New fragments of a Dead Sea Scroll have been discovered during an exhaustive survey of every nook, hole and cranny in the Judean Desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Tuesday. It is the first new scroll to have been discovered in about 60 years. Written mainly in Greek, the newly unveiled scroll contains portions…
Can Bible characters be “canceled?” This dire fate was suggested by Bill Hemmer, of Fox News, as the natural continuation of criticism of American presidents. “I tell ya, if they start canceling these American presidents, they’re going to come after Bible characters next — mark my words, right?” he warned. The topic under discussion was…
As a rabbi watching President Trump standing, Bible in hand, in front of Washington DC’s St. John’s Episcopal Church, I wondered what scriptural verse the President could draw on for inspiration. We were, as we remain, in the midst of a national crisis. A double pandemic, Covid-19 and the virus of systemic racism. The moment…
The 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible that went on public view for the first time last week would not exist at all, or have survived this long, without the obsessive efforts of two obscure Jewish groups: the Masoretes and the Karaites. The Masoretes were a mysterious group of scholar-scribes, who starting in the Sixth Century worked to…
Hebrew Bibles, unlike their best-known Christian and Muslim counterparts, are not renowned for their elaborate ornamentation. But during the Middle Ages, some were as vivid and artful as the famous illuminated New Testaments and Qurans we marvel over today. Imagine figures of naked men contorted into the shape of Hebrew letters; a full-page illustration of…
The Bible may be the most-recognized book in the world, but its origins remain obscure. We can’t say with certainty who wrote much of it, when the bulk of it was composed or even where. But we now have a handy primer to the most significant theories about those questions in John Barton’s “The History…
BERLIN (JTA) — Non-Jewish parents in Germany are picking names straight out of the Hebrew Bible for their newborns, and they might not even know it. According to the Society for the German Language, Ben was the most popular name for boys in 2018, with Hannah, Lea, Noah and Jakob also showing up on the top…
Most American Christians thought it was inappropriate for President Trump to sign the cover of a bible, as he did in early March, according to a Morning Consult poll, reports Religion News Service. According to the poll, 65% of Christians in the U.S., and 64% of Americans, think it was inappropriate to sign the bibles….
