Features

Part III: How the Alphabet Democratized Civilization

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 […]

Jubilees
How it rewrote the Bible By James C. VanderKam

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 […]

Prisca and Aquila
Traveling tentmakers and church builders By Jerome Murphy-O’Connor

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 […]

Departments

The First Christmas
I am a Christian who does not believe in the virgin birth, nor in the star of Bethlehem, nor in the journey of the wisemen. By Marcus J. Borg
Food and Faith: The Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Diet Laws
The Bible has worked out a system of restrictions whereby humans may satiate their lust for animal flesh and not be dehumanized. These laws teach reverence for life. By Jacob Milgrom
Hebrew for Bible Readers
Verb forms for shades of meaning, part III By Keith N. Schoville
Greek for Bible Readers
Greek verbs: Tenses and aspect By David Alan Black