Dan McClellan

McClellan predicts his next book, on how the biblical God changes across the Bible, will be published at the beginning of 2028.

“But hopefully it should be out the beginning of 2028”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 2:33:50

McClellan recounts running twice for the Utah legislature in a conservative district and narrowing large deficits.

“I think I took around 16 points off of both of them”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 2:26:09

McClellan explains he keeps his personal faith private to separate it from his professional public work.

“I don't talk publicly about my own personal faith just because I try to keep it compartmentalized from what I'm doing professionally”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 2:11:27

McClellan argues the Bible never uses the phrase "word of God" to refer to written scripture.

“That phrase is never used anywhere in the Bible to refer to texts specifically as the texts that are in circulation”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 26:00

McClellan argues hell first developed as assurance that oppressive empires would be punished, before becoming a threat applied to everyone.

“hell probably initially developed as a way to feel like God's justice is going to have its day on the truly wicked people”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:56:32

McClellan says the idea that non-followers of Jesus burn in hell forever is never stated in the Bible but is an interpretation.

“That's not something that's ever stated anywhere in the Bible”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:56:05

McClellan says many scholars think Genesis once circulated without a flood story.

“a lot of scholars think that Genesis actually was circulating in a version that didn't have a flood story”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:41:38

McClellan reports that many scholars see the Tower of Babel story as reflecting the long-unfinished Etemenanki tower near Babylon.

“the story of this tower that was supposed to be built to heaven that was left unfinished is a reflection of the unfinished tower of Etemenanki”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 37:05

McClellan states that early-20th-century Confederate statues were explicitly intended to intimidate Black residents.

“we know explicitly the goal was to terrorize the black population”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 2:31:23

McClellan argues that conversions resulting from state-sponsored religious instruction are not desirable.

“if people are indoctrinated and do adopt Christianity as a result of that, that's not really a desirable conversion in my mind”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 2:30:43

McClellan argues the Ethiopian manuscripts are of little value for reconstructing the earliest biblical text, though valuable for Ethiopian Christian history.

“The earliest possible Bible, the Ethiopian manuscripts are of very little value”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:47:27

McClellan says John Allegro's etymological links between Sumerian and biblical terms are rejected by linguists.

“the connections that are made are just not considered plausible by linguists today”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:37:46

McClellan says residue tests on an incense altar at the Arad temple show cannabis was used in ancient Israelite worship.

“And one of them had three different kinds of cannabis on it. So we know for a fact they were using cannabis in their worship practices in ancient Israel”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:34:19

McClellan explains that around 16 New Testament passages found in the King James Version are omitted from most modern translations as later additions.

“There are about 16 passages in the New Testament that have been taken out”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:21:54

McClellan argues that the 1 Enoch account of fallen angels was probably the dominant explanation for evil before the New Testament was written.

“I think that up until the New Testament was written, that was probably the dominant tradition about where evil came from”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:17:32

McClellan says that apart from Korean Hangul, virtually every alphabet descends from the Phoenician script.

“apart from Hangul, which is the Korean alphabet, I think virtually every other alphabet on earth is descended from the Phoenician”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 43:06

McClellan states that scholars widely agree several letters attributed to Paul, including the pastoral epistles, were not written by him.

“scholars are in pretty widespread agreement that there are several of those texts that weren't written by Paul”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 27:59

McClellan says most scholars read the Kuntillet Ajrud inscription and drawing as depicting the God of Israel and his wife Asherah.

“the majority of scholars agree this is probably intended to reflect the interpretation of these two deities as the God of Israel and God's wife, Asherah”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2562 - Dan McClellan (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 14:20