I thought I would take a couple of days to blog about the podcasts that are available on the topic of the Bible. I started by going to the iTunes podcast page and doing a search on the term Bible. After weeding out the podcasts that were church services from congregations with “Bible” in their name, I was left with nine podcasts. If anyone else knows of podcasts that should be added to this list, just let me know.
In each of the reviews I will look at the organization or individual that makes the podcast, the focus of the podcast (e.g., news, Bible study, reflection on the Scriptures, etc.), and the perspective from which the author approaches the Bible. The aim of all this is to point people toward the best Bible podcasts that are out there.1
I started slow with a 45 second podcast from the Bible News Network, which is run by the Canadian Bible Society. The content of the podcast is a short piece of news related to the Bible. The show I happened to hear talked about the annual “Scripture in School Day” organized by Bob Pawdon as a way to “return the Bible to public schools.” This doesn’t seem to be an active podcast, as the most recent entry was from September 2006.
The second podcast I surveyed is called, simply enough “Bible Podcast.” It is done by Tony Walker, who calls himself Preacher Tony. Tony is 23 years old and became a Christian six years ago. He doesn’t have a bio on his site — other than his testimony — so I don’t have any more information on him. The podcast is taken from his radio show “Bible Broadcast,” which is heard Friday afternoons at 5:00 on WRIX-AM 1020 out of Anderson, SC. Tony uses the KJV throughout.
The podcast is described as a verse-by-verse study of the Bible. The episode I heard was from May 4, 2007, and it focused on Romans 7:1-6. The majority of the podcast is spent talking about vv.1-3, and he pulls in 1 Corinthians 7 and Matthew 19 as additional verses. The topic of this passage, according to Tony, is divorce. He says that this passage shows that Christians are not to get divorced, except in the case of fornication.
This is rather odd, because Romans 7:1-3 never mentions divorce. Instead, its focus is on the fact that a woman is bound by to her husband while he is alive, but is free if he dies. The whole point is to set up an analogy to the status of Christians with respect to the law (Romans 7:4-6). Tony only gets around to these last three verses in the final three minutes of the broadcast. After reading those verses, he spends most of that time talking about what a wonderful and faithful husband Christ is to the believer. That Christ is a faithful husband is true, of course, but it is not the point of Romans 7:4-6.
Preacher Tony took an odd pot shot at Catholics at one point. When discussing what Jesus had to say about divorce in Matthew 19, he says that this chapter shows that Jesus believed the literal2 account of Genesis 1-11, unlike some Catholic people. Why Catholics get singled out as not believing that Genesis 1-11 is historical is unclear.
All in all, this is not a very promising podcast. It certainly does not seem to take an informed approach to the Scripture. Instead, it seems to be the reflections of one guy who reads the text and talks about what it suggests to him. I may listen to a few more episodes, but this doesn’t seem to be one I will keep on my computer for very long.
On May 11th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Should you include my occasional podcasts? I do not usually deal directly with biblical exegesis, although I could post some sermons
but I do hope to have some interesting biblical scholars and theologians to interview in the coming months. My first guest was Dr. Jim West.
On May 11th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Me too, me too! 5 Minute Bible at http://bigBible.org/audio-bible/ is segments on studying the Bible that last about 5 mins (duh!).
On May 11th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I am considering doing your podcast, but it would be more an advertisement than a review. Obviously your podcast is going to come from a scholarly perspective, and since I am reviewing other podcasts to see how they measure up to such a perspective, I have no doubt that yours would do well.
So, I could either be effusive in my praise (such as that excellent podcast you did from the SBL last November) or really picky about things like sound quality (even though I couldn’t do better).
My idea for reviewing these podcasts is to look at the ideas that the podcaster is presenting about the Bible. If I reviewed your interviews, my point would be to engage the ideas presented by your interviewees.
In other words, I am looking over all these podcasts to point out those that are not very good and draw attention to those that are excellent. Your podcast is already a step above the others I have been reviewing, so all I can do is point people to yours.
On May 11th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Kevin I will be the first to admit that the sound quality is atrocious. I think I have figured out what I did wrong on my end. And I take no offense that mine does not fit into your review scenario.
I had toyed with the idea of doing some sort of Lectionary podcast, but some of those exist, as I recall, or perhaps even providing targumic readings. In short, I have been trying to think of a niche and interviewing others may be it.
So keep up the good reviews! I will follow them with interest.
On May 16th, 2007 at 6:17 am
I read on “preacher Tony’s” website that his mother was killed when he was a kid and he gives God glory for using that to in turn bring him into Bible teaching in church, and eventually surrendering to God to preach. It takes an awful lot of faith to give God glory for something like that and then serve Him faithfully. I think I’d rather be called a good and faithful servant by my heavenly father than to be looking for a “crown of criticism”.
On May 16th, 2007 at 7:53 am
I had read that as well, and I am certainly not questioning whether he is a good and faithful servant. But personal tragedies do not exempt us from the responsibility to interpret the text in an informed manner.