Episode: What is the Song of Deborah doing in the middle of the Judges narrative? Michelle Knight argues that the pom changes the way we read the story it fits within. Moreover, this potent poem address issues like sexual violence, gender dynamics, leadership cover-ups, power struggles, and the ways that military might does or doesn't cohere with God's view of the world. Listen and enjoy insights from Michelle's recent book, The Prophet's Anthem: The Song of Deborah and Barak in the Narrative of Judges (Baylor, 2024).

Guest: Michelle Knight is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She's s the author of The Prophet’s Anthem: The Song of Deborah and Barak in the Narrative of Judges (BUP, 2024). She also serves as Senior Reviewer for the Historical Books for the New Living Translation. Her current research interests include narrative criticism, theology of the Old Testament, the Former Prophets (esp. Joshua and Judges), and poetry in biblical narrative.

Give: Visit our Donate Page if you would like to support OnScript’s work.

Episode: Malka Simkovich is back on the podcast to discuss her new book Letters from Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity (PSU Press/Eisenbrauns, 2024). We talk about how early Jewish communities in the land of Israel and those outside thought about each other, tried to keep connected, and how they thought about the relationship between being Jewish and being in the land.

Guest: Dr. Malka Simkovich is the Editor-in-Chief of The Jewish Publication Society and Visiting Professor at Yeshiva University’s Revel Graduate School for Jewish Studies. Before taking up the role at JPS, she was the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies at Catholic Theological Union from 2014–2024. She’s the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (Lexington, 2016), Discovering Second Temple Literature (JPS, 2018). Her most recent book is Letters From Home: The Creation of Diaspora in Jewish Antiquity (PSU Press/Eisenbrauns, 2024), the subject of the present episode. She's also the author of many scholarly and popular articles.

Give: Visit our Donate Page if you would like to support OnScript’s work.

Episode: Back for what feels like the 100th time, Dr. Ervine Sheblazm!! You're in for a treat with this episode. Dr. Sheblazm unveils what some consider the most innovative economic approach since the advent of bartering. Sheblazm's work sent shockwaves through the stalls of Wall Street, and through the nervous system of every economic theorist battered by the prevailing winds of our culture's obsession with "getting money right." The good Dr. exposes the fatal flaws in our current system, and invites us to the economic table of 1 Tim, 1 Cor, and other New Testament giants. Listen, and then read The Cheerful Taker: A New Economics for Pauline Christians in a Changing World (Sheblazm Press, 2025).

Guest: Dr. Sheblazm is an accomplished scientist and theologian, and a long-time friend of the podcast. He's the author of many works, including Faultlines in the Horizon, Feathers on the Nose, Paul's Theology of Universalism, A Life Living (A Theological Memoir), Child Rearing with the Apostle Paul, and much more, including his newest work, The Cheerful Taker: A New Economics for Pauline Christians in a Changing World, published by Sheblazm Press, 2025. Of course Dr. Shblazm has doctorates from prestigious online universities, and runs the Centre for Excellence in the Lake District of England.

Give: Visit our Donate Page if you would like to support OnScript’s work.