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Continuity & Change in Israel’s Convenant with God

By Kevin G. O’Connell

Israel’s faith-history begins with the people’s response to their escape from Egypt under Moses’ leadership around 1275 B.C.1 What...

Bible Review, Winter 1985

But Did King David Invent Musical Instruments?

He composed Psalms and played the lyre…

By David Noel Freedman

While the dividing line between poetry and prose in the Hebrew Bible is imprecise, and the two types tend to blend into each other, especially in the prophetic writings, certain features...

Bible Review, Summer 1985

Different Ways of Looking at the Birth of Jesus

Narrative strategies in New Testament infancy narratives

By Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis

Biblical scholarship has long recognized the significant differences between the details of the birth of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Luke—the only two gospels to contain an...

Bible Review, Spring 1985

The Baptism of Jesus

A story modeled on the binding of Isaac

By William R. Stegner

John’s baptism of Jesus appears in all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). Here is how Mark describes it in a mere 53 words in Greek: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And...

Bible Review, Fall 1985

I: The Text Behind the Text of the Hebrew Bible

By Frank Moore Cross

This is Part I of a two-part article; the second part will appear in the next issue of Bible Review. Part 2 will discuss the...

Bible Review, Summer 1985

On the Road and on the Sea with St. Paul

Travelling conditions in the first century

By Jerome Murphy-O’Connor

In the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that Paul made three missionary journeys. In almost every introduction to the New Testament I have seen, the author discusses St. Paul’s journeys in terms of places and dates; his concern is to...

Bible Review, Summer 1985

The Documentary Hypothesis in Trouble

By Joseph Blenkinsopp

The Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—how was it formed? What is the history of its composition? The traditional view of both...

Bible Review, Winter 1985

II: Original Biblical Text Reconstructed from Newly Found Fragments

Scrolls provide a fresh understanding of apocalyptic elements in late biblical religion

By Frank Moore Cross

In the last issue of Bible Review, Professor Cross presented a description, based on his study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, of how the text of the Hebrew Bible developed (“The Text...

Bible Review, Fall 1985

“You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk”

An archaeological myth destroyed

By Jacob Milgrom

One of the oldest prohibitions in the entire Bible is the injunction against boiling a kid in the milk of its mother. It is repeated three times in identical words: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”a From these words, the...

Bible Review, Fall 1985

Unlocking the Poetry of Love in the Song of Songs

By Jack M. Sasson

At barely eight chapters with a total of 117 verses, the Song of Songs is one of the shortest books of the Bible. In 1977, Marvin Pope of Yale University published his massive, 750-page...

Bible Review, Spring 1985