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PODCAST

The Biblical Mind

Center For Hebraic Thought

The Biblical Mind is dedicated to helping its audience understand how the biblical authors thought, promoting Bible fluency through curious, careful reading of Scripture. It is hosted by Dr. Dru Johnson and published by the Center for Hebraic Thought, a hub for research and resources on the intellectual world of the Bible.

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All Episodes

46:19

Getting Egypt Out of Israel: The Exodus Plagues as...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/12/11

Are the ten plagues just divine punishment? Or are they intended to form a people?In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson sits down with Dr. Rick Wadholm and Pastor Dalton Avery, co-authors of Plagued by Faith, to explore a more layered vision of the plague narratives in Exodus. Rather than merely acts of judgment, the plagues are portrayed as formative, disruptive events that unmake Egypt’s religious, political, and economic worldview—and detach Israel from it. The Nile River, Egypt’s source of life, is

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25:08

Hebraic Thought On The Big Screen? Biblical Themes in...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/12/04

What makes a movie biblical—even if it’s not about the Bible?In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson explores that question with a curated list of films that reflect deep biblical structures—movies that “get what’s going on in Scripture” better than many that explicitly reference the Bible. These aren’t Sunday School adaptations—they’re gritty, layered, and emotionally raw. Dru walks through Tree of Life (a meditation on Job and Genesis 1), A Serious Man (Job again, but existential and tragic), East of

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2:13

Equip the Church to Think Biblically: How Your Church...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/12/03

In this special message to church leaders, Dr. Dru Johnson speaks directly to pastors, elders, and ministry teams preparing next year’s budget. As someone who has served as a full-time pastor, he knows how critical and crowded those budget conversations can be—and he makes a case for why the Center for Hebraic Thought deserves a place in your missions giving line.“If you’ve passed along our articles, if you’ve listened regularly to our podcast or shared it with others,” Dru says, “then you’ve

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2:51

Fueling Hebraic Thought: How You Can Help

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/12/02

In this candid and heartfelt message, Dr. Dru Johnson steps out from behind the mic to speak directly to you—the listener, the learner, the potential donor.“I’m a recurring giver. I actually pay to do this work.” That’s how strongly he believes in the mission of the Center for Hebraic Thought. In this short but powerful donor appeal, Dru explains how the Center’s podcast, public resources, book series, and workshops are made possible—not by salaries or institutional budgets—but by the generous

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22:14

Why Scholars Gather: A Tour Through the Wild World of...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/11/27

What actually happens when thousands of biblical scholars descend on a single convention center?In this unusual and behind-the-scenes episode, Dru Johnson roams the floor of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston to ask a range of publishers and scholars—from Langham Publishing to Prairie College—what these conferences are really like. From the excitement of free books to the dread of reading papers aloud in monotone, this episode reveals both the inspiring and ridiculous sides

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54:21

Where Is God? Eucharist, Trauma, and Divine Presence...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/11/20

Where is God present—and how do believers describe it?In this thoughtful and poetic episode, Polish theologian Dr. Elżbieta Łazarewicz-Wyrzykowska joins Dru Johnson to reflect on theology, trauma, and spiritual presence. From her childhood in Warsaw—where bullet holes and tanks marked the legacy of war—to her academic path through Hebrew Bible, literary theory, and empirical psychology, Elżbieta has never stopped asking difficult questions. They discuss her research into the Book of Amos using the

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61:57

On Biblical Masculinity, The Boy Crisis, And The...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/11/13

For decades, churches have built youth ministries around entertainment and behavior management. But what if all the data says that’s the wrong approach?In this powerful episode, Dr. Anthony Bradley joins Dru Johnson to reflect on 25 years of experience working with youth, revisiting the PBS documentary Raising Cain and what it reveals about the neglected emotional lives of boys. He shares stories from his time as a high school teacher, where the boys most emotionally adrift weren’t from broken

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43:59

What The Chosen Gets Right (And Wrong): Archaeology,...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/11/06

Was Peter’s hometown ever really lost—and have we just found it?In this episode, archaeologist and scholar Dr. Jeffrey Arroyo García joins Dru Johnson to explore how archaeology reshapes our understanding of the Gospels, popular media like The Chosen, and the portrayal of first-century Judaism. Drawing on his years excavating at El-Araj—the site increasingly believed to be biblical Bethsaida—Jeff walks us through how ancient inscriptions, Crusader-era churches, and Roman bathhouses reveal the story

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34:46

Creation, Rest, and Reign: What Genesis Meant to the...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/10/30

What if Genesis 1 wasn’t about the origin of matter—but the enthronement of God? And what if “rest” wasn’t the end of work, but the beginning of reign?In this episode, Rachel Booth Smith, author of Rest Assured, joins Dru Johnson to explore how the Genesis creation story contrasts with other ancient Near Eastern accounts. With a storyteller’s gift and a pastor’s heart, Smith explains how comparing biblical cosmogony to Egyptian or Hittite myths can actually strengthen, not weaken, our faith in the

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24:50

Israel’s Rituals, God’s Needs, and the Covenant That...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/10/23

What happens when a senior biblical scholar changes their mind—publicly? In this episode, Dr. John Walton returns to explain key shifts in his thinking, especially about Genesis, the temple, and covenant theology.He unpacks two major paradigm shifts: first, that Genesis creation isn’t about material origins, but about functional order; second, that Genesis 3 isn’t even about sin—it’s about humanity’s search for order. He also revisits his earlier view that the cosmos should be seen as a temple, now

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37:35

Cultural Rivers, Order, and Covenant: Tools For...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/10/16

In this thought-provoking episode, Walton explains his “cultural rivers” metaphor—how each culture swims in its own current of values, assumptions, and logic. We can’t read the Bible through modern, Western eyes without missing what mattered most to ancient audiences. Genesis, for example, isn’t about material origins but about God bringing order to a disordered world.From Genesis 1–11, which Walton calls a unified pursuit-of-order narrative, to covenant as God’s chosen method of establishing order

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45:37

Unlocking The Deep Structures of Scripture: The...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/10/09

What if the Bible was written with deep structural patterns designed to echo across generations—economically and theologically?In this riveting episode, Dr. Joshua Berman joins Dru Johnson to reveal how literary design, verbal repetition, and cultural continuity make the Bible not a patchwork, but a carefully composed unity. Through examples ranging from Genesis and Judges to Exodus and Samuel, Berman shows how the same words, images, and narrative arcs—like “sword and bow” or reversal of

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50:47

Attachment Theory, God’s Presence, & The Image of...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/10/02

What does attachment theory have to do with discipleship, theology, or the church? According to Dr. Geoff Holsclaw, more than we realize.In this episode, Holsclaw—a pastor, theologian, and co-author of Landscapes of the Soul—joins Dru Johnson to explore how neuroscience and interpersonal attachment can illuminate both human development and the biblical story. From early childhood bonds to the way we experience God’s presence, he explains how secure and insecure attachments shape how we relate to

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47:10

Pharisees, Torah, and Sacrifice: What We Miss When We...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/09/25

Did Jesus come to cancel the Law of Moses—or fulfill it? In this compelling episode, Dr. Paul Sloan joins Dru Johnson to challenge one of the most persistent misunderstandings in modern Christianity: the idea that Jesus and Paul opposed the Torah.Drawing from his book Jesus and the Law of Moses, Sloan explains how legalism, misunderstanding of impurity, and modern Christian readings of Paul have distorted our view of the biblical law. Instead of a rigid checklist of 613 rules, the Torah was a

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46:47

Is "Eye For An Eye" Christian? Jesus, Justice, and...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/09/18

“Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” We’ve all heard the phrase—but what does it actually mean in the Bible? In this episode, Mike Tolliver and Dr. Dru Johnson unpack the principle of Talion—Lex Talionis—and show why it’s one of the most misunderstood elements of biblical justice.They trace the concept across Leviticus, Exodus, and Deuteronomy, exploring how this principle wasn’t about vengeance or equal retaliation, but a wisdom-guided restraint on power and a warning to those in authority: “Don’t

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42:30

Feasting on Hope: Sacraments, Trauma, and Formation...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/09/11

Is communion just a symbolic snack—or a mysterious, formative act of grace?In this episode, Rev. Hannah King, an Anglican priest and author of the upcoming Feasting on a Hope: How God Sets a Table in the Wilderness, joins Dru Johnson to explore why the Lord’s Supper is essential for the Christian life. Hannah shares her journey from evangelical church spaces into Anglicanism, unpacking how the Eucharist re-centered her understanding of salvation as bodily, communal, and ongoing. She shares deeply

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49:11

Theology in the Mother Tongue: Oral Bible Translation...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/09/04

What if the Bible isn’t something you read—but something you hear, memorize, and perform?In this groundbreaking episode, Dr. Fausto Liriano shares his work translating the Bible into indigenous languages without writing it down. Through oral Bible translation projects in Guatemala, Mexico, and the Philippines, Dr. Liriano helps communities internalize Scripture in their own languages—through performance, storytelling, and memorization. He explains how this work challenges not only Western

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36:31

The Illusion of Intelligence: Why AI Can’t Replace...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/08/28

Is AI intelligent—or just artificial? In this provocative episode, Dr. Noreen Herzfeld, a rare scholar of both computer science and theology, joins Dru Johnson to expose what most people overlook about artificial intelligence. Drawing from her recent book The Artifice of Intelligence, she challenges the mythology of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and critiques the environmental, social, and theological costs of current AI use.Herzfeld argues that large language models are plateauing and that

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45:01

Becoming God’s Family: Against Church Hurt,...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/08/21

Can you be a Christian without the church? In this timely episode, Dr. Carmen Imes argues forcefully—and pastorally—that Christianity without community is a contradiction. Drawing from her new book Becoming God’s Family, she and Dru Johnson explore why so many people are walking away from church and what it would take to draw them back.From church hurt to spiritual abuse to toxic celebrity culture, Carmen doesn’t shy away from the reasons people leave. But she also offers theological and pastoral

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41:14

Literature and Idealism: Or, How The Bible Is A...

The Biblical Mind ·

2025/08/14

What do Tolkien, vocation, and gritty literature have in common? In this conversation, Dru Johnson talks with literary scholar Dr. Karen Swallow Prior about why Christians often gravitate toward fantasy and romantic ideals—and why that can be a problem. Karen critiques the elevation of genre fiction like The Lord of the Rings as literary canon and urges Christians to engage “thick texts” that challenge us and train us to read Scripture more deeply.They discuss how modern reading habits—dominated by

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