Footnote Famous

Over the first season of Footnote Famous I interviewed 22 Bible scholars, and I read every one of their books cover to cover before we spoke. Some of what I heard confirmed things I already suspected. Five ideas genuinely changed how I read the New Testament — and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them since.In this season one roundup I walk through all five: why the "gospel communities" every seminary teaches may be an invention of 19th-century German Romanticism; why the Christmas story might originally have been about John the Baptist; why the Paul we read could be third-hand at best; why Luke looks like he was reading Josephus; and why "faith" didn't originally mean what Augustine made it mean.Featuring conversations with Dr. Robin Faith Walsh, Dr. James McGrath, Dr. Markus Vinzent, Dr. Steve Mason, and Dr. Teresa Morgan.Full interviews:Ep. 2 — Robin Faith Walsh Ep. 3 — James McGrathEp. 5 — Markus VinzentEp. 10 — Steve MasonEp. 18 — Teresa MorganBooks mentioned (Sponsored Links):- Robin Faith Walsh, The Origins of Early Christian Literature 👉 - James McGrath, John of History, Baptist of Faith (and the popular version, Christmaker) - Markus Vinzent, Resetting the Origins of Christianity and Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity - Steve Mason, Josephus and the New Testament - Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith - Paula Fredriksen, Ancient Christianities — not on the list, but everyone should read itQuestions this episode answers:Where did the idea of "gospel communities" come from?Was the nativity story originally about John the Baptist?Have Paul's letters been edited?Did Luke use Josephus as a source?What did the Greek word pistis actually mean?A reconstructed Baptist infancy
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Did the author of Luke's Gospel actually know the geography of first-century Palestine? In this interview, biblical scholar John Kloppenborg — my own PhD supervisor at the University of Toronto — breaks down the evidence that Luke's geography is full of errors, and explains what those mistakes reveal about Luke's sources. Kloppenborg identifies three levels of geographic knowledge in ancient texts: place names, relational knowledge (how places connect), and deep local knowledge. Using this framework, he shows that Luke has genuine local knowledge of sailing routes in the Aegean, only relational knowledge of the Levantine coast, and almost no accurate knowledge of the interior of Galilee and Judea — where Jesus's own ministry supposedly took place.We look at specific geographical mistakes in Luke's Gospel: Nazareth called a "polis" (city) when it was a village of a few hundred people, the feeding of the 5,000 near Bethsaida, and the confused travel narrative in Luke 9–19 where Jesus seems to be in two places at once. Kloppenborg argues this points to Luke using an ancient map — possibly a predecessor of the Tabula Peutingeriana — to reconstruct a journey through territory he had never visited.
Tabula Peutingeriana Interactive Map 🔗PDF of John's Chapter - “Luke’s Geography: Knowledge, Ignorance, Sources, and Spatial Conception.”
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In this interview, I sit down with biblical scholar Laura Nasrallah to discuss her book Archaeology and the Letters of Paul. We explore how archaeological evidence — from manumission inscriptions to ancient toilets — complicates our understanding of slavery, hospitality, grief, and ethnicity in Paul's world, while challenging popular misconceptions about "biblical archaeology." The conversation moves through:- Case studies on enslavement in Corinthians and Philemon- The burdens of ancient hospitality- Grief and loss in Corinth- Ethnic tension in Romans- The question of pseudepigraphy and Pauline authorshipLaura's Book (Affiliate link)
To watch these interview live and engage with my online community on bible scholarship and early Christianity
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What if one of early Christianity's most mysterious documents has been hiding two completely different texts — side by side — for nearly 2,000 years?
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That's exactly what New Testament scholar Alan Garrow argues in his groundbreaking new book The Didache Discoveries. In this interview, we dig into his stunning findings: buried inside the Didache is what he believes is the actual Apostolic Decree — compiled by James the brother of Jesus and the twelve apostles around 48 CE — and a missing epistle of John referenced in 3 John 9.If Garrow is right, this changes how we read Paul's letters, the Synoptic Gospels, and the Gospel of John. It may even offer solutions to the notorious Synoptic Problem.In this conversation we cover:- What the Didache actually is and why scholars have puzzled over it for decades- How Garrow identified two separate hidden documents within it- The Apostolic Decree: what it says and how it functioned as early Christian Scripture- The Missing Epistle of John — and why its discovery matters for understanding Johannine theology- What this means for Paul, the Synoptic Problem, and the development of the New Testament

Alan Garrow's WebsiteAlan's Book - The Didache Discoveries ⁠Get the book here━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join My Community - SkepeRead My Substack Patreon
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Fake Bible Scholars Are Going Viral. Real Scholars Need to Step Up Child sacrifice, God's wife, & how Bible editors "fixed" them
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I sat down with Dan McClellan — one of the most followed actual biblical scholars online — to talk about how we got here, why it matters, and what real scholarship looks like when it finally shows up to the fight.
We cover:
→ Why "biblical" is a political term, not a scholarly one→ How apologists learned to sound credentialed without being credentialed
→ Why real scholars abandoned the public square — and what it cost us→ The identity politics engine driving Bible misinformation
→ What it looks like when actual scholarship pushes back
→ Dan's new book "The Bible Says So" — and what it gets right that apologists get wrong
Find Dan McClellan on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
Book: "The Bible Says So" (Affiliate Link)
Podcast: Data Over Dogma