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b'It\\u2019s easy to misinterpret the scriptures, and even our so-called traditions and traditional ways of doing things can hinder proper understanding of the text. This episode highlights the importance of knowing historical and political context in order to truly understand the Bible.\\nDownload the transcript (PDF)\\nEpisode Transcript\\nBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast!\\nFr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week\\u2019s lectionary readings. We\\u2019re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I\\u2019m Father Shay Kearns\\nB: And I\\u2019m Brian G. Murphy.\\nB: Hello, hello, hello. Today is Sunday, August 18th we are going to take a look at Hebrews 11:29-12:2 I will read it to you now.\\nBy faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned.\\nBy faith Jericho\\u2019s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days.\\nBy faith Rahab the prostitute wasn\\u2019t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace.\\nWhat more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection.\\nBut others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world didn\\u2019t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.\\nAll these people didn\\u2019t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn\\u2019t be made perfect without us.\\nSo then, with endurance, let\\u2019s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let\\u2019s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith\\u2019s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God\\u2019s throne.\\nB: Shay, there\\u2019s a lot of stuff in here. Where do we begin to make sense of this passage?\\nFS: I mean one of the things that sticks out to me first off is this way that the author of this passage is reinterpreting their own texts and stories for a new context and a new community. By telling all of these older stories, the author is saying, \\u201cLook! This is our tradition, this is what we are part of, this is what we are doing, and this is how we can change it and understand it now and continue at forward.\\u201d This idea that scripture tells only one story is really false. In here, we have this narrative of how these things get repackaged and reframed and retaught. I think that that\\u2019s what we\\u2019re still doing today, and it\\u2019s really important that we use this as an instructive way of how to read scripture, through scripture. That\\u2019s the first thing that sticks out to me, what about you?\\nB: What I notice in this passage is that, some churches that I\\u2019ve been to, the idea that you needed Jesus and the Christian writings in order to really understand the Hebrew bible. That almost the New Testament is like this secret key that unlocks the hidden meaning of the Hebrew scriptures. Even like Jonah and the whale being about Jesus and all of this stuff. But what I\\u2019m realizing is that this passage makes clear is that actually you need the Hebrew scriptures in order to understand the Christian ones. You need to understand the captivity of the Hebrew people, and th'