How Ancient Mesopotamia Invented School (And Why We've Misread the Evidence)

What really happened in the Garden of Eden? This week, biblical scholar David Carr joins Bible & Archaeology to rethink the Garden of Eden story in Genesis! From the serpent and forbidden fruit to original sin, the image of God, Cain and Abel, and Noah's Flood, we explore how the Hebrew Bible challenges familiar assumptions about creation, humanity, and paradise.

How bad did Ancient Rome really smell? This week, historian Garrett Ryan of Toldinstone joins Bible & Archaeology to explore everyday life in the Roman Empire! From Roman sewers and sanitation, to free bread, retired gladiators, and the role rats and mosquitoes played in the fall of Rome, we'll explore how seemingly trivial questions reveal surprising connections between Roman history, culture, religion, and daily life. Because in the ancient world, there is no trivia.

The story of Noah's Flood has striking parallels in ancient Mesopotamia, but some of those flood traditions predate the biblical text by more than a thousand years. This week, Joseph Lam joins Bible & Archaeology to explore the flood stories of Atrahasis, Gilgamesh, and ancient Mesopotamia. Why did the gods send the flood? What did an ancient ark supposedly look like? And does the evidence really mean that the Bible simply “copied” an older story? We look beyond the familiar similarities to ask what these different versions of the flood share and what the biblical authors are actually trying to say when they retell the flood story. 🔗 Resources & Links Watch Joseph's episode on Why Creation Stories All Look the Same Check out Joseph's Creation Stories of the Ancient World with Great Courses

Did Paul think his followers would become angels? Scholar David Burnett says no. He argues Paul thought they'd outrank them. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says his followers will judge the angels and describes resurrection bodies that shine like stars. David Burnett argues that this reflects an ancient cosmic hierarchy in which the stars were understood as celestial beings, and that Paul's vision radically extends this transformation to ordinary followers, including Gentiles. This week, David Burnett joins the podcast to talk about Paul's cosmos, why "monotheism" may be the wrong category, what Paul was fighting against in Corinth, and why Paul thought some people would shine brighter than others. David is a PhD candidate in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. You can check out David's published work, follow him on social media, and/or support his research via his LinkTree here: https://linktr.ee/davidaburnett

The Dead Sea Scrolls are famous for the story of how they were discovered, but how much of that story is really about the texts themselves? Eva Mroczek joins Bible & Archaeology to explore why we’re fascinated by lost and hidden texts, how discovery stories turn ancient sources into mysteries, and what these stories reveal about our hopes for recovering the past. From the Dead Sea Scrolls to ancient stories of hidden Bibles and the modern search for lost texts, we explore why the story of discovery can become the content itself.