Features

Who or What Was Yahweh’s Asherah?
Startling new inscriptions from two different sites reopen the debate about the meaning of asherah By André Lemaire

New inscriptions from two different sites have reopened the debate about the meaning of asherah, a term often used in the Bible. Is it—or she—a goddess? Is it a holy place? Or perhaps a sacred tree? Or a pole? Or possibly a grove of trees? All these suggestions have been proposed at one time […]

Is the Cultic Installation at Dan Really an Olive Press?
A discussion that started in BAR escalates in the scholarly world By Suzanne F. Singer

In an article in the September/October 1981 issue of BAR (“The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan,” BAR 07:05), John Laughlin identified an unusual installation at Tel Dan, in northern Israel, as an Israelite cult installation associated with a water libation ceremony. In explaining the installation as having been used in a religious water libation […]

Is the Cultic Installation at Dan Really an Olive Press?
A discussion that started in BAR escalates in the scholarly world By Suzanne F. Singer

In an article in the September/October 1981 issue of BAR (“The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan,” BAR 07:05), John Laughlin identified an unusual installation at Tel Dan, in northern Israel, as an Israelite cult installation associated with a water libation ceremony. In explaining the installation as having been used in a religious water libation […]

What a Concordance Can Do for You
The Bible word by word By Lloyd R. Bailey

Did you ever find yourself wondering (perhaps during a late-night movie rerun on TV) where Ben Hur is mentioned in the Bible, or where King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria appears? Maybe you want to know how closely Martin Luther’s famous assertion that humans are acceptable in God’s sight “by faith alone” echoes the words of […]

The Verdict on Advertisements for Near Eastern Antiquities—Dubitante

Supreme Court Justices are paid to decide difficult cases. In 1951, however, Justice Felix Frankfurter heard a case he couldn’t decide.a His brethren voted to affirm the decision of the court below. But Justice Frankfurter couldn’t make up his mind. So he took the unusual—perhaps unique—step of filing an opinion neither affirming nor reversing, […]

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