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Long before Christianity settled into creeds and councils, it was a field of competing ideas — and some of the most striking came from the movement we now call Gnosticism.

In this episode, we trace the rise of the Gnostics: the teachers who shaped it, the world that produced it, and the ideas that set them apart. We explore their dualistic cosmos, their vision of a flawed material world, the role of the Demiurge, the pursuit of hidden knowledge — and why these ideas became such a challenge to the emerging orthodox church.

This is not about heresy hunting. This is about understanding the diversity and complexity inside early Christianity — and how alternative Christianities grew, argued, adapted, and sometimes survived in the shadows.

Join us as we step back into the second century and meet a Christianity very few people ever learn about — the Gnostic imagination.

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For nearly two thousand years, Judas Iscariot has stood as Christianity’s ultimate betrayer. But one ancient text — discovered in Egypt and finally brought to light in the early 21st century — tells a different story.

In this episode, we explore The Gospel of Judas, an early Gnostic text that repositions Judas not as the villain, but as the one disciple who understood Jesus’ true mission. We examine where this gospel came from, who wrote it, why it emerged in the theological battleground of the 2nd century, and what it reveals about the diversity of belief in the early Christian world.

This is not a rehabilitation of Judas for shock value. It is a window into a time when Christian identity was still fluid, disputed, and contested — and when new interpretations were created to challenge the rising orthodoxy.

Join us as we step inside the world of Gnostic Christianity and encounter one of the most controversial alternative tellings of the Jesus story — the Gospel of Judas.

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If there’s a celebrity among numbers, it’s 666. It shows up where you least expect it: on horror posters, in guitar solos, on stolen highway signs, on novelty merchandise, and even in cheeky bus timetables. Whole marketing campaigns have timed releases to it, bands have built careers around it, and newsrooms can’t resist a headline that sneaks it in. For some, 666 is spooky; for others, it’s a wink and a nudge—an inside joke that pop culture keeps telling. But why, where did this number come from and why is it so deeply connected with evil and the devil. In today’s episode of the B-side Bible we are looking at where this number came from, how it became firmly embedded into the collective imagination and is it really the Devil’s number or is there a more prosaic meaning behind all the hype.

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