In this conversation with Dr. Sandra Richter, Tim Howe explores the second edition of The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament and its approach to helping readers make sense of the Old Testament.

Richter describes the book’s “Old Testament closet” metaphor: the stories and ideas are valuable, but can feel like a jumble until readers see how they fit together. She presents the biblical covenants—from Eden, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David to Jesus—as a framework for tracing the Old Testament’s story. The conversation explores what covenant meant in the ancient world, how covenant language can help readers understand Eden, and how cultural context shapes the way we read biblical people and passages.

Richter also discusses the second edition’s revisions, including updated cultural examples, expanded material and a reworked bibliography. She explains why reading the Old Testament on its own terms can help readers engage with difficult cultural questions and see its people as real, complex human beings. Richter also describes the Epic of Eden video Bible-study curriculum and its use in individual and group settings. The conversation closes with a case for reading the Old Testament as the beginning of the larger biblical story: without it, readers can miss the context for figures and themes that appear in the New Testament.

• 0:00 – Welcome and guest introduction
• 1:14 – The “Old Testament closet”
  Richter explains her metaphor for the Old Testament: valuable stories and ideas can feel jumbled until readers see how they fit together. She introduces covenant as the framework that helps organize them.
• 4:21 – What covenant means Richter describes how discoveries about ancient Hittite treaties helped scholars understand biblical covenants, especially the relationship between God and Israel at Sinai.
• 8:00 – Different kinds of covenant The discussion turns to personal, clan-level and national covenants, and how covenant created bonds of kinship and shared responsibility in the ancient world.
• 13:32 – Is Eden a covenant? Richter explains why some scholars see covenant patterns in the Garden of Eden, even though Genesis does not explicitly call it a covenant. They discuss Adam and Eve’s relationship with God and what “image of God” means in its ancient context.
• 21:37 – Reading Scripture through its own cultural setting Tim asks about the benefits and risks of interpreting the Bible through a theological system. Richter shares how her diverse faith background shaped her approach and why she prioritizes what the text itself says.
• 30:42 – What changed in the second edition Richter discusses updated cultural examples, revisions to the book’s structure and chapters, new material, and an expanded, reorganized bibliography.
• 38:23 – When the Old Testament feels difficult Richter talks about cultural distance, readers’ assumptions and the importance of seeing biblical figures as real people with complex lives and faith.
• 42:14 – God communicates through culture They consider how biblical language and familiar cultural metaphors help communicate theological ideas—and how Scripture can also challenge the cultures in which it is set.
• 44:11 – Marriage and cultural critique Richter uses Genesis 2:24 to discuss marriage in Iron Age Israel, arguing that the passage challenges the culture’s expectations about family responsibility.
• 46:07 – The Epic of Eden video curriculum Richter describes the 12-session video Bible study
• 50:40 – Why Christians need the Old Testament Richter compares beginning the Bible at Matthew with starting a story partway through. She explains how the Old Testament gives context to Jesus’ identity, the biblical conflict and the story of redemption.
• https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Eden-Christian-Entry-Testament/dp/1514002795

In this episode of In with the Old, host Dr. Tim Howe talks with Dr. J. Daniel Hays, senior professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. They discuss his book From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race. Dr. Hays starts with his own path to the Old Testament. It began with his father's class on the prophets, and it continued through Hebrew studies and missionary years in Ethiopia. He then tells how an invitation to give a conference paper on the Kushites turned into a book. He found the Cushites mentioned 54 times in Scripture, yet they are rarely covered in commentaries or on Bible maps. The conversation then takes up several questions:

• The "curse of Ham":

Dr. Hays walks through Genesis 9 and shows that the curse falls on Canaan, not on Ham or on Black Africans. He explains how the misreading was used to defend slavery in America and why it lingered into the 20th century.

• The Table of Nations:

In Genesis 10, the names include people, cities and nations. They are grouped by geopolitics, not by race.

• The Cushites:

The kingdom lay south of Egypt, in what is now northern Sudan, and it is not modern Ethiopia. Cushites appear throughout Scripture. They include Moses' wife, a soldier in David's army, Ebed-Melech, who rescues Jeremiah, and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.

• Interracial marriage:

God sides with Moses against Miriam and Aaron over his Kushite wife. Dr. Hays explains that the later biblical bans on intermarriage are about faith, not ethnicity. He also shares a personal story about a friend's family.

• God's plan for the nations:

Dr. Hays traces the theme from Babel and Genesis 12 through the prophets, Pentecost and Romans 11. It ends in Revelation, where people from every nation are united around the throne.

• Practical steps for churches today:

He urges listeners to see one another as family and to listen across ethnic lines. He suggests shared services and pulpit exchanges, joint projects and church plants, and multiethnic staff where it fits the community.

Time breakdown

• 0:00

Welcome and guest introduction

• 0:54

What drew Dr. Hays to the Old Testament

• 3:14

The story behind From Every People and Nation

• 6:44

The "curse of Ham" and how it was misused

• 12:01

Genesis 10 and the Table of Nations

• 16:36

Who the Cushites are and why they matter

• 25:23

Moses' Cushite wife and interracial marriage in Scripture

• 35:40

God's plan for the nations, from Genesis to Revelation

• 45:59

Building multiethnic communities today

• 54:03

Final thoughts and sign-off

Did people really live to be almost a thousand years old? In this Season 7 "Bizarre Stories" episode of In with the Old, Tim Howe looks at the ages of the patriarchs in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11. He reads both genealogies, then asks whether the ages should be taken literally and what they teach. The episode covers:

• Why death is the refrain of Genesis 5, and how long life can be read as a sign of God's grace.
• Enoch, and why walking with God matters more than how long you live.
• How the Sumerian King List compares to Genesis
• Context to determine if the ages are literal. Genesis 6:3, Jacob's conversation with Pharaoh in Genesis 47, and Moses at 120. Tim argues these show the text itself treats the ages as literal.
• A theory about how the pre-flood world may have supported longer lives, which Tim presents as speculative.
• What this means for us. Life is a gift from God, and Isaiah 65 shows the curse being reversed. In Christ, death does not get the final word.

Time breakdown

• 0:00 – Welcome and the question: how old were the patriarchs?
• 0:48 – Setting up Genesis 5:3–32 and Genesis 11:10–26
• 1:13 – Reading Genesis 5: Adam to Noah
• 3:19 – Reading Genesis 11: Shem to Terah
• 4:59 – Should we take these ages literally?
• 5:18 – Genesis 5 as a "reset" after the Garden
• 6:04 – Created to live with God: the tree of life and the warning in Genesis 2:17
• 8:02 – The refrain "and he died," and Victor Hamilton on length of days as grace
• 9:49 – Enoch walked with God: quality of life over length
• 10:58 – The ancient Near East and the Sumerian King List
• 13:05 – Is the Bible borrowing from it? Hartman and Wenham respond
• 17:11 – Genesis 6:3 and the 120-year limit
• 19:27 – The Hebrew word in Genesis 6:3 and Bruce Waltke's comments
• 20:57 – Jacob before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:7–10)
• 22:54 – From Abraham to Moses: the ages decline to 120
• 25:06 – The "generations" formula and why the text points to a literal reading
• 26:18 – How is it possible? A different pre-flood world
• 27:28 – The vapor canopy theory (Whitcomb and Morris)
• 29:38 – Lessons: God's blessing, worry, and the source of life
• 30:19 – Isaiah 65: the curse reversed
• 31:34 – Applying it: sin's consequences and union with Christ
• 33:31 – From the seed of hope in Enoch to the resurrection of Jesus
• 34:25 – Closing thoughts and the invitation to trust Christ
• 34:58 – Outro and sign-off