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The Catholic Church and Bible Interpretation
Major Catholic report endorses modern critical scholarship, condemns fundamentalist biblical interpretation
The historical-critical method of Bible interpretation is “indispensable”, declares a remarkable new report of the Pontifical Biblical Commission of the Roman Catholic Church.1 “Proper understanding [of the Bible] not only admits the use of this method but actually requires it...
Bible Review, August 1994
Feminist Interpretations of the Bible: Then and Now
The Bible has frequently been used as a weapon to oppress women
Feminism—and the movement arising from it—may be the most important revolutionary development in human history. It seeks nothing less than the true equality of women. Some have compared the feminist movement to the Copernican revolution: Like...
Bible Review, October 1992
Using Quintilian to Interpret Mark
The passage from Mark which follows, has always been a puzzle: If your hand offends you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled, than with both hands to depart for hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot offends...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1980
My Odyssey in New Testament Interpretation
Karl Marx, when he was living in Highgate, London, was once asked to address a group of theologians. On his arrival, the meeting place was full of tobacco smoke, and Marx remarked, “Theologians always cloud the issues.” When I remind...
Bible Review, June 1989
Ancient Biblical Interpreters vs. Archaeology & Modern Scholars
Around 25 years ago, Jim Kugel and I confided to each other that we each wanted to write a book for the general public. We both believed it important to make scholarship accessible to all. As it turned out, we each wrote several such books...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2008
The “Pierced Messiah” Text—An Interpretation Evaporates
Not long after the unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls became accessible last autumn, Professor Robert Eisenman of California State University, Long Beach, disclosed that he had discovered among the hitherto secret manuscripts a small, five-line...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1992
Our Bodies, Our Bibles
Our bodies and our biblical interpretations seem to be involved in a long-running, secret affair. The implications may be both liberating and scandalous.
Bible Review, April 1999
How Mute Stones Speak: Interpreting What We Dig Up
The common romantic image of the archaeologist—a discoverer clearing his way through the jungle to explore ruined cities and temples or crawling into mysterious tombs full of ancient...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1995
The Marzeah Amos Denounces—Using Archaeology to Interpret a Biblical Text
Archaeologists often accuse Biblical scholars of ignoring archaeological materials that could significantly illuminate the Biblical texts that scholars are studying. As one archaeologist recently put it: “Most [Biblical] commentators do not...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1988
Scholars’ Corner: Yadin Presents New Interpretation of the Famous Lachish Letters
On January 29, 1935, during the third season of excavations at Tell ed-Duweir, a site thought to be Biblical Lachish, archaeologists discovered a collection of 18 ostraca, or inscribed potsherds. The ostraca had been covered by a thick layer...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1984
Challenge to Sun-Worship Interpretation of Temple Scroll’s Gilded Staircase
In “The Case of the Gilded Staircase,” BAR 10:05, Professor Morton Smith attempts to prove that the Temple envisioned by the Essenes had a gilded staircase to reach the roof of the Temple where members of the Dead Sea sect worshipped the sun...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1985
Where Is Biblical Debir?
A new interpretation challenges Albright
Debir, a district capital of the Judean monarchy which figures prominently in Joshua and Judges, was misidentified by the great William F. Albright, according to Professor Moshe Kochavi of Tel Aviv University. Professor Kochavi argues that he, not Albright has excavated the true site of Debir—at Khirbet Rabud, in the Judean hill country, twelve miles southwest of Hebron.
Biblical Archaeology Review, March 1975
Should Cheeseburgers Be Kosher?
A different interpretation of five Hebrew words
”You may not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk” is one of the Bible’s more puzzling interdictions. This short phrase—only five words in Hebrew (lo’ tebasûsûel gdi bah\aleb ‘immo)—is repeated three times, once in Exodus 23:19, again in...
Bible Review, December 2003
Sung Sermons
Melodies, morals and biblical interpretations in Byzantium
Sermons in stone,” “sermons in glass”—these multimedia figures of speech should surprise no one, since for long periods of time and in a broad range of places the largely illiterate...
Bible Review, April 1991
Jefferson’s Bible
Cutting and pasting the Good Book
Among his many other accomplishments, the third president of the United States rewrote the Bible. That might seem a remarkably audacious thing for anyone to do, but it was quite natural for a man of Thomas Jefferson’s complex nature. He was a...
Bible Review, February 1997
“Spinning” the Bible
How Judaism and Christianity shape the Canon differently
Most people think that the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible are two names for the same thing. Actually, they are quite different, as I shall show—even though all of the books of the Hebrew Bible are indeed included in the Old Testament:...
Bible Review, June 1998
The Fluid Bible
The blurry line between biblical and nonbiblical texts
We like to think of Holy Writ as unchanging, but the ancients didn’t. A study of the Dead Sea Scrolls reveals that texts could exist in different forms—even be consciously modified—without losing their sanctity.
Bible Review, June 1999
Computers and The Bible
Computers can find patterns hidden in obscure recesses of biblical literature. Knowing what patterns to look for, however, still requires human intelligence. What these patterns mean, once they are identified, is also a matter that requires...
Bible Review, February 1988
Sumerian Literature
Background to the Bible
The world’s oldest literature—poetry as well as prose—belongs to the Sumerians, that fascinating, enigmatic people who settled...
Bible Review, June 1988
Did King Jehu Kill His Own Family?
New interpretation reconciles Biblical text with famous Assyrian inscription
One of the most dramatic finds ever made relating to the Bible is the famous Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (ruled 858–824 B.C.E.), excavated by Austen Henry Layard at Nimrud in 1846 and now prominently displayed in the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1995