The Council of Nicaea at 1700 Years: Why It Still Matters
An Interview with The Reverend Benjamin Wyatt This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, a turning point in Christian history. In this episode, Rev. Benjamin Wyatt, Episcopal priest and author of Christ and the Council, joins Shirley Paulson to explore the controversies that led to the Nicene Creed, Constantine’s role in enforcing unity, and why debates about Christ’s divinity mattered so deeply. Their conversation sheds light on the messy, human realities behind doctrines still shaping Christianity today. The Reverend Benjamin Wyatt is an Episcopal priest, serving as the Priest-in-Charge at the Church of the Nativity in Indianapolis. He has run two podcasts on ancient Christianity, “The Road to Nicaea” and “In Simeon's Wake.” Just in time for Nicaea's 1700th anniversary celebration, Ben’s new book, titled Christ and the Council, published by Wipf and Stock, is forthcoming. He holds an M.Div. and S.T.M. from Yale Divinity School. Visit the podcast show notes page on the Early Christian Texts website for a complete transcript. https://earlychristiantexts.com/council-of-nicaea/
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Is It Possible Paul Didn’t Write ANY of the New Testament Letters?
An Interview with Dr. Nina Livesey After Livesey demonstrated that authenticity of the Pauline letters was inadequately and uncritically determined, she didn’t think it was possible to make a good case that the letters were authentic, even though it's so commonly assumed that they are. Once she had gone through all of that, she looked for evidence of Pauline letters. The first ones appear in the mid-second century, from the school of Marcion! Livesey was not the first to make that discovery. Dr. Nina Livesey a professor emerita of religious studies at the Oklahoma University College of Professional and Continuing Studies. In addition to her specialization in Pauline letters, she’s interested in a variety of aspects of Christian emergence. She was one of the co-chairs of Westar's the recently concluded Christianity Seminar Phase II. Nina has also written three significant monographs. We discuss her newly published book, The Letters of Paul in their Roman Literary Context: Reassessing Apostolic Authorship in this podcast interview. A complete transcript is available on the Bible and Beyond website here: https://earlychristiantexts.com/possible-paul-didnt-write-letters/
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Thecla’s Challenge to Both Rome and the Early Christian World
An Interview with Dr. Perry Kea When the young teen, Thecla, heard Paul’s preaching about a new kind of life following Christ, she became infatuated with both the message and the messenger. Abandoning her fiancé and her Roman aristocratic life style, she faced two death threats, discovered her own strength and worth, and matured in her appreciation for both Paul and his teachings. She bought into the ascetic way of life and insisted on her rights as a woman with authority. Dr. Perry Kea has been an active Scholar of the Westar Institute since 1987. He served as the Chair of its Board of Directors from 2014 – 2019. He co-Chaired Westar’s Mini-seminar on the Bible and Human Sexuality and has participated in several other seminars, notably the Jesus Seminar, the Acts Seminar, and the two Christianity Seminars. He also contributes to Westar publications and Westar programming. Perry is Associate Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the University of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he taught for 35 years. A transcript is available at https://earlychristiantexts.com/theclas-challenge-early-christian-world.
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The Complicated Lives of Enslaved Women of the Bible
The Complicated Lives of Enslaved Women of the Bible An Interview with Dr. Christy Cobb Bible readers tend to skip over the stories of enslaved people because they seem to be treated as props for the ‘real’ meaning or main message of the biblical account. But a closer look at the lives of these marginalized enslaved people in the stories—such as sex workers who were might have been sold to brothels against their will—enriches our understanding of the Bible. Recognizing the invisible attitudes and forces help us rethink the stories’ meanings. Dr. Christy Cobb is an Assistant Professor of Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Denver, and she is also an Affiliated Faculty in the Gender/Women's Studies Department. She is a biblical scholar with a focus on the New Testament and early Christian texts, and her scholarship and teaching focuses on issues of slavery, gender, and sexuality in antiquity, and she writes on texts such as Acts, the Gospels, the Apocryphal Acts, and other ancient narratives. Full transcript available here: https://earlychristiantexts.com/enslaved-bible-women/
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More Connections Between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library
Part 2 of our interview with Matthew Goff and Dylan Burns continues the discussion we started in Part 1 about the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. Goff and Burns explain the significant differences between the two, such as their different dates and locations of origin. But they also explore the similarities, with their mutual interest in more ancient writings, such as how some important figures from Genesis—such as the Book of Watchers, with its myths of evil origins— came from Enoch; and how Melchizedek was the priest associated with the Christ figure. This is part two of a two-part series. The first episode in the series was released May 7, 2025. Read the book they co-authored, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices. It's open source, so it's available for free! Dr. Dylan M. Burns is Assistant Professor of the History of Esotericism in Late Antiquity at the University of Amsterdam. He earned his doctorate in Ancient Christianity at Yale University in 2011, before holding research positions in Copenhagen, Leipzig, and Berlin. Among his books are Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism (2014), Did God Care? Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy (2020), and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices (2022). Dr. Matthew Goff joined the faculty of Florida State's Religion Department in 2005. He completed an M.T.S degree in 1997 at Harvard Divinity School and finished his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2002. He studied under John Collins and wrote his dissertation on a Qumran text entitled 4QInstruction. His publications focus on the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient Judaism, and his most recent book is The Apocrypha: A Guide (Oxford, 2024). His current book project is on demons and monsters in ancient Judaism and early Christianity.
The Bible and Beyond podcast is a series of interviews with scholars who are able to unlock mysteries from extra-canonical books, forgotten scriptures, so-called 'gnostic' gospels, as well as the Bible. Host Shirley Paulson, Ph.D., and her guests explore historical and spiritual questions about Jesus, gender, women, salvation, healing, and the meaning of life. The discoveries these scholars share don’t always fit with what we've been told, but time and again they lead us toward a deeper intimacy with Jesus.
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