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A mummy rises from the dead and walks out of his tomb. The miracle worker who brought him back to life stands by, wand in hand, while a gathered crowd looks on in disbelief. No, this isn’t a scene from a recent horror film. Rather, it’s one of the most popular early Christian images: Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life appears on more than a hundred ancient sarcophagi and catacomb walls. What fueled the story’s popularity? In “The Raising of Lazarus,” Robin M. Jensen suggests that this eerie tale from John’s Gospel provides a link between Jesus’ miracles and his resurrection. For early Christians, Jensen notes, the Lazarus story contained a powerful promise of eternal life.

Jensen is assistant professor of church history at Andover Newton Theological School, in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Her article “The Binding or Sacrifice of Isaac—How Jews and Christians See Differently,” BR 09:05 appeared in the October 1993 BR, and her “What Are Pagan River Gods Doing in Scenes of Jesus’ Baptism?” BR 09:01 appeared in our February 1993 issue.

Bad things happen to good people. For many readers, that is the essence of Job, who seems a powerful symbol of innocent suffering. Tested by the Satan, the pious, wealthy Job loses his children and possessions, and is afflicted with skin ulcers. Enduring his ills well enough to please God, Job then regains his fortunes and fathers a new family—which suggests that God rewards virtue with prosperity. Or does it?

In “Deconstructing the Book of Job,” David J.A. Clines finds another meaning: The Book of Job seeks to justify the wealth and status of affluent, leisured men, who wrote and read the book to relieve any guilt they may have felt over their privileged station in society.

Clines is professor of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield, England. He has published numerous articles and books on the Hebrew Bible and critical theory, among them a series of commentaries on Job (World Books), What Does Eve Do to Help? and Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament (JSOT, 1990) and the two-volume Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, (Sheffield Academic Press).

Does the Garden of Eden story in Genesis tell us how primitive peoples actually lived? Well, maybe. In “How Did Adam and Eve Make a Living?,” Frederic L. Pryor and Eleanor Ferris Beach draw on anthropological research and on the economics of primitive societies to demonstrate that the description of Adam and Eve’s transition from gatherers—in Eden—to farmers/shepherds—after the expulsion from Paradise—closely resembles the evolution of early humans.

A professor of economics at Swarthmore College, Pryor specializes in the comparative study of economic systems. He has published articles on the invention of agriculture and is the author of The Origins of the Economy (Academic Press, 1977), which examines economic systems in tribal and peasant societies.

Beach is associate professor of biblical and women’s studies at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota. She has written on Near Eastern archaeology and iconography, and is cataloguing Persian-period figurines excavated at Tell Halif, Israel, for the Lahav Research Project.

Torment like a scorpions’ sting” (Revelation 9:5) was as great a menace in ancient times as it is today. The dangerous creature appears 15 times in the Bible. But, according to the Talmud, the scorpion can also be curative. In “Scorpion Ash Saves Woman’s Eyesight,” Pinchas Amitai reviews the biblical uses of scorpions as metaphor and describes how a Talmudic “prescription” recently cured a blind woman. A retired Hebrew University professor, Amitai is the author of 11 books, including Scorpions! (Massada Press, 1980 [in Hebrew]).

A Note on Style

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era), used by some of our authors and often used in scholarly literature, are the alternative designations corresponding to B.C. and A.D.