What happened to Jesus on Easter Saturday? The apostles creed claims that Jesus 'descended into hell', reflecting a wider Christian motif called the 'Harrowing of Hell.' To find out more about this belief, Lloyd Lewellyn-Jones asks our resident expert, Helen Bond, who is currently writing a book on the subject.

They explore questions like:

• Is the 'Harrowing of Hell' alluded to in the gospels?
• When did Jesus go to hell and what was he doing there?
• How strong is the biblical foundation of this idea?
• How is the Harrowing depicted in the Gospel of Nicodemus?

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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, Professor Helen Bond unpacks a tricky text in 1 Peter which some have read as the biblical basis for the harrowing of hell.

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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 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?

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, Dylan Johnson unpacks whether Eden is a Temple.

Support the show

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