We have all heard the story of Adam and Eve. But what was the Garden of Eden which they inhabited? In this week's episode, Helen and Lloyd travel back to the dawn of time with Dr Dylan Johnson as their guide to this mythical landscape. Together, they get to the bottom of questions like:

• Was the Garden of Eden meant to be a real place, or a symbolic vision of paradise?
• Is Genesis borrowing from older Mesopotamian stories about divine gardens?
• Was Adam imagined as a king placed in God’s garden to rule on his behalf?
• Is Eve really to blame for “the fall,” or is that a misreading?
• And who exactly is the serpent, before later tradition identified him with Satan?

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If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

In this week's bonus episode, Dylan Johnson unpacks whether Eden is a Temple.

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

We have all heard rumours that ancient religions used children in ritual sacrifice. But did it really happen? To discuss the evidence, Helen and Lloyd are joined in the Time Machine by Dr Eve MacDonald, lecturer at Cardiff University and author of the acclaimed, Carthage: A New History of an Ancient Empire (Penguin, 2025).

Dr MacDonald answers questions like:

• Did human sacrifice really occur in the ancient world, and what does the archaeological evidence actually show?
• What happened in the Great Death Pit at Ur, and what does it reveal about ancient burial rituals?
• Why do ancient myths and biblical stories so often centre on the sacrifice of young girls?
• Did the Carthaginians really practise child sacrifice, and what does the evidence from the Tophet suggest?
• How did Greeks and Romans use accusations of shocking religious practices to demonise their enemies—and even early Christians?

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

Support the show

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

This week in the Biblical Time Machine, Helen and Lloyd travel back in time to hear and read Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Helping them to uncover the language is world-leading Jesus historian, Bruce Chilton, the Bernard Iddings Bell Profesosr of Religion at Bard College, NY.

Professor Chilton is the author of numerous books, including Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography and most recently, Aramaic Jesus: Tradition, Identity, and Christianity's Mother Tongue. On the show, he answers questions like:

• What is Aramaic and why did Jesus speak it?
• Was Aramaic the only language Jesus spoke?
• Did Jesus have a 'regional' accent?
• Can we uncover Aramaic sources behind the gospels?
• How does Aramaic shed light on Jesus' teaching?

SUPPORT BIBLICAL TIME MACHINE

If you enjoy the podcast, please (pretty please!) consider supporting the show through the Time Travellers Club, our Patreon. We are an independent, listener-supported show (no ads!), so please help us continue to showcase high-quality biblical scholarship with a monthly subscription.

In this week's bonus episode, Bruce Chilton unpacks whether some of Jesus' teachings were lost in (Greek) translation.

Support the show

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