Episode 1: Foundations

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For a long time, the Bible was the most important book in the western world, ...then something changed.

This first episode of WiderBible is the prologue. It looks at the history of the Bible, where it came from, and why so many people disagree about whether its stories are fact or fiction.

Christianity makes more sense with a little background.

There are a lot of show notes for this episode. I don’t think there will be quite as many in the future, but when you’re trying to cover the background of Bible history and the arguments from the last few hundred years for and against believing that history, things pile up a little.

Any quotes from the Bible were were taken from the English Standard Version (see ESV copyright here) or the New King James Version.

The notes follow along in the same order as the episode, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find based on context. Some comments just reference the source for the information, others give a little more explanation about something that didn’t fit into the flow of the episode. If you have any questions, there’s a place to contact me at the bottom of the page.

  1. At some level, Islam recognizes the books of Moses, Psalms of David, and Gospels of Jesus as Divine messages as mentioned on pg. 72 here. See also a reference to the Psalms here.
  2. For the full breakdown of world religions by percent, look here. Obviously the people who believe these religions range from passing interest to incredibly devout, but that’s pretty hard to quantify.
  3. Historically Moses is believed to be the author of Genesis. If you accept that belief, then he probably wrote it around 1500 BC based on the timelines he records in Genesis and Exodus. As with nearly everything else in the Bible, this is debated.
  4. For the full story on Moses’ early life, see Exodus 2
  5. For the geographic location of Midian, there are a lots of maps online or in books. For one example, see Barker, K. L. (2002) NIV Study Bible (Map 3: Exodus and Conquest of Canaan). Zondervan.
  6. According to tradition, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Jewish Torah. He might also be the author of the book of Job. We don’t know what order the books were written in.
  7. The timeline of Genesis’ history can be added up from the dates Moses wrote down. For more detail, see Condensed History and Calling Long Distance
  8. For a decent breakdown of lots of chronological questions in the Old Testament, see Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (p. 278). Master Books.
  9. Technically the books Moses wrote are the story of the Israelites, a name given to them after Israel, their closest common ancestor. Only one part of the Israelites were later called Jews, but that probably wasn’t until after 1 Kings 12 when the kingdom split.
  10. For the closest common ancestor of all the Israelites, see Genesis 29-30.
  11. If you want the story of the Israelites leaving slavery, becoming a nation, and getting the law, it’s pretty well covered in the book of Exodus.
  12. Malachi is both the last book of the Old Testament and probably the last one chronologically, but it doesn’t give a date for when it was written. Based upon its content and similar stories from Nehemiah, it might fit around 425 BC. The 1000 year span between Genesis and Malachi assumes Genesis was the first book written and Malachi the last. For more on the authorship of Malachi, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1977). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 4, pp. 1119–1121). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  13. There are 33 books not written by Moses in the Old Testament in modern English versions. The original Hebrew collection has a different number since some of the books are combined. See the list of Hebrew books here.
  14. More information on the content and breakdown of books in the Old Testament can be found in Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 37). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  15. Jewish independence spans from the Exodus to the sack of Jerusalem and doesn’t include the various times when the Israelites were invaded and briefly subjected to any of a number of different surrounding nations. For dates, see Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (p. 278-280). Master Books.
  16. Technically Jerusalem is not specifically called a capitol, but that’s where David built his palace and all the subsequent kings lived.
  17. Jeremiah 29:10 and Daniel 1:1-2 mention the 70 years of Jewish captivity. This ended in the first year of Cyrus, when the Jews were allowed to go home, as mentioned in Ezra 1. For a better explanation of the timeline, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1977). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 3, pp. 94–97). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  18. The Jews were allowed to start rebuilding the temple in the first year of Cyrus, 537-ish BC. The walls weren’t rebuilt until the time of Nehemiah, in 444 BC. See Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1977). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 3, pp. 96–97, pg. 394). Review and Herald Publishing Association
  19. For evidence that the Jews weren’t a nation, note that Nehemiah wasn’t a king, only a governor for the Persians in Nehemiah 12:26.
  20. For the ending date of the Jewish writings, Josephus commented that the Hebrew writings were fixed since the time of Artaxerxes, about 500 years before. For quote, see Josephus, Against Apion, I. 8. Link. This puts the end of the writings around the end of the time of Nehemiah.
  21. Genesis 3:15 gives the first promise of a solution to the problem of sin right after the first sin is committed.
  22. For Peter talking about some of the promises Jesus fulfilled, see his speech in Acts 3:11-26.
  23. For the location of Jesus’ birth, see Luke 2:1-7, for the timing of Jesus’ birth, see Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (p. 280). Master Books.
  24. For the distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, see Easton, M. G. (1893). Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  25. Jesus grew up in Nazareth as stated in Luke 2:39-40.
  26. Size of Nazareth in Jesus’ day come from Easton, M. G. (1893). Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  27. Nazareth is 60 miles north of Jerusalem in a straight line. It was probably a good bit further if you were winding along roads and trails.
  28. The two verses (Matthew 13:65 and Mark 6:3) associated with Jesus’ occupation as a carpenter actually only reference Joseph, the person people assumed was Jesus’ father. If Jesus did work as a carpenter, we still only have a limited idea of what that involved. The word used for carpenter included people who worked in stone, copper, iron, and wood. See Easton, M. G. (1893). Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  29. For Jesus’ age when He started His ministry, see Luke 3:23. This fits with a birthdate of about 4 BC (Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (p. 280). Master Books) and a likely baptism in 27 AD (Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1980). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 5, p. 247). Review and Herald Publishing Association.).
  30. Jesus is baptized in Luke 3:21-22.
  31. Jesus started preaching in synagogues (Luke 4:14-15 but eventually had to preach in the open due to the size of the crowds (Matthew 4:23-5:1, Matthew 13:2).
  32. Examples of miracles Jesus performed can be found in Matthew 11:2-6.
  33. There is some debate on the length of Jesus ministry, but 3-and-a-half years is plausible. For more, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1980). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 5, p. 248). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  34. The supposed threat Jesus posed to the Jewish nation is discussed in John 11:45-53.
  35. At the point in history when Jesus lived, the Jews were not allowed to execute people, they had to get permission from the Romans. For more, see John 18:31.
  36. For the time Jesus spent in the tomb, the gospels reference “three-days”, ”after three days”, ”on the third day”, and ”three days and three nights”. Simply put, these all make sense if the crucifixion was on Friday, the resurrection was on Sunday, and parts of a day count as a whole day. For a full discussion, you can read Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1980). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 5, pp. 248–251). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  37. Jesus’ resurrection is talked about in several places in the New Testament. One example is Matthew 28:1-9.
  38. In the example of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, in Luke 24:13-27, Jesus came back in person to help some of His followers connect the dots between His life and the promises in the Old Testament.
  39. For how long Jesus was on Earth after His resurrection, see Acts 1:3.
  40. For the story of Jesus’ ascension, see Acts 1:9.
  41. For Jesus’ promises that He’d return, see Acts 1:11 and John 14:1-3 as examples.
  42. Revelation was probably one of the last books written, and though the date is debated, there’s reason to believe it was composed near 100 AD. See Barker, K. L. (2002) NIV Study Bible (p. 1963). Zondervan.
  43. The number of New Testament authors isn’t definitive, but is based on the information in the “authorship” sections on each book of the Bible in Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vols. 5-7). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  44. One example of Paul trying to explain the reasoning behind Jesus’ sacrifice can be found in Hebrews 9:11-28. Further examples can be found in Ephesians 1:7 and Hebrews 9:11-28.
  45. For the split opinion of the Jews about Jesus as the Messiah, see Acts 28:17-30.
  46. Acts 11:26 mentions that followers of Jesus were called “Christians” even before the New Testament was done being written.
  47. We get the term “testament” from Tertullian, but we don’t know if he coined the title or was referencing some other originator of the term that we have now lost. See Horn, S. H. (1979). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary (p. 792). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  48. For more on Tertullian, see here.
  49. The name “testament” should probably be translated “covenant.” Paul had an idea of these “old” and “new” covenants in mind and mentioned them in Hebrews 9:15 and 2 Corinthians 3:14. The “new” covenant is also mentioned by Jesus at the last supper in Luke 22:20. For more information, See Horn, S. H. (1979). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary (p. 792). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  50. The etymology of “Bible” is from the Easton, M. G. (1893). Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  51. Further etymology for “Bible” is from Horn, S. H. (1979). In The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary (p. 149). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  52. The Bible was compiled from around 1500 BC when Moses probably began writing to around 100 AD when John finished it. See Jones, F.N. (2015) Chronology of the Old Testament (p. 279-280). Master Books.
  53. The identities of the Bible authors are not definitive, but a best estimate. Identification of the writer of each book comes from the “authorship” sections on each book of the Bible in Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vols. 1-7). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  54. The first mention of a printing press in the west is 1439, though the first Bible wasn’t printed until about 1455.
  55. For book copying prior to the printing press, see comment on the Gutenberg Bible here.
  56. Further information on the Gutenberg Bible here.
  57. For the total number of books in Europe when the Gutenberg Bibles were printed and other facts about Gutenberg look here.
  58. Details on the King James Version of the Bible can be found here.
  59. In this short history of the Bible, I skipped over the language question. A lot could be said about Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and how things were translated over the years, but that’s, at best, a story for another time.
  60. English royalty commissioned the King James Version, and they still hold the copywright in the United Kingdom. It’s in the public domain elsewhere. Link.
  61. For the background of thought and belief leading into the Enlightenment see this article.
  62. For an overview of early Christian persecution in the Roman Empire, see here.
  63. For eventual religious tolerance of Christians in the Roman empire, see here.
  64. For information about Constantine, see this article.
  65. The amount of time it took Christianity to become established as the religion of the Roman empire is given here.
  66. Details on the fall of the western Roman empire are given here.
  67. The Christian church became an important enough influence in the waning days of the western Roman Empire that a few years before Rome fell, Pope Leo I, not the Roman emperor, conducted the successful peace negotiations with Attila the Hun. See more info here.
  68. For the widely recognized basis of Christian belief in western law, see here.
  69. 1517 is the traditional start date of the Protestant Reformation. There were other earlier reformers, but Luther had the largest and most noteworthy impact. For more information, see here.
  70. One further encouragement to look for alternatives to Christianity was the ongoing wars between the Catholic and Protestant religions, which left people wanting some third alternative ethic upon which to rely. For more, see here.
  71. More details on the “Enlightenment,” as this period is called, including the celebration of reason, can be found here. Eventually there was even a celebration of the cult of reason in the French Revolution, though, perhaps the French Revolution isn’t the best example of reason being properly applied.
  72. For more about Thomas Hobbes, see here.
  73. For more on Historical Criticism of the Bible, see here.
  74. For more about Baruch Spinoza, see here.
  75. For more about Jean Astruc and the ultimate ideas of Historical Criticism, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 197–201). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  76. For more on Julius Wellhausen, see here. Wellhausen wasn’t the originator of the idea that Moses didn’t write Genesis, but he was influential in convincing scholars the theory was valid. For more, see pg. 16 here and pg. 20 here.
  77. For more on James Hutton, see here.
  78. For more on Hutton and his geologic theories, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 71). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  79. For James Hutton’s dismissal of human records, including the Bible, see here.
  80. For the popularization of Hutton’s ideas by Lyell, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 71–72). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  81. For Lyell’s uniformitarian contribution, see here and here.
  82. See Uniformitarianism for the underpinnings of modern geology.
  83. To be fair, there are not unreasonable arguments for an “old” Earth, where the rocks are old while the life on the planet is young. Creation in Genesis begins with a void that can be seen as either a planet devoid of features and covered in water, or as nothing at all. In the case in which the planet exists but is devoid of life and features, we don’t know how old that part of it might be. Genesis is clear, however, about the recent creation of life on Earth.
  84. For Lyell’s influence on Darwin, see here.
  85. For one of the earliest theories of evolution, see Jean Baptiste Lamarck.
  86. The first edition of On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. The first American edition was published in 1860. Link
  87. It’s not politically correct to state it today, but the full title of the book is On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. Link
  88. For the story of the sales of On the Origin of Species see this article.
  89. For more on the history and development of Darwin’s ideas, see here.
  90. For the theoretical timeline of the formation of life on Earth, see here.
  91. For modern opinions of the mythological background of Genesis see here.
  92. For the Bible’s story on the origin of humans, see Genesis 1 and 2.
  93. For the Bible’s version of the origin of sin and evil in the world as well as the source of pain and suffering, see Genesis 2:9 and Genesis 3.
  94. The first clue to the solution to sin comes in Genesis 3:14-15. The first example of a sacrifice, foreshadowing Jesus in the New Testament, shows up when Adam and Eve are given skins in Genesis 3:21 to cover their nakedness (Genesis 2:25 and Genesis 3:7). The details of something dying as an offering is spelled in more detail in other books of Moses (Leviticus 16 is one example) but the idea was already in place by the story story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:1-7.
  95. For more on the effects of Tambora, see here. I said that this was the worst famine in the 1800s. More accurately, the famine of 1816-1817 was the worst in over a century, and, by extension of being the last subsitence crisis in the western world, the worst famine for Europe in the 1800s.
  96. For more on New England’s “year without a summer,” see here.
  97. For more on the story of World War II smoke screens affecting tree growth in Norway, see here or here.
  98. For more on the vanishing and reappearing Irish beach, see here or here.
  99. For some counterarguments about Lyell’s geology, see here.
  100. As for an “always smooth past,” Hutton and Lyell’s uniformitarianism is now a blend of gradual change with the occasional catastrophe. See "uniformitarianism." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Encyclopedia.com. 29 Jan. 2019 <https: data-preserve-html-node="true" www.encyclopedia.com="">. Link
  101. Even when the extreme outliers are included in a uniformitarian extrapolation of history, such as one theory about a meteor take-down of the dinosaurs, it’s hard to know how to extrapolate what happens next. We don’t have experience with large meteor impacts, it’s hard to know how the Earth would behave if one were to suddenly run into it.
  102. For a longer discussion of some of the problems with the Documentary Hypothesis (as Wellhausen’s theory is called) see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 197–203). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  103. Wellhausen’s theory itself has fallen out of favor, but the basic idea, that Moses didn’t write Genesis is still quite popular. For more on the collapse of Wellhausen’s ideas, see Carr, D. (2015) Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: History of Its Interpretation. (pg. 434) Link. More on the whole discussion can be found in Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 197–205). Review and Herald Publishing Association.).
  104. See summary of Darwin’s ideas here.
  105. For one explanation of evolutionary odds, see here. That said, long odds don’t make something impossible, just really unlikely. Long odds mean you shouldn’t bet on evolution happening again, but they don’t prove it didn’t already happen.
  106. For more on biochemistry and evolution, see Michael Behe and Darwin’s Black Box. He also notes the limits to Darwin’s ideas here. For a computer scientist’s take on irreducible complexity, see this article. For some interesting complexities of human anatomy, see here.
  107. The story of Moses’ adoption into the Egyptian royal family is in Exodus 2.
  108. It’s not clear whether Egyptian or Mesopotamian literature came first. See Daniels, P. T. (1996). The World’s Writing Systems. (pg. 33). Oxford University Press. Link
  109. Terah, Abram’s (Abraham’s) father left first Ur, then after Terah died, Abram left Haran in Genesis 11:27-12:9.
  110. For Moses’ family tree and details about their lifespans, try this article.
  111. The Flood lasted about a year, but the building of the ark probably took a good bit longer. For a full discussion, try here.
  112. For water covering the mountains in the Flood, see Genesis 7:18-19.
  113. One of the theories that it was a local flood is mentioned here. This doesn’t explain why the stories are found around the world unless you accept the notion that a monstrous flood that wipes out the majority of life on Earth is a normal human experience.
  114. For marine fossils in the Himalayas, see here.
  115. For sand washing across a continent, see here. To go from New York and Pennsylvania to Utah is up-hill as given by this article with the average, maximum, and minimum elevations of each state.
  116. For Greek Flood story, see here.
  117. For the Flood story from Iraq (Babylon), see here.
  118. For Indian Flood story, see here.
  119. For Mexican (Aztec) Flood story, see here.
  120. For the Hawaiin Flood story, see here.
  121. For a reference to the Chinese Flood story, see “Nuwa” here.
  122. One interesting chart comparing Flood legends around the world is at the end of the article here.
  123. Fossils of sea life on mountains is one evidence of a global Flood, but that idea is dismissed by proponents of the theory that moutains were gradually pushed up from the ocean floor via continental drift. To those points, there are counter-points, but making sense of the debate depends on how much you want to dive into discussions about geology, and how much you trust geology that’s pretty theoretical.
  124. These incomplete models are true for Christians too. Paul knew it when he stated there was still more to learn in Corinthians 13:12.
  125. If you want do some research about the origin of the Earth, and whether the Bible is a reasonable history, Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research are dedicated to that question. They offer a pretty good collection of articles, including some helpful technical ones, that outline various arguments in favor of believing the stories in Genesis. No website has the story altogether right (including WiderBible), but the information they offer can be helpful.
  126. For the discovery of the story of Gilgamesh, see here and here. It seems Layard was the initial investigator at Nineveh, in 1849, but he left before Rassam discovered the tablets 4 years later in 1853.
  127. For more on the translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh by George Smith, see here.
  128. George Smith gave a presentation on his discovery of the tablet to the Biblical Archaeology Society by December of 1872, and the story was popular enough that a newspaper paid his way to find out more information. See the story here.
  129. For the number of tablets in the Epic of Gilgamesh see here. Another resource suggests the standard version was only 11 tablets and a 12 th tablet was added later.
  130. For the Babylonians taking the Jews captive, see Jeremiah 52.
  131. For the erroneous belief that the Babylonian version of the creation and flood stories provided the source material for the stories in the Bible, see Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 202). Review and Herald Publishing Association.
  132. See summary of the Epic of Gilgameshhere. Summary of the Bible story of the Flood is in Genesis 6-9. Summary of the story of a snake stealing immortality is in Genesis 3.
  133. The total number of bits of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in one form or another, were counted in 2003 here.
  134. For the oldest examples of the Epic of Gilgamesh see here for the number of “Old Babylonian” pieces and here for their age.
  135. The ages of archeological literature should, probably, be taken with an cup of salt. A lot of assumptions go into figuring out how old something is, and it’s hard for a professional, let alone an amateur, to know how reasonable those assumptions are.
  136. For the conclusion that both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis account are different original stories of the same past event, see Chapter 2, footnote 6 in Bauer, Susan Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
  137. The relative age of China compared to Babylon has the same murkiness as all the other ancient timelines. The Yellow Emperor, credited with the introduction of writing to China, was supposedly born in 2704 BC, and is considered an historical person and the source of government and law in China. In the middle east, Babylon calculated it’s start date sometime before 2300 BC. According to the timeline in Genesis, the Flood occurred in 2348 BC. If the account in Genesis is true, as this podcast assumes, there is probably some calculation mistake in the timeline for ancient Chinese history as well as the timelines of other ancient cultures going back further than the middle of the 3rd millenium BC.
  138. The earliest Chinese writing we know of is from the Shang dynasty which spanned several hundred years and ended about 1000 BC, with the oracle bones that contain the writing dated toward the end of that time frame. One source, on pg. 84 here suggests that writing in China could have been as early as 1500 BC. This places Chinese writing after the proposed date for when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written. Given the dates, it is technically possible that Chinese word origins recorded on the oracle bones were influenced by Babylonian documents that had traveled all the way to China, but the distances make it improbable.
  139. Chinese writing isn’t very easy to categorize. The same encyclopedia article says that Chinese isn’t a pictograph or a syllable language while the next paragraph claims nouns and verbs are written by symbols that were originally pictures.
  140. While the “apple” example of Chinese writing is my own, it follows from other examples like the carpenter’s square meaning “to work” or a woman and a child meaning “to love”. For more, see here.
  141. For the development of Chinese writing over time, see here.
  142. The most ancient Chinese characters are written on oracle bones.
  143. For the clarity of the early Chinese pictograms, see Nelson, E.R., Broadberry, R.E. (1997) God’s Promise to the Chinese. (pg. 11).
  144. For more detail on this whole discussion of Chinese writing, along with the parallels between Chinese symbols and the stories at the beginning of Genesis, look here, or here, and see Nelson, E.R., Broadberry, R.E. (1997) God’s Promise to the Chinese. (pgs. 10-11).
  145. The stories in Genesis 1 to Genesis 11:9 are global history. It starts with creation and ends with people spreading out around the world when they can’t communicate with one another while building the Tower of Babel. If the oral history has survived, anything before the Tower of Babel should be common across cultures around the world while anything after the Tower of Babel would be unique to that culture.

Update 12/16/2019: Improved the sources used for some information. Update 3/13/2024: Corrected a section that mistakenly claimed examples of Chinese writing were as old as the proposed date of Epic of Gilgamesh artifacts. Upon review, the earliest Chinese writing was not dated as early as 1700 BC, but from a dynasty that began around 1700 BC with the earliest artifacts of their writing dated to 200 to 700 years later. Updated show notes and audio.

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