The Bible Geek Podcast 16-016

Would the Birth Narratives of Jesus be evidence for an oral tradition of Jesus? If Calvinists are correct and there is nothing the reprobate can do to be saved and the elect can do to be unsaved, what further value can theology have? If one is punished eternally in hell, doesn't that mean that person has everlasting life, albeit a miserable one?. The deuteronomistic list of Davidâ??s â??mighty menâ?? has the feel of a "gathering of heroes" list of the sort familiar from myths like Arthur's gathering the round table or Jason with is Argonauts. Would these mighty men have been the heroes of their own sagas, now lost? Might Matthew 23:8-12 be an interpolation into a Qumran style polemic against rival Jewish authorities? Could John son of Zebedee have been the original hero in the stories where we now see him as Peterâ??s mute sidekick? And could he have originally have been John the Baptist?