Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

9Marks

192 episodes listed below

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Slow Bible reading with theological patience.

The gist

Bible Talk gathers Alex Duke, Sam Emadi, and Jim Hamilton around sustained passage-by-passage Bible reading. Recent episodes linger in Isaiah’s oracles, judgment scenes, and promises of restoration, with occasional live-audience attention to pastoral work in 1 Peter.

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About Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

Bible Talk is a patient Bible study shaped around close reading rather than quick devotional uplift. Recent episodes find Alex Duke, Sam Emadi, and Jim Hamilton moving through Isaiah’s oracles with a shared habit of asking how the passage works before saying what it means. The show notices structure. It follows repeated language, chapter breaks, images, historical settings, and small connective details that might otherwise slide past unnoticed. Isaiah’s judgment against Babylon, Jerusalem, Egypt, Tyre, and the nations becomes more than a sequence of ancient warnings; the discussion keeps asking how those warnings teach Israel to trust the word of the Lord. The pace is measured, but not stiff. A technical term such as chiasm, eschatological, or typological may appear, then get folded back into ordinary reading practice. The conversation is comfortable with scholarly tools, yet it keeps checking whether those tools actually help someone read the Bible better. Recent episodes also show the range of the format. Isaiah 24 becomes a discussion of escalating, all-encompassing judgment. Isaiah 25 and 26 become a meditation on resurrection hope, death being swallowed up, and the banquet imagery that points toward fulfilled promise. A bonus live episode on 1 Peter 5 turns toward pastoral work, especially the nature and motivation of shepherding. The banter is real. The participants joke about same outfits, coverless Bibles, podcast introductions, email questions, live events, and whether they know anything about the New Testament after spending so much time in the Old. Those moments loosen the room without changing the central task. Bible Talk is for listeners who want Scripture handled slowly, contextually, and theologically, with enough warmth to make serious study feel conversational.

Made for: Best for Christians and attentive Bible readers who want sustained passage-by-passage interpretation. It especially suits listeners who enjoy Old Testament prophecy, literary structure, and biblical theology.

What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its table-level clarity: serious exegetical work happens in real time, with questions, corrections, jokes, and careful movement through the text. It treats difficult passages as readable without pretending they are simple.

In their own words

A podcast by 9Marks and Southern Seminary, with Alex Duke, Sam Emadi & Jim Hamilton.To learn more about Southern Seminary, visit sbts.edu.

As heard by us

Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Close textual analysis, translation comparisons, and lively disagreement make Bible Talk's interpretive process easy to follow.

Bible Talk turns close biblical exegesis into an alert, good-humored conversation among Alex Duke, Sam Emadi, and Jim Hamilton. Episodes move through chapters of Isaiah and 2 Kings, following repeated images, narrative structure, covenant language, and connections between…

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A Hebrew phrase gets cross-examined; you see why your translation of Kings might hide a Genesis echo.

Press play if you want

to hear a reading of Isaiah 1 tested against its verb tenses and covenant language
to follow a connection between 2 Kings and Genesis all the way into the translation choices

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Isaiah’s oracles against the nationsjudgment and restorationbiblical theologyliterary structure and chiasmpastoral workLord’s Supper imageryresurrection hopetrusting the word of the Lord

Talks about

Religion & Spirituality Christianity Bible Study & Teaching

Best episodes of Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Isaiah 25–26: On God Swallowing Up Death Forever (Ep. 172)Apr 8, 2026

God swallowing death gets patient, teacherly treatment.

The episode moves steadily through Isaiah 25-26, keeping God's promise to swallow up death forever in view as it shifts from the Lord's Supper to grain, wine, tears, and judgment.

Isaiah 24: On the Escalating, Eschatological, All-Encompassing End of Everything (Ep. 171)Apr 1, 2026

A careful reading of Isaiah 24 that traces judgment through the city's collapse, the tohu echo, and harvest imagery.

Isaiah 24 widens the frame from named nations to a scene of judgment that reaches joy, music, wine, and the city itself. The hosts follow that collapse with care, lingering on tohu beside Genesis 1:2, the locked houses, and the harvest image that gives the chapter its scope.

Isaiah 1: On Israel Becoming Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the LORD’s Gracious Invitation (Ep. 153)Sep 10, 2025

A patient reading of Isaiah 1 that links covenant warning, parallelism, and the book's wider arc.

The episode reads Isaiah 1 as a covenant warning first and a literary argument second, and that order works. It stays close to the chapter's own movements: repeated phrasing, Hebrew parallelism, and the language of seed and planting that holds the passage together.

2 Kings 15: On a Bad Israelite King Sandwich, With Some Good Judean King Bread (Ep. 142)Mar 19, 2025

A careful walk through Kings that turns translation details into theological clues.

Bible Talk gives Kings a close reading, with the central point being that the author seems to echo the same phrase used in Genesis 1 when describing the force of God's word.

2 Kings 14: On Bible Talk Pivoting to Video While Israel and Judah Pivot toward Civil War (Ep. 141)Mar 12, 2025

Bible Talk's first video episode pairs early setup chatter with a steady, text-first discussion of 2 Kings 14.

Bible Talk's first video episode spends a little time finding its footing in the new camera setup before settling into 2 Kings 14 and the same text-first approach that drives the rest of the discussion.

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Find your next episode

About Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

In their own words

As heard by us

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

Podcasts like Bible Talk — A podcast by 9Marks & Southern Seminary

Episodes

A Special Episode about Jim's Transparent Translation of the Psalms (Ep. 188)

Isaiah 42: On the Spirit-Filled Servant Who Calls the World to Sing

Isaiah 41: On Jonathan Edwards Predicting the Presidency of Donald Trump (Ep. 186)

Isaiah 40: On the Dwindling Window of Youth and the Everlasting Comfort of God (Ep. 185)

Isaiah 38–39: On the Complex Conclusion of King Hezekiah (Ep. 184)

Isaiah 37: On the Passage that Should Make You Google the Lachish Reliefs (Ep. 183)

Isaiah 36: On Trusting the Lord and Rebelling Against the World (Ep. 182)

Isaiah 35: On What the World Will Be Like When Sin and Suffering Cease (Ep. 181)

Isaiah 34: On What the World Would Be Like if God Left Us Alone (Ep. 180)

Isaiah 33: On Governments of Angels and Streams of Structureless Consciousness (Ep. 179)

Isaiah 31–32: On the Meaningful Difference between Jim's "Very Good" and "You're Exactly Right" (Ep. 178)

Isaiah 30: On High-School Bible Studies & Forks in the Road (Ep. 177)

Isaiah 29: On Divine Deliverance from A to Z, From Ariel to Zion (Ep. 176)

Isaiah 28: On Judgment and Gibberish (Ep. 175)

Isaiah 27: On the Blood of the Leviathan and the Fruit of Forgiveness (Ep. 174)

Isaiah 26: On A Bunch of Load-Bearing, Poetic Metaphors that Point to Being Born Again, Again (Ep. 173)

Isaiah 25–26: On God Swallowing Up Death Forever (Ep. 172)

Isaiah 24: On the Escalating, Eschatological, All-Encompassing End of Everything (Ep. 171)

1 Peter 5:1-5: On Job Descriptions and Dispositions (A Bonus Episode)

Isaiah 23: On Bitcoin's Nadir and the Inevitable Futility of Living for Money (Ep. 170)

Isaiah 22: On the Valley of Vision—Not the Devotional, but the Destruction (Ep. 169)

Isaiah 21: On the Judgment Against Babylon and a Truman Capote Conspiracy Theory (Ep. 168)

Isaiah 19–20: On the Egyptian Exodus and the Glorious Task of Global Missions (Ep. 167)

Isaiah 17–18: On Paper Tigers and Saving Signals (Ep. 166)

Isaiah 15–16: On Moab’s Decision between the Lion and the Lamb (Ep. 165)

Isaiah 13–14: On Judgment for Babylon and Assyria and Jubilation for Israel (Ep. 164)

Isaiah 12: On Enjoying Your Broccolini as You Read the Bible (Ep. 163)

Isaiah 11: On the Malevolent, Predatory Instincts of Carnivorous Animals & the Coming Messiah (Ep. 162)

Isaiah 10: On the Nation-Humbling, Axe-Wielding Sovereignty of God (Ep. 161)

Isaiah 9: On the Third Baby in Isaiah's Baby Trilogy—Who Will Deliver God's People from Exile (Ep. 160)

Isaiah 8: On the Coming Assyrian Invasion, From the Safety of Boynton Beach (Ep. 159)

Isaiah 7: On a Perplexing, Perspicuous, Christmas-Canceling Passage (EP. 158)

Isaiah 6: On Isaiah's Burning Bush Moment and Difficult Job Description (Ep. 157)

Isaiah 5: On the Parable of a Vineyard and a Reprehensible Joel Osteen Sermon (Ep. 156)

Isaiah 3–4: On Oppressive Baby Princes, Arboreal Imagery, and Irreligiously Esteemed Beauty (Ep. 155)

Isaiah 2: On the Nations Streaming, Swords Disappearing, and Sparks Flying (Ep. 154)

Isaiah 1: On Israel Becoming Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the LORD’s Gracious Invitation (Ep. 153)

On Rules for Reading the Prophets, None of Which Jim Likes (Ep. 152)

In the Beginning Was the Word: A Bonus Bible Talk Episode

2 Kings 23:31-25:30: On the Plane Finally Crashing and a Little Ray of Sunshine (Ep. 151)

2 Kings 23:1–30: On King Josiah, the Temple Builder Who Wasn’t Good Enough (Ep. 150)

2 Kings 22: On the Unsung Heroes of Hilkiah, Shaphan, and Huldah (Ep. 149)

2 Kings 21: On Manasseh, the Temple Blasphemer Who Should Have Been the Temple Builder ( Ep. 148)

2 Kings 20: On Hezekiah's Final Failure, Which Makes Us Long for What Only Jesus Can Bring (Ep. 147)

From Eden to Egypt: A Special Bible Talk Episode

2 Kings 19: On the Juiced-Up Diatribe and Just Demise of Assyria’s King Sennacherib (Ep. 146)

2 Kings 18: On Not Making Deals with the Mafia or Darth Vader (Ep. 145)

2 Kings 17: On Israel’s Obituary and the Danger of Not Believing the Lord’s Warnings (Ep. 144)

2 Kings 16: On the Despicable Ahaz and His Blasphemous Magic 8 Ball (Ep. 143)

2 Kings 15: On a Bad Israelite King Sandwich, With Some Good Judean King Bread (Ep. 142)

2 Kings 14: On Bible Talk Pivoting to Video While Israel and Judah Pivot toward Civil War (Ep. 141)

2 Kings 13: On Two Evil Reigns and Two Weird Things (Ep. 140)

2 Kings 11-12: On the Jezebel of Judah, and the Pretty-Good Reign of Joash (Ep. 139)

2 Kings 10: On the Word of the Lord on the War Path Yet Again (Ep. 138)

2 Kings 9: On the Word of the Lord Wiping Out the Henchmen and then the Heavy (Ep. 137)

2 Kings 8: On Joram & Joram, A Sad & More-than-Superficial Similarity (Ep. 136)

2 Kings 6–7: On What a Floating Axe Head and an Angel Army Says about Our Soothsaying, Sovereign God (Ep. 135)

2 Kings 5: On Namaan's Surprising Resurrection and Gehazi's Stunning Reversal of Fortune (Ep. 134)

2 Kings 3–4: On a Battle Born Out of the Wobbly Wool Industry and Elisha's Escalating Miracles (Ep. 133)

2 Kings 1–2: On Ahaziah Going Down, Down, Down as Elijah Goes Up, Up, Up (Ep. 132)

1 Kings 21–22: On the Egyptization of Israel and the Random, Meticulous Sovereignty of God (Ep. 131)

1 Kings 20: On Ben-hadad's Bluster, Ahab's Achan Moment, and the Temptation of Unjust Mercy (Ep. 130)

1 Kings 19: On the Still, Small Voice that Interrupts Elijah’s Possible Pity Party (Ep. 129)

1 Kings 18: On the Massacre of Baal on Mount Carmel (Ep. 128)

1 Kings 17: On the Moses-Like Entrance of the Miraculous Elijah (Ep. 127)

1 Kings 15–16: On Entering into a Covenant with Darth Vader and then Re-Canaanizing the Land of Israel (Ep. 126)

1 Kings 14: On Jeroboam's Incrementally Increasing Excrement and Another Exodus Reversal (Ep. 125)

1 Kings 12:25–13:34: On Jeroboam’s Satellite Campus and Bootleg Religion (Ep. 124)

1 Kings 12:1–24: On Rehoboam’s Crass, Childish, and Pharoah-like Folly (Ep. 123)

1 Kings 11: On King Solomon’s Downfall and the Problem with Living With Ourselves Every Day (Ep. 122)

1 Kings 10: On the Queen of Sheba Losing Her Breath at Solomon’s Blessed Reign and Burgeoning Roth IRA (Ep. 121)