With the end of the Fall biblical Holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkoth) last week millions of Jews and Hebrew oriented non-Jews, including many Christians, began a new cycle of Torah readings this past weekend. The reading for October 17th, this past Sabbath, was Genesis 1:1-6:8. I guess one…
To be a fundamentalist, you have to have a book. And you have to forget the book has a history. I normally post on matters in my areas of expertise, namely, late 2nd Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity in the Greco-Roman period (“Augustus to Constantine” as my revered Chicago Professor…
There’s an ancient, mysterious quality about it that makes me want to like Moses take my shoes off while standing on holy ground. Professor James D. Langford, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas I heard today from a few readers that copies of the new Book of Genesis are beginning to arrive.…
From the lovely, elegant, and scholarly 1985 JPS translation, to the unparalleled Oxford maps, the extensive scholarly, well-balanced notes (including academic as well as rabbinic perspectives), the essays, tables, and charts in the back, with additional maps and charts splashed on the pages throughout, printed on high quality “Bible” paper…
Why Even Some Jews Once Believed Moses Had Horns It is often said that this is a simple matter of mistranslation, but Vulgate author Saint Jerome would not have made such a crude mistake HaAretz, Elon Gilad, March 27, 2018 https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/why-even-some-jews-once-believed-moses-had-horns-1.5949749 Famously, Michelangelo’s Moses has two horns protruding from his head.…
The 2017 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Awards were just announced in the latest November/December issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. These were carefully selected from hundreds of entries so any or all of them are certainly worthy of purchase and reading. I was honored to serve as one of the judges in…
I am teaching a course this semester called “The End of the World as We Know It” after the REM song of that name. We are examining ideas associated with Biblical prophecy and the Apocalypse, both Jewish and Christian (and towards the end, a bit of Islam), in the…
The story of the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of a diminishing few biblical narratives of which our culture is familiar. Though few might have read the extended account, set in the time of Abraham, that runs through Genesis 18-19, the imagery has become proverbial. This was…
Millions were introduced to the famous “Ark of the Covenant,” if not in Sunday school growing up, then through the blockbuster 1981 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” Indiana Jones film. The familiar image of the gold plated ark with its angelic “cherubim,” and quasi-magical powers has become legendary, part of…
Here in two parts, one today, the second tomorrow, I want to offer a broad sketch of how the Biblical hope of “life after death” emerged and developed. Expect some surprises. What few realize, especially those who have focused more on the New Testament, is that the Hebrew Bible had…