Faith Lab

Matthew and Luke don't give us the same family tree, and the census in Luke has been called a historical invention. So why would anyone still trust the birth narratives?

New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman compared them against 95 other ancient biographies, and what he found about Matthew and Luke's sources changes how you'd evaluate every supposed contradiction.

🔓 Members get the full unedited interview with Caleb, including his breakdown of how ancient Jewish genealogies actually worked.

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For decades, scholars have claimed that ancient birth narratives were never meant to be taken as history. Then one scholar went and actually read them.

New Testament scholar Caleb Friedeman tested that claim against the ancient biographers themselves, and what he found in their own writing doesn't fit the story we've been told.

🔓 Members get the full unedited interview with Caleb, including Shelby's pushback on whether these stories are too beautiful to be real. faithlabshow.com/support
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Want the full, unedited conversation? Parts 1 and 2 combined with some bonus parts, over 80 minutes with Tim Mackie. Available exclusively for premium members at faithlabshow.com/support

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Tim Mackie, co-founder of The Bible Project. Listen to Part 1.

Tim walks through one of the most disturbing stories in Genesis (what actually happened between Noah and Ham) and uses it to reveal how biblical authors embedded narrative riddles that only unlock as you read further. He explains why the Bible isn't a rulebook but an epic narrative pointing to a person, how Jesus himself engaged Scripture when asked about hot-button issues, why head-on theological debates almost never change anyone's mind, and what he means when he says "faithfulness" is a better word than "inerrancy."

If Part 1 introduced design patterns, Part 2 shows what happens when you let them reshape how you read everything.

In this episode:

The Noah and Ham story, what actually happened and why the Bible leaves it ambiguous on purpose. How narrative riddles work across Genesis, Leviticus, and Samuel. Tim's Yoda analogy for how we misread the Bible. Why the Bible is a narrative pointing to Jesus, not a rulebook. How Jesus handled marriage and divorce by going back to Genesis 1–2. Why head-on theological debates almost never work. Inerrancy vs. faithfulness and why Tim prefers the Bible's own vocabulary. Bible translations as a bag of golf clubs. Tim's personal experience of encounter through Scripture.

Thoughts, questions, stories? faithlabshow.com/contact⁠

Become a member and get:

1. Full, unedited ad-free interviews

2. Early release episodes

3. Access to the private Faith Lab community

Become a member: ⁠faithlabshow.com/support⁠

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Want the full, unedited conversation? Parts 1 and 2 combined with some bonus parts, over 80 minutes with Tim Mackie. Available exclusively for premium members at ⁠faithlabshow.com/support⁠

This is Part 1 of our conversation with Tim Mackie, co-founder of The Bible Project. Listen to ⁠Part 2⁠.

Most people read the Bible like a modern instruction manual. Tim Mackie says that's exactly the problem. In this episode, Tim breaks down how the Bible was actually designed to communicate through repetition, pattern, and intentional structure. We look at why the early chapters of Genesis aren't just origin stories but training ground for how to read the rest of Scripture. Once you see the design patterns, you can't unsee them.

Part 1 lays the foundation. Part 2 shows what happens when you let it reshape how you read everything.

Thoughts, questions, stories? ⁠faithlabshow.com/contact⁠

Become a member and get:

1. Full, unedited ad-free interviews

2. Early release episodes

3. Access to the private Faith Lab community
Become a member: ⁠faithlabshow.com/support⁠
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca McLaughlin joins Faith Lab to confront Christianity’s hardest objections and ask whether Christian faith can actually stand up to serious scrutiny.

In this conversation, Nate and Shelby talk with Rebecca about the historical reliability of the Gospels, eyewitness testimony, women in the early Christian movement, moral critiques of Christianity, and the problem of suffering. Rather than treating faith as a blind leap, Rebecca explains why Christianity has always made public and testable claims about reality, claims that invite investigation rather than shut it down.

They explore why Jesus continues to provoke resistance, how modern skepticism often relies on values Christianity helped introduce, and why deconstruction so often happens when questions are postponed rather than engaged. From the resurrection accounts and the presence of embarrassing details in the Gospels to the role of women as primary witnesses, this episode walks through why the Christian story may be far more historically and intellectually resilient than many assume.

This episode is for skeptics, deconstructing Christians, and anyone wondering whether Christianity can survive honest doubt in a pluralistic world by facing hard questions directly rather than avoiding them.

Thoughts, questions, stories? Please email [email protected]

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1. Bonus episodes

2. Ad-free episodes

3. Early release episodes

4. Access to the private Faith Lab Facebook Group (350+ listeners)

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