Luke is often presented as one of the most pro-women writers in the New Testament. But is that really the case? To find out, Helen and Lloyd take a trip in the Biblical Time Machine with Dr Julia Mayo, whose recent work has complicated this view. They discuss the hidden meanings of female names, how Luke characterises women, and how they are often confined to the domestic space.

Julia Mayo earned her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2024. Her thesis was entitled, ‘The Women of Acts: The Ancient Characterization of Tabitha, Lydia, Sapphira, and Priscilla’, and her research interests include the Book of Acts, gender studies and New Testament rhetorical criticism. She has also published on a postcolonial reading of Acts 16:6-18 in Horizons of Biblical Theology.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 + 5 produced by John Nelson.

The Amorites were once an age-defining people, but today they have been largely forgotten. So who were the Amorites, and how does Bible portray them? To take us back to the early Bronze era and the rise of the Amorite age, Helen and Lloyd are joined by the well-fared Time Traveller, Dr Dylan Johnson.

Dr Dylan R. Johnson is a Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern History at Cardiff University and an expert on all things Mesopotamian. He is the author of Sovereign Authority and the Elaboration of Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (2020, Mohr Siebeck) and is writing Lawgiving in the Ancient Near East for Cambridge University Press.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 + 5 produced by John Nelson.

As All Hallows' Eve fast approaches, Helen and Lloyd turn their attention to the spookiest episode in the gospel tradition – a story in which the dead are raised and enter Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). The little episode has vexed scholars for centuries and raises many questions: what happened to the saints in between the crucifixion and resurrection? Who were these ‘holy ones’ who went into the city? And how do they fit into Matthew’s narrative as a whole?

To find out what this episode really means, Helen and Lloyd are joined by Dr Nathanael Vette, who has a spooky new theory about the 'resurrected saints', and why Matthew includes them in his gospel. In his forthcoming article, 'Noon of the Living Dead' (CBQ), Nathanael proposes that Matthew's saints should be seen against the backdrop of the 'shades of the dead', a Roman omen that preceded several national calamities, including the brutal murder of Julius Caesar.

Dr Nathanael Vette is Lecturer in New Testament, Gender and the Arts at King's College, London. He is the author of Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022) and co-editor of A Theology of Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Support the show

Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 + 5 produced by John Nelson.