Horeb Radio

Moses, Priest of Egypt? You’ve heard of Moses as the Prince of Egypt—but Priest of Egypt? This class reexamines the biblical portrait of Moses by focusing on a dimension that is often overlooked: his Egyptian background and its possible connection to the priesthood of Egypt. Drawing on biblical texts and ancient sources outside the Bible, the class explores the possibility that Moses’s priestly identity is deeply intertwined with Egypt’s religious world. These traditions preserve a memory of Moses not merely as a political liberator or lawgiver, but as a figure associated with priesthood, ritual authority, and religious reform within an Egyptian context. When these strands are brought together, a striking portrait emerges—one that challenges conventional categories and invites us to reconsider Moses’s role in the origins of Israel’s priesthood. Was Moses more than a prophet and lawgiver? What if the roots of Israel’s priestly tradition reach further back into Egypt than we’ve been told? Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠] Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Did Moses Point to Jesus? In the time of Jesus, the five books of the Torah were generally attributed to Moses, and the Gospel writers consistently speak of “Moses” or “the Law” when drawing on those narratives. In this class, we explore that world on its own terms. We’ll consider how the evangelists—and at times Jesus himself—speak as though Moses wrote things that pointed forward to Jesus, even though they do not specify what those things were. We will also look at how the public reading of the Law and the Prophets shaped synagogue life, including the ancient triennial cycle, and how that rhythm might illuminate the way Gospel authors portrayed Jesus’ ministry. Finally, we’ll turn to the Gospel of John, where the narrator preserves two intriguing moments—perhaps the only explicit examples in the New Testament—of Jesus identifying a Mosaic story as foreshadowing his own role. These brief references lead us back to the central question of the session: Did Moses Point to Jesus? Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠] Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Did Jesus Point to Moses? Exploring the Faith of Jesus Within the Religion of Moses Who was Jesus—religiously? According to the earliest sources, both canonical and extra-canonical, Jesus of Nazareth continually directed his followers toward “Moses”—not a person alone, but a faith and practice embodied in the Torah. Long before Christianity existed, Jesus lived and taught as a Jew within the diverse Judaisms of the first century, embracing certain Mosaic commandments as foundational while sharply challenging other interpretations of Moses current in his day. In this class, we will examine how Jesus is portrayed as both appealing to Moses and disputing with those who claimed to represent Moses. How did he understand the path to eternal life? What did he believe was the true “faith of Moses”? And why does he at times condemn the religious leaders who “sit in Moses’ seat” while seemingly affirming their authority? We will also consider the ancient Ebionite understanding of Jesus—a portrait that preserves early views of a Torah-faithful teacher whose message stood in tension with other forms of emerging Judaism. Join us as we explore a provocative question: When Jesus pointed his followers to Moses, which Moses did he mean—the Moses of his own reading, or the Moses presented by his religious opponents? And what might this reveal about the message he intended to preserve? Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠] Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Ancient Immersion: The Beginnings of Baptism In this session, we will immerse ourselves in the world that shaped baptism—exploring passages from the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Jewish practice, Qumran, Josephus, and early Jewish-Christian traditions. Together, these texts invite us to reconsider how baptism stands at the threshold of the Jesus story and what its earliest meaning may have been. Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠HERE⁠] Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Was John the Baptist More Than a Prophet? Before Jesus proclaims his message in the Gospels, another voice is already thundering across the wilderness. The sacred historians begin not with Jesus, but with John—a figure so enigmatic that the crowds asked him whether he was Elijah, the Prophet, or even the Messiah. In this class, we explore why John provoked such questions. Why did Jesus say that “among those born of women none is greater”? And are those who are least in the kingdom greater than John? Drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Josephus, early Christian writings, and the earliest gospel traditions, we’ll examine the roles John refused, the roles others placed upon him, and the extraordinary role Jesus claimed for him. Join me as we consider whether he was far more than a prophet—and why the answer still matters. Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠]

The Gospel Before Jesus Mark, our earliest gospel, opens with, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” — yet the story does not begin with Jesus. After tracing the final forty years before the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, we now turn to the opening of the gospel narrative itself—a time every bit as prophetically charged. In this class, we’ll see that the gospel’s beginning is not Bethlehem or Nazareth, but the Temple, and with a priest. Luke introduces the story “in the days of Herod, king of Judea,” when a certain priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abijah, serves in the Temple while the people pray outside at the hour of incense. The sacred historian assumes his readers understand these things. Most do not. Together, we’ll unlock this background—drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Josephus, the Mishnah, and the Talmud—to reconstruct what actually happened inside the Holy Place when Zechariah stood before the golden altar and the angel appeared. We’ll explore the priestly courses, the incense ritual, and why being “righteous before God” meant something very different in its original Hebraic context. Finally, we’ll follow the narrative to Elisabeth’s miraculous conception and reflect on how her story continues the long biblical line of barren women blessed with promised sons. This class bridges the world of the prophets and the Gospels, opening “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus” where it truly begins: before Jesus, with John. Watch the video [⁠HERE⁠]

The Predicted Prophet Of all the prophets whose words fill Scripture, only one was expected to return.This class explores the closing promise of prophecy—the prediction of a prophet who was not finished, a messenger whose absence became the greatest expectation of all. Watch the video [⁠HERE⁠]

Matthew's Prophetic Rebirth How ancient prophecies were reapplied, reinterpreted, and born again in the Gospel narrative. In this session of Sunday School with Ross, we’ll take a closer look at four prophecies that shape the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel—Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Hosea 11:1, and Jeremiah 31:15. Each of these texts once spoke to its own moment in Israel’s story—yet in Matthew’s hands, they take on new significance in his gospel. Is Matthew creating something new from old prophecies, or continuing an ancient interpretive tradition that sought contemporary meaning in timeless words? Together we’ll journey through the words of the prophets, the commentaries of Qumran, and the pages of the Gospel of Matthew to uncover an enduring method—one that discovers new meaning within old predictions and reads history itself as the unfolding of sacred patterns. Join Ross as he traces these prophetic patterns through the scrolls, the Scriptures, and the story that shaped a faith. Watch the video [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠]

The END of the First Temple Our opening class begins a guided look at a thousand years of sacred history—the Times of the Temples. Though centuries apart, the First and Second Temples share uncanny parallels: moments of glory, cycles of neglect, calls to repentance, and voices that warned of what was to come. Class One begins the investigation by tracing the events leading up to the destruction of the First Temple—its reforms, its prophets, and the warnings that went unheeded. This first session sets the stage for what follows, laying the groundwork for the questions that will guide our next class: ◉ If the fall of the First Temple was foretold, can we show the same for the Second? ◉ If we can name the prophets who warned of the first, can we identify any prophets who warned of the second? Watch the video [HERE]

The END of the Second Temple Forty years before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, prophets warned of its impending fall. Could the same be said of the Second Temple? In this continuation of last week’s class, we explore whether history repeated itself—whether there were signs, sermons, or prophetic voices foretelling the end of Jerusalem’s sanctuary once again. Drawing from Josephus, Talmudic literature, and the New Testament, Ross examines the final decades before 70 CE to uncover a pattern of warning, witness, and fulfillment that may echo the days of Jeremiah. Watch the video [HERE]

Biblical Israel’s story begins not in palaces or promised lands, but in windswept wilderness. In this opening class, we explore the desert cradle where Israel is born as a people, hears the voice of its God, and begins a journey that will shape all that follows. It’s a place of rescue and rebellion, dependence and revelation—and the prophets remembered it as the beginning of everything. This is the essential epoch. Watch this Episode [HERE]

The narrative sources of the Pentateuch trace Israel’s journey from Egypt to Sinai—and ultimately to the Plains of Moab. Along the way, the text provides precise dates for major events. But here’s the surprise: they’re out of order. Most readers miss it. But a careful reading reveals a scrambled sequence that begs to be reassembled. In this week’s Wilderness Wonderings, Ross walks us through eight key passages that expose the disordered timeline—and demonstrates how sorting the dates brings clarity to the chaos. What emerges is a deeper understanding of the wilderness story—and how it was stitched together. Watch this Episode [HERE]

Have you ever felt like you’ve read this before? In this week’s class, Ross explores moments in the Pentateuch that feel strangely familiar. Across Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, stories seem to repeat—but are they echoes, edits, or entirely new tellings? Once you begin to spot the parallels, the wilderness journey takes on new dimension. Join us as we trace variant versions of key events and ask what these narrative recurrences reveal about the texts and their authors. Watch this Episode [HERE]

This week’s class zooms in on the spy narrative—one of the most pivotal and perplexing episodes in the wilderness journey. But did it really happen the way we’ve always heard it? By placing Numbers 13–14 side by side with Deuteronomy 1, Ross exposes striking differences in how the mission is framed, who ordered it, and where the blame falls when it all goes wrong. Are these just retellings with a different emphasis—or evidence of distinct sources woven into the final form of the text? Some scholars argue that the story of the spies may not be part of the oldest layer at all. Join us as we track the footprints of redactors, compare parallel passages, and “spy” the seams in the story. Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

This week, we turn to the dramatic uprising of Korah—but with a closer lens. What begins as a familiar story of rebellion soon reveals something more layered, more intricate. Are we reading one revolt… or two? And how do later biblical texts remember—and reshape—these events? Join Ross as he explores the tensions beneath the surface: tribal rivalries, sacred duties, contested authority, and the storytelling strategies that hold it all together. The answers may lie not just in what the text says, but in how it says it. Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

A fiery judgment descends. Death spreads through the camp. Then, a strange remedy: Moses is told to make a shining image—an echo of the very thing bringing death. Those who look upon it live. But over time, the object becomes more than a symbol. It becomes a snare. Centuries later, a king smashes it to pieces. And still later, a figure arises—lifted up like that ancient image—and is called a savior. What are we to make of this strange thread winding through the texts? What lies beneath the bronze surface? Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

Who was Balaam—prophet, diviner, or something more? This week, we take a closer look at one of the Bible’s most enigmatic figures. Could the infamous seer of talking donkey fame be based on a real historical person? A mysterious inscription discovered in ancient Ammonite territory—written partly in red letters—may hold the key. Join us as we explore ancient texts and archaeological evidence in search of the authentic Balaam. Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

This week’s class brings us to one of the most quietly momentous passages in the Torah. Moses is called to ascend the mountain and view the land—but is that all he’s being shown? We’ll examine this scene from Numbers 27:12–23, reading it alongside parallel moments in Deuteronomy. Something stirs beneath the surface—something easily missed, but deeply significant. Join us as we follow the prophet to the heights, and consider what might truly mark the end of days—and the Torah. Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

This week, we end the Book of Numbers with a sword stroke—and a question. Balaam, the enigmatic seer who seemed to speak only what God permitted, is struck down with a sword. But if his oracles blessed the people, why was he killed? And was he the only one? In this class, we take a hard look at the fate of those sent by God. Were they honored… or hunted? From the plains of Moab to the courts of kings, from stone tablets to forbidden inscriptions, a troubling pattern emerges—one hidden in plain sight across the scrolls. What begins with Balaam opens into something far deeper: a trail of rejection, resistance, and silence—often sealed by violence. Join us as we trace this path through Scripture and history, and uncover what it might reveal about those who dared to speak in God’s name. Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]

Deuteronomy is unparalleled in its significance. It has commanded immense respect and honor for thousands of years. 32 manuscripts of Deuteronomy were discovered among the Qumran scrolls, second only to the Psalms. It is among the three most quoted books in the New Testament, and Jesus of Nazareth reportedly claimed that the most consequential commandment is found within its verses. What makes Deuteronomy different from other books of the Pentateuch, and why is this book the most important book ever written? Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]