New Books in Biblical Studies
412 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★ - 30 ratingsInterviews with Biblical Scholars about their New Books
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Episodes
Robert D. Heaton, "The Shepherd of Hermas As Scriptura Non Grata: From Popularity in Early Christianity to Exclusion from the New Testament Canon" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)
June 16, 2024 08:00 - 1 hourComposed within the first Christian century by a Roman named Hermas, the Shepherd remains a mysterious and underestimated book to scholars and laypeople alike. In The Shepherd of Hermas As Scriptura Non Grata: From Popularity in Early Christianity to Exclusion from the New Testament Canon (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), Robert D. Heaton argues that early Christians mainly received the Shepherd positively and accepted it unproblematically alongside texts that would ultimately be canonized, requ...
Catherine Michael Chin, "Life: The Natural History of an Early Christian Universe" (U California Press, 2024)
June 09, 2024 08:00 - 1 hourA vivid and intimate glimpse of ancient life under the sway of cosmic and spiritual forces that the modern world has forgotten. Life: The Natural History of an Early Christian Universe (U California Press, 2024) immerses the reader in the cosmic sea of existences that made up the late ancient Mediterranean world. Loosely structured around events in the biography of one early Christian writer and traveler, this book weaves together the philosophical, religious, sensory, and scientific worlds o...
Joshua Paul Smith, "Luke Was Not a Christian: Reading the Third Gospel and Acts Within Judaism" (Brill, 2024)
June 03, 2024 08:00 - 1 hourOne orthodoxy of critical biblical scholarship on the Third Gospel, attributed by later Christian tradition to a companion of Paul named Luke, holds that its author was not ethnically Jewish but rather a Gentile of some kind, either a proselyte to Judaism, a “Godfearer” once attached to a diasporic synagogue, or perhaps a pagan convert to a form of early Christianity reverent to Israel’s scriptures. In Luke Was Not A Christian: Reading the Third Gospel and Acts within Judaism (Brill, 2024), ...
Thea Gomelauri, "The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry" (Taylor Institution Library, 2023)
June 01, 2024 08:00 - 1 hourFrom a remote mountain village in the Caucasian mountains of Georgia came the most surprising discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls: a rare, beautiful, and valuable Hebrew Bible known as the Lailashi Codex. In ancient tradition, scribal art possesses supernatural powers. The provenance of this Codex is shrouded in mystery. Questions about the authorship and ownership surround this ancient work of treasure and secrets. The Codex, written as a labor of love by a scribe of rare skill, was hidden...
Nathan Lovell, "The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography" (T&T Clark, 2022)
May 29, 2024 08:00 - 20 minutesIs the purpose of the Book of Kings merely to provide a reason for the exile, or is there a greater message of hope? Tune in as we speak with Nathan Lovell about his monograph, The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography (T&T Clark, 2022). Approaching the Book of Kings as a coherent narrative, Lovell argues Kings recalls the past in order to demonstrate what it means to be Israel in the present, encouraging ...
Wally V. Cirafesi, "John Within Judaism: Religion, Ethnicity, and the Shaping of Jesus-Oriented Jewishness in the Fourth Gospel" (Brill, 2021)
May 21, 2024 08:00 - 21 minutesWhile many have noted the general Jewishness of the Gospel of John, few have given it a seat at the ideologically crowded table of ancient Jewish practice and belief—until now. Join us as we speak with Wally Cirafesi, whose book, John Within Judaism: Religion, Ethnicity, and the Shaping of Jesus-Oriented Jewishness in the Fourth Gospel (Brill, 2021), offers a reading of the Gospel of John as an expression of the fluid and flexible nature of Jewish identity in Greco-Roman antiquity. Wally V. C...
Siân E. Grønlie, "The Old Testament in Medieval Icelandic Texts: Translation, Exegesis and Storytelling" (Boydell & Brewer, 2024)
May 13, 2024 08:00 - 46 minutesThe historical narratives of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible have much in common with Icelandic saga literature: both are invested in origins and genealogy, place-names, family history, sibling rivalry, conflict and its resolution. Yet the comparison between these two literatures is rarely made, and biblical translations in Old Norse-Icelandic have been neglected as a focus of literary study. The Old Testament in Medieval Icelandic Texts: Translation, Exegesis and Storytelling (Boydell & Brew...
Jason F. Moraff, "Reading the Way, Paul, and 'the Jews' in Acts Within Judaism" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
May 08, 2024 08:00 - 27 minutesThe book of Acts is often misunderstood as reflecting anti-Judaism or promoting supersessionism. Jason Moraff, however, argues that Acts binds the Way, Paul, and the Jewish people together in a shared identity. Taking a historically situated approach, Moraff frames Acts' portrayal of the early church and Paul in relation to the Jewish people as participating in internecine conflict regarding the Jewish-tradition-in-crisis after the destruction of the temple. Join us as we speak with Jason Mor...
Markus Vinzent, "Resetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
April 30, 2024 08:00 - 43 minutesHow do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that is, to well after Jesus' death. In Resetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings (Cambridge UP, 2022), Markus Vinze...
Michael Boler, "Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek: A Unified Approach" (Catholic U of America Press, 2019)
April 27, 2024 08:00 - 45 minutesThe defining feature of this textbook is the treatment of classical and New Testament Greek as one language using primary sources. All the example sentences the students will translate are real Greek sentences, half of which are taken from classical literature and philosophy and half of which are directly from the New Testament. The advantage of this approach is that it highlights the linguistic, literary, and historical connections between classical Greece and early Christianity. Rather than...
James N. Neumann, "The Gospel of the Son of God: Psalm 2 and Mark's Narrative Christology" (T&T Clark, 2023)
April 20, 2024 08:00 - 23 minutesWhat does it mean for the Gospel of Mark to portray Jesus as Son of God? Apparently far more than what past scholarship has recognized! James Neumann argues that Mark presents Jesus’ life from beginning to end as the actualization of Psalm 2, a coronation hymn describing the Davidic king as God’s “son.” Join us as we speak with James Neumann about his recent book, The Gospel of the Son of God (T&T Clark, 2023). James Neumann teaches New Testament as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton Theolog...
D. Clint Burnett, "Christ's Enthronement at God's Right Hand and Its Greco-Roman Cultural Context" (de Gruyter, 2020)
April 13, 2024 08:00 - 23 minutesHow did Psalm 110:1 become so widely used as a messianic prooftext in the New Testament and early Christianity? Part of the explanation may be related to the first century’s Greco-Roman political and religious context. Tune in as we speak with Clint Burnett about his recent book Christ’s Enthronement at God’s Right Hand and its Greco-Roman Cultural Context (de Gruyter, 2020). D. Clint Burnett holds a PhD in biblical studies from Boston College, where he is a visiting scholar. He focuses on in...
Michael LeFebvre, "Collections, Codes, and Torah: The Re-characterization of Israel's Written Law" (Bloomsbury, 2019)
April 06, 2024 08:00 - 17 minutesScholars of biblical law widely hold that ancient Israel did not draft law-texts for legislative purposes. Little attention has yet been given to explaining how and when later Judaism did come to regard Torah as legislative. As a result, the current consensus (that Ezra introduced legislative uses of Torah) is based on assumptions which have been never tested. Join us as we speak with Michael LeFebvre about his book, Collections, Codes, and Torah: The Re-characterization of Israel's Written L...
Keith Bodner and Benjamin J.M. Johnson, "Characters and Characterization in the Book of Judges" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
March 17, 2024 08:00 - 24 minutesCharacters and characterization are a key ingredient for interpreting the Bible, and perhaps no other book in the Bible is so full of challenging and outlandish characters as the book of Judges. From Ehud, the left-handed assassin to the zany adventures of Samson, the characters in Judges are memorable indeed. Join as we talk with Benjamin Johnson about his co-edited work, Characters and Characterization in the Book of Judges (Bloomsbury, 2024). Benjamin Johnson is Associate Professor of Bibl...
Robin Baker, "Hollow Men, Strange Women: Riddles, Codes, and Otherness in the Book of Judges" (Brill, 2016)
March 16, 2024 08:00 - 25 minutesIn Hollow Men, Strange Women: Riddles, Codes, and Otherness in the Book of Judges (Brill, 2016), Robin Baker provides a masterly reappraisal of Israel's experience during its Settlement of Canaan as narrated in the Book of Judges, which, he argues, subtly encrypts a grim forewarning of Judah's future. In its extensive treatment of otherness, the Book of Judges also explores the meaning of God’s covenant with Israel. Join us as we speak with Robin Baker about his monograph on the Book of Judg...
Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, "The Jewish Annotated New Testament" (Oxford UP, 2017)
March 04, 2024 09:00 - 1 hourFirst published in 2011, The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford UP, 2017) was a groundbreaking work, bringing the New Testament's Jewish background to the attention of students, clergy, and general readers. In this new edition, eighty Jewish scholars bring together unparalleled scholarship to shed new light on the text. This thoroughly revised and greatly expanded second edition brings even more helpful information and new insights to the study of the New Testament. For Christian readers ...
Safwat Marzouk, "Egypt as a Monster in the Book of Ezekiel" (Mohr Siebeck, 2015)
February 21, 2024 09:00 - 1 hourAppealing to Monster Theory and the ancient Near Eastern motif of "Chaoskampf," Safwat Marzouk argues that the paradoxical character of the category of the monster is what prompts the portrayal of Egypt as a monster in the book of Ezekiel. While on the surface the monster seems to embody utter difference, underlying its otherness there is a disturbing sameness. Though the monster may be defeated and its body dismembered, it is never completely annihilated. As Marzouk explains in Egypt as a M...
Jonathon Lookadoo, "The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch" (Cascade Books, 2023)
February 18, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutesThe letters of Ignatius of Antioch portray Jesus in terms that are both remarkably exalted and shockingly vulnerable. Jesus is identified as God and is the sole physician and teacher who truly reveals the Father. At the same time, Jesus was born of Mary, suffered, and died. Ignatius asserts both claims about Jesus with minimal attempts to reconcile how they can simultaneously be embodied in one person. Jonathon Lookadoo's book The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch (Cascade Books, 2023) expl...
Clare K. Rothschild, "The Muratorian Fragment: Text, Translation, Commentary" (Mohr Siebeck, 2022)
February 06, 2024 09:00 - 58 minutesDiscovered and published in 1740 by the Ambrosian librarian Ludovico Muratori, the so-called “Muratorian Fragment” has long featured for New Testament scholars as a piece of second-century evidence for a canonical impulse in early Christianity. Challengers to this second-century dating in recent decades have done little to shake a popular conception that the Fragment authentically reflects a remarkably early and idiosyncratic view on Christian scriptural collections that do not seem to have b...
Nicholas Dames, "The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century" (Princeton UP, 2023)
February 05, 2024 09:00 - 1 hourWhy do books have chapters? With this seemingly simple question, Dr. Nicholas Dames embarks on a literary journey spanning two millennia, revealing how an ancient editorial technique became a universally recognized component of narrative art and a means to register the sensation of time. In The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2023) Dr. Dames begins with the textual compilations of the Roman world, where chapters evolved as a...
Angela Kim Harkins, "An Embodied Reading of the Shepherd of Hermas: The Book of Visions and Its Role in Moral Formation" (Equinox, 2023)
February 05, 2024 09:00 - 1 hourAmong early Christian books abandoned at the flipside of the canonical boundary, the Shepherd of Hermas is presently undergoing an exciting renaissance of scholarly interest from multiple critical angles. Accepting that the Shepherd was broadly reckoned as a catechetical scripture by early Christians after its composition and dissemination from Rome, Angela Kim Harkins interrogates the first section of the tripartite Shepherd known as the Book of Visions, which narrates Hermas’s visionary exp...
Daniel I. Block, "The Gospel According to Moses: A Commentary on Deuteronomy" (Inspirata Publishing, 2023)
January 29, 2024 09:00 - 37 minutesFor the renowned scholar, Dr. Daniel Block, Deuteronomy is the "Gospel according to Moses." Moses' farewell pastoral addresses call God's people to remember his grace in salvation, covenant relationship with him, and his revelation of a way of blessing in a lost world. Join us as we speak with Dan Block about his recent commentary on Deuteronomy. Daniel I. Block is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Wheaton College. He is the author of more than 120 scholarly paper...
Chaim Miller, "Torah, the Five Books of Moses (with Complete Haftarah Cycle)" (Kol Menachem, 2011)
January 19, 2024 09:00 - 21 minutesWith a charming, colorful presentation, multiple strands of commentary, and groundbreaking, interactive features, Torah, the Five Books of Moses (with Complete Haftarah Cycle) (Kol Menachem, 2011) transforms the text into an experience. Join us as we speak with Rabbi Chaim Miller about how his edition of Torah endeavors to uncover the spiritual potential and human relevance of its every line. Rabbi Chaim Miller was educated at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School in London, England and studied Med...
What Can We Learn From A Pottery Shard? Uncovering the Ancient Past Through Biblical Archeology with Professor Aren Maeir
January 17, 2024 09:00 - 36 minutesSome people are good at what they do, some are enthusiastic about their work. This guest brings both to bear in his exploration of the ancient past. Today we are privileged to talk with a distinguished figure in the world of archeology whose enthusiasm doesn’t quit. Professor. Aren Maeir is not only an accomplished archaeologist, but he is also a captivating storyteller who brings the past to life through his discoveries. Professor Aren M. Maeir is Director of the Tel es Safi/Gath Archeologic...
On Henry Einspruch's 1941 Yiddish Translation of the Christian Bible
January 17, 2024 09:00 - 59 minutesToday we are going to explore a peculiar volume in the history of Yiddish literature, the Yiddish translation of the Christian bible written by Khaim Yekhiel, “Henry,” Einspruch, titled Der Bris Ḥadoshe, first published in Baltimore in 1941. The saga of Einspruch’s translation of the Christian bible is the subject of a new Yiddish drama, “The Gospel According to Chaim,” written by Mikhl Yashinsky, and recently produced by the New Yiddish Rep theater company in New York. Interviewee: Professor...
Adin Stinsaltz, "The Steinsaltz Humash, 2nd Edition (Hebrew and English Edition)" (Koren, 2019)
January 16, 2024 09:00 - 21 minutesThe Steinsaltz Humash is the long-awaited English version of Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz’s pioneering translation and commentary on the Torah. Like his monumental translation and commentary of the entire Talmud, the new Steinsaltz Humash includes a treasure trove of information to make the text clear, fascinating, and relevant to users of all backgrounds. Join us as we speak with Rabbi Meni Even Israel about his father’s Torah insights. Rabbi Meni Even-Israel serves as the Executive Dir...
Jacob L. Wright, "Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
January 13, 2024 09:00 - 55 minutesWhy did no other ancient society produce something like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community could have created a literary corpus so determinative for peoples across the globe seems improbable. For Jacob Wright, the Bible is not only a testimony of survival, but also an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged after Babylon's devastation of Jerusalem, it makes not victory but total humiliation the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting the destruction of their h...
Yair Furstenberg, "Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism: From the Temple to the Mishnah" (Indiana UP, 2023)
January 10, 2024 09:00 - 38 minutesThe concern for purity was the cornerstone of the religious culture of ancient Judaism, shaping the worldview of Jewish people during the Second Temple period as well as their daily practices and social relations. In his book, Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism: From the Temple to the Mishnah (Indiana UP, 2023), Yair Furstenberg examines how different groups offered competing visions and methods for living a life of purity, which embodied a promise for personal and cosmic salvation and at...
James Robson, "Word and Spirit in Ezekiel" (T&T Clark, 2006)
January 09, 2024 09:00 - 18 minutesIn comparison with other prophetic books, the Book of Ezekiel sets forth a unique angle on the relationship of the Lord's word and spirit. In his monograph, Word And Spirit in Ezekiel (T&T Clark, 2006), James Robson argues that the relationship between the Lord's spirit and the Lord's word in Ezekiel is to be understood not so much in terms of inspiration and authentication of the prophet, but in terms of the transformation of the book's addressees. James Robson is Principal of Oak Hill Colle...
Alastair J. Roberts, "Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture" (Crossway, 2018)
January 06, 2024 09:00 - 34 minutesThe exodus—the story of God leading his chosen people out of slavery in Egypt—stands as a pivotal event in the Old Testament. But if you listen closely, you will hear echoes of this story of redemption all throughout God’s Word. Using music as a of metaphor, the authors of Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture (Crossway) point us to the recurring theme of the exodus throughout the entire symphony of Scripture, shedding light on the Bible’s unified message of salvati...
Craig Keener, "Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels" (Eerdmans, 2019)
December 31, 2023 09:00 - 41 minutesAre the canonical Gospels historically reliable? The four canonical Gospels are ancient biographies, narratives of Jesus’s life. The authors of these Gospels were intentional in how they handled historical information and sources. Building on recent work in the study of ancient biographies, Craig Keener argues that the writers of the canonical Gospels followed the literary practices of other biographers in their day. In Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels (Ee...
Joshua W. Jipp, "The Messianic Theology of the New Testament" (Eerdmans, 2020)
December 27, 2023 09:00 - 39 minutesOne of the earliest Christian confessions—that Jesus is Messiah and Lord—has long been recognized throughout the New Testament. Joshua Jipp shows that the New Testament is in fact built upon this foundational messianic claim, and each of its primary compositions is a unique creative expansion of this common thread. Having made the same argument about the Pauline epistles in his previous book Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology, Jipp works methodically through the New Testament to show how t...
Isaac Soon, "A Disabled Apostle: Impairment and Disability in the Letters of Paul" (Oxford UP, 2023)
December 16, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourFor generations, Pauline scholars have responded in different ways to the Apostle’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7), our clearest indication that Paul was disabled—some with clinical diagnoses along biomedical lines, more with reticence and agnosticism as to the specifics of Paul’s disability, and others with doubts that Paul could have accomplished his apostolic work had he been physically impaired. On this episode, Isaac T. Soon joined the New Books Network to discuss his paradigm-pushi...
Julia Watts Belser, "Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole" (Beacon Press, 2023)
December 12, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourA transformative spiritual companion and deep dive into disability politics that reimagines disability in the Bible and contemporary culture. "What's wrong with you?" Scholar, activist, and rabbi Julia Watts Belser is all too familiar with this question. What's wrong isn't her wheelchair, though--it's exclusion, objectification, pity, and disdain. Our attitudes about disability have such deep cultural roots that we almost forget their sources. But open the Bible and disability is everywhere. ...
Gary A. Anderson, "That I May Dwell Among Them: Incarnation and Atonement in the Tabernacle Narrative" (Eerdmans, 2023)
December 06, 2023 09:00 - 20 minutesThe Tabernacle Narrative comprises passages in Exodus and Leviticus that detail the construction, furnishing, and liturgical use of the tabernacle. Given its genre and style, the narrative is often passed over by those reading Scripture for theological insight. What does Israel’s tabernacle mean for Christians today? Join us as Gary Anderson shows how these passages shed light on incarnation and atonement both in ancient Israel’s theology and in Christian theology. Anderson is the author of T...
J. Christopher Edwards, "Crucified: The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus" (Fortress Press, 2023)
December 02, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourIn his book Crucified: The Christian Invention of the Jewish Executioners of Jesus (Fortress Press, 2023), J. Christopher Edwards explores the early Christian teachings regarding who actually killed Jesus. Historians of early Christianity unanimously agree that Jesus was executed by Roman soldiers. This consensus extends to members of the general population who have seen a Jesus movie or an Easter play and remember Roman soldiers hammering the nails. However, for early Christians, the detail ...
Joshua Skarf, "ArchitecTorah: Architectural Ideas in Judaism and the Weekly Torah Portion" (Urim, 2023)
December 02, 2023 09:00 - 45 minutesJoshua Skarf's book ArchitecTorah: Architectural Ideas in Judaism and the Weekly Torah Portion (Urim, 2023) is a collection of 178 short essays that investigate the Torah through the lens of architecture. Each essay briefly introduces a piece of architectural theory, a building, or a section of building code and then reexamines a well-known topic in the Torah to uncover new and insightful interpretations. Matthew Miller is a graduate of Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah. He studied Jewish Studies and...
Loving Acts Through Patience: On the VaYishlach
November 30, 2023 09:00 - 40 minutesDavid and Modya complete their four episode exploration of patience by looking at the Torah portion of VaYishlach. The focus in this episode is on the role of patience in managing internally-motivated desires and external temptations. They explore how using patience can lead to healthier decisions made from a place of love rather than fear. Modya Silver is an author and psychotherapist based in Toronto. David Gottlieb is Director of Jewish Studies at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning ...
Jacob, Leah, Rachel and the "Middah" of Patience
November 23, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutesIn this week's episode, Modya and David discuss parshat Va-Yetzei (Gen. 28:10-32:3) and its lessons for the middah (character trait) of patience. Is the patriarch Jacob a model of patience, or does his predilection for deceit suggest a person too eager to get what he wants? What does the matriarch Leah teach us about the relationship between patience and acceptance of what is? Does the matriarch Rachel provide her own lessons? Modya and David look to these tangled, archetypal personalities an...
Nechama Price, "Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel" (Maggid, 2020)
November 20, 2023 09:00 - 53 minutesThe Jewish nation begins with a collection of twelve brothers and half-brothers, linked through their father, Jacob. From these close familiar beginnings, each develops into a distinct tribe, with unique characteristics and destinies that have indelible imprints on the rest of Tanakh. Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid, 2020) examines each of Jacob's sons, revealing their individual stories in Genesis and the impact of their shifting places within the family...
Meghan Henning, "Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christian Literature" (Yale UP, 2021)
November 17, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourIn her book Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christian Literature (Yale University Press, 2021), Meghan Henning illuminates how the bodies that populate hell in early Christian literature are punished after death in spaces that mirror real carceral spaces, effectually criminalizing those bodies on Earth. Contextualizing the apocalypses alongside ancient medical texts, inscriptions, philosophy, and patristic writings, this book demonstrates the...
Richard S. Ascough, "Early Christ Groups and Greco-Roman Associations: Organizational Models and Social Practices" (Cascade Books, 2022)
November 16, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourExegetes have long relied on the framework of the Acts of the Apostles to understand the behavior and organization of Paul’s various ekklēsiai (assemblies), or church communities, from which Christ-groups have often been conceptualized as extensions from practices of diasporic Jewish synagogues. However, Richard S. Ascough’s work has been at the forefront of a scholarly movement emphasizing the relevance of data from Greco-Roman associations—occupational, cultic, ethnic, and otherwise—not onl...
Building Wells of Patience
November 15, 2023 09:00 - 42 minutesIn this week's episode, David and Modya discuss where patience may be found within the Torah portion of Toldot. As they look into the text and are challenged to find examples, it brings them face to face with their own patience or at times lack thereof. Modya Silver is an author and psychotherapist based in Toronto. David Gottlieb is Director of Jewish Studies at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Walter A. Maier III, "1 Kings 12-22: Concordia Commentary" (Concordia, 2019)
November 12, 2023 09:00 - 16 minutesThe book of Kings tracks the division of Israel's kingdom into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, narrating each one's demise. Yet Kings is no mere history; the sacred record holds a message still relevant for God's people today. Tune in for part two of our interview with Walter Maier III, this time on volume 2 of his commentary on Kings, which covers chapters 12-22. Walter Maier III earned in his PhD from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages, and is Pro...
Walter A. Maier III, "1 Kings 1-11: Concordia Commentary" (Concordia, 2018)
November 11, 2023 09:00 - 15 minutesThe book of Kings in the Bible records more than 380 years of the history of Israel and its monarchy, from the last part of David’s rule to the end of the kingship in Judah, and emphasizes the role of prophets along the way. Join us as we speak with Walter Maier III about the first of his two-volume commentary on 1 Kings, covering chapters 1-11, the rise and failures of Solomon’s kingship. Walter Maier III earned in his PhD from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages, and is Professor o...
The Flow of Patience
November 09, 2023 09:00 - 38 minutesIn this week's episode, Modya and David discuss the Torah portion of Hayyei Sarah and what it teaches about the middah (trait) of patience. They note the kindness, generosity, and grace of the matriarch Rivkah, and the relationships between these traits and the trait of patience. They explore the water that plays a central role in this Torah portion, and water's fundamental link to patience: its ability to wear away, drop by drop over great spans of time, any obstacle before it. And they begi...
Austin Surls, "Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics" (Eisenbrauns, 2017)
November 05, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutesThe obvious riddles and difficulties in Exodus 3:13-15 and 6:2-8 have attracted an overwhelming amount of attention and comment. These texts make important theological statements about the divine name and the contours of the divine character. In his book Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics (Eisenbrauns, 2017), Austin Surls attempts to move beyond atomistic readings of individual texts and etymological studies of the divine name toward a...
Carson Bay, "Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
November 04, 2023 08:00 - 1 hourIn this volume entitled Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity (Cambridge UP, 2023), Carson Bay focuses on an important but neglected work of Late Antiquity: Pseudo-Hegesippus' On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), a Latin history of later Second Temple Judaism written during the fourth century CE. Bay explores the presence of so many Old Testament figures in a work that recounts the Roman-Jewish War (66–73 CE) and the destruction of Jerusale...
Horace D. Hummel, "Ezekiel 21-48: Concordia Commentary" (Concordia, 2007)
November 03, 2023 08:00 - 20 minutesVolume 2 of the commentary on Ezekiel, by the late Horace Hummel, covers chapters 21 through 48, where after the prophesied judgment of nations, the Lord grants Ezekiel a wondrous vision of a new temple-city called "The Lord is There." Join us as we speak with the editor of the Concordia Commentary series, Christopher Mitchell, about the second volume of the commentary on Ezekiel, Ezekiel 21-48 (Concordia, 2007), by the late Horace D. Hummel. Rev. Dr. Horace D. Hummel served as Professor of E...
Horace D. Hummel, "Ezekiel 1-20: Concordia Commentary" (Concordia, 2005)
October 28, 2023 04:00 - 23 minutesEzekiel contains some of Scripture's most mysterious visions and oracles. The searing indictment of God's unfaithful people for their idolatry warns of impending judgment. Yet God also issues the comforting promise of forgiveness and restoration through a new David who will unite and shepherd God's people. Join us as we speak with the editor of the Concordia Commentary series, Christopher Mitchell, about the first volume of the commentary on Ezekiel by the late Horace D. Hummel: Ezekiel 1-20 ...