Latest Essays

The Hebrew book of Esther was translated into Greek and expanded in the 1st century B.C.E. It was then revised and contracted in two further textual forms. A fourth version preserved only in a late first-millennium Old Georgian translation combines all three Greek texts, using a conservative redaction approach, similar to what scholars posit happened with the Pentateuch.

Pettiness and personal agendas characterize Persian law, called dat in the book of Esther. The Talmud, on the other hand, presents the Torah as ʾeshdat, given with “white fire etched on black fire,” and imagines the Jews in Shushan reaccepting the Torah after being saved from Haman’s dat to destroy them.

During the Babylonian exile (6^th c. B.C.E.), Ezekiel prophesies the building of a future temple in Israel that is unlike the Tabernacle or First Temple, but that incorporates elements familiar from Babylonian temples, including the Ezida temple of Borsippa.

The book of Esther never mentions a fast on the 13^th of Adar; in fact, in the late Second Temple period, it was a day of celebration. Talmudic sources never mention the fast either. How did it originate?

An archaeological find of biblical proportions is calling into question key aspects of U.S. history.

For most Second Temple scribes, the Torah’s sanctity did not translate into a requirement to avoid the imprecisions common in all books. The Paleo-Hebrew and Proto-MT scribes were an exception, although the latter were committed to precise copying of all biblical scrolls. Only with the emergence of scrolls containing all five books (2^nd cent. C.E.) did Torah scrolls take on their special level of sanctification.

Whom does this law address?

I went from dismissing biblical criticism to embracing its truth, and having to rebuild my religious identity. Five aspects of my religious life have been profoundly enhanced.

The Decalogue was not originally part of the Sinai theophany but was added later, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Its origins lie in wisdom literature.

The Bible describes YHWH as glowing (kabod), and YHWH’s heat as melting mountains, imagery connected with volcano gods, the divine patrons of metalworkers such as the Kenites, who lived in the Negev region. Indeed, the description of Israel’s encounter with YHWH at Sinai portrays a volcanic eruption, with smoke “as if from a furnace” (Exodus 19:18).

“Who controls the past controls the future.” – George Orwell, 1984

Sisera asks for water, Yael gives him milk (Judges 4:19), and then she kills him. Is Yael a foreign “killer woman” or an “aid of YHWH” and his people?

The description of Deborah as a judge and prophetess is brief, but through her speeches and actions, and in contrast with other characters, she emerges as a prophet modeled after Moses.

The Dead Sea Scrolls elaborate on Miriam’s leadership role and personal history.

The sacrifice of firstling animals and redemption of firstborn sons were originally not related to the exodus story. When they were linked to the tenth plague, the narrative was adjusted to have YHWH also slaughter the Egyptian firstling animals.

What really motivated the editors of Select Parts of the Holy Bible: For the Use of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands (1807), better known as “The Slave Bible”?

Israel’s cries for help in Egypt reach all the way to God, upon “the Mountain of God” in Midian. In response, God sends Moses, a local shepherd, to free them.

Today, Rachel’s tomb lies near Bethlehem, in the territory of Judah, son of Leah. However, reading the description of her burial in Genesis 35:19 and 48:7 together with the references to Rachel’s tomb in the story of Saul’s anointing (1 Samuel 10:2) and Jeremiah's prophecy of consolation (Jeremiah 31:14) directs us further north, to the territory of her son Benjamin.

Shechem, a local prince, falls in love with Jacob’s daughter Dinah, and her brothers approve of the marriage as long as he is willing to be circumcised. Given Deuteronomy’s prohibition against intermarriage, later scribes revised the story into a slaughter of the natives. This was too harsh for later scribes, who recast the story as brothers avenging their sister’s rape.

In 164 B.C.E., Judah Maccabee defeats the Seleucid army and purifies the Temple. The fighting continues, and Judah is killed in 160 B.C.E. Only in 142 B.C.E. do the Seleucids finally make peace with Simon, Judah’s last surviving brother, who founds the Hasmonean dynasty of high priests that rule Judea for a century. Who established Chanukah as a holiday?

The Great Revolt against Rome was rooted in the Hasmonean ideology of Judean independence, yet Josephus, who warned against fighting Rome, still celebrated the Hasmonean military triumph against the Greeks.

Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, is the ancestor of Edom, Israel’s southern neighbor. The Edomites worshiped the god Qos/Qaus, who emerged around the same time and place as YHWH in the Late Bronze Age, and who was very popular in Persian Period Yehud. And yet, unlike other foreign gods, the Bible never mentions the god Qos. Why?