Bart’s primer lecture was a brief overview of Genesis and some of the key scholarly debates like the various sources for the two creation myths and the historicity of the patriarchs

I am especially looking forward to Kenton Sparks’ lecture on the binding of Isaac. My take is with the story of Isaac, we get the impossible plan of God whereby Isaac is to begin a great lineage for Abrham, and yet Abraham is to sacrifice him!  This was at a time in Judaism where the soul was not thought to live on forever in paradise but rather you lived on through your bloodline.  This gives the general point that while sacrifice serves a purpose, what it’s ultimately aiming are things like obedience, or a contrite heart, that is supposed to be behind the sacrifice (Isaac was spared).    

The Old Testament contains several passages where God prioritizes a repentant, obedient, or humble heart (including a “contrite heart”) over ritual sacrifices, especially when those sacrifices are offered without genuine devotion, justice, or repentance. Sacrifices were commanded under the Mosaic Law, but the prophets and psalmists repeatedly stress that empty or hypocritical offerings do not please God.

The most direct match for “contrite heart” is Psalm 51:16–17 (a psalm of David after his sin with Bathsheba):

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (ESV)

Similar wording appears across translations (e.g., “broken and contrite heart,” “broken and humbled heart”). Related verses note God’s nearness to the brokenhearted or contrite (Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2).

Other key passages expressing the same theme include:

• Hosea 6:6: “For I desire steadfast love [or mercy] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Jesus later quotes this in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7.)biblegateway.com
• 1 Samuel 15:22: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
• Proverbs 21:3: “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”
• Micah 6:6–8: Questions whether thousands of rams or rivers of oil would please God, then states: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
• Isaiah 1:11–17: God says He has had enough of burnt offerings and does not delight in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats; He calls instead for washing, ceasing evil, seeking justice, and defending the oppressed.
• Related texts appear in Psalm 40:6, Jeremiah 7:22–23, Amos 5:21–24, and others, criticizing ritual without obedience or right living.

These statements do not abolish the sacrificial system itself (which pointed forward and was part of covenant worship when offered rightly). They reject sacrifices used as a substitute for a changed heart, repentance, mercy, justice, and obedience. In Psalm 51 itself, David later anticipates restored right sacrifices once the heart is right (vv. 18–19). Jesus’ sacrifice for instance was meant to change hearts: You identify with the world who turned on sinless Jesus which opens your eyes to your sin nature and thus that you need to repent (metanoia).

This is how we can have the desperate prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane that he doesn’t think he actually needs to die in order for God’s plan to come to fruition, him suffering on the cross without actually dying serves the same point, and in fact God acknowledges the point in Hebrews 5:7. The Old Testament says, for instance, one person cannot ransom another.

For Ehrman we have a Jesus of history who taught repentance and forgiveness and never had a salvific death, whereas his followers reinterpreted the meaning of his death after his life because of the visions thinking Jesus death must have been an atoning sacrifice.  The Lord’s prayer is about forgiveness, not a payment, and the story of the prodigal son is about the father forgiving, not payment.  This agrees with a God who forgives throughout the bible, such as with the story of Jonah and the penitential psalms.  Consider the story of the sheep and goats.  Likewise, the rich young man is told he will please God by selling everything and giving the money to the poor, not because of a sacrifice.

The Gethsemane prayer was answered, just not in the way Jesus thought.  Once Jesus’ unjust suffering was seen, Jesus thought Elijah would come and save him – Elijah who was thought to return at the end times.  Elijah was widely expected to return before the end times or the “day of the Lord,” based on a prophecy in Malachi and developed in Jewish and Christian traditions.  This links Elijah’s return to reconciliation and preparation for God’s eschatological judgment or intervention. Because Elijah was taken up to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11), the expectation of a literal return became natural.  The crowd hears Jesus calling out for Elijah.

God displayed his sovereignty over death by alleviating Jesus’ suffering and having him die very quickly, to the amazement of Pilate – thus removing the cup of suffering.  The sovereignty of God creating the world and overseeing/directing history is a major biblical theme right back from Genesis.  Why does the Gospel have the tidbit about Elijah?  Jesus was wrong about Elijah as, in Mark’s time, it was clear Jesus was also wrong about the imminent apocalypse when Elijah was supposed to come.  Mark is thus winking at the reader that the historical Jesus was a failed apocalyptic prophet. Jesus remained faithful to God (e.g., the trusting terrified cry of dereliction) despite adverse situations like Joseph in the Old Testament was, and so he found favor.  Jesus’ reward was the quick death and resurrection.