Pluribus and the Bible
Multi-session studies pairing scripture with themes from contemporary stories. Designed for small groups or self-paced reading.
6-session study
Pluribus and Daniel
Resistance, community, and the self
A six-session study pairing the narrative chapters of Daniel with the themes of Apple TV+'s Pluribus (Vince Gilligan, 2025). Pluribus is not a Christian show, but it is working a deeply biblical question: what makes a person a person, and what is the right shape of human community? Daniel asks the same question from inside a different empire. The sessions are arranged here as a sustained argument moving from small daily dissent to the gospel's vision of unity-with-difference. Each session pairs a Daniel passage with cross-references and discusses the show's themes carefully — no plot spoilers in the questions, so the study works for viewers and non-viewers alike.
1. Different by Choice2. When the Music Plays3. Pray With the Window Open4. Empires of the Statue5. The Collective That Cannot Mourn6. Out of Every Nation21-session study
Book of John
Chapter-by-chapter, in the world it was first heard
A twenty-one-session walk-through of the Gospel of John, one chapter at a time. Each session reconstructs the 1st-century world the chapter was first heard in — the religious assumptions of a Jewish reader, the philosophical assumptions of a Gentile reader, the lived realities of poverty, occupation, illness, and grief that the original audience took for granted. Authored in the Bea Zalel voice with scholarship citations and further-reading links per session.
1. The Word Made Flesh2. Wine, Stone Jars, Whip of Cords3. Born of Water and Spirit4. A Woman at the Well5. Thirty-Eight Years at the Pool6. The Bread That Walks on Water7. Rivers of Living Water at Sukkot8. Before Abraham Was, I Am9. The Man Born Blind10. The Good Shepherd, the Stone Hands11. Lazarus12. A Year's Wages in Perfume13. Feet in the Basin, Bread for the Betrayer14. Many Rooms, One Way15. Vine, Branches, Friends, Hatred16. The Advocate Comes17. The Prayer Behind the Door18. Arrest, Interrogation, Inversions19. The Cross20. Mary, the Linen Cloths, the Locked Door21. Breakfast on the Beach