Mar 2
By: T. M. Lemos
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 for sins the children themselves had not committed? Did the Israelites even think children were persons with any type of rights?
Feb 19
By: John Drummond
Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel—the names of biblical matriarchs such as these have lived on long after they were first written down more than […]
Feb 17
By: Ben Witherington III
Over decades of studying the Bible, I’ve noted how much emphasis many scholars place on the adjectives used to describe the biblical God—God is righteous, […]
Feb 14
By: Megan Sauter
In the Book of Genesis, we are told about Cain’s birth, his violent act of fratricide and his subsequent exile. We learn that he married and had descendants, but the Bible is strangely mute about his death.
Jan 31
By: Shawna Dolansky
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 other evil power. So where does the devil come into the details of Eden? Biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky examines how the serpent became Satan.
Jan 24
By: James Tabor
James Tabor suggests that in the same way the basic apocalyptic texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls have as their historical reference points the parties and politics of the mid-1st century BCE, the Ur-text of revelation is most likely composed against the backdrop of local events in Judea in the 40s and 50s CE–and has little to do with Rome and its emperors.
Jan 19
By: John Gregory Drummond
Does our modern conception of Satan have any resemblance to the devil in the Bible? Just who is Satan?
Jan 5
By: Andrew McGowan
Andrew McGowan challenges the tradition that Jesus was a welcoming host at meals.
Dec 31
By: Shawna Dolansky
Are the 10 Commandments really a moral code, or did the ancients understand them rather as the constitutional basis of a political theocracy?
Dec 8
By: Megan Sauter
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. Steven Shisley examines how the Lord’s Supper transitioned from a full meal to a ritual in BAR.