Although the Bible is largely a product of the male-dominated societies of ancient Israel and the first-century C.E. Roman world, some of its most fascinating, evocative and inspiring characters are Read more…
Bible Interpretation
Bible interpretation covers the many issues in Bible study and understanding such as the historical-critical method, the documentary hypothesis, the two-source hypothesis, and the fundamental/literal approach.
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Women in the Bible
• 11/15/2018
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The Patriarch Abraham and Family
• 11/10/2018
In a special collection of Bible Review articles, Biblical scholars provide different avenues to understanding the Genesis account of the patriarch Abraham. Read more…
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Who Is Satan?
• 10/31/2018
Does our modern conception of Satan have any resemblance to the devil in the Bible? Just who is Satan? Read more…
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Video Lecture: “The Origin of Heaven and Hell”
• 10/31/2018
In this illuminating lecture, BAR Editor Robert R. Cargill will show you how heaven and hell came to exist so prominently in Jewish and Christian literature. Read more…
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Ask Now: Who the Devil Is Satan?
• 10/26/2018
Examine who Satan really is and where he appears in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in a BAS Library special collection of articles. Read more…
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How the Serpent Became Satan
• 10/14/2018
The serpent in the Garden of Eden is portrayed as just that: a serpent. The story in Genesis 2–3 contains no hint that he embodies the devil, Satan or any Read more…
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Eunuchs in the Bible
• 10/04/2018
Stephen J. Patterson discusses what Jesus meant when he referred to “eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:11–12). Read more…
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Understanding Israel’s 10 Commandments
• 09/28/2018
Are the 10 Commandments really a moral code, or did the ancients understand them rather as the constitutional basis of a political theocracy? Read more…
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First Person: Misogyny in the Bible
• 09/27/2018
According to scholar Christopher Rollston, there are many examples of the marginalization of women in the Bible. Read more…
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Christian Apocrypha: The “Lost Gospels”?
• 09/23/2018
The Christian apocrypha—noncanonical gospels—didn’t make the cut. But were they truly rejected, suppressed and destroyed? Until recent times there was no doubt. But now this “truth” may be unraveling. Many Read more…
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The Binding or Sacrifice of Isaac
• 09/07/2018
The story of the offering of Isaac is one of the most powerful narratives in the Hebrew Bible. But each tradition has understood and used the story differently and for Read more…
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The Canonical Gospels
• 09/06/2018
BAS editors have hand-selected articles from the BAS Library that cast each of the canonical Gospels in a new light. Read more…
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What Does the Bible Say About Infertility?
• 08/30/2018
Joel S. Baden and Candida R. Moss analyze the Biblical portrayal of infertility in the Biblical Views column “Reevaluating Biblical Infertility.” Read more…
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The Song of Songs: Love Is Strong as Death
• 07/30/2018
The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) from the Hebrew Bible is a love song beyond compare—although it has been compared to everything. Some have deemed it lewd entertainment. Read more…
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Defining Biblical Hermeneutics
• 06/10/2018
The hermeneutics of the Bible are the many ways people read the Bible. Read more…
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What Happened to Cain in the Bible?
• 05/23/2018
What happened to Cain in the Bible? In the Book of Genesis, we are told about Cain’s birth, his violent act of fratricide and his subsequent exile. We learn that Read more…
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Jacob in the Bible
• 05/08/2018
Who did Jacob wrestle with in the Bible? Phyllis Trible connects this episode to her own struggle with feminism and the Bible in her Biblical Views column “Wrestling with Faith.” Read more…
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The Creation of Woman in the Bible
• 05/03/2018
How was the first woman created in Genesis 2? Was she made from the man’s rib or, as recently suggested in BAR, from his os baculum? Read more…
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Does the Gospel of Mark Reveal Jesus’ Anger or His Compassion?
• 04/27/2018
In the fifth-century C.E. Codex Bezae, an early edition of the New Testament written in Greek, the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ anger before healing a leper (Mark 1:41). While Read more…
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Job Challenges God by Suing: God Responds
• 04/25/2018
After losing his health, wealth and children in inexplicable tragedies, the righteous and devout man Job questions God as to what he must have done to deserve such a heavy Read more…
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Love Your Neighbor: Only Israelites or Everyone?
• 04/23/2018
The Book of Leviticus tells us to love our neighbors, but who are our neighbors? Does the command mean to just love fellow Israelites—or everyone? Read more…
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Did the Ancient Israelites Think Children Were People?
• 04/16/2018
The Book of Exodus presumably reflects the views of its Israelite authors on their deity, morality, and the like. Why then would the Israelites have imagined Yahweh slaughtering Egyptian children Read more…
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When Was the First Communion?
• 03/25/2018
Early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper as a full meal, but by the third century, it had ceased to be a banquet and had become a ritualized small meal instead. Read more…
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On What Day Did Jesus Rise?
• 03/22/2018
On what day did Jesus rise? After three days or on the third day? Ben Witherington III examines this question in BAR. Read more…
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The Virgin Mary and the Prophet Muhammad
• 03/03/2018
The Virgin Mary and the prophet Muhammad have a lot in common within their respective Christian and Islamic traditions, according to author Mary Joan Winn Leith. Read more…
