Erik Talks about the Bible

Erik discusses why God requires the Israelites to redeem their firstborn sons.

Who were the Midianites, and why is the Mountain of God in their region? Some people have a lot of outlandish theories about that, which are almost all based on mythologies developed in sectarian literature from the Second Temple period. I have a different view of the issue.

This week was busy, so this episode is a bit late. We talk about the priest of Midian, the nature of Moses's basket, and a bunch of other bits and pieces.

A discussion of assorted topics in Exodus 1-2. This was recorded on a new platform. I'm not in love with it.

Erik discusses a bit about the way Israel would have moved into Egypt while Jacob and Joseph were still alive. Along the way, he discusses the geography of Egypt and a few other asides.

Erik takes a few minutes to talk about our short "mini-series" for Resurrection season. He will be speaking from Hebrews 12 for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. They will really be one lengthy sermon divided into three parts.

A slightly deeper look into the armor of God in Ephesians.

This podcast was recorded in the evening, and Daylight Savings Time is scheduled so annoying! I was far more tired than I should have been.Here, I discuss more of the language that Paul employs in this section to describe the relationships of the family.

NOTE: For some reason, the introduction didn't come into the final recording, so the audio starts at 0:47. In this episode (which arrives two late, my apologies!), I talk about the categories of sin that Paul mentions in Ephesians 5. There's quite a bit of Greek here, but hopefully, it all makes sense.

Following up on the message from Bedford Road, I discuss a lot of background as well as Paul's meaning when he describes the "old man" and the "new man."

Here's the promised episode for today!

I'm working on it, I promise!

This week, we're exploring the various household terms Paul uses that the Greeks in Ephesus would understand.

This is a clip of the Lord's Table devotion, detailing the relationship of the Lord's Table to the provision of YHWH to the people of Israel. In it, I discuss why we observe the Lord's Table every week and the covenant significance of God "spreading the table" for his people.

This is a shorter episode, as I spend just a few minutes talking about Paul's imprisonment - the reason, the conditions, and what it meant for his ministry. Not a lot of details, but it is important we don't project modern views of imprisonment back on Paul's situation, especially as a Roman citizen.

As promised, here is a followup to yesterday's podcast about the temple in Jerusalem. Today, I spend a few minutes talking about the Artemision, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

NOTE: This was recorded at home, during a snow storm, so the audio quality might be a little weird. In this passage, Paul offers a practical explanation of how the church is composed of both Jew and Greek. This week, I decided to spend some time discussing the background of the Jerusalem temple where the "Wall of Division" was located. So, I don't really talk about the text too much; but hopefully this gives you some perspective on the analogy Paul makes. If I have time, I'll be recorded another episode discussing the Temple of Artemis, which was located in Ephesus.

As Paul continues his introductory, foundational material, he introduces an idea that would have been foreign to his Greek audience—being dead in trespasses. He fuses ideas from both Greek philosophy and the Hebrew Scriptures.

Here's a BONUS EPISODE! Erik goes on a little bit of a digression on the nature of language. As someone who is "functionally illiterate" in seven languages, he offers a bit of perspective on how we should read the language of Scripture and how we use reference works and things like that.

Our second episode looks at Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, in particular their continued grounding on the truth of Jesus's power to bring the Gentiles and Jews together in the Church.

As we dive into this new study of Ephesians at Bedford Road, we are launching these weekly podcasts.