Has there been a more consequential story to the history of humanity than that of Adam and Eve? In the assessment of Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare scholar and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Swerve,” probably not. But for Greenblatt, the significance of the origin story of Abrahamic religions ranges past its tangibly profound impact on the…
Genesis famously offers two “versions” of Adam and Eve’s creation. The first, in the first chapter of Genesis, is a broad overview: “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The second chapter of Genesis presents a more detailed narrative: God forms…
A New York City private day school serving Muslim students fired a publicly-funded English teacher for saying that the biblical story of Adam and Eve is “a myth,” the New York Post reported. Nina Kossman, a teacher with the city’s Department of Education assigned to teach English at the Razi School in Queens, was kicked…
I am responding in this series to frequently asked questions about some gender-bending translations of Torah texts I have proposed in a few articles since 2008, and in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Is God Transgender?” (August 12, 2016). So far, we have looked at Eve as “he”, Noah repairing to “her” tent,…
(JTA) — Bible scholars are not generally known for producing viral or sexy content. But American Jewish University professor Ziony Zevit is causing a stir with a new book suggesting that in Genesis, Eve was made from a bone in Adam’s penis — not his rib, as we have all been taught. In “What Really…
The anonymous narrator of Robert Frost’s 1914 poem “Mending Wall” wonders why his neighbor insists upon having an artificial barrier between their properties. “He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines,” he says. But all his neighbor does is echo,…
“Son of God,” “Noah,” and now “Girls” — 2014 is the year of the Bible movie. Lena Dunham nailed her ‘Saturday Night Live’ hosting debut with a parody of her hit HBO series, proving that the travails and tribulations of the average twentish-year-old woman are as old as time itself. “Girls: The Bible Movie” trades in…
Part of the idea of marriage is to bind together with another human being; the word marry actually means “to combine,” and the idea of marriage in Jewish tradition, beginning with Adam and Eve, is to be “united…and become one flesh.” It’s all very romantic and wonderful sounding, until you remember somewhere down the line…
100% of profits support our journalism
