Helen & Dave beautiful navigate the Bible with grace, humor, clarity, and wisdom. I have learned an incredible amount from the show.

Having spent my life in the church, I am always fascinated by the new angles, insights, and history presented by Dave, Helen, and their guests. Their discussions add richness and depth to the Biblical texts that I would be hard-pressed to find on my own - especially while on a run or doing dishes. I appreciate the matter-of-fact tone and the overall approach, which I would summarize as: We know some things; there are many things we don’t know. We can use multiple disciplines try to figure things out. Come along for the journey!

Dave and Helen are wonderful hosts. I am not a believer but the cultural importance of biblical history is so monumental and fascinating - Love this show!!

I subscribe to one podcast. This is it!! I have followed from day 1 and hope continues. I love learning about the history of that time and region. So entertaining. I love the music.

From the hosts to guests, I love everything about this podcast. It’s so informative, answers so many historical and archaeological questions. I learn so much with every podcast. Total professionals, curious minds, history loving people. My favorite podcast. Only one comment of constructive criticism, the theme/show intro music could use a little updating. But I honestly love the show.

They cover a wide variety of great topics!

This is a know forgery, by everyone involved . And it’s been proven such and is still being sold as real . It’s pathetic and sad .

The show features a wide array of genuinely interesting topics and a variety of knowledgeable guests each season. Helen and Dave are wonderful hosts. One of the best parts is that the content is accessible to people like me who aren’t experts in the field. I joined the Time Travelers Club (a paid subscription) recently and love the perks, such as getting to be a backstage guest during an episode’s recording.

Helen and the guest are very informed on the topics, very educated. Love the interesting and niche topics. They can discuss the Bible without promoting some of its problematic views of 2000 years ago

Great entry into hardcore historical biblical research without bowing to mysticism. They provide a terrific sense of what life was like and the political and social forces at work across old and New Testament. You don’t have to be religious. This pod makes you smarter and better informed on the ancient texts that continue to impact modern society

I recently discovered this podcast after a neighbor mentioned it to me and asked a few specific questions. She knows I have a Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University and she often asks me questions related to ‘biblical history’ since I specialize in Hellenistic studies. I’ve since listened to seven episodes and read the transcript of another dozen or so. I’ve listened and read carefully, trying to see if the two hosts ever discuss anything related to historiographic methodology, especially in light of the vast time-gap separating modern Bible readers from the original authors. Historiography is a well-established, rigorous academic discipline with a scientifically-grounded and epistemologically-sound methodology, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to this podcast. I understand this podcast is produced for a general audience, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to neglect any discussion about how historians treat ancient sources and how they go about determining what most likely happened in the past. I realize the hosts are not fundamentalists or literalists. The recent interview with Dan McClellan regarding an overview of ‘biblical history’ (whatever that is!) demonstrates this clearly. The hosts freely admit most of the narrative material in the Hebrew Bible is not historically accurate and many of the bits that are loosely based on some historical events have been heavily ‘theologized’ for obvious reasons. Things become murkier and much more faith-based (almost apologetical in nature) when they approach the New Testament. Perhaps I missed some of the episodes where they take a more critical stance toward the historical reliability of the gospel accounts and Acts, but, on the whole, they seem to accept much of the New Testament material as true at face value. The hosts never discuss what sources the gospel writers used (if any), how the gospel writers fact-checked their sources (if they did at all), how the sources fact-checked their information (if they did at all), or if any of the material in any of the gospels actually derives from verifiable first-person testimony (if indeed it did). No serious scholar (secular or religious) dismisses the various reconstructed New Testament documents as entirely fictional, but neither do they accept them as historically accurate without a sound, consistent methodology. I understand the concept of a ‘biblical time machines’ is wholly metaphorical, but it’s also borderline juvenile and silly - especially in the absence of a clearly articulated methodology. As world renown archaeologist and Hebrew Bible scholar Yonatan Adler said in a lecture about a year ago: “We don’t read any ancient narrative and assume that, if the story sounds credible, it must have happened. We don’t just assume that, if there are no miracles in the story and it doesn’t sound too incredible to believe, we simply believe the story on the face of it. History doesn’t work that way.” This podcast would be much more interesting and helpful if there was a deliberate attempt to lay a solid methodological foundation so its listeners know when the ‘biblical time machine’ is on somewhat solid ground and when it’s mostly faith-based speculation and wishful thinking.

I am fascinated by a view of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the period of time they were written through the lens of scholarship. Helen Bond, David Roos and their guests provide excellent perspectives on the literature, people and places of the biblical eras.

Listened to multiple episodes and each one they navigate scripture to mold their thoughts vs having a line in the sand. For instance they claim Jesus never neither supported or did not support Gay marriage. Bible is very clear on this topic.

LOVE the theme music and just saw that David was the one who created it. I love listening to these two and all the scholars they bring to the show. I’m very annoyed by the negative reviews posted here. We are so lucky they put their time and money into producing this show. I’m learning so much and am grateful to have this podcast to listen to as my faith and beliefs have been getting a “remodel” the last few years.

Very interesting podcast giving different views than and I’ve ever heard on biblical ideas, BUT… As a Christian I find most of the guest speakers have a very dim or dissenting view of the Bible and try to prove it is in constant error or contradiction. The worst was the one on John the Baptist. She could barely get a coherent thought thru, and she seemed to think Jesus stole John’s mission from him. She failed to realize that John the Baptist and Jesus were related as cousins, and she stated that Jesus was born before John the Baptist when that was not true according to the Bible. Another bad one was about the apostle Paul, the speaker did not seem to realize that Paul’s mission was to the gentiles not to the Jews. Many times I finish the podcast angry but it also strengthens my faith because I realize what I truly believe.

This is at a level that provides insight into the times where they go. I am now a devoted listener. Thank you!!!!! PS: Sorry I am a penniless listener …

I look forward to each episode. The topics are interesting and insightful. The hosts are fun, knowledgeable, and they ask good questions of their guests. I have too many favorite shows to name even a few, so subscribe, join the time travelers club, and listen and learn about the historical background of the Bible.

Thanks so much for putting together these historical perspectives! Love continuing to grow as a Christian and having these historical thoughts and discussions are facinating. Thanks to the Stuff You Should Know guys for mentioning it in their podcast!

I share many of Dale Allison’s and Helen Bond’s positions regarding the historical accuracy of the NT gospels. They both honestly acknowledge the fictional/legendary aspects of the gospel accounts. They readily admit the four canonical gospels are anonymous and the original copies of these documents are probably lost forever. All we have are much later copies of copies of copies, and there are mountains of evidence that prove the copies were tampered with, edited, and often carelessly reproduced. At the same time, Allison and Bond are so wedded to their religious beliefs that they cannot help but fall into all kinds of dubious historiography and illogical reasoning. While they frequently take fundamentalists to task for the same errors, they seem unable to set aside their own theological biases or to approach the gospel texts with objectivity and detachment. A clear example of this is their mantra-like repetition of the word ‘evidence’ regarding the gospel accounts and Paul’s letters. (Co-host Dave Roos does this even more.) Claims are not evidence. The anonymous gospel writers/compilers and Paul make all kinds of claims about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But claims are not evidence. Claiming an event happened in time and space is not the same thing as demonstrating that the event certainly happened or even demonstrating that it likely happened. This is an obvious fact of historical research which is widely acknowledged in every serious field except for biblical studies. Only in biblical studies do unverified (and unfalsifiable) claims count as evidence. By analogy, tens of millions of Americans believe Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election and that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party engaged in a vast conspiracy to steal the election. Thousands and thousands of lawyers, politicians, journalists, podcasters, pundits, and ordinary citizens have repeated this claim over and over for the last 3 years. Thousands of ordinary, normally law-abiding Americans stormed the US Capital on January 6, 2021 based on these repeated claims. But there is no evidence that the Democrats stole the 2020 election. Repeating a claim over and over again and convincing millions of people of its veracity does not mean there is any evidence to support the claim. It seems reasonably certain that the earliest followers of Jesus and Paul claim to have seen/experienced the risen Jesus in some fashion, but we have no evidence he appeared to Peter or the twelve or the 500 or Paul. All we have are the personal claims that he did. These claims do tell us what those earliest Christians said and believed, but those claims are not evidence that what these Christians said and believed are empirically true. In the final analysis, Dale Allison’s own words from his 1998 book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ sum up the house of cards that constitutes the field of historical Jesus studies: “Appeals to shared criteria may, we can pray, assist us in being self-critical, but when all is said and done we look for the historical Jesus with our imaginations - and there, too, is where we find him, if we find him at all.” Imagination indeed.

I just started listening to this podcast and I’m hooked😊

David and Helen, thank you for your thoughtful, intelligent, and insightful show. I am a life time Christ-follower but I recently became a Bible teacher for PreK- 5th grade. This show is one of my go-to sources for historical biblical ancient history. It’s important for me to ground biblical teaching in ancient context and I have learned so much from your show that I use to inform my teaching everyday! My favorite factoid so far from the show that I shared with my students is that Jesus and his disciples likely wore socks with sandals. Their faces were ones filled equally with disgust and delight! 🤣 Thanks again for your work. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see where the Time Machine goes next.

Helen and Dave do a great job of delivering the historical and literary research of biblical studies in an intellectual yet layman-friendly way. Not a topic you’d expect to get laughs out of, but they are both wittily hilarious at turns. A wonderful resource for those of us wanting to broaden the context of the culture and history behind our faith, or those interested in secular study.

I love this podcast. It makes me think and provides biblical context that I never had heard. Love that it is fun and informal. And I would like to book a trip in the Time Machine.

I found this podcast after reading several articles by Anja Klein, who was featured on the 15 May, 2023 episode. The interview with Klein was fascinating, so I decided to listen to some of the back episodes. The quality and objectivity of the content varies significantly from episode to episode. The less biased and more objective episodes tend to be the ones featuring a scholarly guest. The episodes with Klein, Matthew Novenson, Kimberly Czajkowski, and Andrew Tobolosky stand out. The episodes featuring Helen Bond in conversation with Dave Roos are predictable and laced with frequent doses of subjective, pious interpretations of the historical data. It’s up to listeners to sort the wheat from the chaff.

This podcast is a mixed bag. Some of the information is based on solid academic research and mainstream historical-critical New Testament scholarship. On the other hand, there is a lot of speculation and hypothesizing which strays out of the realm of history and into the mist of Christian piety. This ends up muddying the waters a bit, and neither Dave nor Helen take much time to clarify when they make that leap. For example, in the very first episode of the podcast, Dave asks if there are any extra-Biblical sources which make reference to the historical Jesus. Helen briefly mentions the material written by Tacitus and then spends a good deal of time talking about the reference Josephus makes to Jesus. Helen readily acknowledges that most scholars think later Christian scribes tampered with the relevant passage and added material that Josephus would have been unlikely to include. So far so good.

Then Helen begins speculating regarding the origin of Josephus’ information about Jesus. She says Josephus’s family would have told him stories about John the Baptist and Jesus and that a lot of this information would have come from “first-hand testimony”. That is pure speculation! Is it possible Jospehus received first-hand information about the historical Jesus from his older family members? Yes. Is that what Josephus says? No. It’s also possible Josephus obtained his information from any number of Christian sources (written and/or oral) or from information floating in the zeitgeist of his time. I know that Mormons believe Joseph Smith discovered the book of Mormon in upstate New York without having ever read a single book about Mormonism. I just know this because it’s a form of cultural knowledge. Josephus doesn’t cite any source(s) for his information about Jesus, and an honest historian would be clear about this. There’s no reason to think he’s relying on first-hand testimony, and even using the term “first-hand testimony” is somewhat disingenuous. The honest position is to say we don’t know how accurate Josephus is or where he obtained his information. I’ve listened to seven other episodes, and this trend has continued. Helen accurately discusses many ideas that have broad scholarly support, but there is also a fair amount of speculation and digressions into “maybe it could have been this way”. I find Bart Ehrman’s podcast ‘Misquoting Jesus’ more informative and clear because he makes obvious distinctions between scholarly consensus and what some Christians speculate.

I found this podcast a month ago and have listened to every episode! Love the premise and topics are always informative. Keep up the excellent work Hellen and Dave!

I enjoy hearing topics about biblical history, and the people you interview bring a variety of points of view

I am getting a lot out of podcast although I must remind myself that the podcast is secular and not theological. I feel that learning about the cultural environment of biblical times helps understand the Bible better. Keep up the good work. Also love the accents

This podcast has great hosts and guests and presents the history in an interesting and sometimes funny way. Definitely worth a listen!

Learning new things every show. Lovely!

I make sure to listen to every episode. And as a biblical scholar and professor myself, I’ve used several episodes in courses I teach. Recommend!

A consistently solid pod with quality scholarly guests, and topics of interest even to fairly well-versed listeners in the vein of “I’ve always wondered about . . .” - and zero sectarian tinge. It assumes the audience is educated but not well informed about the Bible and ancient near East. Episodes aren’t overlong and sometimes err on the side of superficiality (especially for listeners who have some background knowledge) but a fun listen.

It shows us what history teaches us about the Bible and what the Bible teaches us about history. They don’t set out to prove or disprove the Bible. Interesting experts are brought in for interesting topics. And they do well at not bashing the many different faiths considering it’s such a divisive topic.

Love this series! Very educational and informative. Love each episode. Can’t wait for each episode to come out.

Seems to be the common thread, but happy to have heard a plug on SYSK. Such a gift to receive insights from real Bible scholars, not just random people making assertions. They don’t shy away from things that cause you to take a more critical look at the scriptures. Even though they are careful not to veer into theological claims, it has added depth to my faith. Only gave 4 stars because the production quality could be better, but it’s improving, as they find their voices. Very likable hosts, good senses of humor. Tough to come up with a short title for the review, so many good things about the show. Looking forward to reading Dave and Helen’s works.

Stumbled upon this episode when Josh and Chuck mentioned it on an episode of SYSK. Stopped listening to that episode and came over to Bible Time Machine and have been binging since then. Great show!

I am really enjoying this show. The topics are interesting and very well researched. I also really appreciate the guests they include in the show which brings more depth to the program. Found out about this program from a SYSK episode, thanks to Chuck and Josh for the referral.

This is a great show. Excellent dialog and guest who explain the Bible from a realist perspective of the time.

Helen Bond is so knowledgeable about the topic of the New Testament. Wonderful podcast for anyone interested in early Christianity, ancient Judaism or just wanting to know more about the Bible.

I gave this a listen because I’m always trying to expand my understanding of the Bible, and Dave Roos is one of my favorite content writers for Stuff You Should Know. This podcast has a similar fun approach, but goes much more in depth into the research on Hebrew language and culture. Looking forward to more episodes. I hope you bring in more non-Western scholars to share their take!