One God Among Many: Rethinking the God of the Bible

Links Mentioned in this Episode: Visit https://www.bartehrman.com/courses/ to shop from Bart Ehrman’s online courses and get a special discount by using code: MJPODCAST on all courses. Episode Outline: 0:00 Introduction: How does Israel’s God compare to pagan gods? 03:29 Why ancient monotheism seemed strange 04:34 What ancient gods were like 06:07 What responsibilities did pagan gods have? 07:27 How people worshiped the gods 11:15 Were ancient gods benevolent or dangerous? 16:19 Worshiping the God of Israel 19:42 Was ancient Israel truly monotheistic? 22:39 Israel’s God among other gods 26:12 What made Israel’s God different? Episode Description In the modern Western world, monotheism is the rule, rather than the exception. Not so in the ancient past, where many cultures worshipped whole pantheons of gods, each one responsible for specific areas of the mortal experience. How does the one god of Israel compare to this myriad of deities, and can an understanding of how ancient mediterranean cultures thought about and interacted with the divine help us to understand the god presented to us in the Bible? Also watch these episodes: Ancient Christianities: The First 500 Years    • The Wild Wild West of Early Christianity: ...   Why Early Christians Kept the Old Testament    • Why Early Christians Kept the Old Testament   Meet Marcion: The First Great Christian Heretic    • Meet Marcion: The First Great Christian He...   #Monotheism #Yahweh #HebrewBible #AncientReligion #PaganGods #OldTestament #BibleScholarship #AncientJudaism