I don't want to be too negative, this IS a 4 star review. I liked Listening to them talk, I thought the subject was great, and I loved the fact that they seemed open minded and didn't reject ideas just because they aren't popular among pop-culture scientists. So it was mostly positive. The reason I'm writing this is because I'm hoping the hosts will read it and take a little constructive criticism. So, here we go...
Listening to them talk about the Bible was kind of difficult. Not because I'm apposed to them talking about the Bible, but because most of what they "know" about it is popular misconception and not at all accurate. For instance, they accept the popular myth that Enoch was rejected by the council of Nicea when Enoch was rejected as scripture by most of ythe jews long before Christ even lived, much less any Christian councils. Further more, what books should or should not be in the Bible wasn't even discussed at the Council of Nicea. Not even wikipedia says so. That kind of "fact" is posted on Instagram by militant atheists, but it's not actually found in any historical record. The Council of Nicea was about addressing a heretic named Arius on the topic of Christ's divinity and though Constantine was involved in that council, he had no hand whatsoever in the selection of Biblical books.
Another misconception is that the Bible "copied" mesopotamian myths. That's not so. The Bible was written while many of those myths were still held in wide belief. The Bible takes the claims of those myths and systematically counters them. It doesn't deny them, but it flips the narrative. It takes characters like The Anunnaki, the watchers, the gods, and it puts them in a place beneath Yaweh. The days of creation in Genesis 1 takes all of the common deities "Stars, the sun, the moon, animals, birds, etc) and lists them as being basic created objects; specifically challenging the claims by most religions of the time that they were gods. The gods of the nations, and the heros of ancient lore (like Gilgamesh), are portrayed as rebellious and destructive rather than heroic. The early books of the Bible weren't a copy, they were a counter narrative. The same story from the opposite perspective. El, the father of Ba'al, who Ba'al rebelled against, made the main character rather than the bad-guy(in a sense).
There were several other misconceptions or factual errors as well about events described in the Bible. I honestly don't blame the hosts. You don't know what you don't know, and most Christians don't even seem to know this stuff. the only reason I know is because I am an obsessive compulsive Bible-nerd. But I would recommend, if the hosts would accept my most humble recommendation, that they take a look at some of the content put out by the recently deceased Dr. Michael Heiser. He was a man who wrote stuff right up their alley and who wasn't afraid to challenge popular beliefs and go against the academic grain if the evidence lead there. A great place to start if you want to know how the Bible compares to Mesopotamian myth but you don't want to devote years to re-reading every word in the Bible.
Keep up the good work, and I look forward to more.
