Podcast Summary: BibleProject – Earlier Explorations of Redemption

Date: August 18, 2025
Host: Michelle Jones (with Tim Mackie and John Dyer in archival clips)
Theme: Exploring the motif of "redemption" through earlier BibleProject conversations, linking how this theme appears across Leviticus rituals, biblical poetry, and the hope of resurrection.

Overview

This "hyperlink episode" gathers clips from several prior BibleProject podcast series, demonstrating how the theme of redemption is thoughtfully interwoven throughout scripture and the Project’s teaching. Host Michelle Jones guides listeners through discussions about atonement rituals in Leviticus, metaphors of redemption in biblical poetry, and the hope of resurrection and embodied life after death. The episode examines how the biblical idea of redemption is the transfer of something lost (humanity) back into the possession of its rightful owner (God), culminating in the work of Jesus.

1. Leviticus: The Day of Atonement as a Mosaic of Redemption

[01:30 – 30:09]

Key Discussion Points

• The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) at the heart of Leviticus: A dramatic ritual involving two goats, each depicting a vital dimension of atonement and redemption.

  • Goat One: Chosen for Yahweh, slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled to purify the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16). Symbolizes a blameless life covering death and sin.
  • Goat Two: Chosen for "Azazel," sent alive into the wilderness, symbolically carrying away Israel's sins to the realm of God's enemy (possibly the serpent figure from Genesis).

• The ritual deals with both ritual and moral impurities:

  • Ritual impurities (not inherently sinful) vs. moral failures (sinful acts)—both pollute God's dwelling and need to be cleansed.
  • Atonement functions as both a ransom (covering what is owed because of wrongdoing) and a cleansing (removing pollution from God's presence).

• Strong links to Eden and exile imagery:

  • The high priest’s movement—from the west (Holy of Holies) back out toward the east—mirrors humanity's exile from Eden.
  • The goat sent to Azazel is a form of "elimination ritual," like sending Israel's collective moral "waste" to its source.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tim Mackie ([02:49]): "This chapter is in the section that's at the center of the center of the center of the Torah. So we know we're close to the heartbeat of the message of the Torah when we enter into the tent on the Day of Atonement."

• John Dyer ([07:05]): "It's this idea of our corruption, our moral failings, isn't just something that screws with me and my relationship with... God or with others. It actually screws up with the whole environment."

• Tim Mackie ([13:00]): "It's as if the high priest is following the eastward exile of humanity from the early chapters of Genesis, sprinkling blood at every exile along the way."

• Tim Mackie ([16:41]) on the scapegoat ritual: "The ritual is an unfriendly gesture to Azazel. It's more like sending someone a load of chemical or nuclear waste."

• Tim Mackie ([18:23]): "Jesus... is bringing together all of the mosaic tiles of depicting God's victory over the evil one and his dealing with the consequences of human sin, and he's merged them all together."

Jesus and Redemption Imagery

• Jesus merges the motifs of the Day of Atonement, the Passover Lamb, and the Suffering Servant—portraying himself as the ultimate substitute and ransom.

  • Key New Testament example: Mark 10:45—Jesus says, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
  • During the Last Supper (Luke 22), Jesus merges imagery from both Passover and Atonement rituals.

• The animal sacrifices are symbols—down payments—foreshadowing the blameless human sacrifice to come (Jesus).

  • Tim Mackie ([24:11]): "The Hebrew Bible is telling you that the animal sacrifices are just a symbolic gift of Yahweh, of a down payment of something bigger that needs to happen, which is of a blameless human who would come and stand in the holy place and offer their life."

• Jesus fulfills both goat roles:

  • As the blameless sufferer inside the city (purification).
  • As the scapegoat sent "outside the camp" (bearing sin and shame).

• Tim Mackie ([29:00]): "Jesus saw [his sacrifice] as the gift of God, as God's gift to a failed Israel and a failed humanity ... the atonement is a revelation of the love of God."

2. Biblical Poetry: Metaphors of Redeeming Time

[30:09 – 38:07]

Key Discussion Points

• The power of metaphor in biblical poetry—language for understanding redemption.

• Listener question: Do biblical references like Psalm 31 ("my times are in your hand") or Ephesians 5:16 ("redeem the time") picture time as a possession?

• Biblical conception of time:

  • Not about time as a commodity (as in modern Western metaphors).
  • In Psalm 31, time belongs to God—not to us.
  • In Ephesians 5, "redeem the time" uses Exodus language, picturing time as enslaved to evil, not as a resource to be managed.

• Redemption as the release from slavery, not time management:

  • Redeeming the time = liberating an era or age from the domination of evil, participating with God in new creation.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tim Mackie ([32:00]): "Time isn't my possession; it's God's possession. It's something God has and that he providentially orchestrates."

• Tim Mackie ([33:56]): "Time's a captive of evil. And we in the power of the new human Jesus are able to free time from its slavery to evil and release it into the new creation."

• John Dyer ([35:23]): "But redeeming time seems kind of trite ... but rescuing an age—that sounds epic, right?"

• Tim Mackie ([37:09]): "The early biblical narratives, especially Genesis, are the seedbed of the entire biblical metaphorical imagination. Light, dark. Death, life, fruit—this is all Genesis 1:3 imagery."

• Tim Mackie ([37:52]): "He's not talking about, yeah, get more efficient with your calendar. He's talking about loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God."

3. Resurrection Hope: Redeeming the Nephesh from Death

[38:11 – 47:55]

Key Discussion Points

• Hebrew anthropology: "Nephesh" (soul) denotes physical, embodied life—not an immortal, disembodied soul.

• The biblical hope of redemption is not merely about "life after death," but about God’s commitment to restore embodied, physical existence.

• Psalm 16 & Psalm 49 as foundations for resurrection hope:

  • "You won’t abandon my nephesh to the grave;" "God will redeem my nephesh from the grave." (Psalms 16:10 & 49:15)
  • These passages express trust in God’s promise to rescue from death and restore physical life.

• Early Christians, especially Peter, saw in these Psalms the hope of Jesus’s resurrection as the prototype of what God would do for all his people.

• Not immortality of the soul, but resurrection of the body:

  • Tim Mackie ([43:53]): "Rescue from the power of death ... your status changes so that you can be alive."
  • John Dyer ([45:41]): "Peter looked at this hope that he saw in the Psalms of Resurrection and he said, look, that's what happened to Jesus."
  • N.T. Wright: "Life after life after death"—the ultimate hope isn’t a spiritual afterlife, but physical resurrection into a renewed creation.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Tim Mackie ([39:33]): "If [God] is committed to rescuing [the world], then within this biblical Hebrew mindset, death cannot be the end of me."
• Tim Mackie ([42:36]): "[The Psalmist] is straining... that if God is truly committed to me and to this world... then death can't be the end. There has to be a form of life, eternal life, physical existence that God still has in store."
• Tim Mackie ([47:02]): "What the biblical authors are actually talking about is the life that comes after life-after-death."

Conclusion and Takeaways

Redemption in the Bible is a multi-layered, ongoing narrative—ritually enacted in Israel’s story, poetically explored through metaphor, and ultimately fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The podcast demonstrates how the theme is far richer and more complex than simply "going to heaven when you die"—it's about God reclaiming his creation, restoring embodied human life, and inaugurating a new era through Jesus.

Segment Timestamps

• Leviticus & the Day of Atonement: 01:30 – 30:09
• Metaphors of Redeeming Time in Poetry: 30:09 – 38:07
• Resurrection and Redeeming the Nephesh: 38:11 – 47:55

Memorable Final Reflections

• Tim Mackie ([29:00]): "[Jesus is] the gift of God, as God's gift to a failed Israel and a failed humanity ... the atonement is a revelation of the love of God."
• John Dyer ([47:43]): "So we should stop talking about the afterlife. We should start talking about the life after."
• Tim Mackie ([47:49]): "Yeah, that's right. Life after... yeah."

For further study, listeners are encouraged to explore the referenced series on Leviticus, biblical poetry, and the nephesh ("soul"), available in the BibleProject podcast archives and at bibleproject.com.