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 →
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 →
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 →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. Among the most memorable and iconic verses from the King James Bible is the one with which it begins: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Other translations follow suit, including the NIV, ESV, and NASB.[1] And like the... Continue Reading →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. Next in Ray Comfort’s Scientific Facts in the Bible, the apologist asserts that Job 38:19 (“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?” [NKJV]) is speaking of the speed of light: Man has only recently discovered that light (electromagnetic radiation) has a “way,”... Continue Reading →
Over at the website The Bible and Interpretation there is a piece by religious scholar Jay Williams on "Eden, the Tree of Life, and the Wisdom of the Serpent." It is at once both a very interesting and very bizarre piece. Williams points out not long after the piece begins that the serpent isn't Satan as Christians would like... Continue Reading →
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 →
Note: This will be the final Weekly Roundup of 2019. Claude Mariottini recently posted a piece explaining why the common Christian interpretation of Melchizedek as a Christophany doesn't add up and serves to undermine the claims made in the book of Hebrews that Jesus was a priest "according to the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:11).... Continue Reading →
"So, reader be warned. Cultivating sensitivity to Christian anti-Judaism involves re-learning or at least re-thinking a body of material that “everybody knows.” Un-learning and re-learning, in my experience, is always challenging, often annoying, sometimes infuriating." - Heather Thiessen. @AlchemistNon has constructed a moral argument against Calvinism. For those unfamiliar with the theological system, Calvinism is... Continue Reading →
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