love your neighbor

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?

By: Richard Elliott Friedman

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?

By: Megan Sauter

Although Leviticus 19:28 clearly prohibits tattoos, it does not give an explicit reason why. This begs the question: Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos?

By: Robin Ngo

Were the creation stories in Genesis meant to be taken literally? Maybe not, says Biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky in her Biblical Views column “The Multiple Truths of Myths” in the January/February 2016 issue of BAR.

By: Robin Ngo

In the Book of Joshua, Rahab assisted two Israelite spies in escaping out a window and down the city wall of Jericho. Who was Rahab in the Bible? A Biblical prostitute or just an innkeeper?

By: Megan Sauter

Foot-shaped sites have been found throughout the Jordan Valley, including an extraordinary cultic site on Mt. Ebal. Is this the Israelite altar described in Joshua 8?

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?

By: Robin Ngo

A burnt ancient scroll found 45 years ago has finally been deciphered thanks to advanced digital technology. The scroll was revealed to contain verses from the Book of Leviticus.

By: Megan Sauter

A 10 Commandments stone tablet—believed by some to be the oldest stone copy of the 10 Commandments—was sold at an auction in November 2016 for $850,000.

By: By Benjamin Arubas, Shay Bar and Hershel Shanks

Two eminent Israeli archaeologists, Yoram Tsafrir and Adam Zertal, recently passed away. Connected in death as in life, both triumphed over incredible obstacles.