Hebrew Bible Interpretation

Professor Julia M. O’Brien presents several engaging lectures about the many images of God found explicitly and implicitly in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Many are familiar, such as God as a father or king. Others are perhaps more surprising: Yahweh is “a garland of glory, and a diadem of beauty” (Isaiah 28:5–6) […]

Many metaphors in the Bible regarding God’s outstretched arms, eyes and heart have been noted by readers of scripture, but less attention has been given to references to God’s lower body. Coogan examines Biblical descriptions of God’s feet as He marches ahead of His people, treads on His domain, and rests His feet on a […]

Many people have now heard of the Documentary Hypothesis, as well as the “name of God” issue, which was the first key clue to the hypothesis. In two Biblical texts, God’s name is not revealed until the time of Moses. But in another Biblical text, God’s name is known all the way back to Eve. […]

This presentation examines the origins of the biblical flood story, the character of Noah, and the legends of the Nephilim and giants passed down through Jewish literary tradition. The presentation compares these to Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 film Noah, highlighting points of congruence and departure in the film adaptation. This was part of The Genesis of […]

Many of the stories from ancient literature are labeled “folk tales,” and are presumed to have no basis in reality—the Biblical texts are no exception. When we read the Biblical narratives and stories in other ancient texts, is it enough to label them “folk tales” or should we investigate the possibility that they are factual […]

The Exodus is a focus of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible—it recalls how Israel came into being as a people and nation. This presentation argues that this is the function of the Exodus story from the beginning. As the historical and archaeological evidence indicate, the story does not refer to actual events. Rather it […]

A vexing irony inhabits the Book of Deuteronomy. On the one hand, the book makes exclusive worship at a single site chosen by Yahweh the defining criterion of community faithfulness. On the other hand, the book fails to tell the reader where that sanctuary actually is. Over the generations, the quest to resolve this conundrum […]

Professor Flint takes you on a journey from Jerusalem to the wilderness of Judea—and into the caves of Qumran, where many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds. He recounts the story of their discovery, reviews various Scroll manuscripts and shares an interesting analysis comparing the Old Testament books favored […]

This introductory session will consider stories that take place at “set scenes.” In this case we’ll examine stories that are set against the backdrop of a well, such as Abraham’s servant and Rebekah (Genesis 24), Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29), Moses and Jethro’s daughters (Exodus 2), and Saul and the maidens of Zuph (1 Samuel […]

In our culture we sacrifice for children, but three narratives in the Hebrew Bible describe the sacrifice of children: Abraham of Isaac (Genesis 22), Jephthah of his daughter (Judges 11), and Mesha, the king of Moab, of his son (2 Kings 3). We will examine the art of the first two stories—the second is a […]

This lecture will examine the Exodus narrative (Exod 1–2, 13–14) as a historical report and examine to what extent historical and archaeological data support its historicity. We will explore offhanded references in the text may seem irrelevant to the narrative but that can be of major importance to its interpretation.

Nowhere in the Bible is there an explicit explanation of why the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt (Exodus 1–2). This lecture, based on ideas developed by Yair Zakovitch, will suggest that implicit reasons are provided in Genesis.

Psalms and prayer are usually thought of in vertical terms: people calling to God and above, with the hope that God hears and heeds them. But prayer was also, in Biblical times, fundamentally a community ritual. This talk will thus examine how psalms from the Second Temple served to create communities and sub-communities. It will […]

Why does Israel’s greatest king and future messiah have a foreign ancestress? Does the Book of Ruth have anything to do with the question of foreign wives in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, or is the text really from the time of the Judges? How does the literary structure of the Book of Ruth […]

The Eden story (Genesis 2–3) is interpreted in many ways. In these two lectures, we first examine when and how the standard interpretation came into existence and why it is so important. We will then examine the light that new research has on the story and consider how it might affect the story’s interpretation, as […]

The Eden story (Genesis 2–3) is interpreted in many ways. In these two lectures, we first examine when and how the standard interpretation came into existence and why it is so important. We will then examine the light that new research has on the story and consider how it might affect the story’s interpretation, as […]

When we watch a movie or read a story in a particular genre, we know what to expect—good will triumph over evil, the cowboy will ride off into the sunset or the guy will get the girl—and we will be disappointed if that expectation is not met. The Biblical audience had the same clichés they […]

In this lecture, Zevit will begin to respond to issues raised by the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), such as: How many commandments are there? What do they mean when considered from a legal vantage-point? What reasons are provided for obeying them and why? This was part of the Telling Biblical Tales DVD.

Nowhere in the Bible is there an explicit explanation of why the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt (Exodus 1–2). This lecture will suggest that implicit reasons are provided in the Book of Genesis. This was part of the Telling Biblical Tales DVD.

In our culture we sacrifice for children, but three narratives in the Hebrew Bible describe the sacrifice of children: Abraham of Isaac (Genesis 22), Jephthah of his daughter (Judges 11), and Mesha, the king of Moab, of his son (2 Kings 3). Do these three stories indicate that child sacrifice was more common than currently […]

How do Theologians and modern Biblical scholars grapple with new insights from science (such as images from the Hubble Telescope)? Was the creation story meant to be a literal account, or the author’s attempt to describe how the world he saw—when he looked out his door or up at the sky—came to be? This was […]

In this opening lecture will consider not only How the Bible came to be, but also the different ideas people hold about the Bible, what constitutes an important book and how these lists (the canon) came to be. This was part of the Telling Biblical Tales DVD.

The story of Ruth (Ruth 1–4) is often interpreted as being about loyalty, kindness and grace. Several questions are left unexplained including why nobody offered to help Ruth or Naomi, why they did not return to the farmstead that they obviously owned, and why the land became a point of contention in the final chapter […]

Who is God? This question permeates all Biblical interpretation and is not made clear by parsing the divine name. Yahweh, “I am who I am,” is a conflicted character as is Jesus in the Second Testament. Trible sums up the complexities in interpreting Biblical divine characters with her hermeneutics of God. This was part of […]

Jonah is a book that defies categorization. Scholars have debated its genre and purpose for centuries. Trible explores the various interpretive options and the way in which the three Abrahamic religions have adopted and utilized the text of Jonah.

Trible explores the highly structured text of Genesis 1 and the priestly creation narrative. Implications are drawn regarding the character of God and meaning behind the narrative. The talk ends with an exploration of the relationship between humans and ecology. This was part of the Chasing Canonical Characters DVD.

Because there was no concept of an afterlife in early Israelite religion, there was no concept of a heaven or hell. But following the exile and return from Babylon and the coming of the Greeks, Jewish literature suddenly began to contain references to heaven and hell. In this illuminating lecture, BAR former Editor Robert R. […]

The Binding of Isaac, or Akedah, is one of the most well-known and perplexing narratives in the Old Testament. This lecture will examine some of the most common questions concerning this story, such as “Why did Abraham go allow with God without question or comment?” and “Why did Isaac not fight Abraham but instead lay […]

Regular Biblical Archaeology Review contributor Mary Joan Winn Leith provides a fresh perspective on the language and imagery of the Book of Exodus by exploring ancient Egyptian iconography of power and authority. Through their acute awareness of Egyptian propaganda and art, the biblical writers and storytellers successfully inverted the very same imagery to illustrate Pharaoh’s ineptitude when […]

Ancient Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, rather than being a single, momentous event that can be confirmed through archaeology, should be viewed as a deep-seated cultural memory that allowed disparate groups of highland villagers and escaped Canaanite slaves to coalesce into a single people. How this story arose and why the early Israelites adopted this memory […]