Bible.

Turn to John 5, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - The Story and Context

8:00 - A Textual Error?

11:15 - An Angel- Just Like the Bible Says

19:10 - Next Time

21:00 - Closing Thoughts

Special thanks to the Two Witnesses Live podcast for inviting me on their show recently! Here is a link if you’d like to see/hear it: https://www.youtube.com/live/Mh0bTZhUKwk?si=vqVdx6KZx9tQIZSo

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

What happened when you got in the water at your baptism?

Guess what? You didn’t just get wet.

You made a proclamation of faith- not just to any humans who witnessed your baptism- but a proclamation of faith that reverberated throughout the entire spiritual realm.

And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re in the right place, because this episode today is going to explain the significance of baptism in the demonic realm.

And along the way, we’ll also explain one of the most puzzling passages in scripture:

I Peter 3:18-22

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Woah, baptism save us? This passage went off the rails real quick. I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to I Peter 3, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:10 - Dedication

4:45 - The Spirits in Prison

11:50 - Baptism Now Saves You?

19:15 - A Spiritual Loyalty Pledge

22:45 - Next Time

24:00 - What Happened at Your Baptism?

Special thanks to the Two Witnesses Live podcast for inviting me on their show recently! Here is a link if you’d like to see/hear it: https://www.youtube.com/live/Mh0bTZhUKwk?si=vqVdx6KZx9tQIZSo

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Jonah chapter 2 is one of the weirdest chapters in the entire Bible.

I mean, think about it: at the end of Jonah 1, he gets swallowed by a giant fish in the Mediterranean Sea. At the beginning of Jonah 3, he’s spat back out on dry land. In between those events, Jonah lifts up this prayer or lament about his situation to heaven, and that’s what chapter 2 consists of. But Jonah 2 has to be the only chapter in the whole Bible that takes place entirely inside of animal.

That’s pretty unique. And kinda weird. And it’s an interesting factoid about that chapter that always sticks out to me every time I read it.

But there may be an unconsidered angle to this story: was Jonah actually dead as he spoke these words and prayed that prayer?

All my life, ever since I was a young kid, I’ve heard the story of Jonah, and it’s always been taught as if Jonah was alive the whole time he laid in that whale’s belly for three days.

And if you watch the Veggie Tales version, you’ll know that was even a host of black choir singers in there as well!

But is it possible we misunderstood what was actually going on? Is it possible that Jonah was actually dead once he got swallowed by that fish, and then was resurrected back to life when he got spat out?

This theory has been around for a while, but it’s been making the rounds here lately on social media.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore whether it’s true in the Bible.

Turn to Jonah 2, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:40 - What Jesus Said in Matthew 12

4:30 - What the Book of Jonah Says

12:30 - But What if Jonah Was Alive?

14:30 - Mailbag

17:50 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Night of the Living Dead. World War Z. Resident Evil. The Walking Dead. And… Matthew chapter 27.

What do all of these have in common? They all contain zombies.

Now, if you don’t believe me that the Bible has some zombies in it, then explain this verse to me. Matthew 27 is about the crucifixion. Now, don’t worry, I’m not about to claim that Jesus was a zombie when He rose from the dead.

Jesus had a resurrection body. He was a special situation.

But something else happened when Jesus died on the cross; something you’ve probably read several times before but just never looked at too deeply:

Matthew 27:52-53

52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

What was that again? When Jesus died on the cross, several other random people walked out of their graves and…and then they’re never heard from again?

We’ll read this in-context in just a moment, but the context doesn’t help a whole lot. This is very random, raises some big questions, and is interested in answering none of them. It just moves right along in the passage and never mentions these zombies again.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Matthew 27, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

1:40 - Setting the Scene

5:00 - The Details

10:15 - Asking the Experts

21:45 - The Gospel through Zombies

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Entire books have been written about the thorny theological issue I want to talk about today.

James chapter 2. At face value, James 2 seems hard to reconcile with the rest of the New Testament.

That’s because the rest of the New Testament pretty clearly teaches this doctrine of salvation by grace through faith not of works. That’s a direct quote, actually.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 4:2-3

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Galatians 2:16

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,

So it’s like, every page of the New Testament makes this clear: salvation is only by grace through faith. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation. Works play no part in it.

And then James comes along and says this in his second chapter,

Verse 14

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

Wait a second here. Let me read that again. (Re-read it)

Is James going against Paul? I can’t emphasize enough how much this seems to be saying the exact opposite of so many other verses in the Bible.

Is James contradicting Paul? Is James contradicting the Bible? Is James contradicting God Himself?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to James 2, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - James 2

6:15 - The Context of James

11:30 - Going Back to the Greek

17:00 - Next Time

20:00 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Let’s tackle one of the questions today that no Sunday School teacher wants to get: are Christian women supposed to wear “head coverings” according to I Corinthians 11?

Because when you read it very simply and plainly, it certainly feels like they should.

I Corinthians 11:5 says

But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head

Yikes! We don’t follow that one these days. Christians have all kinds of reasons to disregard some of the bizarre commandments and customs in the Law of Moses. But this one is a New Testament command. And it tells women that they should have some kind of covering over their heads.

It’s pretty clear. And yet almost no churches today follow this, at least in the Western world.

And if you ask your pastor or your Sunday School teacher why, they probably aren’t too sure. I mean, it’s right there in the Bible in the New Testament, but we don’t do it.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to I Corinthians 11, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

1:30 - I Corinthians 11

6:00 - What is a Covering?

16:30 - What This Says about Gender and Nature

25:30 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

What if someone came to a pastor and said, “How do I go to heaven?” Should the pastor tell him how to go to heaven? What kind of pastor wouldn’t tell someone who came to him and asked how to go to heaven how to go to heaven? That’s a pastor’s dream: for people to come to him and ask him how to go to heaven. That’s why we go to Bible schools and Bible colleges and spend years interning and preparing to lead churches: so we can tell people how to go to heaven.

And yet when a man came and asked Jesus how to go to heaven, Jesus didn’t tell him how to go to heaven. In fact, Jesus told him to do something else that wouldn’t even actually get him into heaven.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Luke 18, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - The Rich Young Ruler Encounter (Luke 18)

9:00 - Mailbag

14:00 - What Was Jesus Doing?

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

So I’ve done 25 episodes now about Weird Stuff in the Bible, but I haven’t talked about Jesus too much yet.

And I really need to, for two reasons. One, because everything in the Bible centers around Jesus.

And two, because Jesus is weird.

Now, I don’t mean that to be disrespectful. I just mean that He was odd.

If you don’t think Jesus is weird, I don’t think you know Jesus very well. He’s completely bizarre. His actions and emotions seem random. He seems to get set off by things that don’t bother other people. He’s extremely loving and gracious one minute and the next he’s kicking over a table. People come to him for help and he doesn’t help them. He gives them something else that they didn’t want. People ask him a question and he hardly ever answers their question- he’ll go off about something else that seems totally unrelated.

And just when He starts making sense- just when it starts to feel like you’re on the same page with Him- He suddenly changes direction and does something totally unexpected.

And I want to look at one of those stories today. Because I find Jesus to be weird. And I’d like know why He does what He does in the Bible.

Turn to Luke 4, and let’s get weird.

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor