Tim Mackie: The Bible isn't what you think (part 2)

Tim Mackie explains how the Bible uses design patterns, narrative riddles, and intentional gaps to communicate, and why that changes everything about how we read it.

Show Notes

There's a story in Genesis where Noah gets drunk and something terrible happens with his son Ham, and the Bible never tells you what it was. That gap is not a mistake. Tim Mackie says it's a design choice, and learning to read it changes the whole book.

In part two of our conversation, Bible Project co-founder Tim Mackie walks through how the biblical authors crafted narratives with intentional gaps, layered patterns, and riddles that unfold across entire books. We get into why "inerrancy" might be the wrong word, what Jesus actually did when asked about marriage and divorce, and why Tim says the Bible is an epic narrative pointing to a person rather than a rule book.

New here? You can start with part 1.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Nate Hanson

Co-host of Faith Lab

Guest

Tim Mackie

Biblical scholar, teacher, and co-founder of BibleProject

What is Faith Lab?

Christianity is deeper than you've been shown.

Nate Hanson digs into the parts of Christianity most of us were never shown: the evidence for Jesus, the strange spiritual world of the Bible, miracles, the first Christians, and true stories of people Jesus changed. Short episodes, grounded in serious scholarship. Earlier episodes feature conversations with scholars like N.T. Wright, Tim Mackie, and Craig Keener.

Nate was a pastor, spent most of a decade deconstructing, and came back through scholarship.

Faith Lab is free and listener-supported. Help keep it going at faithlabshow.com/support.