N.T. Wright Interview: Baptism and the Exodus Story

The Exodus Way E12 (Bonus Interview) — If we come to the New Testament without much knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, we may think that baptism is just something that John the Baptist made up and Jesus carried on for new disciples. But there are multiple levels of meaning in this practice, including ritual purification, Israel’s passage through the Red Sea, entry into the promised land, and, most importantly for Jesus, a symbol of his death on our behalf. In this episode, Jon and Tim have a wide-ranging conversation with prolific author and theologian N.T. Wright about the meaning of baptism and its connections to the Exodus story.

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CHAPTERS

1. Welcoming N.T. Wright (0:00-10:20)
2. Baptism as Repentance and Ushering in the Kingdom (10:20-33:17)
3. Baptism as Death and New Life in the Messiah (33:17-47:37)

OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

View this episode’s official transcript.

REFERENCED RESOURCES

• N.T. Wright mentions the online learning platform Admirato, which hosts dozens of his theology courses.
• God's Big Picture Bible Storybook by N. T. Wright
• “Sonnet X” or “Death, be not proud” from Holy Sonnets by John Donne
• You can view annotations for this episode—plus our entire library of videos, podcasts, articles, and classes—in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.
• Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.

SHOW MUSIC

• “Faithful” by Marc Vanparla
• “Sanctuary” by Asaph’s Arrows
• BibleProject theme song by TENTS 

SHOW CREDITS

Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who edited today’s episode and also provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. Special thanks to N.T. Wright.

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