What would Jesus' disciples be like if they existed today?

All right, all right, all right. Hello, Anthony, how are you? I'm so good. How are you?

I'm so good. I'm really excited for the conversation today. It's gonna be a little different, but for everyone listening,

I've got Anthony Russo on the podcast who is the founder, the leader, the creator of The Bible is

Funny on Instagram. Anthony, what do you have to say for yourself for such a hilarious

Instagram account? Making fun of the Bible, how dare you? Yes, The Bible is

Funny, I love this project so much. I've been doing this for a long time. I've lost you on that question for just a little bit, so I'm sorry if I didn't respond to something prior to this.

It's okay, no, it worked out. But yeah, The Bible is Funny is a project I started a long time ago.

It's a combination of two of my great loves in this life, which is comedy and the

Bible and my faith. So how could it be better? But yeah, it's funny.

Early on, we got a lot of comments about like, you need to, like, the

Bible isn't funny and that you need to be, like, this is disrespectful and blah, blah, blah. And so we have some parameters by which we operate.

You know, the Bible is never the, like, the Bible is never the joke. It's not like the butt of the joke is the

Bible. And there are accounts, I'm sure, that take that approach to this type of content.

But for me, it's always been born out of a place of, like, I love the Bible. The best way I've been able to explain it to people is, like, your siblings and how you relate to your parents.

If you have a good family dynamic, I know not everybody does. But, like, you love your parents, but you and your siblings make fun of them.

Like, you poke fun at them. You notice things about them because you know them better than anybody else. So you know they do this goofy dance when this song comes on or they mispronounce this celebrity's name every time they try to say it.

Like, you know this thing so much that this is, like, an outpouring of your love for the thing.

So I never... To me, the aim is the opposite of disrespect. It is just to say, this is how

I love this thing. This is how I operate with all the things I love. I point out the funny stuff about it because that's the way

I'm built. So, yeah, that's the brief history of the Bible is funny.

That is so well said. I was just thinking of all the inside jokes I have with my parents at this moment. Like, we make fun of my mom's laugh at this moment.

That just, like, when you make fun of someone's laugh, it just makes it so much worse because they keep laughing and it's just so much funnier.

You can't stop. You can't stop. Yeah, it's the best. No, that's awesome. But I think another funny thing about your podcast is you make fun of Christian movies, which

I've had that conversation with a couple of people on here. It's not that they're bad movies, but, like, there's so much room for improvement.

And I think that you do it really well on, like, come on, guys. Like, I see what you're trying to do here. Yeah. Well, we always start the podcast by tipping our cap because it's a, you know, you do a podcast,

I do a podcast. Podcasts take a lot of work. Like, you have to, you and I have been trying to schedule this for a while. Like, it just takes work and time and energy and effort.

So when we set out to do that part of the project, I was like, I'm not gonna engage in something that's just relentlessly ripping people for exerting creative time and energy into creating a thing.

I just don't like that as a practice. So we always say our motto on that podcast is we consume and discuss.

So they have created a movie, we have watched it, and now we want to talk about it. And we always try to lead with, movie's a big undertaking and all those things.

But yes, Christian movies are their own kind of animal. We've had some that were surprisingly entertaining and good and, like, caught us off guard.

And then we've had others that were tough to watch. But yeah, it's very fun.

I secretly love doing that. My, Tim, who I do all the podcast stuff with, he's not as big a fan in his heart.

But for me, I watch Christian movies all day. Yeah, yeah, I think I heard your last episode, it was on, like, is heaven for real or heaven is for real,

I think. We haven't done that one yet. We're, like, moving towards that one. It's been on our list.

But yeah, we haven't gotten to that one yet. I want to, I haven't seen that. And I heard a lot of my friends saw it.

So I'm curious about that one. What did we do for our last one, though? Now you got me thinking.

I don't, oh, we did, Christian Mingle was our last one. We did it for the holidays, so.

Like the dating app or is that a movie? Yes, the answer to that is yes. So the dating app kind of funded a movie that was then turned into, like, this

Hallmark Christmas movie called Christian Mingle. And it was a treat, it was a Christmas treat for us to end 2023.

Okay, maybe I'll check that one out if it's still on Netflix. Where is that even hosted?

Where do we watch that? Might've been on, a lot of these end up on Tubi. We're a big Tubi. We shout out

Tubi a lot. Some of them are just on YouTube. But yeah,

Tubi, I think is where that one was off the top of my head. Okay, shout out Tubi. If anyone's gonna log in, let me know.

Because I definitely don't. Completely free. You don't have to share accounts on Tubi, which is nice. You do get a lot of ads, though.

So buckle up for those. Just one long commercial with a little movie in between.

A lot of commercial breaks. I don't hate them. I'm on record saying I don't, a little bit of commercials,

I'm fine. Great scene, I don't like to pause. I feel like that's inefficient. So you're giving me an opportunity to get up, you know, get a snack, use the restroom.

I'm okay with the occasional. Tubi, it's a lot. Tubi, you're in for a lot of commercials. Because it's free, but.

I love this. So glass half full. Like that is just everything you just said is so optimistic.

Yeah, that's right. You like Christian movies? Love them. Love them. Ads, love them more. Love them. Give them to me.

That's awesome. I love that attitude. All right, well, maybe if people are listening, you're probably like, what is this girl who's confusing

Christian talking to a guy who just finds the Bible funny? But today's gonna be a totally different vibe. And I think that if any new

Christian is entering the Bible, you should enter it with one foot in a bucket of humor. You really should kind of look at the word and wonder, how is that maybe received?

You know, was there maybe a moment of chuckle? And especially out of context when we don't examine it or have somebody that explained the history of that moment or the geographical location.

Yeah, I think that maybe in that moment, we'd understand it. It would be realistic. It wouldn't be funny. But for us today, looking at the word, it's quite funny.

And I especially think it's funny if we imagine ourselves as one of the disciples and how that might've been.

If I was a disciple of Jesus at that time, I definitely would be just as confused as they are.

And I think the Bible actually does a pretty good job of showcasing their confusion because the disciples were young men that were thrown into a huge world -changing thing with one guy and it was recorded.

And I think that it's kind of like a reality show where they're like, what is going on? And they're just throwing their whole life towards this guy who was saying some wild things.

I sometimes think of Jesus when we'll talk about a verse where it's like, hey, Jesus, why do you speak in parables? And he responds in the longest way possible.

It's like, ah, that's just Jesus. You know, what do you, that didn't, okay.

You know, like, did that explain it? I'm kind of more confused now. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it's, the disciples are like my favorite part when, so the project of the

Bible was funny, was like reading through very, very slowly and just kind of like examining all kinds of different parts and definitely the disciples were one of the biggest ones where stuff was just like jumping out at me when

I was doing the reading part of the project that was like, oh my word, I've never noticed this before, just how kind of like bumbling they are in most of these stories.

And like you say, I like what you said. I want to just reiterate it. I mean, to me, it's not even just humor. It's just that there's a humanity to the

Bible. Like there's a lot of focus on the divine elements, the holy elements, which are rightfully so, but there's, these are humans engaged with the story.

That's what's so beautiful about it. Like it's humans interacting with God and then you get these stories.

In the Old Testament, they're dealing with the God of the Old Testament that is leading, walking with them in the wilderness and those kinds of things.

And then in the New Testament, we have Jesus walking here amongst us and people are interacting with God.

So it's such a natural place of like, well, of course, they're going to mess up. Of course, they're not going to understand everything.

And of course, stuff's going to be funny because that's just the base premise. By premise, that's a funny premise.

Like God is walking amongst us. And then a bunch of like goofball humans are tagging along for the ride.

Like, obviously this is like a premise for a comedy. So there's going to be parts of that.

And I definitely think you're right in that it enriches your experience of the Bible. It fills in all the details and it allows you to see more clearly how connected it is to your life when you allow the humanity of it to also be in there and be present.

Absolutely, absolutely. Even right now, I'm thinking like, man, I should have prepared a little bit more for this podcast. I should have done

X, Y, Z. And it reminds me of this verse, I'm going to use that as a segue, to John 4, 31 to 38.

So they're sitting with Jesus. And then meanwhile, the disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something.

And he said, I have food to eat that you know nothing about, which is a pretty wild response.

And then they say, the disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him food? And then he goes off on my food is something you don't know.

It's ripe for harvest, it's eternal life. But I totally relate to a disciple being like, wait, weren't you supposed to order the

Uber Eats? Like, who got him Uber? He doesn't have a phone. Right. Oh yeah.

Like you say, a lot of us, our interactions with the Bible, we've been like preached from it.

And so we go right to the spiritual implication of everything. But 100%, these are like, some of these guys are fishermen.

Like if you're on the boat and you're like, hey, you want to get some food? Nobody responds with like, this sort of like mystical, like really thoughtful response.

It's going to be like, yeah, man, food, good, eat belly. Like, and so now they're dropped in with this guy who's going like,

I have food to eat that you know nothing about. And they're like, okay. Like, I don't, I don't, where did it, how do

I have the food? Who has access? Did somebody have a key to a cabinet?

Like, I don't, yeah. It's so, it's so, and then, and I think sometimes I love in the

Bible when it chronicles that being their response, because you're like, oh, it must mean this like super spiritual thing.

And it's like, no, their response too was like, uh, what? Like, I don't know what that means.

So human of them, so human. Of course they don't know what it means. And he's using these,

Jesus is using these as teaching moments, which, which, cause he was so patient with them and always teaching them things.

But yeah, definitely. You're like, that's, that's what you're, that's, that, that would be our response.

If we were there too, we'd be like, oh, so I guess you're not in on the order. Guess I'll count you out for the pizza.

Do you want the pizza or do you not want the pizza? I don't know. These dudes weren't chosen because they were like the sharpest, but they were, that's neither here nor there.

They're perfect for their role. But yeah, like they weren't sharp. They weren't like the wisest men that were chosen to follow them.

They were just regular, regular old shmegular fishermen who were doing their best.

Well, I think they were, they lived in the practical, like they lived in the, they had very practical lives.

They were not, you know, in the, in the line of like the

Pharisees or the priests or those, they weren't in that place. They were in the place everyone else was.

Like they were in the, like we do practical things. We have jobs. We do this, that and the other. And so that's the space where we live.

We're not always looking for how the book of the law connects to every single thing we interact with all the time.

They just weren't living in that space. So yeah, Jesus gets dropped in who is like the completion of the law.

Here he is. He's like all God right in front of him. And they're just like, but we have to eat though. So let's make sure we take care of the food.

You have food? It's like Lord of the Rings when he's like, well, what about breakfast?

You know, like I'm thinking logistically about my meal plan, man. I know we're returning the ring, but are we eating yes or no?

Right. There's another passage. Pretty sure it's Jesus who's like, don't worry about what you're going to eat or don't worry about what you're going to wear.

Look at the lilies of the field and how they're dressed better than Solomon's splendor. And that like, don't worry about what you're going to eat.

I know, again, I'm with the disciples on this one. I'm like, that's literally all I think about.

I just finished a conversation with my wife about our dinner situation and how it coordinates with T -ball practice tonight.

I'm thinking about the next meal midway through the meal I'm currently eating. So I get the disciples here.

I'm at breakfast thinking about dinner. I'm not eating as much at breakfast if I'm excited about lunch.

The whole meal situation is forefront of my mind at all times. So like,

I'm not worried about it because I know I'm going to get it because that's all I'm focusing on, God. So what do you mean not worry about it?

That's driving all my primal instincts today. That's the right take. You're not worried about where it's going to come from, but I am worried about it.

Like, I need to prioritize it. We need to talk about it and we need to figure out if I need a snack between now and then.

I definitely have friends and siblings that like the day needs to be planned around the meal plan. Like I can go hours for everything.

I like, I'm kind of like a camel. I can go hours. I'm fine, especially because I'm activity focused. But siblings, friends are like, okay, so we haven't eaten in two and a half hours.

So what's the plan? We're not going to the next destination until we're getting coffee on the way. And they're in good company because the disciples were the same way.

They were, we need the food. Exactly. I think it's kind of hilarious the way that Jesus kind of went up to a mountain and then he was like, okay, you 12, you guys are my people.

It kind of reminded me of like MySpace when we had our top friends.

Top friends, yeah. Not that he like ranked them above each other, but he was like, this is my crew. And he like handpicked them.

I think that is so funny, especially because he had crowds following him. That he was like, not you guys. You guys.

It is really interesting. There's a lot of dynamics in there because then you get this little glimpse when everything goes down with Judas and then they replace

Judas with, and they have two names pretty quickly that they're like in the running to replace

Judas. So it's like, this is interesting. There's some sort of like inner circle.

And then there's like, just outside of the inner circle, there was some sort of system to this.

Understudies ready to go. Right, they're like, there's more ready to go. And then there's other like followers mentioned throughout the

New Testament where they'll like sort of casually reference this person. It's like, oh yeah, they were like a follower the whole time. So you're like, yeah, how did those 12 just got like, got picked up a little higher than the rest?

Although I think all their lives ended really, really dramatically. So I guess it wasn't like anybody, not all of the followers probably would have jumped at the chance that the disciples got, but it was interesting how they were like, those 12 were picked out.

A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I actually didn't know that he had follow -up. I feel like I need to study my word a bit more.

You have a Bible study game. So you know this pretty well. Well, yeah,

I just, I mean, I was really like, I was born into it. I'm one of those stories. So like I was in church my whole life.

And then for this project did like a longer two, three year deep dive into the Bible to like get more familiar with some of that stuff.

But you know, the Bible is Funny devotional and the Bible is Funny card game will certainly familiarize you with people, with parts of the

Bible that you might not be familiar with. Ooh, okay. I need to get that game then and start playing it.

Did you just spend days in the word? Just like, oh, no one knows about that one, writing it down.

Well, it was like a, it was like a process. So I came to this point in my life in my like 20s, maybe like mid, late 20s, where I was like,

I've been around church my whole life. I take my faith really seriously.

I'm a Christian. I believe this stuff. I tell people to read the Bible. But there was a lot of the

Bible that I was not familiar with. Like there was whole chunks of it. And I just, it struck me how like weird that was.

Like if I were to, if you were to meet someone who was like, the Harry Potter series is the best series ever written.

It'll change your life. You know, you gotta read it. It's really important. And then you were like, oh, cool.

So you've read all the books? And they were like, well, no, I have not read all the books. And then you're like, so how are you?

Like you're telling other people to do this, but you're not familiar with all of it. So that kind of sent me on this journey that I was like, well,

I'm gonna read through all of it slowly, take my time, and just kind of like make notes. And so this all kind of like was born out of that.

And so that's when stuff was jumping out at me that I was just like, I've never experienced that because the parts

I noticed the most, like there's this gap that gets created, especially in like American Christianity, where they're not sermon.

There's not enough in there for like a 40 minute sermon. So what happens is we end up kind of not visiting it much as a body, like in church gathering.

You're like, well, I don't know what to do. Elijah calls down some she bears and they destroy some kids, end of story.

What do we do with that? How do I send everyone out of my sermon? So some people, and you

Google, some people have attempted some things, but it's just not common. So that's what kind of created the gap. I started to learn a lot about within, yeah, and that was where a lot of the content for the

Bible was funny ended up coming from. Wow. How long did it take you to get through the whole Bible and make notes?

Because I feel like people get pretty lost around Leviticus and numbers and you just had to muscle through that.

Yeah, numbers is got some sneaky stories in there. The talking donkey stories in numbers.

Leviticus is a lot of laws as advertised and it can be a tough slog.

But I think it took like two years to go through the whole thing. And then I restarted and started,

I did it all in the NIV because that's just been my, the one I read. And then I thought it'd be interesting to do it in the

KJV. So I did it and that was a little bit, that I did, it was a little bit slower with that one.

Let it be in thy. Let it be in thy. But there's some just funny ways that they translated it because it's

King James Version. They were speaking differently. So yeah, it was a bit to work through, but I thought, you know, if it is the

Bible, and again, if I hold the Bible in the esteem that I claim to, I have to value all of it. Like I don't get to,

I don't, I would have to think there is value in every part of it. So I can't, to me, my way of thinking and living didn't stack up if I didn't know what was in numbers at least.

And then you can say like, yeah, it's a lot of counting. They don't, there's a lot of like, there's this many people in the tribe of blank.

And again, you can do some deep dives and contextualize stuff and kind of try to see more to it.

But I think at least to familiarize yourself with it was certainly worth the time and say like, this is all scripture.

So yeah, that was the backstory. No, I mean, that makes total sense.

And I think that's great for seeing the stories that people don't recognize. That was absolutely my intention getting into this podcast.

I'm like, let's talk about the verses that you never hear about at church. And of course, any plan just never goes according to plan.

Like my podcast has completely gone a different direction. And that's fine. I love the direction it's gone, but I don't know.

I feel like I haven't done that and instead resorted to theologians and PhDs to explain it to me on a podcast because did you ever feel lost?

Like reading the Bible, were you ever like, who is Paul and what is like, he's writing a letter, what's going on historically?

So you're doing like additional research or? Yeah, like that's why you just like jot notes down. I would love to like do little side quests and try to just figure out like, well, what's that about?

I don't know that name. I don't know those words. And then it gets even more fun when you start connecting names and you're like, oh,

I think I've seen that name before, but I don't know like hard line what the connection is.

And you start getting more like early church history context to stuff because there's whole characters that you're like, oh, that's interesting.

That character had a whole story and a lot of the early church history will document it.

And we don't, that's not included in the scripture. So you'll just get that context of like, oh, that's what happened to that person.

And they'll jump into the story. Cause the guy, his name is Jason in the New Testament. And there's a point where like Paul traveling.

That's the most unbiblical name I've ever heard. Oh, I know. I'm pretty sure it was Jason. Like a time traveler? I want to say.

Like Chad in New Testament came in. I want to say it was Jason.

It's my Bible, my PhD Bible scholars will get on me if I get this wrong. I think it's

Jason. And he's noted in the New Testament just for his like hospitality. Like Paul goes to a city and he ends up in the city.

He ends up at Jason's house. And then they end up visiting him and staying at his house.

And then the officials are trying to get Paul. So they go to Jason's house and they're like, where's Paul? And Jason says, he's not there.

And then Jason ends up getting in some trouble. But it's just like, that set me on a level of like,

Jason, this is odd. Like, I don't know anything about this dude. And there's a whole story. Like there's more information out there that you can learn from that.

Like a lot of, this is a book that's been around for thousands of years. Like there's, people have been looking into it, talking about it, researching it.

Like there's so much cool information. So many interesting details that get put in.

Paul goes on a trip in the New Testament and they mentioned this, like the boat has some characters like on the boat.

And it's like, turns out they're like mythological connections to the characters. And you're like, well, that's really interesting.

Because like the boat was like adorned with these things. And it just mentions that. Makes a note of it. So you're like, well, look at that.

That's so curious. Interesting. Wow, did you notice any like major differences or like, oh, that wasn't mentioned at NIV when

I read it in KJV? Nothing too serious. A quick research, by the way,

Jason of Thessalonica. That's the guy's name. So it was Jason. No, nothing like too serious.

The KJV just translates in a really funny interest. I like language too. That's another thing.

I was a communications major. So like, I just like, I like how we used to say things versus how we say things now.

And all that stuff is fun. There are some things like in the KJV, there's mentions of a unicorn a couple of times.

And a lot of, most people believe it's a translation for rhinoceros. But KJV just straight up calls it a unicorn.

So you're reading along on there and you're like, huh, a unicorn.

Look at there. So yeah, there's all kinds of fun stuff like that. You never know.

It was probably a unicorn. I could have been a unicorn. I wasn't there to be fair.

But yeah, KJV is fun because you have all kinds of things going on. You have like Bible is, this is translated from its original

Hebrew and primarily Greek. And then it gets translated into like old English. And then you're translating it from old

English to your understanding. So it's like, KJV has got so much stuff going on. That's fun. A lot of the newer ones are easier to read and they word it in a way that would be how we talk today.

So yeah. But that was the big one. There was a couple other like just one liners that were just worded in a funny way.

So KJV is great. All right. Yeah, I've been doing

NIV since my first episode and I got a strict telling to when someone found out that I was using the message.

Have you been using the message? It's amazing. They really explained it to you. There is no complications in what the words mean there.

I mean, they really, the Bible. It is said outright. There is no deeper meaning though.

It's just that baseline. Yeah, I think it's its own thing. People do have strong feelings about that.

And to me, there's a degree to which you are believing that God is working through this text throughout the ages, right?

Like it was not written in English. Like we have to make that realization first. It was originally written.

It was translated. There's a lot of steps that when you take the step to say, I believe in faith that God speaks through this.

This is God breathed and God's working through this actively. Then I think there's a lot of, like,

I don't know why you'd be like, God breathed and worked through it up to here. But then when it went from there to the message, let me tell you what, that's when

God was like, I have no part of that one. So that's why I'm just like, I don't know, man.

I think God's doing a lot of things that we don't know about. And we like to jump in and say which one's good and which one's bad.

And I'm like, people are reading the Bible and it's some people like they're just, it lowers the barrier of entry for them because the language is so familiar.

And I'm like, how is that? I don't know who thinks that's a bad thing, right? That somebody picks up a Bible and they start reading it. And a lot of people would encourage you then to as you grow, check out different translations and that's fun and that's fine too.

So I think anywhere we see God moving in people's lives, I think it's generally a positive thing.

Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. Super well said. I wanna get back into some verses just because I think that it's really fun to imagine ourselves on what we would have done if we were there in that moment, what we would have done with Jesus, WWJD, but it's more like what would

I have done if Jesus was watching me? And I wanna look at, which one was it?

Mark 3, 30. And that's right when he just,

I think he just exercised the demon and someone's like, oh, he has an impure spirit.

And he's like, oh, your mom and your brothers arrived. They're standing outside. They want to talk to you.

And he's like, who's my mother and brothers? I'd be pissed if I was his mom.

I'd be like, honey, honey. He's like, here are my mother and brothers.

Whoever does God's will is my brother and my sister and my mother. I feel like as a mom, I've been like,

I birthed you. Okay, I had you in my womb. Yeah, Mary was going through it in the

New Testament, man. That's another character that's just endless with curiosity and interesting.

Cause she gets from the beginning, she gets kind of a whole picture, which it doesn't seem like really anybody else has that she's really told like how this is, who this person is.

Who is she talking to? Do you think her and Mary Magdalene were like, this is crazy.

And she's like, I know. She had to have some buddies. She had to have some friends, but it also talks a lot early in Jesus's life about her treasuring things in her heart, which is like, she's a mom, man.

Like this is her kid. So she's experiencing this all in a very different way.

But yes, this is just an incredibly relatable mom thing where Jesus is like, hey,

I'm God incarnate. I got some things I got to take care of while I'm here. And the disciples in the last verse, right?

They're like, are you eating though? Let's make sure you're eating. And he's like, no, I know. I have some big things

I'm trying to work on here. So then you get Mary showing up and it gives me the big mom energy of like, you come outside right now.

I would like to speak with you right this instant. And Jesus and his mom have such a special relationship, obviously, but he's kind of gotta be like,

I can't do that right now, mom. I'm sorry, I have stuff going on. I'm working.

This is not a good time. I totally wonder if like after that verse, she like walked away and she was like, honey, we need to talk about this when we get home.

He's like, mom, just let me do my thing. You know that I have a mission. Stop embarrassing me.

He's like, I was trying to like really preach to the people. She's like, anyways, I gave birth to you when we get home. Yeah, it's always interesting to me too.

Like they're outside. They're outside telling him to come out. Like they're not, he's just again,

I don't know for sure, but it just gives me big energy of her with her arms crossed, like tapping her foot.

Don't make me count to three. Get outside. We gotta talk about this thing. Because she was there like out of concern because he was working with some demons, right?

Like this was her going to be like, I think Jesus needs help. Let's go to him, me and your brothers.

And he's like, I'm with my disciples. Well, she can't be thrilled about it. No mom would be like, oh, my son's out there fighting demons.

Cool, great. I don't know. I feel like some part of Mary was like, oh, you know

Jesus, you know, just walking on water out there doing God's will.

Like she had to have been either really, it must've been rough for her or she was just like, you know,

God's got him. Right. That's why this gives me the vibe of like, she didn't like the demon stuff.

She was like, listen, you go out there, give blind people sight. That's fun. That's nice. Everybody wins.

I don't really like you dealing with demons. That makes me nervous. Anything but the demons,

Jesus. We talked about it. Not the demons. I just, I don't care for the demons.

Yeah, yeah. Mary is like a whole other topic, but we really don't get insight into it. I would have loved to know like, who was she confiding in when she found out she was pregnant?

I mean, who was she confiding in when she was like, my husband put me on a donkey of all things over here in contractions.

Right, right, right. Didn't even make a reservation for the town survey. Like, are you kidding me?

Come on. It's your one job, Joseph. Yeah, it's interesting. A lot of people also think, again, this isn't like confirmed.

We don't get this directly from the Bible, but a lot of early church history and some different things people point to that Joseph might've died.

And so Mary could have been a single mom at some point. Because when

Jesus dies, he looks down from the cross and he only speaks to Mary. And he says to Mary, behold your son.

And he's talking about John the disciple. So a lot of people believe that Joseph died at some point during Jesus's life.

Oh, why do you think that wasn't documented? I just think he was, listen,

I love Joseph. I just think he was a tad superfluous to the story. He was around.

He was involved and he gets his due. But I think probably rightfully so, the gospel writers were like, the main part of the story though,

Joseph is actually Jesus. So he's gonna be the center point. So yeah, a lot of people believe just based on some piecing together a couple of things like that, that Joseph might've passed away.

Which again, just makes you think like, oh, so Mary's now like, what is her process through all this look like? And you could tell.

Yeah, maybe here she's even more like, listen, take care of yourself, Jesus. Be safe out there.

If my mom struggled to send me out in like cooler weather, not wearing pants, I gotta think

Mary's having a hard time hearing that Jesus is battling demons and doesn't wanna get in there and say like, did you wear sunblock?

If you're gonna battle the demons, at least wear sunscreen. Oh my gosh, that was like so sad and then so funny all at once.

Man, I'm feeling it from Mary. But I agree, you know, there's probably, he probably has his character arc and has his happy ending or however he died.

Hopefully it wasn't too rough, but you're right. It was probably very distracting to the main plot. If you wanna learn more,

I'm sure there's a text on it. We needed to hear about what Jesus was doing. And so I could see a gospel writer being like, oh yeah, and then

Joseph didn't make it past Jesus being 25 or something. And then it just kind of got lost in the shuffle over the years.

Or he was alive the whole time and he was just standing there next to Mary and he didn't get shouted out. So there's, it could be - He was a busy dad.

He was working, he was a carpenter. He's out there doing stuff. He's like, Mary, who's gonna get you to that trip back to Bethlehem, all right?

It's not somebody else making these chairs. Someone's gotta pay for the donkey, you know? Yeah, oh my gosh,

Mary. Oh, I don't wanna dwell on too much on that, but yeah, let's get back to the disciples and how kind of rough

Jesus was. I feel like Jesus had this like superhuman arc of like how things in the world worked.

And it was almost unrelatable, especially to disciples. If I'm imagining myself as a disciple, I'm a very emotional person.

I would have like attached myself to people, to things, to dead people. And for Jesus to walk up on people and say, get up or don't cry because someone's dead, in Luke 7, 11 through 17, he went to a town called

Nain. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out. The only son of a mother, she was a widow.

A large crowd was with her. The Lord saw his heart, went out to her, and he said, don't cry. If I was there,

I'd be like, what? You don't see my son's dead body. He's like, young man,

I say to you, get up. And he sat up and began to talk. I would have a heart attack if I was that mom.

Oh man, absolutely. Yeah, it's - I think because he doesn't like preface his miracles.

I think that's, it's always a shock. It's gotta be like odd, you know, because nobody knew that that was possible.

Like everybody, nobody knew that was a, so you have Jesus walking into scenes where he's like, oh, that kid could come back to life.

That could be the next thing that happens. So don't cry, we'll fix this. And everybody else is like, no, we won't, dude.

Like he's dead, that's the end of this. So it's a very different, like, the juxtaposition there is of perspective of like everybody else is just like, this is it, this is the end of it, it's over.

And then Jesus is like, that's, and that's like in a small way, like that's the whole story of the gospel is he's walking into that scene going like, this isn't the end anymore.

And so it's kind of this, like everybody's responding to that being a new thing for everyone at all times.

But yeah, the mom has got to be, there's a couple instances where the response to a woman crying is don't cry.

And I feel like as a dude, that is too often the first thing that comes out of our mouth.

And I can relate to that. I try to not like follow that intrusive thought, but you want to be like, hey, don't cry.

And it's just like, why do we always say that? That's not helpful to anybody. But crying is not the problem.

Like that's not the issue. They're crying because of an issue because someone just died. That's the issue.

But yeah, Jesus is taking moments like these and his posture is very different than everybody else.

Yeah, you want to imagine yourself in those shoes. And, you know, I feel like we freak out over like the smallest magic tricks.

Like we are so easily entertained humans right now with like a computer in our pocket.

To be like eating bread for your entire life and using a donkey for your work commute. And then you see somebody come back from the dead.

It's like, I feel like if you were to witness that of Jesus, you'd be like, okay, well, you know, no doubt that is

God. Because I didn't even know that was possible. Kind of like what you said. And I've never seen that before.

I mean, like every single miracle, it's just, it's crazy that there was any room for doubt after that. Because if I was a disciple,

I'd be like, okay, so like magic, like what is, like how do you even conceptualize what just happened other than, like there's no word for it.

It's not magic. It's something we can't fathom. Yeah, yeah. And then your brain would have to start to go like, so is anybody gonna die ever again?

Like what does that mean? Like, how does that, what happens now?

It's a fundamental shift in like your entire concept of reality. And it is so interesting what you said, because we talked about a verse a while ago where Jesus casts out a demon out of a person.

And then, and so you, because you do, you think like, well, you, if you watched that live, you'd be like, oh my gosh, that's it.

That's, what else is there to talk about? But there, it never was enough. Like it was all, like he casts out a demon and they're like, oh, he must be a demon.

That's how he casts out a demon. And you know that, you know that from today. It's like, that's how everybody responds to everything.

You're like, oh, I just saw somebody, you know, do a nice thing for someone. That must mean they're a nice person.

They, that person was in the hospital, so they bought them dinner. But yeah, well, you know, but they had a, they probably had a gift card to the restaurant, so it wasn't that nice.

They're not actually nice. You know, I heard they just did it for this reason. It's just like, nothing convinces anybody of anything anymore, especially, so.

100%. Yeah, you look at - 100%. How did not everybody just go, if one part of you thinks that, then the other part of you is like, well, of course, nobody believes anything.

Everybody's cynical constantly. Constantly, yeah. No, you would like to think that in that moment, you'd be like, all right, yeah, totally bought in.

But at the end of the day, it'd be like, well, he probably wasn't fully dead. He was probably like about to die.

Exactly. He wasn't. She was just crying, because like, he was on his way. But like, you know, Jesus, give him some ginger.

Yeah, right, right, right. You can do it in your head, because humans are still humans. Like, that's what we do.

We just don't take what's in front of us. And sometimes for good reason. I mean, especially today, right?

We have so many things with like, deep fakes and AI and things like that. You're like, constantly concerned.

But I think this is like a human trait, man. We just, we try to maintain the realms of our reality as we know it.

And so we'll fight against anything that's like, suggesting the world is not exactly as we understand it.

Yes. Yes, that's exactly it. I mean, they must have been justifying it. I mean, I feel like it's the uniqueness of the miracles.

Like, it wasn't like, I'm going to make a million dollars appear. It was like, I'm going to walk on water, and then

I'm going to part the seas, and then I'm going to heal the blind and touch people with leprosy.

Like, there was no commonality between all of them. It was just like, whatever you think is impossible, I'm absolutely going to do it.

Right, right, right, right. And I think it kept everybody from thinking there was like a math. Like, well, if I do this, then this will happen.

Or like - Right, like he's just really good with water. That's his thing. Or every person that used the magic word that was blind, he healed them all.

Like, no, it was just demonstrations of just that this was

God, that this is like a supernatural healing and renewal that was coming, redemption that was coming to earth.

So yeah, the differentiation between the miracles is great. There's a funny thing too with like the way he heals different people.

Because some person, there's a woman who just touches him and then she's healed. And then there's a person who he spits in the dirt and he makes mud and then he puts it on their eyes.

I love that episode of yours. You did such a funny job when it's healing the blind man, because like four times they asked the blind man what happened?

And you're like, he just got his sight back. It's so good. He's only telling you as much as he knows.

Right. But that's exactly what we're talking about though. It's them being like, so you were never blind?

And he's like, no, I was blind. I was blind. I was definitely blind.

And his parents were like, yeah, yeah, he was blind. His parents are so funny in that story. Cause they're like, he was blind, but I don't know.

Go ask him. And they like disappear in a cartoon puff of smoke. We haven't spoken to him in a really long time.

Leave us alone. But yeah, he's just like, he keeps telling the same. I don't know what to tell you guys.

I was blind. Jesus gave me my sight. That's the story I know. I'm like, well, where did he go?

And that's, yeah, that's the funny bit. I just got used to these guys. I literally couldn't see. 30 seconds ago.

Where did he, will you tell me where he went? They're like, is it 20, 20 vision? Or like, you can just see shapes now. Like how much is that sight restored?

How many fingers am I holding up? It was a long con you were doing, pretending to be blind for 40 years and living in poverty out in the

Times Square. Carrots. That was, I knew you were up to something. Like just trying to process this.

Which we all would have done, man. We all would have, so many, we all like to believe we would have been like the most diehard, but everybody, you'd still be you.

And even in Bible times. So that's where I think you can start to really see yourself in the stories when you can relate to some of the things they're going through.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And all Jesus was doing, you know, I think a lot of people have been like, well, how? How are you doing this?

He's like, God. Like he was the original influencer. He was just saying like, what's the secret? God. Like every single time, like the way, the truth in life, like that's it.

And we're like, no, no, it must be something else. It must be. Gotta be something else. Yeah. Submit to a higher power.

I don't know about that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I really like this motif of like humanness.

Cause I think that is what makes the Bible relatable. I think like, I also grew up with a church, but again,

I'm in my mid to late twenties now kind of going through what you went through. I'm like, come on, there's gotta be more. I've committed my life to this, but yet I don't know anything.

So now I'm on that journey and you're definitely inspiring me to read the Bible. I'm just, reading's tough for me.

I lose interest right away. So I'm trying to find more interesting ways to do it. But I think that seeing myself in that, and that's why

I love this conversation about disciples and, you know, understanding the history. Cause it's like in that position, what would

I have done? And I kind of like personifying, you know, in 2024, you know, who would be these disciples today?

You know, would they be like, I know that they're all fishermen and like they would technically be like middle, lower middle class if we looked at them like economically and where they landed in society.

But like the type of people that they would be, would they be like people within my friend circle? Would they be people that I could relate to?

Would I be one of those people? And I think looking at Jesus and what he says, like one of the verses, just moving forward, you know, they come to him and they ask him in Matthew 13, 10, 17, why do you speak to people in parables?

Which is a pretty honest question. Like, why are you over -complicating something when you could just tell us flat out?

And he goes on quite a long rampant. And I won't read all of that, but I think it was like, when

I read that, I immediately got flashbacks to the years that I would, I haven't gone to many music festivals, but I've been to a few.

And it was like those people in like robes and beads. That's all I'm gonna say about what they were wearing.

Robes and beads, loose clothing, and a lot of things dangling. And like, to me, that's

Jesus in that moment of like, hey, like, what's going on? He's like, you know what? It's like, oh boy, okay.

Yep, wrong answer time. All right. Like, there's nothing wrong with those people at all, but it is just like,

Jesus gives me such hippie vibes sometimes. Like he is that like hipster, that like, oh yeah, you're really feeling it.

And I'm trying to get to your level. And I think that's really what he was trying to do was get us to his level and like show us that there is so much more than being hungry at breakfast time and people needing to see, like he was so beyond this dimension as far as understanding goes.

I think everything he said was us trying to get us there. But it is really funny when you're like, if I was friends with Jesus, like what would he look like today?

And that's my interpretation. What about you? Yeah, that's a fun question. I like this passage because like, what's funny to me is there's plenty of times where Jesus says things just plainly and like people are still not doing it.

It's almost like they're saying like, oh, what if you just stop talking to parables? Then they get it. He was like, oh, okay. Then love

God above all things and love each other like you love yourself. There, is that pretty plain? They're like, no, no, no, no. They still don't like Samaritans.

So maybe do a parable. Like you, guys, come on.

He's doing it. He's doing it, everything. He's giving you all of it that you can try to understand. But yeah,

I don't, it'd be some sort of mix. I, yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. Different characteristics about Jesus that pop out.

Like obviously, you know, endlessly patient. You have this like sinless character. But he does have like moments as well where he kind of like snaps at the disciples a little bit where he'll say like that you're off on this or he'll rebuke them, which a lot of times would be how it's worded.

So you get the sense that they're, he does kind of say like, guys, come on.

Like this isn't just like this, you know, I think some people have pigeonholed

Jesus into like the fluffy lamb idea of like, no, no, he was just like boundless sunshine and rainbows.

Like this is the person who like walked into a temple and threw the tables upside down and was like, you're not doing this right.

It's not like necessarily this like, yeah. So I don't know. Anytime you try to say like, like this is where I think

Jesus kind of fits, there's other parts of this personality that he displayed when

Jesus was walking amongst us and these stories we have about him that are like, he was a very nuanced character.

And - So nuanced. And while he's without sin, sometimes like being a human is not a sin.

Like there's not an inherent sin there because Jesus was a human. So we have to understand that there are parts here that like the

Venn diagram might not be as like, you know, angels are sinless and humans are sinful.

And there's like a sin nature that is talked about in the Bible. But Jesus, the human, would have had human things that were not sinful things.

So it's this like thing that's hard to kind of process of like, is it a sin that he sometimes got frustrated and was frustrated.

He didn't act out of that frustration. He was never unkind or unloving. Those were always his primary motivations is he's demonstrating the fruit of the spirit, but to have like human things that Jesus would have personified.

It's just all interesting to kind of think about. So yeah, sometimes it's like, oh man, that gives me this vibe. He's telling these really kind of like stories and that feels very campfire -y and like this type of thing.

And then you have times where he's like, man, this guy seems very down to business and he curses a fig tree and like, he's very like, no nonsense.

And so you just have like, yeah, this is a very nuanced, layered character. Absolutely.

Matthew 8, 21 to 22, another disciple said to him, Lord, first, let me go and bury my father, which based off this like image that we've had of Jesus so far, you think

Jesus would be like, absolutely, that matters. Like you should probably have closure. Like if you got to grieve, like that's hard.

Death is super hard, you know? And I think, and Jesus deals with grief, you know, especially when John the Baptist dies.

But Jesus said, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. Brutal.

Yeah. Absolutely brutal. Yeah. Yeah, that was a hard one. That's a hard, it's a hard,

I mean. I feel like there's probably some background context in that that we're missing, but for face value, that is pretty rough.

Yeah. Yeah. Follow me and let the dead bury the, what is it again? I feel like -

Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead. I heard you were nicer, Jesus. What was that? Came here for the cuddles.

Yeah. I mean, I think he's just, you know, I have heard some background to this about it being like, this was not a, like an incumbent death.

So, first, let me go bury my father didn't mean like, he had a funeral tomorrow. I heard one take on this text that it meant that he wanted to stick with his father until his father passed.

So he was like, let me stay home, take care of these responsibilities, and then I'll follow you. And Jesus is kind of presenting the urgency of this and saying like, this is like, no, this is not something you wait on.

This is something you take on this kingdom mindset. You put this into action right now. You don't wait on this.

Yeah. Which makes sense. And if you're consumed with this other thing, again, all very like layered.

And in the moment, when you put yourself in the moment of that, yeah, if you're the disciples, you're sitting there like, oh, buddy.

That sounded like it was a fairly reasonable, sounded like it was a fairly reasonable thing.

But yeah, we know the immediacy of it. There's another Bible story that kind of supports that take on the text because there's another story.

I think it's the Elijah, Elisha relationship where he says like, let me go say goodbye to my family.

And the prophet that's calling him in the Old Testament is like, oh yeah, sure. Go say bye to your family. He wasn't like, like he was just saying,

I want to go say goodbye and then go off on this journey with you. So a lot of people think this context is like, I want to stay home until I get everything settled and then

I'll do the thing. So that one's kind of a, that's always made that make more sense to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But yeah, when you just read that and you take it in and you put yourself in the scene, you got to think like, oh wow, this is an all consuming thing, huh?

Yeah, I mean, that's where you get the 40 minute sermon out of that verse. But I can't help but think that if this guy who was asking to like, hey, let me just like stay home with my dad and then

I'll follow you, I can't help. But like, if this guy knew Jesus, he was probably hoping that Jesus would be like what he said in Luke eight, he said, don't be afraid, just believe and she will be healed or like pull some miracle out of his back pocket, be like your dad, he's good.

I just healed him with your face. You know what, he's coming along. It's like, oh, why didn't you say that?

It's one of those like parent surprises where he's like, why don't you turn around and see who's behind you right now?

Exactly. Exactly. They do a big hug and it's sweet. He's like, so like,

I know you healed that centurion's daughter from like miles away. It was my dad, I got a thing, unless you got something in your back pocket, you could just -

I could go back or you could fix it now. If you really want me to go, you could just, and I could be there.

In that case, Jesus was like, yeah, that's fine. You stay here. He's like, yeah, he is dying. You should probably just come with now.

Oh, dang it. That's hilarious. That's hilarious.

Yeah, I mean, there is so many other verses. Are there any that I missed?

I feel like I just whipped out like 10 of them, but that was just my briefing. I haven't read through the whole Bible. So I still gotta,

I gotta tally up my verses yet. But this is the crux of like the things that you wish church would talk about.

I understand why they don't. It makes sense. You can't take like a 40 minute sermon out of most of these, but even with the she bears,

I mean, I just learned about that verse and that is a hilarious verse. I think that's so funny. Or there's a verse where he's like, you're better with a weight around your neck thrown into a stream than doing what you're doing.

It's like, oh, that was a colorful way of speaking to me right now. Okay. Oh man.

Yeah, and then you get through some of the Old Testament and the way that God communicates to the

Israelites through the prophets. And you're like, this is a lot. Yeah, there's a lot more going on here than I thought.

But yeah, it's, it is, it's, it's the disciples specifically there's so many great stories.

Like there's a time when, when Jesus is having dinner with the Pharisees and he kind of tells them off a little bit and like what you're doing is not right and condemns them pretty publicly.

And then the disciples kind of like off sidebar say to Jesus like, hey man, that was kind of mean.

Don't you think that hurt their feelings? And I feel like, like we were saying before with this being like your tight circle, this is your

MySpace top 12. You're like, guys, I need you. I'm, I, you gotta have my back here.

Like I, why are you defending them? This is not the way that this goes.

Like I, like you're clearly off on who it is that is, has got like the truth here right now when you're wondering about their feelings.

And I'm sitting, coming here trying to like reset this whole system. He was also defending the disciples in that whole, when that whole like altercation starts off.

So trust me, I have a plan. You're my friends. You guys are my friends.

So yeah, they're, they're great. I mean, just read the, read the, read the gospels and be focused on the disciples.

And I feel like you can't help but walk away with like, man, they are, they have all kinds of stuff going on.

They just feel, to me, they're just so relatable because you're like, yes, this is what I do all the time. This is, God has this big plan for my life, is leading me in a direction, is filling my life with love and joy and peace and reconciling things around me and do it.

And just, and I am worried about the lunch that we're all supposed to be having. This is what

I'm fixated on is lunch. And that's like, that's, that's me. So the disciples feel, yeah,

I love reading about them. But I, I keep reading the Bible. You'll find all kinds of fun stuff. I will.

Do you feel like there's the same sentiments in the Old Testament, or do you feel like that's a whole different animal? The same sentiment.

Of like relatability. Oh, I think so. I mean, you just have to, you have to realize like the, again, context is everything, which is funny for someone who's like whole

Instagram account pretty much takes things out of context, but that's for grins and giggles.

But yeah, so if you remember the time, the timeline of all this, like some of it, I think some people's disconnect with the

Old Testament is the New Testament feels more like today. And you even think historically it's happening during like the

Roman Empire. So that is like not, again, not identical. There's certainly been technological advances, but civilization is starting to look like the civilization we know today.

Whereas the Old Testament is way more, these are, these are people living like in tents out in the wilderness.

There's not like. Like caves. Right, there's not like these metropolis cities that we know today.

You get to the New Testament and you're like, Rome, these are problems I understand. These are systems that are coming together.

That makes sense. That look more familiar. So as long as you, as long as you can say like, hey, this was not done the same way

I do stuff and that doesn't make it necessarily wrong. It just means that's where it was at that point.

Then I think you can find relatability all throughout the Old Testament. And they're just like, their stories are, those are more story structured.

So the New Testament's sort of recounting these like, these people saying like,

I was with Jesus and this is what happened. And the Old Testament is more like, these are stories that were passed down from the

Israelite people for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. So they're like, they're so fun. Like there's so, there's so many great stories in the

Old Testament. Yeah. I think you can definitely start to see yourself and start to see the situations that you come across all the time.

It's why people connect so deeply with like David and Goliath, right? Because there's the story of it, which is great. But then there's also like, we all understand what it's like when you're like up against a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

So the Old Testament, that's probably, throughout the Bible, it's funny, the Old Testament's been the little treasure,

I feel like I've gotten to dive into more because I was really unfamiliar with that. Great perspective.

Great perspective and great insights. Thank you so much for sharing these. And you, you did the work and you've got a great perspective on things.

And I've really enjoyed this conversation. I hope that we can have another conversation on maybe another character in the

Bible that we've talked about. But I, I really appreciate you coming on here, Anthony. Thank you so much for having me.

This was so fun. This was so fun. I, is there anything that like, you didn't get a chance to touch on?

I know you talked about the game, but what else is going on with you that you can plug right now? Yeah, if you're not, you know, everybody can follow along, join the fun at the

Bible is funny. It's at the Bible is funny on Instagram, TikTok. And then I have a podcast where we go through the

Bible and we do Christian movies like you talked about. And last year got to release the game. So the

Bible is funny game card game is like, it plays kind of like apples to apples. And so there's a prompt and then there are these, you know, wildly out of context

Bible verses that you can play. So it's a lot of fun to play with like your family or any sort of friend group that's getting together.

Like there's all kinds of fun. I hear from people so much that they just like, brings a lot of joy and laughter and gets them reading parts of the

Bible that they didn't, they like, I had to look that up because I didn't believe it was a verse. So I looked it up and then read a little bit more.

So it's super fun. The response to that's been super cool. So that's something that's available now people can get.

And yeah, just follow along at the Bible is funny and say hello. Tell me that you moved over there and you're saying hello.

You make some ridiculously good memes with some of the trending sounds, I gotta say. Oh, thank you so much.

Those are hilarious. It's my favorite. No, those are awesome. And the game is genius. Where did you even get that idea?

Man, I mean, it's like, it's a style of game that's been, that I've played before, different types of games.

You know, you have apples to apples, like the original and then they came out with cards against humanity and what do you meme is another one that's out there.

And so I was like, oh, I think this could work with this format. And so then just kind of went through to see, filled out the gameplay cards and stuff like that and had a great partner and a publisher that was down for the idea.

And so yeah, that's how it came to be. That's awesome. I'm definitely gonna bring it home.

My family would love that. That's awesome. It makes me so happy. Yeah, the whole time working on it,

I was like, I just hope that people just get to like hang out and laugh and play this game and it'd be fun. So I love when

I see people doing that. Yeah, I might like bring it around my friends and they're like, what game are we playing?

I'm like, just play the cards. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You don't need context.

We're having fun. Hush up, enjoy yourself.

It's your turn. No, Anthony, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on.

I hope everybody follows The Bible is Funny. This was one of the inspirations that got me into my podcast was seeing that other people did it well.

So I'm gonna give a stab at it. So thanks for the inspiration and the wisdom on this call and hopefully see you back again soon.