Bible Review, 1992
Features
Our previous two issues have featured a wide-ranging interview with the world-renowned scholar Frank Moore Cross, the recently retired Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard University. The first installment (see “Frank Moore Cross— An Interview,” BR 08:04) focused on the origins of the ancient Israelites, especially on Cross’s view that […]
Many of the ritual and community practices of the Qumran covenanters, who lived near the Dead Sea and who produced what we call the Dead Sea Scrolls, have impressive parallels among New Testament Christians. Here are just a few: Acts describes the events of the first Pentecost after Jesus’ crucifixion. It then describes the […]
I remember it well. It was early October 1975. We were sitting on top of the tell having lunch. One of our guests, Afif Bahnassi, the director of the Department of Antiquities of Syria, had come to visit the British Archaeological Expedition to Tell Nebi Mend (ancient Qadesh), where Pharaoh Ramesses II had […]
In the August 1992 BR we published the first part of a three-part interview with the world-renowned scholar Frank Moore Cross (see Frank Moore Cross—An Interview, BR 08:04). The interview, conducted in Cross’s home in Lexington, Massachusetts, occurred on the occasion of his retirement as Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at […]
True or not, Anita Hill told the story of her alleged sexual harassment by the now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to a nationwide television audience of millions, fascinated by the drama of sex and power. But Susanna was never given the opportunity to tell how she had been sexually harassed by two scurrilous old […]
I began the interview in his Lexington, Massachusetts home by asking Professor Cross if he recognized the following quotation: “The whole of the ancient Near East has been his bailiwick—its geography and archaeology, its languages and literature, its history and religion. I suspect that he is the last…generalist with the specialist’s precision in designated […]
The Book of Esther is the only book of the Hebrew Bible that describes life in the Jewish Diaspora, or dispersion. Although the book is relatively little known among Christians, it is known by Jews because it is the basis of the joyous Jewish holiday called Purim, which celebrates the reprieve of the […]
The texts from Qumran lead us to a new understanding of the history of Judaism in the Second Temple period. Initial research on the scrolls naturally concentrated on the Dead Sea Scroll sect. But the full corpus will teach us a tremendous amount about other Jewish groups as well, as I argued in an […]
Hershel Shanks: I have heard you speak of Israelite origins but I have not seen in print your belief that the Israelites came out of Egypt and traveled to Canaan via Saudi Arabia. Is that correct?
The Copper Scroll (3Q15 or 3QTreasure) is an anomaly in the inventory of scrolls from Qumran. It does not fit readily into any of the categories customarily included when the scrolls are discussed. It is not biblical, it is not literary and it does not contain sectarian doctrine. It is written in a […]
Twice in recent issues of Bible Review, in otherwise excellent articles, Harvey Minkoff has asserted that “Ancient [Hebrew] manuscripts generally did not leave space between words.”a Writing without word divisions is called scriptio continua, or continuous writing. Ancient Greek was commonly written like that. Stone monuments from Athens and other Greek cities, Greek papyri […]
The preceding article discusses historical events that may or may not be reflected in the fascinating book of Esther. The article that follows explores ways that traditional Jewish exegetes seek deeper and sometimes mystical meaning in the text. —Ed.
A mix of folktale and prayer, biblical themes and classical motifs, Tobit depicts a fantastic tale of Diaspora life. Containing an angel in disguise, a murderous demon, a magical fish and a young man on a journey to maturity, the Book of Tobit is not told simply to entertain. Rather, it provides carefully crafted […]
To the uninitiated, the Bible is the Bible. To get one, you go to a bookstore and ask for a Bible. Readers of BR know better. The English-speaking student of the Bible is blessed with dozens of translations in hundreds of editions. What distinguishes them one from another?
The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews contains a justly famous panegyric to faith (see the sidebar to this article). In a series of sentences that begins “By faith,” the letter recites the accomplishments of ancient heroes—Abel, Enoch, Noah; then Abraham—and Sarah. What did Sarah accomplish by faith? The Greek contains a difficult term. Taken […]
“Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised on the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” So said God to Abraham, establishing the covenant of circumcision, a covenant “between me and you and your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:10, 14). For centuries, Jewish boys […]
Mention the name Mary Magdalene and most people will free-associate the word “whore,” albeit the repentant whore whose love for Jesus led him to forgive her. In Jesus Christ—Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Timothy Rice’s 1970s musical, she is depicted as a prostitute platonically in love with Jesus, not having a sexual affair with […]
The book of Jubilees belongs to a category of literature that contemporary scholars designate by the pleasantly vague tag “the Rewritten Bible.”1 The author of the book, like a number of other ancient Jewish writers, found it convenient to convey his message through an annotated presentation of the older text. In this way he […]
Feminism—and the movement arising from it—may be the most important revolutionary development in human history. It seeks nothing less than the true equality of women. Some have compared the feminist movement to the Copernican revolution: Like the Copernican revolution, the feminist movement has already changed the way we view and understand the world.1 We […]
The warm welcoming words, gentle pastoral setting, simple lyricism, strong sense of devotion and profound truth of divine love and care have made Psalm 23 one of the best-known and best-loved poems in the world. It is so famous that it has influenced the development of the English language. Transcending time, phrases from […]
Early in the 1970s, I listened to animated discussions about feminism. I did not have to be converted. At the same time, I also understood that Scripture nourished my life, that the Bible I grew up with in Sunday school continued to feed me. To be sure, I had learned in college and […]
Aquila and his wife Priscilla are the most prominent couple involved in the first-century expansion of Christianity. They were Paul’s hosts at Corinth (Acts 18:2–3). Subsequently they directed house-churches at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:19) and Rome (Romans 16:3–5). Their contacts with Paul and their presence in three of the most important centers of early […]