First Glance
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The newly published book The Bible Code (Simon & Schuster) claims to have uncovered secret messages in the Bible, including a prediction of the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and even more dire predictions for the entire world. Book buyers are gobbling up copies like the proverbial hotcakes. At $25 per copy, how much do they have to lose? Answer: $25. The book’s slipshod math and numerous textual errors are exposed by Harvard University mathematician Shlomo Sternberg and BR book review editor and columnist Ronald Hendel in “The Bible Code: Cracked and Crumbling.”
Until recently scholars gave short shrift to a whole section of the Hebrew Bible. Classified as Wisdom literature, this section includes the books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Though it concerns the search for the meaning of life, no light topic, it was dismissed because it was considered “secular,” “nontheological” and tangential to the Hebrew Bible’s major theme of Israel’s salvation. Katharine J. Dell corrects these assumptions in “Wisdom Literature Makes a Comeback: Pursuing the Good Life,” showing, in the process, what these books can offer us today.
A fellow and tutor at St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge University, Dell teaches undergraduate courses in theology and religious studies. She is working on a book on the context and theology of early Wisdom literature.
For years, scholars knew the Russian National Library housed a momentous collection of biblical manuscripts, including the oldest complete Hebrew Bible. But during the Cold War, access to the library was severely limited. Now Russia’s first public library has opened its doors to researchers and photographers who are preparing a facsimile edition of one of the library’s greatest treasures. In “The Leningrad Codex: Rediscovering the Oldest Complete Hebrew Bible,” James A. Sanders and Astrid Beck explore the riches of tradition embedded in this famous medieval manuscript.
President of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, in Claremont, California, Sanders is also a professor at the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School. His publications include From Sacred Story to Sacred Text (Fortress, 1987).
Managing Editor of The Leningrad Codex: The Facsimile Edition, Beck is a lecturer and program associate in the University of Michigan’s Program on Studies in Religion.
Michelangelo painted it. So did Leonardo and Caravaggio. In fact, Paul’s dramatic conversion to Christianity inspired countless Renaissance masters, who enhanced the drama by depicting Paul tumbling off a rearing horse as lightning strikes and a heavenly voice asks, “Why did you persecute me?” But, asks Charles T. Dougherty, “Did Paul Fall Off a Horse?” Although the Bible mentions no horse, Dougherty finds that Catholics, reared in the presence of religious art, consistently answer “yes” to this question, while Protestants insist Paul was traveling on foot.
A specialist in 19th-century British literature, Dougherty is professor emeritus of English at the University of Missouri, in St. Louis.
With this issue we bid farewell to Jacob Milgrom as a BR columnist (see “The Blood Taboo”). One of our original quartet of columnists, Milgrom leaves us to pursue numerous other writing projects. We wish him well and thank him for half a decade’s worth of thought-provoking pieces. Our new columnists, Anthony Saldarini (who debuted two issues ago) and Ronald Hendel (see “Knocking on Heaven’s Gate), are well known to this magazine as book review editors, positions they will continue to hold.
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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.
The newly published book The Bible Code (Simon & Schuster) claims to have uncovered secret messages in the Bible, including a prediction of the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and even more dire predictions for the entire world. Book buyers are gobbling up copies like the proverbial hotcakes. At $25 per copy, how much do they have to lose? Answer: $25. The book’s slipshod math and numerous textual errors are exposed by Harvard University mathematician Shlomo Sternberg and BR book review editor and columnist Ronald Hendel in “The Bible Code: Cracked and Crumbling.” Until recently scholars gave […]
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