First Glance

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Politicians spend millions to bring their message to as many voters as possible. Their campaign trails zigzag across the country, with long stops in the big cities, while their snappy one-minute ads dominate the nation’s airwaves. Before leaders can make any change, they know they must first be heard. The same was true in biblical times. So why did Jesus establish his ministry in provincial Galilee rather than populous Jerusalem, the hub of political and religious power? Only a compelling commitment to something—or someone—in the north can explain “Why Jesus Went Back to Galilee,” argues Jerome Murphy-O’Connor.

A professor of New Testament and intertestamental literature at the Ecole Biblique et Archeolgique in Jerusalem, Murphy-O’Connor wrote the popular travel guide The Holy Land: An Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1992), now in its third edition. A member of BR’s editorial advisory board, Murphy-O’Connor has contributed several articles to this magazine, including “On the Road and on the Sea with St. Paul” (Summer 1985) and “What Really Happened at the Transfiguration?” (Fall 1987).

Who’s your favorite woman in the Bible? There’s a good chance you’ll find her—along with a critique of her role in the Bible, a review of ancient, medieval and modern sources that mention her, and a smattering of magnificent photos depicting her in art—between the oversize covers of the recent book Great Women of the Bible, by Dorothée Sölle, Joe Kirchberger and Herbert Haag. In “Giving Eve’s Daughters Their Due,” Jo Milgrom evaluates the authors’ treatment of their 25 favorite biblical women.

Formerly adjunct professor at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, Milgrom now resides in Jerusalem and teaches at the Hartman Institute, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Overseas School of Hebrew University. A sculptor and poet, she is the author of Handmade Midrash, Workshops in Visual Theology (JPS, 1992).

Perhaps you don’t think of Deuteronomy as a radical document, but to the ancient Israelites it was. Said to have been discovered as a scroll during a cleaning of the Temple in 622 B.C., Deuteronomy means “second telling,” and its recapitulation of the law contains significant differences in style and content from the first four books of the Pentateuch. Although attributed to Moses, the scroll forbade all sacrifice and worship outside of Jerusalem. Its language changed the way Israelites envisioned Yahweh—establishing, among other things, that the Temple is not the dwelling place of the Lord, but of the Lord’s name, and never referring to the Ark as God’s literal footstool.

Moshe Weinfeld describes “Deuteronomy’s Theological Revolution,” and shows how this last book of the Pentateuch transformed Israelite religion into a more abstract and democratic expression of worship.

Born in Poland, Weinfeld received his degrees from Hebrew University, where he has taught Hebrew Bible since 1973. He, too, serves on BR’s editorial advisory board, and his many publications include From Joshua to Josiah (Magnes, 1992), Deuteronomy 1–11 (Anchor Bible Series, 1991), Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Clarendon Press, 1972) and the article, “What Makes the Ten Commandments Different?” BR 07:02.

The most recent Annual Meeting of Bible scholars, held in Philadelphia this past November, made it clear that the question of the historical Jesus remains one of the most hotly debated subjects in our field. Though most BR readers cannot attend scholarly conferences, we will let you follow the to and fro of the arguments in our pages. In the coming year, BR will publish a series of cutting-edge articles by the leading names in the debate over the historical Jesus. Watch for them throughout this year.

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.

Politicians spend millions to bring their message to as many voters as possible. Their campaign trails zigzag across the country, with long stops in the big cities, while their snappy one-minute ads dominate the nation’s airwaves. Before leaders can make any change, they know they must first be heard. The same was true in biblical times. So why did Jesus establish his ministry in provincial Galilee rather than populous Jerusalem, the hub of political and religious power? Only a compelling commitment to something—or someone—in the north can explain “Why Jesus Went Back to Galilee,” argues Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. A professor […]