Episodes

Last week we talked about why oral tradition can be trustworthy. This week we widen the lens: a lot of what we assume about “oral tradition” also applies to written tradition, because in the ancient world writing and orality ...

We sometimes assume that written = reliable and oral = fragile — like oral tradition is basically a centuries-long telephone game. But that’s not how real oral cultures work, and it’s not even how human memory works. In this ...

Were the Nephilim basically superheroes? Genesis 6 gives us “mighty men,” “heroes,” and “men of renown” language—but the flood narrative isn’t inviting admiration. Instead, this episode reframes that “superhero” instinct as s...

This week we’re back in the Flood narrative—but we zoom out to follow one biblical metaphor across the whole storyline: “blotting out.” This is a frame-semantics-heavy episode where we build what I’m calling the erasure frame...

In Genesis 6, how do we get from “sons of God and daughters of men” to a world “filled with violence” — without leaning on 1 Enoch as the primary interpretive lens? In this episode, Carey builds an intra-biblical case that fo...

In the finale of the Fire series, Carey traces eschatological fire across Scripture—not as a single “hellfire” image, but as a matrix of scenes where fire unveils , judges , purifies , and ultimately makes creation fit for Go...

In this episode, Carey connects the “fire series” to a bigger question: what does it mean for God’s holy presence to be “distributed” through the Church—and even into the world—often in spite of us? From Genesis to Pentecost ...

Where do we actually see atonement in Genesis—before the Levitical system even exists? In this episode, Carey uses frame semantics to map the Hebrew “atonement” word-group ( kipper and its conceptual neighborhood) across the ...

This week, Carey continues the Purity Series by digging into Matthew Thiessen’s Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism —and uses it as a springboard to talk about...

In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey sits down with Courtney Trotter of Kairos Classroom for a deep-dive into how Scripture portrays God’s appearances—especially the debated “Angel of the LORD,” and the often-ove...

In this episode we head back into Genesis 6 and ask what it means that Noah was “blameless in his generations.” Is this about genetic purity and Nephilim DNA… or about covenant faithfulness in a violently corrupt world? Worki...

In this episode, Carey continues the fire in Scripture series by following the holy fire of God into the furnace—where His presence purifies without consuming. We trace how Isaiah and Daniel picture God’s burning holiness as ...

What if fire really does fall from heaven…and the nation still doesn’t change? In this episode, Carey walks through Elijah’s showdown with Baal, the prophetic lawsuit pattern, Psalm 82, and how Jesus redirects our zeal so we ...

In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey continues tracing the theme of fire through Scripture—this time by pairing it with the biblical theme of glory and the language of God as a “consuming fire” and “jealous God.”...

This episode launches a new mini-series on the theme of fire in Scripture and how it works as more than just a judgment or “end times” metaphor. Fire marks boundaries, tests fitness for nearness, guards holy space, and signal...

In this sweeping synthesis episode, Carey zooms out from Mesopotamian exorcism texts to contrast ancient magic/technique with the Bible’s holiness/presence frame. We explore how Scripture attributes sickness and calamity to G...

Concluding the mini-series reading from Udug-hul (Udug-hul) Tablet 12 , a Mesopotamian exorcism/purification text, and tracing how a single goat in this ritual ends up doing several jobs—substitute, container of breath, apotr...

This episode continues last week’s deep dive (Ep. 149) into Udug-hul Tablet 12 , exploring how ancient Mesopotamians understood purity, sacred space, demons, and ritual —and how that compares (and collides) with the Bible’s w...

Today we step before Leviticus into Sumerian and Akkadian worlds to see how ancient people thought about purity, danger, and the sacred—and how Israel both echoes and upends that world. We sample Udug-hul exorcism tablets (in...

Carey sits down with Mike Chu to talk through the new Unseen Realm — Expanded Edition , how Heiser clarified his stance on creeds , why frame semantics and ancient contexts matter, and why a Christotelic reading (aimed at the...

Continuing the water series by framing purification and holiness through an ancient Near Eastern lens and a Christotelic (telos-aimed) reading of Scripture. We contrast Christocentric “reading back” with Christotelic “reading...

This episode of Genesis Marks the Spot explores the meaning and function of ritual with a special focus on baptism. From Jewish mikvahs and Qumran practices to Greco-Roman mystery rites and John the Baptist’s wilderness call,...

This episode continues our deep dive into the biblical theme of water. From Genesis to the prophets, from Eden’s rivers to Israel’s covenant rain, water frames the story of God’s presence, judgment, and renewal. Along the way...

In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey sits down with Phil Bray—author of Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block and creator of the YouTube channel Leviticus is Fun —for a wide-ranging conversation on sacrifice, atonemen...