Episodes
Oct. 17, 2025
Purity Before Sinai: Subverting Storm Demons - Episode 149
Today we step before Leviticus into Sumerian and Akkadian worlds to see how ancient people thought about purity, danger, and the sacred—and how Israel both echoes and upends that world. We sample Udug-hul exorcism tablets (in...
Oct. 10, 2025
Unseen Realm Expanded with Mike Chu — A Heiser-ish Conversation - Episode 148
Carey sits down with Mike Chu to talk through the new Unseen Realm — Expanded Edition , how Heiser clarified his stance on creeds , why frame semantics and ancient contexts matter, and why a Christotelic reading (aimed at the...
Oct. 3, 2025
Purity Before Holiness: Reading Toward Christ - Episode 147
Continuing the water series by framing purification and holiness through an ancient Near Eastern lens and a Christotelic (telos-aimed) reading of Scripture. We contrast Christocentric “reading back” with Christotelic “reading...
Sept. 26, 2025
Baptism and Ritual: Symbol, Reality, and Identity - Episode 146
This episode of Genesis Marks the Spot explores the meaning and function of ritual with a special focus on baptism. From Jewish mikvahs and Qumran practices to Greco-Roman mystery rites and John the Baptist’s wilderness call,...
Sept. 19, 2025
Living Water vs. Rain: Toil, Covenant, & Spirit - Episode 145
This episode continues our deep dive into the biblical theme of water. From Genesis to the prophets, from Eden’s rivers to Israel’s covenant rain, water frames the story of God’s presence, judgment, and renewal. Along the way...
Sept. 12, 2025
The Butcher, the Book, and the Bloody Good Theology - Episode 144
In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey sits down with Phil Bray—author of Leviticus on the Butcher’s Block and creator of the YouTube channel Leviticus is Fun —for a wide-ranging conversation on sacrifice, atonemen...
Sept. 5, 2025
Living Water & Covenant Union: Hospitality & Power Struggles - Episode 143
Water flows through Scripture as far more than a backdrop — it carries covenant, hospitality, conflict, and even divine judgment. This episode of Genesis Marks the Spot traces how the Bible uses water as a sign of both intima...
Aug. 29, 2025
Allegiance, Baptism, and the King Jesus Gospel with Matthew Bates - Episode 142
In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey Griffel sits down with Dr. Matthew Bates—New Testament scholar and author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone , Gospel Allegiance , and Beyond the Salvation Wars . Together, they...
Aug. 22, 2025
Adam, Christ, and the Fragile Order - Episode 141
In this follow-up to the discussion of J. Harvey Walton’s dissertation, let’s look closer into his reframing of Eden—not as a perfect paradise but as fragile divine order. Carey pushes back on Walton’s rejection of covenant i...
Aug. 15, 2025
Myth of a Perfect Eden: Chaos, Order, and Divine Space - Episode 140
Was Eden ever the perfect paradise we imagine? Exploring J. Harvey Walton’s groundbreaking dissertation on Genesis 2–4. Walton challenges the familiar Eden–Fall–Redemption narrative, arguing that the text’s original audience ...
Aug. 8, 2025
On This Rock: A Christ-Centered Biblical Theology Community - Episode 139
In this special episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey shares the heart and vision behind her new online community— On This Rock —a distraction-free space for deep Bible study, discipleship, and ministry growth. From the b...
Aug. 1, 2025
Zero Female Nephilim: Violence, Symbolism, and Covenant - Episode 138
Did female Nephilim exist? It's a fascinating question—and one that seems straightforward from a modern lens. But this episode takes you deep into the symbolic, theological, and cultural frameworks of the ancient world to exp...
July 25, 2025
This One Goes to 11: Rethinking Referent and Affirmation - Episode 137
What if the Bible talks about things it doesn’t actually affirm? That’s the question John and J. Harvey Walton explore in their referent/affirmation hermeneutic—a method that seeks to distinguish between what Scripture uses c...
July 17, 2025
Our Interpretive Toolkit: Framing How We Read Scripture - Episode 136
Venturing deep into the world of biblical interpretation—exploring the methods that shape how we read Scripture, how we understand righteousness, holiness, and obedience, and why John Walton's work continues to spark both adm...
July 11, 2025
Torah and the Two Ways: Wisdom unto Life, Not Legal Death - Episode 135
This episode of Genesis Marks the Spot centers on an example of biblical theology, reframing how we understand law—not as rigid legislation, but as wisdom anchored in covenant relationship. Drawing from The Lost World of the ...
July 4, 2025
Torah on Trial: Rethinking Law in Ancient Israel - Episode 134
This illuminating episode of Genesis Marks the Spot dives deep into the nature of biblical law—just in time for the Fourth of July. What is law, really? Is the Torah a legislative code or a curated teaching tool for ethical f...
June 27, 2025
Carved in Covenant: Bronze Age Sinai and the Making of a People - Episode 133
Walk through the ancient Near Eastern background of biblical covenants to arrive at the archetypal Sinai covenant. Picking up where Episode 132 left off, Carey explores the formal elements of Late Bronze Age treaties and how...
June 20, 2025
Covenants Before Contracts: The Ancient Near Eastern Frame - Episode 132
In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey takes listeners beyond prooftexts and into the deep structure of biblical meaning by asking: What kind of thing is a covenant? Drawing from ancient Near Eastern treaty forms, ...
June 13, 2025
Covenant Theology, Baptism, and Biblical Imagery - Episode 131
What connects wine, wrath, baptism, and the flood? This powerful bridge episode toes out into the deep waters of systematic theology that will lead to biblical theology in order to explore how God's covenantal signs—from the ...
June 6, 2025
The Cups of the Cross: Cana, Gethsemane, and Golgotha - Episode 130
What does it mean that Jesus drank the cup—and said he would not drink again until the kingdom came? What is that mysterious cup that Jesus didn't want to drink? In this final episode on alcohol in Scripture and with the help...
May 30, 2025
The Cup of Wisdom: Drinking in Creation’s Order - Episode 129
In this episode of Genesis Marks the Spot , Carey uncorks the surprising biblical connection between wine and wisdom. What begins as a reflection on the interconnection of John Walton’s New Explorations and a survey of wisdom...
May 23, 2025
Goodnight, Adam. Goodnight, Eve. Goodnight, Functional Ontology. - Episode 128
Reviewing John Walton’s newest entry in the Lost World series: New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis . With clarity and candor, Carey explores Walton’s theological evolution—particularly the move from “functional” to ...
May 16, 2025
Wrath and the gods: Deut. 32 and the Mirror of Judgment - Episode 127
What does it mean when the Bible speaks of gods being judged? Is wrath just God's angry impulse, or is it the just consequence of misplaced allegiance? In this episode, Carey dives deep into Deuteronomy 32 , reading it not ju...
May 9, 2025
The Cup of Wrath: Inheriting Your Desire at the Banquet - Episode 126
What does it mean to drink the cup of wrath ? And why does Scripture use the language of vineyards, vintage, and wine to describe divine judgment? In this richly layered episode, Carey walks us through the biblical vineyard—f...