Episode: Early Christians were quite familiar with Rome’s well-developed prison system. In this episode, we explore the archaeology and experience of Roman prisons with Dr. Matthew Larsen, co-author of Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration.

Guest: (from https://www.matthewdclarsen.com/about) Matthew Larsen is a historian, archaeologist, and filmmaker dedicated to bringing the ancient world—and the origins of Christianity—into vivid focus for modern audiences. He is the founder of August Media Company, a company specializing in historically grounded, cinematic storytelling across film, podcasts, and immersive visual media, and lived experiences.

Associate Professor in Religious Studies and Classics; Fellow of the Gwyn Shive, Anita Nordan Lindsay, and Joe & Cherry Gray Professorship in the History of Christianity at the University of Texas at Austin, Matthew’s research centers on the lived experience of the first Christians: how they organized communities, navigated persecution, and understood faith within the Roman world. His work challenges popular myths while remaining accessible, visually ambitious, and grounded in cutting-edge historical and archaeological scholarship.

Before Copenhagen, Matthew taught at Yale University (2017–2018) and Princeton University (2018–2021). He is the co-author of Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (University of California Press), named by The New Yorker as one of the best books of 2025, and the award-winning Gospels before the Book (Oxford, 2018), translated into Italian.

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Episode: In this on-location episode, Chris McKinny interviews Steven Notley about identifying and exploring the ancient city of Bethsaida/Julias. This is a crossover episode with OnScript and the new In Context university from Lipscomb University where Chris McKinny teaches.

Guest: Dr. R. Steven Notley is Dean of the School of Religious Studies at Pillar College. He was Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins on the New York City campus of Alliance University (2001-2023). He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University, where he studied with David Flusser. Notley lived sixteen years in Jerusalem with his wife and four children, during which time he was the founding chair of the New Testament Backgrounds program at the Jerusalem University College. He has been leading groups of students and laypeople to Israel and the eastern Mediterranean region for over 35 years. He is the author of many books and articles. He continues collaborative research and publication with Israeli scholars in the fields of historical geography, ancient Judaism and Christian origins. Among his list of publications, he collaborated with Flusser on the historical biography, The Sage from Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus’ Genius (Eerdmans 2007); with Anson Rainey (Tel Aviv University) the monumental biblical atlas, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Carta Publishing 2005); with Ze’ev Safrai (Bar Ilan University) an annotated translation of Eusebius’ important description of Roman Palestine, Eusebius, Onomasticon: A Triglott Edition with Notes and Commentary (Brill 2005). He rejoined Safrai for their second work, a pioneering collection and translation of the earliest rabbinic parables that provide the literary and religious context for the parables of Jesus, The Parables of the Sages (Carta 2011). Since 2016 he has served as the Academic Director of the El Araj Excavation Project in its search for first-century Bethsaida-Julias, the lost city of the Apostles. (from the Pillar College website - https://www.pillar.edu/team-members/r-steven-notley-phd)

Photo Attribution: The “chief of the apostles” invoked in this mosaic inscription from biblical Bethsaida—being cleaned by Professor Notley and his wife, Sunya—must refer to Saint Peter the Apostle, indicating a special connection between the site and the saint. Photo from BAR website, https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/where-is-the-house-of-saint-peter-the-apostle/.

Give: Help support the OnScript and Biblical World podcasts HERE. Thanks to all of you who have supported us!

Episode: Excavations have begun at the New Testament site of Lystra! In this episode, Jason Borges talks with Prof. Ilker Mimiroglu, the lead Turkish archaeologist at Lystra, about the city's history and excavations. Learn more on Instagram @lystraexcavations.

Guest: Prof. Ilker Mimiroglu, head of Necmettin Erbakan University's Department of Early Christian and Byzantine Arts and lead Turkish archaeologist at the Lystra excavations. More here - https://erbakan.edu.tr/en/academic-person/3494-ilker-mete-mimiroglu

New Host: Jason Borges (Ph.D., Durham University), the Assistant Director of the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey (ancient Attalia). His current role includes conducting biblical research, publishing resources, leading study tours, and hosting training seminars. Jason has published Travel among Early Christians (Brill, 2025), Christian Life in the Greco-Roman City (Baker Academic, 2026), and articles in leading research journals, available at Academia.edu. He is a member of several academic societies: ETS, SBL, EABS, and the prestigious SNTS. [from https://www.biblicalturkey.org/about]

Give: Help support OnScript HERE. Thanks to all of you who have supported us!