Our fourth speaker and topic profile for the inaugural Naked Bible Conference in Dallas, TX on August 18 is Dr. William ("Rusty") Osborne. I've alluded to Dr. Osborne's work on the Naked Bible Podcast several times. His dissertation was on tree imagery and symbolism...
Ezekiel
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 157: Ezekiel 40-48: Temple, Part 2
This episode continues our discussion of Ezekiel’s temple vision. Whereas Part 1 noted the problems a literalistic approach produces for both coherent interpretation and consistency in biblical theology, this episode looks at positive indications in the text that...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 156: Ezekiel 40-48, Part 1
These final chapters of Ezekiel are known for the prophet’s vision of a new temple. However, scattered within that vision is an enigmatic figure referred to as the “prince” (Hebrew: nasiʾ). In this episode we discuss whether or not Ezekiel’s temple vision should be...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 153: Ezekiel 38-39, Part 2
This follow-up to Part 1 on these popular and controversial chapters focuses on the interpretation of the Gog-Magog invasion as a whole. Special attention is paid to how Rev 20:7-10 re-purposes Ezekiel 38-39 and how that re-purposing is consistent with a sound...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 151: Ezekiel 37
Apologies - I forgot to post this episode! Ezekiel 37 is one of the most familiar in the entire book, but that familiarity really extends only to the first fourteen verses. The chapter actually contains two oracles which telegraph the same ideas and work in tandem....
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 152: Ezekiel 38-39, Part 1: Who or What is Gog?
As was the case with Ezekiel 37, these chapters are among the most familiar in the entire book of Ezekiel. This first of two episodes on these chapters focuses on the terminology: Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Togarmah. It also addresses the fallacies of translating...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 150: Ezekiel 35-36
These two chapters seems intrusive. The oracles against the nations ended in Ezekiel 32, followed by the announcement of Jerusalem’s fall (ch. 33) and a transition to the future hope of Israel (ch. 34). Chapters 35-36 are an oracle against Edom (“Mount Seir”) followed...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 147: Ezekiel 33-34
Ezekiel 33-34 finalize the destruction of Jerusalem and the covenant failure of its leadership and people as the cause. But there is more than meets the eye. The notion of a “watchman” prominent in Ezekiel chapter 33 is found elsewhere and has possible connections to...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 146: Ezekiel 32
Ezekiel 32 is a lament for the empire of Egypt, whose hubris was compared to a rebellious divine council member in the previous chapter (one of the “trees” of God’s garden in Lebanon/Eden). This episode focuses on two items in the chapter. Early in the chapter, the...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 145: Ezekiel 31 and the Cosmic Tree
Ezekiel 31 is part of the prophet’s oracles against Egypt (chs. 29-32). The chapter strikes an analogy between the mighty nation of Egypt and a great cedar tree in Eden, the envy of other glorious trees in the garden of God. The symbol of the “world tree” or “cosmic...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 144: Ezekiel 29-30
Ezekiel 29-30 are the first two of four chapters that preserve a series of oracles against Egypt and her Pharaoh. As in the case of the oracles against the prince of Tyre, Ezekiel’s imagery of cosmic, non-human forces of chaos that resist God’s order frames Yahweh’s...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 143: Ezekiel 28
The focus in this episode is Ezek 28:1-19. As readers of my book, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible know, this is a controversial passage. All scholars agree that this is an oracle and lament against a human prince of Tyre. The...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 142: Ezekiel 26-27
Five of the seven nations that are the target of judgment oracles were found in Ezekiel 25. Tyre takes its position in the prophetic crosshairs next. Over the course of three chapters (26-28), God has Ezekiel pronounce Tyre’s dire future in the wake of her hubris and...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 140 – Ezekiel 24
Chapter 24 is a turning book in the book of Ezekiel. After Ezekiel’s call (Ch. 1-3), the book has, to this point, been a series of gloom-and-doom pronouncements to the exiled Jews in Babylon subverting their expectations that Jerusalem, the temple, and their friends...
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 137: Ezekiel 23
Ezekiel 23 essentially takes up where Ezekiel 16 left off. The latter chapter is perhaps the most sexual explicit in the entire Bible, as its theme is to present Jerusalem and Judah as a whore to telegraph her spiritual betrayal of Yahweh. In this chapter both the...