Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? Photo: Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library/Courtesy of IAP Fine Art.

Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute?

Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute who repented or simply an influential female follower of Jesus? Mary from Magdala has popularly been saddled with an unfavorable reputation, but how did this notion come about? In From Saint to Sinner, Birger A. Pearson examines how Mary Magdalene’s notoriety emerged in the early Christian tradition. Pearson writes that later interpreters of the Gospels attempted to diminish her “by identifying her with other women mentioned in the Gospels, most notably the unnamed sinful woman who anoints Jesus’ feet with ointment and whose sins he forgives (Luke 7:36–50) and the unnamed woman taken in adultery (John 7:53–8:11).”

Read From Saint to Sinner by Birger A. Pearson as it originally appeared in Bible Review.

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Who was Jezebel? Image: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK/Bridgeman Art Library.

Who Was Jezebel? How Bad Was She?

Who was Jezebel? For over 2,000 years, Jezebel, Israel’s most accursed queen, has been condemned as a murderer, a temptress and an enemy of God. Who was Jezebel, really? Was she really that bad? In How Bad Was Jezebel? Janet Howe Gaines rereads the Biblical narrative from the vantage point of the Phoenician wife of King Ahab. As Gaines writes, “To attain a more positive assessment of Jezebel’s troubled reign and a deeper understanding of her role, we must evaluate the motives of the Biblical authors who condemn the queen.”

Read Janet Howe Gaines’s article How Bad Was Jezebel? as it originally appeared in Bible Review.

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Rahab the Harlot or just the inkeeper? Image: CCI/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.

Rahab the Harlot?

As described in the Book of Joshua, Rahab (a heroine nonetheless known as “Rahab the Harlot”) assisted two Israelite spies in escaping down the city wall of Jericho. Was Rahab a Biblical prostitute? While the Biblical text identifies her as a zônāh, a prostitute (Joshua 2:1), Josephus reports that she kept an inn. Anthony J. Frendo critically examines the textual evidence.

Read about Anthony J. Frendo’s conclusions on Rahab the Harlot.

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Who is Lilith? Courtesy of Richard Callner, Latham, NY.

Who Is Lilith?

Fertile mother, wilderness demon, sly seductress—the resilient character Lilith has been recast in many roles. Who is Lilith? As Janet Howe Gaines writes, “In most manifestations of her myth, Lilith represents chaos, seduction and ungodliness. Yet, in her every guise, Lilith has cast a spell on humankind.” Follow Lilith’s journey from Babylonian mythology, through the Bible, to medieval lore and modern literature in Lilith by Janet Howe Gaines.

Read Lilith by Janet Howe Gaines as the article originally appeared in Bible Review.

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Tabitha in the Bible

Deborah in the Bible

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What Does the Bible Say About Infertility?

5 Ways Women Participated in the Early Church

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The History Channel’s series Bible Secrets Revealed tackles the mysteries of the Bible.

Consulting producer Dr. Robert Cargill, who is an archaeologist and assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa, has responded to Bible Secrets Revealed viewers’ questions throughout the series.

Episode 1, “Lost in Translation,” aired on November 13, 2013.

• Learn more about the show and view a list of other episode summaries.

Summary of Episode 1 by Dr. Robert Cargill

Dr. Robert Cargill, professor and consulting producer

At its core, History’s series Bible Secrets Revealed could easily be titled “How Scholars Read the Bible.” This is because the secrets revealed in the series are not secrets to most Bible scholars, professional archaeologists working in Israel and the West Bank, or to those students enrolled in credible graduate seminary programs. The show examines issues pertaining to the Bible that might not be as well known to those who have not attended a seminary or majored in religious studies at a university.

“Lost in Translation” Act 1: The Oldest Biblical Text

Act 1 of the first installment in the series, “Lost in Translation,” begins at Qumran, the site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The discovery of the scrolls fundamentally transformed the way in which we read the Bible because it offered us copies of the Hebrew Bible (aka Christian Old Testament) that were 1,000 years older than the previously oldest copies of the Bible. Why is this important? Because the text of the Biblical books discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls (which represent every canonical book in the Hebrew Bible with the exception of Esther) do not always match the text of the “official” Hebrew Bible we have today. In fact, different copies of the same Biblical books from the Dead Sea Scrolls don’t often match, demonstrating that at the time of Jesus, the Hebrew Biblical texts existed in different versions and traditions that were still being sorted out.

What this means is that it is very difficult to argue that the Bible is the verbatim “Word of God,” especially when all of the ancient manuscripts contain different words. So, people of faith throughout the years have relied on any number of known and unknown scholars and authorities to judge and translate the texts and decide which textual variants would be preserved and which would be discarded. And it is this very messy, often contentious process—evident simply by laying the ancient manuscripts of both Old and New Testament side-by-side and comparing them—that gives us the Bible we have today. But the overarching point should not be missed: for over two millennia, whether they know it or not, people of faith have relied upon scholars to translate and make judgments upon Biblical texts and to interpret them so that those who do not read ancient languages can get an idea of what the ancient scriptures say.

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Act 1 reveals what scholars have known for centuries: Despite claims that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible were actually composed by several authors and a number of literary sources. And with regard to the New Testament, the Gospels are all anonymous, with the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John not being attributed to their respective Gospels until the 2nd century C.E. And so not only do we not always know who wrote the Bible, but many of the meanings of the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic words often get lost in translation.

One specific example offered in Act 1 is the translation of the simple Hebrew word םדא, “man.” Of course, this word can be transliterated as “Adam,” but the word can also mean “humankind.” The translator must make a judgment regarding when to translate םדא as “Adam,” as “man” and as “humankind.”

Read Bible Secrets Revealed consulting producer Robert Cargill’s responses to viewers’ insightful questions by clicking here.

Another translational issue arises in the story of Goliath. Put simply, there appear to be multiple traditions of the story of the death of Goliath, and some of these were included in the Bible. In 1 Sam. 17:50, the text reads:

“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking down the Philistine and killing him; there was no sword in David’s hand.” (NRSV; emphasis by author)

The text makes very clear that Goliath was killed by David’s sling, and that no sword was used in Goliath’s death. However, in the very next verse, we find that it reads:

“Then David ran and stood over the Philistine; he grasped his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it.” (Emphasis by author)

In 1 Sam. 17:51, we read that David killed Goliath with Goliath’s own sword—an ironic literary twist that rivals the story of the boy underdog killing the great warrior with a simple sling. Thus, those that collected the ancient stories of David and Goliath and committed them to writing appear to have simply joined the two stories into one. Thus, Goliath is reported as having been “killed” in both verse 50 and 51. (The Hebrew literally says “and he killed him” in both verses, except that verse 50 says it is the result of the sling, while verse 51 says it was the result of the Goliath’s own sword.)

But this is only one of the problems with the story of the death of Goliath. There is another question about who actually killed Goliath, which was solved (at least in the King James Version) with some clever interpretive liberty taken by the translators.

In 1 Sam. 17, David is reported as having killed Goliath. But in 2 Sam. 21:19, it is one of David’s men, Elhanan, who is reported as having killed Goliath:

“Then there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” (Emphasis by author)

So in the Bible itself, there is a question about who actually killed the giant Goliath. The authors of the Books of Chronicles (which was written long after the Books of Samuel and Kings) attempt to clean this problem up as best they can. Remember that the Biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles rewrite the Biblical books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. They retell the same stories, but often with slight differences—differences that are usually designed to explain away potential problems in the books of Samuel and Kings (like who actually killed Goliath).

So, when 1 Chron. 20:5 retells the story of Elhanan, it reads like this:

“Again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” (Emphasis by author)

Notice that the book of 1 Chronicles adds “Lahmi, the brother of” to the account, thereby resolving the issue of who actually killed Goliath:

David killed Goliath, and Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother, Lahmi. But we must remember that this is merely how the Book of 1 Chronicles retells the story in order to fix the problem. The death of Goliath’s brother is not how it originally appears in 2 Sam. 21:19. But (!), that didn’t stop the translators of the King James Version from using a sneaky little scribal trick to resolve the problem back in 2 Sam. 21:19. If we read the KJV’s translation of 2 Sam. 21:19, we read:

“And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” (Emphasis by author)

Do you see what the KJV did there? The KJV translators supplied the words “the brother of” when the words for “brother of” absolutely do not appear in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew 2 Sam. 21:19 reads:

ויך אלחנן בן-יערי ארגים בית הלחמי את גלית הגתי ועץ חניתו כמנור ארגים
“Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” (Emphasis by author)

The underlined Hebrew text above states that it was, in fact, Goliath who was killed by Elhanan, and not his brother. The words “brother of” (יחא) nowhere appear in the text. The KJV translators simply supplied the words “brother of” into the text. But why? They did it because they knew of the problem regarding who killed Goliath, and they knew that 1 Chron. 20:5 solved the problem by adding the words “the brother of” to the text. So, the KJV translators simply copied the word for “brother of” from 1 Chron. 20:5 back into 2 Sam. 21:19, even though the Hebrew text of 2 Sam. 21:19 nowhere possesses the word for “brother.” Thus, the KJV authors fix via translation a known problem in the text by supplying words into their translation that do not exist in the original text. They took words from one text (1 Chron. 20:5) and copied them from there into the translation of another text (2 Sam. 21:19).

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Act 1 ends with a return to the anonymous authors of the New Testament and introduces the concept of “Pseudepigrapha,” which are anonymously written books attributed to influential authors to increase their credibility among a community of believers. The act ends with the adoption of Christianity by the Romans.

“Lost in Translation” Act 2: New Testament Translations

Act 2 examines some issues with the text of the New Testament. For instance, the episode addresses the conflation of the two different birth stories of Jesus. While the Gospel of Luke has Jesus being born in a manger and visited by shepherds, the Gospel of Matthew depicts Jesus as being born at home and visited by Magi. But when we see nativity scenes in the mall, we see three shepherds and three wise men, along with a bunch of animals and a manger. It’s another example of a conflation of different stories.

Act 2 also addresses the notion of the virgin birth of Jesus. The story is rooted in a prophecy from Isaiah 7. At issue is the word for virgin, almah (עלמה), used in Isa. 7:14. In the Septuagint (or LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that became the normative version of the Hebrew Bible among Jews in the late Second Temple period), almah gets translated as parthenos (Greek: παρθένος), which means “young woman,” or “maiden,” or “virgin.” However, in other instances of the word almah in the LXX, the word gets translated as a synonym of “young woman,” like neanis (νεανις) in Exodus 2:8, or neoteti (νεοτητι) in Proverbs 30:19, both from the feminine of the root neos (νεος), or “young woman.”

Interestingly, in Genesis 24:43, almah gets translated as “whomever of the θυγατερες των ανθρωπων,” or “daughters of men.” (Note my explanation with Bart Ehrman of the Aramaic phrase bar enosh (בר אנש) as a simple way to say “man.” In Gen. 24:43, the Hebrew word almah gets translated again as “young woman” (“daughter of man”) in the LXX. So in Isaiah 7:14, the LXX uses the word parthenos (παρθένος), which is simply another synonym for “young woman” of marriageable age. However, since parthenos can also mean “virgin” in the sense of not having had sex, the New Testament translators interpreted the text in that fashion, understanding and implying a miracle.

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Thus, in Matthew and Luke, the authors used the verse from Isaiah 7 to describe Mary, who they believed was giving birth to Emmanuel, or “God with us.” Interestingly, there is some debate over (especially) Luke 1:35, where the Holy Spirit was said to be “coming upon” and “overshadowing” Mary. Some suggest that rather than seeing this as an example of “sexless” conception (i.e., the “virgin birth”), but rather divine conception, with the Holy Spirit representing the power of God, that has come upon Mary and caused her to become pregnant. The same root, episkiazo (ἐπισκιάζω), is used in Acts 5:15 regarding Peter’s shadow, which the text says possesses the power of God to heal. But as for the text of Isa. 7:14, the choice of the word parthenos allowed the New Testament writers to interpret the passage as a virginal conception (and not just the conception of a young, marriageable woman), and the result is the virgin birth.

Act 2 also addresses the mystery surrounding the claim in Mark 2:27–28 that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” The episode demonstrates that the Aramaic simply stated that “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In Aramaic, the phrase “son of man” is the common way one says “man” (or “a dude”). In any number of Aramaic documents that do not mention Christianity, Jesus or a Jewish Messiah, the Aramaic phrase bar enosh (בר אנש), or “son of man,” is simply used to represent “a person.” That is, there is nothing inherently Messianic about this very common Aramaic phrase. However, because Mark 2:27–28 uses the common phrase “son of man” in a simple aphorism encouraging readers to enjoy the Sabbath and not to let it dictate one’s activities, and because “Son of Man” also came to be Jesus’ self-designation of choice, the moral of the story—that humans have priority over the Sabbath as it is written, “man is lord of the Sabbath”—suddenly came to be interpreted as, “the Son of Man [i.e., Jesus] is Lord of the Sabbath,” and the verse came to be interpreted as Jesus doing away with Sabbath regulations.

The show also examines the transition from the literary format of a scroll to a codex, or book. It may have been a way to distinguish between Judaism and Christianity in later texts.

Act 2 ends by examining the ending of the Gospel of Mark and reveals how the Gospel of Mark originally ended at Mark 16:8 with the women followers of Jesus coming to the empty tomb and being afraid. Later redactors, likely unsatisfied with the sudden ending of Mark, composed a new ending that was more in line with the endings of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

“Lost in Translation” Act 3: The Bible in English

Act 3 open by examining John Wycliffe’s translation of the Latin Vulgate into English. Wycliffe was judged a heretic after his death and was subsequently exhumed from his grave and what was left of him was burned at the stake. The show suggests that the church didn’t like unapproved, vernacular translations of the Bible and punished those who did so.

The episode also examines Henry VIII and how the schism between the new Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church was made more credible, in part, by the commissioning of a new version of the Bible. William Tyndale is discussed as someone who made an unauthorized English version of the Bible in 1529 and was executed for doing so in 1536. And despite Tyndale’s execution for his English translation, Henry VIII would authorize his own English version of the Bible three years later in an effort to exert more control over his new church.

Another English language version of the Bible, the King James Version, was commissioned in 1604. This version has become the de facto English version of the Bible for many religious conservatives for centuries.

One interesting note during the KJV segment came during a discussion of the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 7–8, the so-called “Pericope Adulterae.” While the KJV version includes the story at John 7:53–8:11, scholars note that this story never appears in any of the earliest copies of the Gospel of John. It is not found in the two third-century C.E. papyri of John (P66 and P75), nor is it found in Codex Sinaiticus or Codex Vaticanus, both dating to the fourth century C.E. It is not until Codex Bezae, dating to the late fourth/early fifth century C.E. that we find this story in a copy of the Gospel of John. Thus, scholars conclude that it was included in the text because it was such a beautiful story and was consistent with the teachings of Jesus. Most modern Bibles use brackets or footnotes to note that this story was, in fact, not included in the earliest copies of the Gospel of John.

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“Lost in Translation” Act 4: The Consequences of Modern Bible Adaptations and Interpretations

Act 4 opens with the pervasive influence of the King James Bible on English idioms that derive from the KJV. The episode also notes the irony of people fleeing England for America, but taking with them the Bible of the Church of England. The show then goes on to highlight some Americans who made their own translations and redactions of the Bible, including Thomas Jefferson, who removed the miracles and turned Jesus into a moral philosopher, and Joseph Smith, who composed the Book of Mormon, which would give rise to the Church of Latter Day Saints, commonly called Mormonism.

Act 4 then looks at how the Bible was used to condone many American social practices, including slavery. The “Curse of Ham” in Genesis 9 was commonly cited to argue that “God’s will” cursed those races of darker skin, therefore making the enslavement of Africans in America somehow “God-ordained.” The show warns against attempts to pick and choose certain verses from the Bible to support modern day civil legislation.

“Lost in Translation” Act 5: Ancient Texts and New Horizons

Act 5 concludes the episode by noting the oral tradition and transmission of the stories that ultimately made up the Bible. Because the Bible is constantly being updated to new formats using new technologies, people are always curious about the original versions of these Biblical stories. The episode concludes with a return to the Dead Sea Scrolls, asking whether there are additional manuscripts that might shed more light on the earliest versions of the Biblical stories. The possibility of the discovery of more ancient copies of these Biblical documents underscores the importance of translation of the Biblical texts, as the discovery of new texts will not likely change the beliefs held by billions of people overnight.

• Next: Episode 2: “The Promised Land”

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 2: “The Promised Land”

Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 3: “The Forbidden Scriptures”

Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 4: “The Real Jesus”

The post Bible Secrets Revealed, Episode 1: “Lost in Translation” appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The Bible in the News

How the Popular Press Relates, Conflates and Updates Sacred Writ

By Leonard Greenspoon

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $7.99

 
For more than a dozen years, Leonard J. Greenspoon’s “The Bible in the News” column has been one of the most popular and enjoyed sections of the widely read magazines Bible Review and Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR). For his column, Greenspoon, who is the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, scours the world’s newspapers and popular media looking for interesting, entertaining and often surprising references to the Bible and its timeless collection of sayings, characters and fables. Greenspoon’s perceptive eye and insightful commentary are matched by a charming, tongue-in-cheek humor that always brings a sly smile to the reader’s face.

Developed exclusively for eReaders, this book brings together all of Greenspoon’s “The Bible in the News” articles and columns into a single collection, beginning with his August 2000 feature article “Extra! Extra! Philistines in the Newsroom!” until his recent column in the November/December 2012 issue of BAR. This entertaining array of columns, whose topics range from Adam and Eve in pop culture to North American highways and byways numbered 666 (the number of the beast according to Revelation 13:18), has been conveniently arranged into chapters focusing on biblical episodes and passages from both the Old and New Testaments. The book’s final chapter explores general biblical themes and topics that often appear in media reports, from exceptional Bible translations to champagne bottles named for lesser known biblical characters like Rehoboam and Melchizedek. These and many other fascinating stories about the Bible’s vibrant and continued presence in today’s media culture are found in this eBook, The Bible in the News.

Leonard J. Greenspoon is author of BAR’s popular “The Bible in the News” column, and holds the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University in Omaha. He is editor-in-chief of the Studies in Jewish Civilization series, which is publishing its 24th volume this fall. He also co-authored, with the late Harvey Minkoff, BAS’s free guide to modern Bible translations, The Holy Bible: A Buyer’s Guide.
 

Frank Moore Cross: Conversations with a Bible Scholar

Hershel Shanks, Frank Moore Cross

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $9.99

 
Celebrate the life of the late renowned Biblical and archaeological scholar Frank Moore Cross with a comprehensive but readable overview of his broad-ranging scholarship. This collection of five interviews with Cross by Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks brings Cross’s insightful and path-breaking scholarly contributions to a wide, general audience, from his ideas about the origins of Israelite religion to his prominent role in the discovery and study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also included are thought-provoking discussions of the origins of the alphabet and the significance of ancient Hebrew seals and inscriptions for understanding the Biblical past. Furthermore, this new electronic edition of Frank Moore Cross: Conversations with a Bible Scholar allows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.

Frank Moore Cross, at the young age of 36, was appointed to one of the oldest and most prestigious positions in academia, the Hancock Professorship of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard University, a chair he held for 35 years, until his retirement in 1992. His bibliography includes more than 200 scholarly publications. Even more important than their quantity is their often path-breaking quality, as is widely recognized in the profession. His books include Early Hebrew Orthography (with David Noel Freedman), The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies and Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. He served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as of the American Schools of Oriental Research. He received many awards and honors, including the Percia Schimmel Prize in Archaeology from the Israel Museum, the W.F. Albright Award in Biblical Studies from the Society of Biblical Literature, the Medal of Honor from the University of Madrid, as well as honorary degrees. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 91.
 

Aspects of Monotheism

How God is One

Donald B. Redford, John J. Collins, William G. Dever, P. Kyle McCarter Jr., Jack Meinhardt (editor), Hershel Shanks (editor)

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $4.99

 
Stemming from a popular symposium sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the Smithsonian Institution, Aspects of Monotheism: How God Is One—now available in this convenient eReader edition—presents an exciting, provocative and readily understandable discussion of the origins and evolution of monotheism within Judaism and Christianity. Four distinguished scholars from different fields of study—Donald Redford, William Dever, P. Kyle McCarter and John Collins—tackle broad ranging issues related to how the Israelite god came to be identified with the one universal God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. For example, were the ancient Israelites really the first to worship a single god, or did the Egyptians beat them to the punch? And were the ancient Israelites really monotheists, or was the idea of a single, universal God a late development in Israelite history? And what of Christianity? How are we to understand the divinity of Jesus, alongside his Father? Even more difficult, how are we to understand the Trinity? This book grapples with these intriguing questions and provides some often surprising answers. The new electronic edition of Aspects of Monotheism also allows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.

Donald B. Redford is the foremost authority on Akhenaten, often called the world’s first monotheist. Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and History at Pennsylvania State University, Redford has been the director of the Akhenaten Temple Project at the University of Pennsylvania since 1972, which led to his production of a film on the project’s findings. Redford’s publications include Egypt, Israel and Canaan in Ancient Times (Princeton Univ. Press, 1992) and Akhenaten: The Heretic King (Princeton Univ. Press, 1984). He is also editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001) and has written a libretto for an opera, Ra.

William G. Dever is a Near Eastern archaeologist specializing in the Bible. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1966 and went on to serve as director of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem from 1971 to 1975. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the University of Arizona, Tucson as professor of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology. Professor Dever retired from the University of Arizona in 2002 and currently divides his time between his home in Cyprus and Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, where he is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology.

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., is the William Foxwell Albright Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Near Eastern Studies Department at The Johns Hopkins University. A past president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, he is the author of commentaries on 1 and 2 Samuel in the Anchor Bible Series. His other writings include contributions to the Oxford Companion to the Bible, Harper’s Study Bible and Harper’s Bible Commentary.

John J. Collins is the Holmes Professor of Old Testament at Yale Divinity School. He has served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association and as editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature. He is also a member of the expanded team of Dead Sea Scrolls editors. His publications include a commentary on Daniel (Fortress Press, 1993), The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Doubleday, 1995), Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Routledge, 1997) and Seers, Sibyls and Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism (Brill, 1997).
 

The Rise of Ancient Israel

Hershel Shanks (editor), William G. Dever, Baruch Halpern, P. Kyle McCarter, Jr.

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $4.99

 
The Rise of Ancient Israel, now available in this convenient eReader edition, is an accessible and engaging overview of one of biblical archaeology’s most critical and hotly debated subjects—the emergence of biblical Israel on the historical stage. Based on a 1991 Smithsonian Institution symposium organized by the Biblical Archaeology Society, this handsomely illustrated book brings together four authoritative and insightful lectures from world renowned scholars that carefully consider the archaeological and historical evidence for ancient Israel’s origins. Furthermore, the new electronic edition of The Rise of Ancient Israelallows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.

In the book’s introduction, moderator Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, not only defines the broad range of issues involved in tackling Israel’s beginnings, but also provides the basic information needed to appreciate the scholarly debates. William Dever, America’s preeminent Biblical archaeologist, then assesses the archaeological evidence that is usually associated with the Israelite settlement in Canaan beginning in about 1200 B.C.E. The often controversial views presented by Dever are followed by brief responses from leading scholars who study Israelite origins, including Israel Finkelstein, Norman Gottwald and Adam Zertal. In the book’s final chapters, Baruch Halpern, a senior professor of Jewish studies and biblical history at Penn State University, describes how the Book of Exodus may preserve authentic historical memories of Israel’s emergence in Egypt, while famed biblical scholar P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., discusses the fascinating and perhaps unexpected origins of Israelite religion. The book concludes with an informal but revealing panel discussion spurred by questions from Shanks and the symposium audience.

Author, moderator and editor Hershel Shanks is editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. He is also the editor and author of many books, including Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (Random House, 1992) and Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography (Random House, 1995).

William G. Dever is a Near Eastern archaeologist specializing in the Bible. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1966 and went on to serve as director of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem from 1971 to 1975. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the University of Arizona, Tuscon as professor of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology. Professor Dever retired from the University of Arizona in 2002 and currently divides his time between his home in Cyprus and Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, where he is Distinguished Visiting Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology. Dever is perhaps best known in archaeological circles as the excavator of Gezer.

Baruch Halpern is a professor of ancient history and holds the Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish studies at Pennsylvania State University. A co-director of excavations at Megiddo, his several books include David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King (Eerdmans, 2001).

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., is the William F. Albright Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. He taught at the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1985 and has held visiting professorships at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. A former president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, McCarter wrote the commentaries on 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in the Anchor Bible series. His many other writings include Ancient Inscriptions: Voices from the Biblical World (Biblical Archaeology Society, l996). Most recently, he has written and contributed to several important articles on the paleography of the newly discovered Tel Zayit abecedary.
 

Feminist Approaches to the Bible

Hershel Shanks (Editor), Phyllis Trible, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Pamela J. Milne, Jane Schaberg

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $4.99

 
This book, developed from a popular symposium sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the Smithsonian Institution, invites readers to ask how modern notions of gender equality can be reconciled with the largely patriarchal world in which the Bible was written and understood. Four outstanding scholars—Phyllis Trible, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Pamela J. Milne and Jane Schaberg—examine the stories of a number of prominent women in the Bible, including Eve, Miriam and Mary Magdalene, to highlight the various ways feminists have approached the biblical text and its traditional interpretation by men. They ask how these stories reflect the concerns of women, and in what ways women are treated, described and given voice by the biblical writers. In addition, they look at the lives of the Bible’s women from a modern perspective and, in so doing, ask how modern, 21st-century readers should relate to the text. Can this inherently patriarchal document be reclaimed as source of spiritual inspiration for modern women, as argued by Trible and others? Or, as viewed by Milne, has the Bible been so distorted by patriarchal tradition that feminists simply have no choice but to reject it all together? Readers will critically grapple with these and other tough questions in Feminist Approaches to the Bible.

Now available in this convenient eReader edition, Feminist Approaches to the Bible allows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.

Hershel Shanks, moderator and editor, is editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. He is also the editor and author of many books, including Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (Random House, 1992) and Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography (Random House, 1995).

Phyllis Trible is University Professor in the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University. She is the author of God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Fortress Press, 1978), Texts of Terror: Literary Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Fortress Press, 1984) and Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and The Book of Jonah (Fortress Press, 1994).

Tikva Frymer-Kensky was professor of Hebrew Bible at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and director of biblical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. Her publications include In the Wake of the Goddesses (Free Press, 1992) and The Judicial Ordeal in the Ancient Near East (Styx, 1995). She passed away in August 2006.

Pamela J. Milne is professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Windsor, Ontario, and the author of an introduction and annotation for the Book of Daniel in The NRSV: Harper’s Study Edition (HarperCollins, 1993) and “The Patriarchal Stamp of Scripture” (Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 1989).

Jane Schaberg was professor of religious and women’s studies at the University of Detroit-Mercy, where she had taught since 1977. A specialist in the New Testament, Schaberg was the author of The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the New Testament Infancy Narratives (Crossroad, 1990) and “The Gospel of Luke” in The Women’s Bible Commentary (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1992). She passed away in April 2012.
 

The Search for Jesus

Modern Scholarship Looks at the Gospels

Stephen J. Patterson; Marcus J. Borg; John Dominic Crossan, Hershel Shanks (editor)

(Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2013), $4.99

 
This engaging and accessible book, developed from a popular symposium sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the Smithsonian Institution and now available in this convenient eReader edition, presents scholarly discussions on the birth, life and death of the historical Jesus. Top New Testament and historical Jesus scholars Stephen Patterson, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan give their views on who Jesus was, what he said and how the Jesus of history differs from the Jesus of faith. Included are detailed explorations of the historical and archaeological evidence for Jesus outside the Bible, as well as investigations into the various methods scholars use to dissect the Gospels for evidence of what Jesus may have actually said and done. Along the way, readers will follow Patterson, Borg and Crossan through the thickets of ancient texts, theology, archaeology, anthropology, the Nag Hammadi codices and even the Dead Sea Scrolls as they reveal what modern scholarship has learned about the historical Jesus, the first-century man the Gospels tell us was born in Bethlehem, preached in Galilee and was crucified in Jerusalem. The new electronic edition of The Search for Jesus also allows readers to take full advantage of all of the portability and functionality of their eReader devices, including convenient in-text links that jump directly to specific chapters and notes.

Hershel Shanks, moderator and editor, is editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. He is also the editor and author of many books, including Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (Random House, 1992) and Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography (Random House, 1995).

Stephen J. Patterson is George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Patterson is a former contributing editor of Bible Review and the author of numerous books, including Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus (Fortress Press, 2004). His research focuses on the historical Jesus, Christian origins and the Gospel of Thomas.

Marcus J. Borg is Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, past chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar. He is the author of several books, including: Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus (Edwin Mellen, 1984); Jesus: A New Vision (1987) and Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994), both published by HarperSanFrancisco; and Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship (Trinity Press International, 1994).

John Dominic Crossan is professor emeritus of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is a founder of Semeia: An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism and was general editor from 1980 to 1986. He was also a founder and co-director (with Robert W. Funk) of the Westar Institute Jesus Seminar from 1985 to 1993. He has written more than 25 books on the historical Jesus in the last 35 years, including The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991), Excavating Jesus (with archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed in 2001) and In Search of Paul (2004), all published by Harper San Francisco.

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How does the Bible portray its villains?

Eminent scholars explore textual accounts and archaeological evidence of some not-so-nice notables from the Old and New Testaments: from a ruthless Assyrian king to a confused Judean governor, and from Roman executioners to a betraying friend.

Lectures:

BART D. EHRMAN
Who Killed Jesus? Pontius Pilate & the Jews

CRAIG EVANS
The Art and Archaeology of Execution in the Roman World

DAVID USSISHKIN
Sennacherib’s Attack on Lachish: What We Have Learned from Archaeology

MARVIN MEYER
The Gospel of Judas: What It Has Taught Us Thus Far

Digging into the Gospels:
Texts and Archaeology Behind Christianity’s Foundational Stories

Let’s get digging!

Modern-day archaeological excavations and their artifacts continue to illuminate and challenge our understanding of the ancient Biblical world. Learn from leading experts about the cities of the Gospels, archaeology’s impact on faith and what we can learn from canonical and noncanonical texts.

Lectures:

JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH
Does the Gospel of John Accurately Describe Jerusalem Before 70 CE?

MARK GOODACRE
A Giant Jesus and A Walking, Talking Cross: Exploring the Gospel of Peter

RAMI ARAV
Twenty-Five Years of Excavations at Bethsaida: How Bethsaida Has Helped Shape Biblical Research

AARON GALE
tudying Stones and Scripture: Archaeology, Judaism and Christian Origins

MARK WILSON
Who’s Buried in Philip’s Tomb?

MARK GOODACRE
Paul’s Letters: Women, Men and the End

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Douglas Edwards

Douglas Edwards, professor of Bible and archaeology at the University of Puget Sound and archaeologist of the Galilee, died on November 22, 2008, after an eight-year battle with bone cancer. He was 58 years old.

Edwards excavated at the city of Sepphoris and led the excavation at Khirbet Kana, 8 miles northwest of Nazareth. His excavations confirmed the site as the location of Biblical Cana, where the Gospel of John says Jesus began his public ministry by turning jars of water into wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1—11).

Born in Hardy, Nebraska, Edwards earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska and a Ph.D. from Boston University, where he met his wife, Lynn. He took a job in 1987 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where he taught classes in Old and New Testament, as well as ancient Near East religions and archaeology.

Edwards continued to travel, dig and pursue his singing hobby even through harsh cancer treatments. In 2008, unable to make the trip to Israel, he directed the excavations at Khirbet Kana via teleconference.

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