Back in June, the tag team of Josh Bowen and Megan Lewis (i.e. Digital Hammurabi) interviewed Hebrew Bible scholar Joel Baden on the subject of the authorship of the Torah. For a long time, it was assumed that Moses stood behind the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy, but with the rise of critical scholarship this... Continue Reading →
Richard Elliot Friedman on the Exodus
In 2017, noted scholar of the Hebrew Bible Richard Elliot Friedman published a book with HarperCollins entitled The Exodus: How It Happened and Why It Matters. Using the tools of source criticism, Friedman posits that what really happened is not that there was no exodus from Egypt but rather that it involved a group that... Continue Reading →
Pete Enns Discusses Julius Wellhausen and the Documentary Hypothesis
Recently on The Bible for Normal People podcast, Pete Enns discussed the work of Julius Wellhausen, a nineteenth century scholar who helped formulate what is today known as the Documentary Hypothesis. For those unfamiliar with the Documentary Hypothesis (DH), it is the idea that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were not only not written by Moses,... Continue Reading →
John Barton on Biblical Criticism
For those who read frequently in the areas of biblical scholarship, the name John Barton is undoubtedly a familiar one. He has written prolifically over the course of his nearly half-century career, producing such volumes as The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster John Knox Press, 2007) and, more recently, A History of the Bible: The Story of the... Continue Reading →
Michael D. Coogan: The Content Differences Between the Two Creation Accounts
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (Oxford University Press, 2014), 40-41. There are...important differences in content [between the two creation accounts]. For example, the first account of creation opens with a watery chaos; in the second, the world is an arid landscape. In the first, animals are... Continue Reading →
It's back! The Weekly Roundup has returned from its hiatus since earlier this summer. Since I was responsible for the August 2019 Biblical Studies Carnival, I suspended work on the Roundup to prepare for that. But that has been submitted and so I'll resume the Roundup! Enjoy! New Testament scholar Michael Kok (The Gospel on... Continue Reading →
"I propose the final edition of Genesis is the result of a similar process by an editor of the Holiness school of pre-exilic Israel, who combined and organized these various materials into a continuous and meaningful whole." - Bill T. Arnold Over on her blog @thclosetatheist has posted her review of Lee Strobel's book The Case for... Continue Reading →
A Conversation with @MiraScriptura
Today over on the Mira Scriptura podcast is a conversation I had with @MiraScriptura covering a wide range of topics including my journey from Christianity to atheism, views on the Documentary and Supplementary Hypotheses, love for the Gospel of Mark, thoughts on Bernard Lamborelle's The Covenant, and much more. I also got the chance to play inquisitor... Continue Reading →
Michal D. Coogan: Dating the “Holiness Code” of Leviticus
Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, third edition (OUP, 2014), 153. Since the late nineteenth century, scholars have identified chapters 17-26 of Leviticus as a separate source, named the Holiness Code because of its repeated use of words having to do with holiness.... This source (often abbreviated... Continue Reading →
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