
What to Expect When You're Dead
From Biblical Time Machine by Helen Bond & Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
April 20, 2026 · 46 min
About this episode
This episode explores ancient beliefs about life after death across various cultures.
How did people in biblical times imagine life after death? On this episode, Lloyd is joined in the time machine by Robert Garland for ancient tour of the afterlife. Drawing on a panoply of cultures – from Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia to Greece, Rome, and early Christianity – Robert charts a map of what ancient people believed about death and the world beyond. Robert Garland is a British historian, philologist and Emeritus Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics at...
People in this episode
Host: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Guest: Robert Garland
Topics covered
- afterlife
- ancient beliefs
- death
- cultural perspectives
- history
- Christianity
Keywords
- afterlife
- ancient cultures
- death beliefs
- Mesopotamia
- Egypt
- Greece
- Christianity
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: British historian, Emeritus Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor of the Classics
Places: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, early Christianity
More episodes of Biblical Time Machine
- The Bible in Aramaic · June 8, 2026 · 35 min
- The Judges of Ancient Israel · June 1, 2026 · 43 min
- King David – Hero or Villain? · May 25, 2026 · 33 min
- Reading Luke as a Cultural Elite · May 17, 2026 · 47 min
- The Bible in (Ancient) Pop Culture · May 12, 2026 · 40 min
- Erotica... In the Bible? · May 4, 2026 · 39 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Biblical Time Machine podcast page.