0:03

Hello everyone, and welcome

0:05

to another episode of

0:07

the Enter the Bible podcast where you can

0:09

get answers or at least reflections

0:12

on everything you wanted to know about the Bible. But we're

0:14

afraid to ask. I'm Katie

0:16

Langston.

0:16

And I'm Kathryn Schifferdecker. And today

0:19

we're doing Lightning Round.

0:21

So what

0:23

sound effects? So

0:25

this is just a podcast where we try to answer

0:28

as many questions as we can, as

0:30

many listener questions as we can. In one

0:32

podcast, we'll be doing two episodes

0:34

of this. So thank

0:37

you. First of all, to those who sent

0:39

questions, many

0:41

of which are really interesting.

0:44

And so we're going to we're going to

0:46

do our best to address them. So

0:48

I'm going to start with

0:50

the first one. Okay. That

0:53

that struck me. And

0:56

this is it struck you like lightning.

0:58

Ha ha ha. So,

1:01

Katie, our listeners may not know

1:03

this was once my student not so

1:05

very long ago. Well, 6 or 7

1:07

years ago. Well.

1:09

Well, I just graduated in December, so a

1:11

year ago. So yeah.

1:12

Well yes but been in. Yes. Yeah.

1:14

Yeah. I hear you. Yes. Right. In

1:16

early days. Yeah that was longer ago.

1:18

Yes. Um, and so one

1:21

of the things we talked about was the book of Ruth

1:23

we did in the class that in Scripture

1:25

and its witnesses. So here's the question.

1:28

Does the Book of Ruth occur

1:30

during the United Monarchy?

1:33

No.

1:35

Hey, Yeah, You get an

1:37

A, you get an A . You pass the book.

1:39

And the reason I remember this actually, is because

1:41

we talked about how the

1:43

book of judges is, like, the most

1:45

depressing, saddest, most

1:48

miserable book in the entire Bible. Possibly.

1:51

Yes. And, well, I mean, lamentations

1:53

is. Yeah, there's a lot of lamenting and lamentations.

1:56

That's a great point. But yeah.

1:57

Judges is not...

1:59

Isn't the most pleasant book. And it's sort of like,

2:02

you know, you know,

2:05

everyone's bad and they do their

2:07

own thing or whatever. And

2:09

then we talked about how the Book of Ruth is

2:11

in contrast, kind of in contrast

2:14

to the book of judges, because

2:16

here is this kind

2:18

of lovely story

2:21

of faith and faithfulness and,

2:23

you know, familial love

2:25

and these sorts of things

2:27

coming out of what

2:30

is otherwise a relatively,

2:32

you know, dismal time. And

2:34

so there's sort of it's sort of a

2:36

conversation against the book of judges.

2:38

In some ways. That's what I remember.

2:40

That just warms my heart that you remembered that.

2:42

Yes. Yes.

2:44

So it takes place during the time of

2:46

the judges. Yeah.

2:47

And so just to put it in just

2:49

a little more context, so the time of the judges is

2:51

the time between so

2:54

you get the wilderness wanderings and then the

2:56

entry into the land described in the

2:58

book of Joshua. And then the book of judges is that

3:00

time when they're in the land. But

3:02

before they were kings, right? And

3:05

yes, you're exactly right. It's a time of

3:07

the book of judges ends by saying

3:10

there was no king in Israel in those

3:13

days. There was no king in Israel. All the people did

3:15

what was right in their own eyes.

3:17

And then, as you said, Ruth starts the

3:19

very next verse in Ruth

3:22

in the days when the judges ruled. So

3:24

in the time of the judges, the

3:26

book of Ruth ends, though, by

3:28

noting that Ruth's son, Obed,

3:31

is the grandfather of King David.

3:34

So it's not long. It's kind of Ruth

3:36

is really the transition point between

3:38

the time of the judges and the time of the kings.

3:41

And the United Monarchy just means

3:44

both the northern and southern kingdom, all

3:46

12 tribes together, and the first

3:49

under Saul, then under David and then under Solomon.

3:51

Yeah. So, yeah.

3:53

Awesome. Good, good, good, good one. All

3:55

right, so second

3:57

question here. All

3:59

right. Who wrote first

4:01

and second Kings?

4:04

We don't know. Oh, all right. So third

4:06

question. That's

4:09

awesome. Like many biblical

4:11

books, we we the

4:14

authorship is anonymous. Not all biblical

4:16

books. We have obviously the books of Jeremiah

4:18

and Isaiah and John. You

4:20

know, we have we do know some authors,

4:22

Amos Particularly the prophets, but

4:25

many, many books are anonymous.

4:27

Now, Jewish tradition says

4:30

that the prophet

4:32

Jeremiah wrote, Oh, really? The books of

4:34

first and second Kings. But that's.

4:38

It may be that Jeremiah or

4:40

his scribe Baruch wrote some of

4:42

it, but first and

4:44

second Kings, just like first and second, Samuel

4:46

seems to be a narrative

4:49

that draws from many different sources.

4:52

So, for instance, there are some

4:54

mentions in first and second kings

4:57

of it all say such

4:59

and such. King reigned in Jerusalem for

5:02

so many years and etcetera, etcetera.

5:04

And then he died and was laid to rest.

5:06

And his son, you know, became

5:08

king in his place. And as for

5:11

the rest of his deeds, are they not written

5:13

in the book of the Annals of the Kings of

5:15

Judah or the Book of the Annals

5:17

of the Kings of Israel? And so

5:20

there seems they were probably some

5:22

royal annals, royal

5:24

records that were kept during

5:26

the reigns of the Kings. And so it's

5:29

likely that first and second Kings

5:31

drew from those kind of historical

5:33

accounts. Um, scholars

5:35

would say that first

5:38

and Second Kings is part of what scholars call the Deuteronomistic

5:40

history, which.

5:44

That's a big word Deuteronomistic supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, ah i'm

5:51

hilarious, uh.

5:54

Which is obvious. I love that. Deuteronomistic

5:57

obviously sounds like the word Deuteronomy,

6:00

which is the name of the book.

6:02

Of Deuteronomy.

6:03

Which means the second law.

6:05

Oh, I didn't know that.

6:06

It's like the record of the second giving

6:08

of the law. And, and so

6:10

scholars call these books. So the

6:12

books. Joshua Judges first and second.

6:14

Samuel First and second Kings, those

6:17

six books, they call those the Deuteronomistic

6:19

history because they're

6:21

a history of, you know, Israel

6:24

from the time of, you know, entry

6:26

into the land to the time of exile

6:29

and covering all the, you know, reigns

6:32

of all the kings of Israel and Judah. Um,

6:35

but so it's a history, but it seems

6:37

to be heavily influenced by the theology

6:39

of the book of Deuteronomy. Oh, I see. So

6:41

there's themes of covenant, there's themes

6:44

of centralized worship and

6:46

sin, punishment and redemption and prophets

6:48

and so, so that's

6:51

why it's called the Deuteronomistic history. So the,

6:53

the long answer or to

6:56

cut to the chase, we don't really know who

6:58

wrote first and second Kings, but it seems to be

7:00

the work of different

7:02

hands, different authors and editors, drawing

7:04

from both oral stories and

7:06

written sources like the ones I mentioned,

7:09

but shaped into its final form, into

7:11

the, you know, edited into the form.

7:13

We have it by

7:16

people in influenced by

7:18

theologians, influenced by the Book of Deuteronomy.

7:21

And so they are telling history,

7:23

but they're telling it from a

7:25

theological viewpoint, how is

7:27

God at work in this history? It's not a it

7:30

doesn't claim to be objective. It does it it's

7:32

not a modern kind of history. They don't talk

7:34

about political influences or social influences.

7:37

They talk about what is God up to

7:39

in this history? Yeah. Cool.

7:42

Yeah. Awesome. All right. Okay,

7:44

Um, let's

7:47

go to the next

7:49

question. So this was rather long

7:51

question when

7:53

it was submitted and I'm going to just summarize

7:56

it. So and it

7:58

has to do with the book of Ephesians. Okay.

8:01

And so the, the, the

8:03

listener quotes Ephesians 3:17

8:07

where Paul,

8:10

the author of Ephesians, says that

8:12

Christ may dwell in your

8:14

hearts. I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts

8:16

through faith as you are being rooted and

8:18

grounded in love. And

8:20

the the listener says, My question

8:22

is why Paul prays for the Christians

8:25

in Ephesus who are already in

8:27

Christ? Because, um, this

8:29

listener notes that earlier

8:32

verses talk about them already being

8:34

in Christ. Yes. My question is why

8:36

does Paul pray for the Christians in Ephesus who

8:38

are already in Christ and have been marked with

8:40

the Holy Spirit that Christ may

8:42

dwell in their hearts? Don't they have Christ in

8:44

their hearts while they have faith in Christ and have been

8:46

given the Holy Spirit? And

8:49

they say, I'm looking forward to reading you answers. So

8:51

what would you say to me?

8:53

Um, so I think

8:55

I would say that, yes,

8:58

we are

9:00

in Christ, Those of us who

9:02

believe in Christ and have been baptized

9:05

into Christ, we have Christ.

9:08

We are in union with Christ and we've been

9:10

sealed with the cross never to be.

9:14

Unsealed or

9:16

what have you. And also,

9:18

it doesn't strike me

9:20

as being a strange

9:22

thing to continue to pray, to

9:25

be kept in

9:27

Christ, to continue to have the Holy

9:29

Spirit dwelling in our hearts.

9:32

That may be one of the ways that we,

9:35

you know, one of the practices that we

9:37

have to remind us of

9:39

being belonging to Christ

9:41

and being in union with Christ is

9:43

our own prayers and the prayers of others,

9:47

you know, keeping us in

9:50

the faith, keeping us aware of

9:53

our identity in Christ. And

9:55

so it didn't strike me

9:58

as problematic that

10:00

you might pray that while at the same

10:02

time acknowledging that you're already,

10:05

you know, in that state of being in

10:07

union with Christ.

10:08

Yeah, I think that's a good way of thinking

10:10

about it. So I'm trying to think of analogies

10:14

today, right? We might pray for our

10:16

children. Sure. That they

10:18

be in Christ

10:20

or that they be kept safe.

10:22

Yep. But we don't do

10:25

prayer isn't a once and done kind

10:27

of thing, right. We continue

10:29

to pray for. Yeah,

10:31

those sorts of things. Yeah. We don't see

10:33

spring, right? We're told not to see

10:36

spring, so. Yeah.

10:38

Yeah.

10:38

It's not like you. It's not like you like pray for

10:40

the thing and then you get the thing and then you're like,

10:42

okay, next. Right? It's sort of

10:44

like a unless it's a pony.

10:46

Yeah.

10:46

If it's a pony. And then you're like, Thank

10:48

you, Lord, for the pony. But

10:51

aside from ponies, it

10:54

feels like it feels like

10:56

we can continually pray for

10:58

the blessings that we hope to receive for the

11:00

blessings we have already received,

11:02

for the blessings we may not receive. And

11:04

it's it's okay and good

11:07

and, you know, commendable even

11:09

to pray and to remain in

11:11

prayer for those things, for ourselves and

11:13

others.

11:14

For ourselves and others. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I

11:16

did pray for a pony when I was little.

11:18

Did you.

11:18

Did you get it? I never got one. Oh, well, which

11:20

is probably good because we never lived out in the country,

11:23

so.

11:23

Yeah, probably.

11:24

Hard to keep up.

11:24

Yeah. You wouldn't have space for it. It would get kind

11:27

of sad, so. Well, you know,

11:29

next question. So.

11:33

How many Marys are

11:35

there anyway? Because

11:38

it seems like every time you turn the page

11:41

in the New Testament, there's another Mary and

11:43

you're like, Is this the same Mary as before?

11:45

Is this a different Mary? Mary's

11:47

all over the place. So how many are

11:49

there, really?

11:50

I did a little research on this because

11:52

I couldn't answer this question

11:54

off the top of my head. I knew of at least three,

11:58

but didn't realize that there

12:00

are actually 6 or 7 women

12:03

in the New Testament named Mary. Okay,

12:06

So two of those outside the Gospels.

12:08

So I was just thinking of those in the Gospels.

12:10

So in that case it would be 4

12:13

or 5. So the

12:15

obvious first one is

12:17

Mary the mother of Jesus,

12:20

right? So she is

12:22

obviously in all four gospels and

12:24

plays a large role. Yes. In the gospels.

12:27

I'll just note that Mary is actually

12:30

a form of the Hebrew named Miriam.

12:33

Yeah. Yeah.

12:34

So my daughter. So yeah.

12:36

So bonus Mary in the Old Testament.

12:39

That's right. Is Miriam. Yep, that's right.

12:42

I have my older sister. My dear sister is

12:44

named Miriam as well. It's a beautiful name. But

12:46

in the New Testament that becomes

12:48

Mary and it seems to have been

12:51

a very popular name in

12:54

amongst Jewish people in the first

12:56

century. So Mary, the mother of Jesus,

12:59

second one probably most people would think of.

13:02

Okay, Mary Magdalene. Yes.

13:04

Yes. So Mary Magdalene is

13:06

mentioned in all four gospels, in fact,

13:08

plays a pretty major role

13:10

in all four gospels in this sense that she is

13:12

a witness. First of all, she's a follower

13:14

of Jesus, but she's also a witness

13:16

at the crucifixion, the burial and

13:19

the resurrection. Right. So probably

13:21

most famously in the gospel of John,

13:23

where Mary weeps at the tomb

13:26

and Jesus appears to her and she doesn't recognize

13:28

him at first. And then he speaks

13:30

her name. Yeah, Mary. And she

13:33

recognizes him. And she really, in

13:35

all four gospels, is one of the first

13:37

evangelists or really the first

13:39

evangelist of the resurrection.

13:42

The the Lord is risen.

13:45

The Lord has appeared to me.

13:46

The the apostle to the apostles.

13:48

The apostle to the apostles. Yes, I have

13:50

seen the Lord, she says to the

13:53

male apostles. So. And

13:55

she follows and provides for Jesus

13:57

in Luke eight, you know, even before

14:00

that she talks

14:02

about she's listed among other women

14:04

from Galilee who followed Jesus

14:06

and provide for him and the disciples

14:09

apparently out of their means,

14:11

out of their wealth.

14:13

Yeah. So, yeah. Now it's

14:16

worth saying that Mary has gotten a bad

14:18

rap. Yeah. Traditionally, she's

14:20

associated with the. The sinful

14:22

woman of Luke seven, the

14:25

one who washes Jesus feet

14:27

with her. But

14:30

it's. It's

14:32

not likely

14:34

that she is that woman because that woman is introduced

14:36

in Luke seven and then Mary Magdalene is

14:39

introduced in Luke eight as

14:41

if we haven't seen her before, you know.

14:43

So, um, so

14:45

yeah, she was.

14:47

She in love with Jesus?

14:48

Well, that Jesus Christ superstar

14:51

would.

14:51

Would say also, I think The Da

14:53

Vinci Code. Right? They got married. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

14:55

Yeah, yeah.

14:56

But there's a later Gnostic tradition about

14:58

that, right? Yeah, that's. That's not biblical.

15:00

That's not in. That is not.

15:01

Not that is not biblical. And even

15:03

the Gnostic gospels,

15:05

the Gnostic literature. Those

15:07

of you. Yes. Yeah.

15:10

In air quotes. Yeah. The gnostic

15:12

literature. She

15:14

plays a really large part in those

15:17

like the gospel of Thomas. But

15:20

but even in those

15:22

it's only in a minority of those that she's,

15:25

you know, in love with Jesus.

15:27

Right. Or or romantically. Romantically.

15:29

Yeah. She's she's more of a kind of

15:31

a. Intellectual,

15:33

really? Person who debates with

15:36

other disciples. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Should

15:39

we define define gnostic?

15:40

We maybe because. Sorry, since I went down

15:42

that rabbit hole, we should probably. Yeah, just say

15:45

that a little bit.

15:45

Yeah. So, Gnostic, the

15:47

Gnostic movement is a movement in

15:49

the early church and really outside

15:52

the church as well. That I'm

15:54

going to oversimplify it, but basically Gnosticism

15:56

says there's a kind of secret gnosis or

15:59

knowledge that

16:01

is is available to only a select

16:03

few. And it it

16:05

disparages the material and the bodily

16:08

and lifts up the spiritual.

16:10

It says only the spirit really is worthy

16:12

of value and the material

16:15

is, you know, the material world

16:17

and human bodies is dirty and the

16:19

and the result of be transcended. Yes.

16:22

To be transcended. So it's it

16:24

was it was it is a heresy.

16:26

Yeah. Yeah. Because Christianity obviously

16:29

we.

16:29

Believe in the resurrection of the body.

16:31

Exactly. Bodies are important. Bodies are

16:33

important. God creates the world

16:35

and calls it good. Yeah.

16:36

And and God becomes a body. God becomes

16:39

flesh. So yeah. So Gnosticism was

16:42

was proclaimed a heresy in the early

16:44

church. But there are this there are these

16:47

works that we have that were

16:49

influenced by Gnosticism and in those

16:51

Mary Magdalene plays a part. Yeah

16:53

but not in the Bible.

16:55

And because there is nothing new under the sun, I think

16:57

that you can find lots of strains of Gnosticism

16:59

all over the place. Yes, in this world. But

17:02

we.

17:02

Digress. Yes. So, yes. Back to Mary.

17:04

So. So, Mary. Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary

17:06

Magdalene. Third one. Mary

17:08

of Bethany.

17:09

Okay.

17:10

Yep. So she's a sister of Martha,

17:12

sister of Lazarus. She

17:14

appears in Luke and John, so

17:17

she appears in Luke.

17:20

That story that I'm sure is familiar

17:22

to many of us, Mary and Martha.

17:25

Martha is preparing the meal.

17:27

And Mary's the good one.

17:28

Well, Martha is the industrious one who's

17:31

preparing the meal and she gets irritated at

17:34

her sister Mary, who's sitting at Jesus feet

17:36

and listening to Jesus teach. And and

17:39

Jesus commends

17:41

Mary for doing that. So, Mary, as

17:43

a as a disciple, Mary Bethany Bethany

17:45

is a village outside of just outside of Jerusalem.

17:48

But then in John, an even bigger

17:50

role, I would say, for Mary,

17:53

Martha and Lazarus in the story in John

17:55

11, of the raising of Lazarus from

17:58

the dead, where both Mary and Martha come to

18:00

Jesus and say, you know, Lord, if

18:02

you had been here, my brother would not have died. And

18:04

Jesus gives them that great promise.

18:06

I am the resurrection and the life He

18:09

believes in me though he

18:11

die yet well live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

18:14

he believes in me will never die. And then

18:17

in John 12 in the chapter afterwards, Mary

18:19

of Bethany anoints Jesus

18:21

with a costly ointment and wipes

18:23

his feet with her hair. So.

18:27

So you can see the.

18:29

Interesting that the tradition that there's like

18:31

the one Mary in Luke and then

18:34

or not the one who's name we

18:36

don't know who anoints him

18:38

with his hair. And then there's Mary of Bethany

18:40

and John. Maybe that's how people got

18:43

exactly mixed up with Mary Magdalene.

18:45

Exactly. Exactly. So there's some confusion between.

18:47

So many Mary's.

18:48

There are so many. Mary's.

18:49

There's a lot of Mary's.

18:50

Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary

18:52

of Bethany. And then the last

18:56

four are much more minor. So there's

18:58

a there's a woman named Mary, the mother of

19:00

James and Joseph, who

19:02

is listed along with other

19:04

Galilean women who followed Jesus

19:08

in Matthew. She is

19:11

mentioned in Matthew, Mark and Luke in

19:14

Matthew. She's just called the other Mary.

19:19

But you know what? It's cool that she got a mention at

19:21

all because how many people even get a mention? Yeah.

19:23

There you go. Yeah.

19:24

So another woman who follows Jesus

19:26

from. From Galilee, Mary,

19:30

the other Mary. And then number five,

19:33

Mary, the wife of Cleopas.

19:35

Oh, of course. Cleopas.

19:36

Yes.

19:37

The well known, the.

19:38

Well known Cleopas doesn't

19:40

appear anywhere else, so.

19:43

Is named Cleopas.

19:44

Only mentioned in John 19.

19:47

So Mary, the wife of Cleopas, is one

19:49

of the women at the cross who witnesses Jesus

19:51

crucifixion. And the question about

19:53

whether it's 6 or 7 Mary's is

19:55

that Mary, the wife of Cleopas, might

19:57

also be Mary, the mother of James and Jesus.

20:00

So it might be the.

20:01

Same, the.

20:02

Same Mary, but who knows? We don't know so many. Mary's.

20:04

We can't do DNA testing on Mary's

20:08

on these Mary's.

20:09

And then the five. So either 4 or

20:11

5 in the gospels. Mary's the

20:14

last two of those. Mary the mother

20:16

of John Mark in Acts 12

20:18

who hosts a

20:20

house church in Jerusalem, so

20:23

that when Paul gets out of prison, so.

20:25

Mary hosts the House church.

20:26

Or Mary hosts the house church. It's

20:28

her. It's her house. It's her house

20:31

in which people are gathered to.

20:32

Good job.

20:34

In Acts 12. Yep. And

20:36

I believe it's Peter who gets out

20:38

of jail and then comes and finds that

20:40

one.

20:40

And then. And then, like. And then knocks

20:43

on the door. And then the lady. And then the

20:45

one lady, I think answers and

20:49

says, uh, like

20:52

you're a ghost and slams the door in

20:54

his face. And he's like, No, it's me that

20:57

keeps knocking. I'm, I'm actually

20:59

here. That's

21:01

a fun story. It is funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

21:04

So. So that was Mary's house, Mary, the

21:07

mother of John Mark. And finally,

21:09

in Romans chapter 16,

21:11

there is a Roman Christian

21:13

woman named Mary who is greeted

21:15

by Paul and a list of other names. Okay,

21:18

so who.

21:19

Knows? So there you.

21:19

Go. So many. Mary's either 6 or 7.

21:22

In the New Testament. In the New Testament with Miriam the bonus Mary from the

21:26

Old Testament. That's right. Amazing.

21:28

Miriam, the sister of Moses.

21:29

Yes.

21:30

Well, Prophetess.

21:31

In her own right.

21:32

Yes. And a prophetess in her

21:34

own right. Yes, indeed. Well, that

21:37

brings us to the end of our

21:40

first lightning round. We'll

21:42

be doing another one. But

21:44

thank you. Thank you. Thank you. To those of us who

21:47

sent those questions, those of you

21:49

who sent those questions to us. And

21:51

we invite you

21:53

and others to continue submitting questions,

21:55

we can't promise that we will

21:57

be able to answer all of them, but we'll do as much

21:59

as we can. And you can. You

22:02

can do that by going to EntertheBible.org and

22:05

clicking on the box that says.

22:07

It's a tab. It's a it's a menu item at

22:09

the top has got questions.

22:11

There we go.

22:12

All right. Don't sue us.

22:15

So thank you to you for sending

22:18

the questions. Thanks to all of you for listening

22:20

to this episode of the Enter the Bible Podcast.

22:22

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22:24

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22:27

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