Weird Stuff in the Bible

• Skubala My Bible Says: Scatological Language in the Scriptures

  Are you ever reading through your bible and then you come across a word that your mama used to tell you not to say?That might happen especially if you’re reading the King James Version. It has quite a few verses that can have you doing a double-take. But every version of the Bible has some shockingly crude or maybe even vulgar statements that don’t sound like they should be coming out of the Holy Scriptures.So I hate to put a content restriction on today’s episode and I’m not going to say any curse words, but you might not want little ears to hear some of the things we’re going to study in Isaiah or Ezekiel today. But let me just say: I’m assuming Ezekiel’s grandma wasn’t in the audience when he used some of his sexual metaphors.And Paul himself in the New Testament said a few things that may have gotten the bar of soap put in his mouth. If you don’t believe me, there’s a sweet little verse in Philippians 3 where Paul is talking about how nothing we we do can measure up to the work of Christ when it comes to our salvation. In Philippians 3:8, he saysIndeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ OK. That’s a nice pleasant verse to hammer home the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice…in the English. But in the Greek, the word “rubbish” right there is a little stronger. It’s the Greek word “Skubala,” which doesn’t mean rubbish, but actually means poop. And not just any poop. One of the strongest words in the Greek language for poop. We have some strong words for poop in our language, too. Words I won’t say here on this podcast- especially because my grandma might be listening.But Philippians did say it. Am I listening to Howard Stern here, or am I reading the Apostle Paul?I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.Turn to Ezekiel 6, and let’s get weird.Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.0:00 - Introduction2:15 - Ezekiel’s Dirty Jokes11:00 - Our Righteous is as WHAT?!17:00 - Shock Jock Paul23:40 - Next Time & Closing ThoughtsIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected] by Luke TaylorIf you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

  --------  

  28:20
• Casting Lots to Determine God’s Will

  Some decisions are just too big to be left to chance. There are some decisions in life that are so huge, you wouldn’t dare flip a coin on them.What career you want to have.Who to marry.Which house to buy.Whether to challenge your 6-year-old to a Fortnite rematch after how he destroyed you the last time. These are weighty matters to consider. And yet, you would actually see people in the Bible casting lots to make some of these types of big decisions. Decisions of going into battle, figuring out who was guilty of a crime- and even matters of life and death.Do I think it’s weird that Bible characters would use games of chance to make important decisions? Not necessarily. People make bad decisions all the time. It’s not necessarily weird to see people making important decisions in ways left up to random chance.The weird think about it to me…is that it worked.God often worked through people casting lots- literally playing games of chance- to reveal His will to them and to guide them to the correct choice.I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.Because if God revealed His will like that to them, would God reveal His will like that to me?Turn to Ezekiel 21, and let’s get weird.Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.0:00 - Introduction1:50 - Ezekiel 21, Guiding Nebuchadnezzar7:25 - Is Anything Random?15:45 - By the Spirit18:50 - Next Time & Mailbag20:40 - Closing ThoughtsIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected] by Luke TaylorIf you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

  --------  

  26:55
• Daniel’s Wacky Dreams

  How they Prove the Past and Foretell Our Future. Probably my favorite movie of all time is Inception, the 2010 Leonard DiCaprio film with the dreams within dreams within dreams. The plot of that movie is a tangled web if there ever was one. You have to take it nice and slow, understand things one piece at a time, and once you understand all the smaller parts, you can put it all together and finally understand what’s going on. You might need to watch it a few times to get it all, but trust me, it all fits together. And even if you don’t always understand what you’re looking at, the Hans Zimmer music is usually enough to keep you interested.Dreams can be kind of loopy sometimes. And heavily symbolic. And you don’t always understand what’s going on when you’re in them. That was certainly the case for the Prophet Daniel in his book. Daniel has a few truly wacky dreams and visions throughout his story. They involve ferocious beasts, a goat having a showdown with a ram, and a statue made of many types of metals. These dreams are so hard to understand, they cause many Christians to just kind of read past them and move on to the next chapter as quickly as they can. But these dreams are not just the effects of eating that leftover Chinese food. Daniel’s dreams were from God. They actually had real-world predictive power. The details Daniel saw in his dreams were specific to things to come. And some of these things he dreamed about have already happened; there are others that actually haven’t happened yet. So we’re going to dig into Daniel’s dreams in chapters 2, 7 and 8 of his book, and I’ll explain what they mean today. And just like trying to understand Inception, we’re going to do that by taking things nice and slow; understanding one piece at a time, and then putting all those pieces together. Maybe with a little help from Leonardo DiCaprio. So if you’ve ever found Daniel’s Dreams to kinda weird, and would like to know why they’re in the Bible, then turn with me to Daniel 7, and let’s get weird.Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe0:00 - Introduction3:15 - Daniel 7 and the Four Beasts11:25 - Daniel 8 and the Ram and Goat14:50 - Daniel 2 and the Statue21:15 - Closing ThoughtsIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected] by Luke TaylorIf you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

  --------  

  26:27
• Closing the Gates of Hell: The Authority Jesus Gave Us- and How to Use It

  In Matthew 16, Jesus told us that those who believe in Him become part of the church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us. But what exactly are the gates of hell?Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the idea of spiritual gateways in the Bible. The modern word for these gates or gateways would be “portals,” but that’s not a term that was used back when King Jimmy wrote his translation, so the biblical vocabulary for these would be gates.I’ve been digging into this concept of the gate of heaven in the Old Testament. We traced out its whole story of what it was: a portal between heaven and earth- where it came from, the role it served in the Old Testament, and how it was eventually taken down by defiling its altar.So when Jesus spoke of the gates of hell, could he have been referring to these entry points between our realm and the spiritual realm?And if the gates of hell are these entryways, then what has Jesus given us- the church- the task of doing about them?I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. Turn to Matthew 16, and let’s get weird.Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe0:00 - Introduction2:30 - Real Witchcraft8:00 - Keys to the Kingdom15:00 - Our Authority22:30 - Newsletter24:10 - The Altar of the CrossIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected] by Luke TaylorIf you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

  --------  

  28:03
• Altars, Idols and Spiritual Gates: Unlocking Heaven and Hell

  There was an incredible comment left on my last episode: “God is the biggest sci-fi nerd ever”And I loved it because yeah, I know lately I’ve been talking about portals and gateways and UFOs and someone might wonder if I’ve been watching too much Star Wars instead of reading my Bible. But these concepts didn’t start with science fiction; we’re seeing that they go all the way back to ancient times, written in Scripture itself, and will have a profound impact on how we understand spiritual warfare today.And yeah, I’ve probably been watching too much Star Wars as well, but that’s always true. A lot of these revelations I’ve been finding are actually new to me, including what I’ll be talking about in this episode.So in the last two weeks, we established a few facts we can observe from the text of the Bible: 1- for spiritual beings to pass between our realm and the spiritual realm, they can’t just pop in anywhere they want to. There has to be a way made through; a gate.2- there are gates of heaven and gates of hell, and these are for the angels/good spiritual beings and the demons/bad spiritual beings3- the gates are tied to physical locations on planet earth4- the gates can be tainted or closed, as we observed in the story of Bethel5- once the gates open, they stay open. It’s not like Dr Strange where he opens a portal, jumps through it, and then closes it right behind him. Once the gate opens, it stays open.But how does it open?Well as I was reading about these locations where gateways had been established on the earth in Genesis 12 and 28 and 35 and I Kings 13 and several other places, there was a particular word that I would see come up again and again and again throughout these stories: “altar.”I found this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. Turn to Genesis 12, and let’s get weird.Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe0:00 - Introduction2:35 - Altars Defined6:20 - Bethel Revisited13:50 - Altars Throughout Scripture19:00 - Good Altars21:50 - Next Time and Newsletter24:00 - The Occult, Witchcraft and IdolatryIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected] by Luke TaylorIf you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

  --------  

  30:51

More Religion & Spirituality podcasts

Trending Religion & Spirituality podcasts

About Weird Stuff in the Bible

Weird Stuff in the Bible: Podcasts in Family