tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/hebrew-bible-35720/articles
Hebrew Bible – The Conversation
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221071
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
The roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a pale sculpture of a bearded man's face, looking in pain or tired, with gold letters above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.
Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218677
2024-03-21T12:25:02Z
2024-03-21T12:25:02Z
Purim’s original queen: How studying the Book of Esther as fan fiction can teach us about the roots of an unruly Jewish festival
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582875/original/file-20240319-24-z4q69e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1022%2C699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Esther denouncing Haman, who, according to the Purim story, attempted to have all Jews within the Persian Empire massacred. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/esther-denouncing-haman-haman-a-favourite-at-the-court-of-news-photo/929217364?adppopup=true">Hutchinson's History of the Nations/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once upon a time, in the ancient Near East, there was a beautiful queen.</p>
<p>Scribes wrote of her lovely form, her regal majesty and her fierce bravery. The people honored her in lavish celebrations marked by debauchery. She was linked to <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/327/oa_monograph/chapter/2616211#rfn55">the morning star</a>, and her name was “Ishtar” – or “Esther,” <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Jastrow%2C_%D7%90%D6%B4%D7%A1%D6%B0%D7%AA%D6%B0%D6%BC%D7%94%D6%B7%D7%A8.1">as she was called in Hebrew</a>.</p>
<p>This is the story that inspires the Jewish holiday of Purim, which begins this year on the evening of March 23. Across the world, Jews retell the story of <a href="https://bibleodyssey.com/articles/esther/">Queen Esther</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/purim-spiels-skits-and-satire-have-brought-merriment-to-an-ancient-jewish-holiday-in-america-177700">lavish spectacles</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-plays-and-carnivals/">called Purim spiels</a>, that feature costumes, jokes, satire, noisemakers and food and wine.</p>
<p>Purim is the only celebration in Judaism with an entire biblical book about its origins. <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Esther?tab=contents">The Book of Esther</a> tells how she and her pious cousin, Mordecai, defeated the scheming Haman, a powerful royal adviser, thereby saving the Jewish people from annihilation.</p>
<p>Yet among researchers, the actual origins of the holiday – and of Esther herself – are still hotly contested. Few scholars interpret Esther’s story as a record of historical events, and they note a number of oddities surrounding the book. The text, sometimes called the Megillah, contains <a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/megillat-esther-a-godless-and-assimilated-diaspora">no mention of God</a>, or of religious activities such as prayer or sacrifice; its narrative is colorful and suggestive.</p>
<p>When archaeologists began to dig up cuneiform texts in the 19th century, a further peculiarity emerged: Esther and her cousin Mordecai shared names <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-online/ishtar-DDDO_Ishtar">with Ishtar</a> and <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-online/marduk-DDDO_Marduk">her cousin Marduk</a>, two of the most prominent deities in ancient Mesopotamia. Ishtar, like Esther, was a divine queen associated with both eroticism and battle. Marduk, like Mordecai, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20182036">overcame a deadly enemy and celebrated his triumph with a banquet</a>. Moreover, the name Purim seems to derive from <a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/on-the-origins-of-purim-and-its-assyrian-name">the Babylonian word “pûru</a>” – a “lot” in both the senses of “<a href="https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/cad_p.pdf">portion</a>” and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3209686">fortunetelling dice</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kwcXAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA94&ots=Oj4t1mFmis&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false">Earlier scholars of those cuneiform texts</a> concluded that the Book of Esther was retelling a Babylonian myth about Ishtar and Marduk. No such myth has been found to date, however, leading to an apparent historical dead end.</p>
<p>When I learned about these connections as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/brownsmith-esther.php">a young biblical scholar</a>, a modern parallel immediately came to mind: the genre of fan fiction. </p>
<h2>Fanfic, then and now</h2>
<p>In fan fiction, amateur writers create stories based on the characters and imaginative worlds of popular media.</p>
<p>Sites such as the <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/">Archive of Our Own</a>, <a href="https://www.fanfiction.net/">FanFiction.net</a> <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/">and Wattpad</a> host millions of “fics,” from short sketches to novel-length epics. The popularity of these stories has extended beyond the internet: “Fifty Shades of Grey” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2017/02/10/fifty-shades-of-green-how-fanfiction-went-from-dirty-little-secret-to-money-machine/">was a fic of the teen series “Twilight</a>,” while the bestselling novel “The Love Hypothesis” <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/star-wars/bestselling-romance-novel-inspired-by-fanfiction-about-star-wars-rey-and-kylo-ren-is-becoming-a-movie">began as a story about characters from “Star Wars</a>.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a black shirt and red scarf stands in front of a sign that says 'Fifty shades.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582897/original/file-20240319-30-tbbvty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author E.L. James attends a special fan screening of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ the movie based on her books, in New York in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FiftyShades-GreyFanFiction/149d58f2e10f4e548709808c0573a816/photo?Query=fan%20fiction&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=71&currentItemNo=44">Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fan fiction studies has become an established corner of academia: studying these texts, their creators and the factors that influence them.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2037">I am not the first scholar</a> to wonder whether ancient texts were the fan fiction of their time. Scholars and fans alike have noted the way that <a href="https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=anthos_archives">the Aeneid builds upon Homer’s compositions</a>, for example, and <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20">John Milton’s epic “Paradise Lost</a>” mines the tales of the Bible.</p>
<p>I believe it makes sense to think of Esther, too, as the ancient equivalent of today’s fan fiction: a tale of familiar characters, re-imagined and repurposed to reflect the identities of their creators.</p>
<p>To begin, Esther and Ishtar had more in common than just their name. In fact, everything in my first paragraph describes them both, from the raucous celebrations held in their names to their legendary beauty. The author of the Book of Esther seems to have been describing a character already familiar to readers, just like a modern fan fiction writer does.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An open scroll shows text with a colored floral pattern at the top and bottom of the manuscript." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582888/original/file-20240319-8674-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century parchment scroll of the Book of Esther, preserved at the Mejanes Library in Aix-en-Provence, France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/a-scroll-of-parchment-from-the-xviiith-century-preserved-at-news-photo/949696604?adppopup=true">Patrick Horvais/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This comparison is not hindered by the fact that the plot of Esther did not derive from a known Mesopotamian myth; plenty of <a href="https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alternate_Universe">“alternate universe” fics</a> tell new stories in new settings, using the change of scenery to reveal new facets of their beloved characters.</p>
<p>Nor does the divide between Mesopotamian polytheism and Jewish monotheism pose a problem. For many authors, fanfic provides an opportunity to <a href="https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0009">transform and critique its source text</a>, adding elements that were glaringly absent from the original, such as queer relationships. </p>
<p>In short, thinking about the story of Esther as ancient “fanfic” could explain the striking parallels between her character and Ishtar. But the implications of this framework are more than simply academic. Calling Esther fan fiction can teach modern readers something about the celebration of Purim – and about storytelling itself.</p>
<h2>Writing ourselves into stories</h2>
<p>The first lesson is that, from ancient Jewish scribes to modern teenage girls, people have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2023.2441">rewriting other people’s stories</a> to reflect their own reality and identities.</p>
<p>Today, a fanfic author might compose a saga about how <a href="https://fanlore.org/wiki/Mary_Sue">a girl like her</a> won hearts and saved lives in male-dominated Middle-earth, the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series. Back in ancient Babylon, Jewish scribes might have re-imagined a popular goddess as a Jewish heroine. Transformative writing is empowering and defiant, then as now.</p>
<p>The second lesson is that carnival and queerness and joy are built into ancient scripture; they are no modern development. Ishtar was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25683215">a gender-fluid queen</a> who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062957">declared</a>, “I am a woman (but) verily I am an exuberant man.” Her followers included “<a href="https://doi.org/10.25162/9783515130974">assinnu” and “kurgarru</a>,” ranks of Mesopotamian priests who were famous for transgressing gender norms.</p>
<p>It should thus come as no surprise that Esther is a story that names and elevates a number of eunuch characters, ascribes <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4139801">feminine and nonbinary traits</a> to the heroic Mordecai and imagines its heroine as sexual and daring. Purim’s long-standing tradition of <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/cross-dressing-on-purim/">cross-dressing</a> and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-03-15/ty-article-magazine/why-do-jews-dress-up-for-purim/00000180-5bb4-d718-afd9-dfbccaa70000">flamboyant costumes</a> has a rich history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in an orange bikini-style outfit and a large red headdress dances in the street near a tall stuffed bear figure." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582895/original/file-20240319-8759-pb38a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dancers perform during a Purim parade festival in 2012 in Holon, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MideastIsraelPurim/295ac0e151b849e2886aa0ecf16a2a2e/photo?Query=purim&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=780&currentItemNo=139">AP Photo/Dan Balilty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, fan fiction is a deeply queer practice. A disproportionate number of stories <a href="https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2205">address gender and sexuality</a>, and its creators are themselves <a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/fansplaining/viz/TheFansplainingShippingSurveyResults/SurveyDemographicsGenderandSexuality">disproportionately</a> <a href="https://www.flowjournal.org/2023/02/fan-demographics-on-ao3/">LGBTQ+</a>.</p>
<p>The third lesson is one that I strive to teach all my students: Scripture can be both relatable and startling when we look at it through fresh eyes. </p>
<p>The Bible instructs Jews to retell the story of Esther each Purim. But by <a href="https://urj.org/blog/get-act-yes-you-can-write-purim-spiel">creating themed Purim spiels</a> each year, drawing on sources from Motown to Moana, Jewish congregations clothe the familiar plot in exciting new garb.</p>
<p>Thinking about biblical stories as fan fiction invites readers today to imagine the ancient scribes as “fans,” brimming with emotional reactions and strong opinions. The Bible is a diverse library of texts created in manifold times and contexts, and its authors were passionately invested in the stories they told and retold – just like modern amateur authors.</p>
<p>This Purim, I invite you to approach the Bible’s tales as the result of a dynamic process, a panoply of voices that each sought to influence their tradition by adding their own words to it. In the hands of fan fiction writers and Purim spiel creators, that process continues today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esther Brownsmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Whether thousands of years ago or right now, fans have always created new stories based on familiar characters, weaving their own experiences into the tale.
Esther Brownsmith, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222564
2024-02-19T17:10:05Z
2024-02-19T17:10:05Z
How modern vendettas compare with blood vengeance in the age of King David
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572876/original/file-20240201-23-tiyvdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C18%2C1013%2C818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The King David by Matthias Stomer (circa 1633-1639).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://musees.marseille.fr/musee-des-beaux-arts-mba">Musee des Beaux-Arts de Marseille</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article includes reference to the killing of an Aboriginal Australian.</em></p>
<p>The English language has borrowed an Italian word, <em>vendetta</em>, to refer to a family blood-feud. Thanks in part to <a href="https://books.google.ie/books?id=jKqoZyCjTD0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Hollywood+the+mafia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=vendetta&f=false">Hollywood’s long fascination with the mafia</a>, family-based retributive violence continues to be strongly associated in western culture with parts of Italy and the Italian-American diaspora. </p>
<p>Yet a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/09636412.2023.2153731?needAccess=true">growing body of research</a>, is making it clear that kin-based blood vengeance isn’t just found in films. It is surprisingly prevalent in the real world, found commonly in approximately 30% of countries, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/09636412.2023.2153731?needAccess=true">including</a> almost a third of countries in Asia-Pacific and Europe (notably the Balkan region), and almost half of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and north Africa. </p>
<p>Given that western religions originated in the Middle East and are still prevalent there, and given the dependence of Judaism, Christianity and even <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29248508/The_Hebrew_Bible_in_Islam_in_THE_CAMBRIDGE_COMPANION_TO_THE_HEBREW_BIBLE_OLD_TESTAMENT">Islam</a> on the Hebrew Bible, it is important to understand how the Bible conceptualises blood vengeance.</p>
<p>In this ancient canon of western religion, there is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2035&version=NIV">clear evidence</a> of legal mechanisms regulating the avenging of illegitimate bloodshed by kinsmen. However, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/king-david-innocent-blood-and-bloodguilt-9780198842200">my research</a> on King David in the books of Samuel and 1 Kings shows how the Bible offers a glimpse of the ancient dynamics of blood-guilt and blood vengeance in practice, rather than merely in theory.</p>
<h2>Bad blood</h2>
<p>Recent research has drawn attention to the role that blood vengeance sometimes plays in <a href="https://mwi.westpoint.edu/an-eye-for-an-eye-the-dynamics-of-blood-revenge-in-civil-war/">modern civil wars</a> – shaping patterns of violence, but also restraint. </p>
<p>Civil wars feature prominently in David’s own story, which begins with the slaying of the famous Philistine giant Goliath and then charts his rise to the throne of Israel and Judah, and the blood-soaked struggle to succeed him. It is against this backdrop that blood vengeance is often played out. The theme recurs regularly as King David first struggles to defeat Saul, his rival from the tribe of Benjamin, and later puts down an armed insurrection by his own son Absalom.</p>
<p>In the modern era, blood vengeance can sometimes be exercised long after the original killing. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26605348_Collective_Memory_and_Blood_Feud_The_Case_of_Mountainous_Crete">In one case</a> in rural Crete, a 25-year-old avenged his uncle who was murdered in 1958 by killing a distant relative of the murderer almost half a century later, in 2005. </p>
<p>So too in the ancient stories about David, we read of a minority community (the Gibeonites) being permitted to execute <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+21%3A1-14&version=ESV">blood vengeance against the descendants of the deceased Saul</a>, for Saul’s earlier illegitimate killing of their kinsmen.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Saul and David by Rembrandt (1650)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572882/original/file-20240201-25-9wbv50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saul and David by Rembrandt (1650).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saul_and_David_by_Rembrandt_Mauritshuis_621.jpg">Mauritshuis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether blood revenge is required against the perpetrators or their relatives, the prospect of it can lead those vulnerable to vengeance to flee the threat of retributive violence. </p>
<p>In 2010, after an Aboriginal man in Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-09-28/family-wants-tribal-punishment-for-mans-death/2276798">killed a fellow tribesman</a> in his village, the entire family of the killer fled to Adelaide to avoid the “payback” required by tribal law. </p>
<p>Similarly, when David’s son <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+13%3A23-39&version=ESV">Absalom murders his half-brother Amnon</a> and flees the scene of the crime, he too seems to be motivated by his desire to escape blood vengeance. This best explains why Absalom ends up in Geshur, an ancient city beyond the jurisdiction of his father, King David. </p>
<h2>The fear factor</h2>
<p>While blood vengeance may spiral into a cycle of violence, <a href="https://przekroj.org/en/art-stories/blood-for-blood/">research among modern Chechen communities</a> in Russia, suggests that it can also discourage violence and reduce the risk of escalation. </p>
<p>This deterrent effect may be seen at various points within stories about King David. In a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2025&version=ESV">crucial episode in David’s rise to the throne</a>, he is insulted by Nabal, a powerful chieftain of the Carmel region of Israel.</p>
<p>When David swears to repay this offence by killing Nabal and the males of his household and sets out to make good on his promise, Nabal’s wife, Abigail, intervenes on his (and her own) behalf. In appealing to David, she warns him that killing Nabal for this insult, however egregious, would be unwarranted. </p>
<p>She insists that the reason David should refrain from illegitimately killing Nabal is that to do so would invite “bloodguilt” (in Hebrew, literally “bloods”) on himself. This would, crucially, have damaged his prospects of eventually attaining the crown. </p>
<p>When David spares Nabal’s life, he does so because he fears the consequences of “bloodguilt” which almost certainly included blood vengeance. This deterrent is also seen later in the David stories, when he refuses to kill a kinsman of his old enemy, Saul, even after the man curses him.</p>
<p>From these and other examples, it is clear that anxiety about innocent blood and the consequences of shedding it profoundly animate the stories of King David in the ancient books of Samuel and 1 Kings. While the phenomenon of blood vengeance remains a feature of the modern world, to fully understand it, we must first seek to understand its debt to antiquity. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Shepherd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Given the dependence of Judaism, Christianity and even Islam on the Hebrew Bible, it is important to understand how the Bible depicts blood vengeance.
David Shepherd, Professor in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Trinity College Dublin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214849
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
Who wrote the Bible?
<p>The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead.</p>
<p>The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BCE) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. </p>
<p>The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement. </p>
<p>During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 CE, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up.</p>
<p>But who wrote the Bible? </p>
<p>Broadly, there are four different theories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. God wrote the Bible</h2>
<p>All Christians agree the Bible is authoritative. Many see it as the divinely revealed word of God. But there are significant disagreements about what this means. </p>
<p>At its most extreme, this is taken to mean the words themselves are divinely inspired – God dictated the Bible to its writers, who were merely God’s musicians playing a divine composition. </p>
<p>As early as the second century, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fathersofchurch0000unse/page/382/mode/2up">Christian philosopher Justin Martyr saw it</a> as only necessary for holy men </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to submit their purified persons to the direction of the Holy Spirit, so that this divine plectrum from Heaven, as it were, by using them as a harp or lyre, might reveal to us divine and celestial truths. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, God dictated the words to the Biblical secretaries, who wrote everything down exactly. </p>
<p>This view continued with the medieval Catholic church. Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas put it simply in the 13th century: “the author of Holy Writ is God”. He <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP_Q1_A10.html">qualified this</a> by saying each word in Holy Writ could have several senses – in other words, it could be variously interpreted. </p>
<p>The religious reform movement known as Protestantism swept through Europe in the 1500s. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">A new group of churches formed</a> alongside the existing Catholic and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy">Eastern Orthodox</a> traditions of Christianity. </p>
<p>Protestants emphasised the authority of “scripture alone” (“sola scriptura”), meaning the text of the Bible was the supreme authority over the church. This gave greater emphasis to the scriptures and the idea of “divine dictation” got more support. </p>
<p>So, for example, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924029273996&seq=254">Protestant reformer John Calvin declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[we] are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestant reformer John Calvin believed in ‘divine dictation’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Divine dictation” was linked to the idea that the Bible was without error (inerrant) – because the words were dictated by God. </p>
<p>Generally, over the first 1,700 years of Christian history, this was assumed, if not argued for. But from the 18th century on, both history and science began to cast doubts on the truth of the Bible. And what had once been taken as fact came to be treated as myth and legend. </p>
<p>The impossibility of any sort of error in the scriptures became a doctrine at the forefront of the 20th-century movement known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>. The <a href="https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy/">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978</a> declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bible-helped-shape-australian-culture-96265">How the Bible helped shape Australian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. God inspired the writers: conservative</h2>
<p>An alternative to the theory of divine dictation is the divine inspiration of the writers. Here, both God and humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible. So, not the words, but the authors were inspired by God. </p>
<p>There are two versions of this theory, dating from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">Reformation</a>. The conservative version, favoured by Protestantism, was: though the Bible was written by humans, God was a dominant force in the partnership. </p>
<p>Protestants believed the sovereignty of God overruled human freedom. But even the Reformers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin">John Calvin</a>, recognised variation within the Biblical stories could be put down to human agency.</p>
<p>Catholics were more inclined to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty. Some flirted with the idea human authorship was at play, with God only intervening to prevent mistakes. </p>
<p>For example, in 1625, <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/46/mode/2up">Jacques Bonfrère said</a> the Holy Spirit acts: “not by dictating or inbreathing, but as one keeps an eye on another while he is writing, to keep him from slipping into errors”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catholics were more inclined than Protestants to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1620s, the Archbishop of Split, Marcantonio de Dominis, went a little further. He distinguished between those parts of the Bible revealed to the writers by God and those that weren’t. In the latter, he believed, errors could occur. </p>
<p>His view was supported some 200 years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Henry-Newman">John Henry Newman</a>, who led the Oxford movement in the Church of England and later became a cardinal (and then a saint) in the Roman Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Newman argued the divinely inspired books of the Bible were interspersed with human additions. In other words, the Bible was inspired in matters of faith and morals – but not, say, in matters of science and history. It was hard, at times, to distinguish this conservative view from “divine dictation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">Friday essay: The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. God inspired the writers: liberal</h2>
<p>During the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic circles, the conservative theory was being overtaken by a more liberal view. The writers of the Bible were inspired by God, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/186/mode/2up">they were “children of their time”</a>, their writings determined by the cultural contexts in which they wrote. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century depiction from the gospels of Matthew and Mark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This view, while recognising the special status of the Bible for Christians, allowed for errors. For example, in 1860 <a href="https://archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft/page/n359/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=inspir">the Anglican theologian Benjamin Jowett declared</a>: “any true doctrine of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of history or of science”.</p>
<p>For Jowett, to hold to the truth of the Bible against the discoveries of science or history was to do a disservice to religion. At times, though, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a liberal view of inspiration and there being no meaning to “inspiration” at all.</p>
<p>In 1868, a conservative Catholic church pushed back against the more liberal view, declaring God’s direct authorship of the Bible. The Council of the Church known as Vatican 1 <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm.">declared</a> both the Old and New Testaments were: “written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-spite-of-their-differences-jews-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-83102">In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. People wrote it, with no divine help</h2>
<p>Within the most liberal Christian circles, by the end of the 19th century, the notion of the Bible as “divinely inspired” had lost any meaning. </p>
<p>Liberal Christians could join their secular colleagues in ignoring questions of the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy or infallibility. The idea of the Bible as a human production was now accepted. And the question of who wrote it was now comparable to questions about the authorship of any other ancient text. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eve in the Garden of Eden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The simple answer to “who wrote the Bible?” became: the authors named in the Bible (for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the authors of the four Gospels). But the idea of the Bible’s authorship is complex and problematic. (So are historical studies of ancient texts more generally.)</p>
<p>This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors. </p>
<p>The content of the 39 books of the Old Testament is the same as the 24 books of the Jewish <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew-Bible">Hebrew Bible</a>. Within modern Old Testament studies, it’s now generally accepted that the books were not the production of a single author, but the result of long and changing histories of the stories’ transmission. </p>
<p>The question of authorship, then, is not about an individual writer, but multiple authors, editors, scribes and redactors – along with multiple different versions of the texts. </p>
<p>It’s much the same with the New Testament. While 13 Letters are attributed to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle">Saint Paul</a>, there are doubts about his authorship of seven of them (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews). There are also disputes over the traditional authorship of a number of the remaining Letters. The book of Revelation was traditionally ascribed to Jesus’s disciple John. But it is now generally agreed he was not its author. </p>
<p>Traditionally, the authors of the four <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament">Gospels</a> were thought to be the apostles Matthew and John, Mark (the companion of Jesus’s disciple Peter), and Luke (the companion of Paul, who spread Christianity to the Greco-Roman world in the first century). But the anonymously written Gospels weren’t attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries. </p>
<p>The dates of the Gospels’ creation also suggests they were not written by eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life. The earliest Gospel, Mark (65-70 CE) was written some 30 years after the death of Jesus (from 29-34 CE). The last Gospel, John (90-100 CE) was written some 60-90 years after the death of Jesus. </p>
<p>It’s clear the author of the Gospel of Mark drew on traditions circulating in the early church about the life and teaching of Jesus and brought them together in the form of ancient biography. </p>
<p>In turn, the Gospel of Mark served as the principal source for the authors of Matthew and Luke. Each of these authors had access to a common source (known as “Q”) of the sayings of Jesus, along with material unique to each of them. </p>
<p>In short, there were many (unknown) authors of the Gospels.</p>
<p>Interestingly, another group of texts, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">Apocrypha</a>, were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments (400 BCE to the first century CE). The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions consider them part of the Bible, but Protestant churches don’t consider them authoritative.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-traditional-christian-doctrine-of-hell-119380">5 things to know about the traditional Christian doctrine of hell</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Divine or human: why does it matter?</h2>
<p>The question of who wrote the Bible matters because the Christian quarter of the world’s population believe the Bible is a not merely a human production. </p>
<p>Divinely inspired, it has a transcendent significance. As such, it provides for Christians an ultimate understanding of how the world is, what history means and how human life should be lived. </p>
<p>It matters because the Biblical worldview is the hidden (and often not-so-hidden) cause of economic, social and personal practices. It remains, as it has always been, a major source of both peace and conflict. </p>
<p>It matters, too, because the Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has formed, informed and shaped all of us – whether consciously or unconsciously, for good or ill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has shaped all of us. But who wrote it? The answer is complicated.
Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202193
2023-03-22T16:51:32Z
2023-03-22T16:51:32Z
The most expensive book of all time? What makes this $50 million Hebrew Bible so special?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516762/original/file-20230321-2335-97zqlg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C18%2C5993%2C3992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the 'Codex Sassoon' at Sotheby's in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ed Jones/AFP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May, Sotheby’s headquarters in New York will be hosting the auction of what could be the most expensive book of all time: a <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/codex-sassoon-the-earliest-most-complete-hebrew-bible">bible estimated up to 50 million dollars</a>. It is said to be one of the oldest in the world, an example of a book unlike any other. What is it really?</p>
<h2>The origins of the Bible</h2>
<p>The Bible is said to be <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction">the world’s best-selling book</a>. Granted, it enjoyed a head start: in the 15th century, when Gutenberg developed his famous printing technique, it was of course the Bible that he chose for widespread distribution.</p>
<p>At the time, Gutenberg printed a Latin version of the Bible, known as the “Vulgate”, translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek by Saint Jerome at the turn of the 5th century AD. We owe such linguistic diversity to the fact that the Bible is not a book, but a collection of books written at different times by authors who did not all speak the same language. The word “bible” itself means “the books” in the plural (in Greek: “ta biblia”).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513425/original/file-20230303-20-tgc9ok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gutenberg Bible, Lenox Copy, New York Public Library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Starfire2k/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bible to be auctioned on May 16 is in Hebrew and dates from around the 10th century AD. This is a respectable age, but there are much older manuscripts. A thousand years earlier, scribes were copying the same books onto parchment (or, more rarely, papyrus) scrolls.</p>
<p>Some of these manuscripts spent millennia hidden in caves on the western shores of the Dead Sea. They were discovered in the middle of the 20th century by Bedouins. These “Dead Sea Scrolls”, as they are called, are the oldest manuscripts of the Bible to date. Unfortunately, they are dislocated and fragmented: there are more than <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il">30,000 fragments</a>, which must have corresponded to about a thousand scrolls. There are as many puzzles to be solved, without a model, and with most of the pieces missing. The oldest are dated to the 3rd century BC, perhaps even the 4th or 5th century BC, as I <a href="http://michaellanglois.org/?p=18261">recently proposed</a>. The later ones are dated to the 2nd century AD.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517656/original/file-20230327-14-p6u06g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsᵃ), copied in the late IIᵉ century BC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://barhama.com/">Ardon Bar-Hama</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In most cases, the method for dating is based on “paleography” – the way the letters are drawn – with the assumption that people did not write in the same way in the 3rd century BC as they did in the 2nd century AD.</p>
<h2>A dating problem</h2>
<p>Carbon-14 dating is, in theory, useful, but it faces several difficulties: it is a destructive method, because samples have to be taken and crushed. These samples are often contaminated and give aberrant results. And even when they are correct, the results have to be calibrated, and one sometimes ends up with several possible and rather imprecise dates. Finally, even when the date is plausible, only the parchment or papyrus is dated, not the writing. The text itself may have been inked much later – especially if the parchment was washed and reused, as was often done: in those days, recycling was the norm.</p>
<p>Before the upcoming auction, a carbon-14 dating was carried out, but the results have not been published. We are told that this bible would date from the late 9th or early 10th century AD, but no further details are given. It is in the seller’s interest to offer the earliest possible dating to raise the bidding, even to the point of presenting this bible as a missing link with the Dead Sea Scrolls. In reality, a millennium separates them, so that a few decades will hardly make any difference.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513439/original/file-20230303-24-fowbkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Codex Vaticanus, copied around the IVᵉ century AD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ardon Bar-Hama</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A missing link?</h2>
<p>The missing link exists, however: Greek bibles dated to the 4th or 5th centuries AD. The most famous is in the Vatican, hence the name <a href="https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209">Codex Vaticanus</a>. For the books of the Bible that were written in Greek, these manuscripts preserve the text in its original language. But for books written in Hebrew and Aramaic, one must do with a Greek translation. Alas, to translate is to betray.</p>
<p>This raises the question of the reliability of this Greek version, especially as it sometimes differs from later Hebrew bibles such as the one being auctioned. Were the Greek translators incompetent or distracted? The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls solved this riddle, since some of these scrolls, including Hebrew ones, agree with the Greek version. In other words, the Greek translators did a pretty good job, because the Hebrew text in front of them was different from the medieval Hebrew bibles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513442/original/file-20230303-2362-9f7vc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aleppo Codex, copied circa AD 930.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ardon Bar Hama</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The biblical text did not stop its metamorphosis there. For centuries, different versions were passed on from one hand to another, copied time and again by Jewish and Christian scribes who did not necessarily speak much to each other.</p>
<p>In the Early Middle Ages, Jewish scholars developed systems for punctuating the biblical text. It must be said that the Hebrew alphabet does not mark vowels in a systematic and precise manner. In fact, the same text can often be read in different ways, which can have serious consequences for those who view it as Holy Scripture.</p>
<p>To remove any ambiguity, small dots and strokes were added here and there to specify the exact pronunciation of vowels, stress, punctuation and cantillation. Several pronunciations were in competition, and it was not until the 10th century AD that the first Hebrew bible with the pronunciation still in use today was produced.</p>
<p>That bible is the <a href="http://aleppocodex.org/">Aleppo Codex</a>, dated around AD 930. It is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Several pages are missing, but its heir, the St. Petersburg Codex (or Leningrad Codex), copied in AD 1009, is complete. It is this manuscript that serves as the reference for the study of the Hebrew Bible.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513436/original/file-20230303-26-gifoy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Codex Sassoon 1053, copied around the Xᵉ century AD.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ardon Bar-Hama</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A living text</h2>
<p>The bible up for sale is neither the Aleppo nor the St. Petersburg Codex. It is Codex Sassoon 1053. Unlike the St. Petersburg Codex, pages are missing, so it cannot claim to be the oldest known complete Hebrew bible. Its punctuation is also slightly different from that of the Aleppo Codex. Which can be viewed either as a flaw or a quality: believers who wish to read the Hebrew Bible according to the official pronunciation will disregard this codex, while other scholars note the value of this manuscript for a comparative study of Hebrew punctuation.</p>
<p>The astronomical price for the item being auctioned is indicative of the Bible’s ongoing relevance to billions of people around the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-scrolls-at-the-museum-of-the-bible-106012">Fake scrolls at the Museum of the Bible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such cultural heritage must be protected from any form of instrumentalisation and appreciated at its true value. Codex Sassoon 1053 has other qualities: for example, it arranges the books of the Hebrew Bible in a slightly different order than we know them. The book of the prophet Isaiah has been placed after Ezekiel, not before Jeremiah. Imagine watching the <em>Star Wars</em> movies in a different order than the one in which they were released in theatres; the effect would not be the same!</p>
<p>This is what happens here: the Bible is read in a different way. Each manuscript is unique. The Bible’s millennial history invites us to discover it, not as a monolith trapped in a univocal reading, but as a living text in perpetual flux.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Langlois ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Codex Sassoon 1053 is not exactly the oldest known complete Hebrew bible. So how can we explain its astronomical price?
Michael Langlois, Docteur ès sciences historiques et philologiques, maître de conférences HDR, membre honoraire de l’IUF, Université de Strasbourg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198375
2023-02-10T13:51:30Z
2023-02-10T13:51:30Z
Why is a love poem full of sex in the Bible? Readers have been struggling with the Song of Songs for 2,000 years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507784/original/file-20230202-16-6v8pqh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C0%2C941%2C603&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Figuring out what to do with the 'Song of Songs' has preoccupied people reading the Bible for centuries.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Song_of_Solomon#/media/File:10268Ashendene_1000.jpg">'Song of Songs' illustrated by Florence Kingsford/Southern Methodist University/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Americans have heard the expression “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” – in fact, a quick Google search turns up myriad websites offering wedding bands inscribed with <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.6.3?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en">the much-loved line</a>. Search Etsy for Valentine’s Day gifts, and you’ll see jewelry, T-shirts and coffee mugs printed with the phrase. But perhaps not all of the quotation’s admirers know that its origins lie in a biblical text: the Song of Songs, which has created difficulties for readers for 2,000 years.</p>
<p>Also known as the Song of Solomon or Canticle of Canticles, the Song of Songs stands out in the Bible because of its extensive and candid sexual content. It is a work of sensual lyric poetry that portrays scenes of actual and imagined trysts between the poem’s female protagonist and her lover. </p>
<p>Graphic descriptions of both male and female bodies pervade the work and are certainly titillating, even bordering on pornographic. Sensual metaphors such as “<a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.6.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en">grazing among the lilies</a>” and “drinking … <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.8?lang=bi">from the juice of my pomegranates</a>” suggest sexual practices that are anything but vanilla.</p>
<p>It’s not just the emphasis on sex that makes the text unusual. The Song of Songs is the only work in the Bible that focuses exclusively on human-to-human love, not human-to-divine – at least on the surface level of the poem.</p>
<p>Ancient Jews and Christians were troubled by the inclusion of such a graphic love poem in the biblical canon and came up with their own ways to remedy the dilemma.</p>
<h2>Barely a mention of God</h2>
<p>The Bible includes other references to sex – including graphic depictions of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/II_Samuel.13.24?lang=bi">sexual violence</a>. And other books certainly contain depictions of human love, such as that of the patriarch Jacob, who labored for 14 years to win <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rachel-biblical-figure">his wife Rachel</a> in the Book of Genesis.</p>
<p>But when other biblical books talk about love and marriage, they primarily use this language to depict God’s relationship with people – specifically, the people of Israel, who have a special covenant with him according to the Torah. In contrast, the Song of Songs may possibly allude to Israel’s God only once, in <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.8?lang=bi">chapter eight</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A painting of a woman wearing glittering jewels and a crown against a dark background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=794&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507783/original/file-20230202-12-6v8pqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=998&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Song of Songs,’ by 19th-century painter Gustave Moreau.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-song-of-songs-private-collection-artist-moreau-gustave-news-photo/600051949?phrase=%22song%20of%20songs%22&adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet ancient interpreters of the Song of Songs did not interpret this poetic work as a depiction of human-to-human love. In fact, <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mes/faculty/jk33798">while researching</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/my-perfect-one-9780199359332?cc=us&lang=en&">my book</a> about early rabbinic interpretation of the Song of Songs, I noticed that no such interpretations – Jewish or Christian – survive from before the modern era.</p>
<p>Instead, the earlier commentators “reread” the Song of Songs exclusively as a portrayal of divine-to-human love, God’s relationship with a beloved individual or community.</p>
<h2>Covenant with the divine</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23509951">Other scholars and I have argued</a> that the earliest interpretations of the Song of Songs appear in late first-century works, such as allusions in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/148125942">Book of Revelation</a> – the final book in the New Testament, which describes prophetic visions of Jesus’ second coming – and <a href="http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_ot/2esdr.htm">4 Ezra</a>, another apocalyptic work included in some versions of the Bible.</p>
<p>In the first few centuries, rabbis began to interpret the Song of Songs as part of their commentaries on the Pentateuch, the first section of the Hebrew Bible. The Pentateuch describes the creation of the world and includes stories about the Israelites’ ancestors and their epic journey from Egypt to Israel. Over the course of several books, the Pentateuch shows them fleeing slavery, receiving revelation from God at Mt. Sinai, wandering in the desert for 40 years and finally entering the promised land.</p>
<p>These early rabbis envisioned that narrative as an extended, intimate story about God’s relationship with the people of Israel. And although they shied away from the more erotic dimensions of the Song of Songs, they used its language to depict God’s relationship with the people of Israel as more than a simple contractual arrangement. In <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/my-perfect-one-9780199359332?cc=us&lang=en&">my 2015 book, “My Perfect One</a>,” I argued that the earliest rabbis characterized these bonds as deeply affectionate and marked by profound emotional commitment. For instance, in one passage, they interpret <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Song_of_Songs.2.6?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en">Song of Songs 2:6</a> – “His left hand was under my head, and his right hand embraced me” – as describing God’s embrace of Israel at Mt. Sinai.</p>
<h2>A lover’s yearning</h2>
<p>In a similar fashion, Christian scholars avoided the carnal dimensions of this poetic work. Rather than seeing the Song of Songs as a statement of God’s love for Israel, early Christians understood it as an allegory of Christ’s love for his “bride,” the church. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An old plank with inked writing on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507782/original/file-20230202-12-9a533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A piece of wood inscribed with text from the Song of Songs in Egypt around 580-640 A.D.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ostrakon-with-text-from-song-of-songs-580-640-made-in-news-photo/1296599240?phrase=%22song%20of%20songs%22&adppopup=true">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other allegorical readings have also emerged throughout history. Origen, for instance, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Song_of_Songs.html?id=Mjxy0Fl7VMsC">a third-century Christian writer</a>, proposed that the Song of Songs could be interpreted as the soul’s yearning for God. Similar to other interpreters, Origen associated the soul with the female protagonist, and the divine with her male “beloved.”</p>
<p>Another Christian <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhv3r">approach to the Song of Songs</a> was that the poem described God’s loving relationship with Jesus’ mother, Mary. </p>
<p>These diverse interpretations may also have influenced medieval Jewish mystics. In Judaism, the divine presence or “Shekinah” is often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009402000016">thought of as feminine</a> – an idea that became important to these mystics, who relied on the Song of Songs to describe the Shekinah.</p>
<h2>Reading the poem today</h2>
<p>In the modern period, even more understandings of the poem have emerged, including some about human-to-human love. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/003463730810500306">feminist readings</a> have highlighted the female character’s power, autonomy and sensuality. Conservative Christians, meanwhile, often <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/the-message-of-the-song-of-songs">approach the poem</a> as an ideal expression of acceptable love between a husband and wife.</p>
<p>From the first few centuries up to today, these many meanings highlight readers’ creativity – and the evocative power of the Song of Songs’ poetic language.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Kaplan has received funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. </span></em></p>
The famous biblical book alludes to God only once. Historically, though, most interpreters have argued the poem’s about love between the divine and his people.
Jonathan Kaplan, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, The University of Texas at Austin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180652
2022-09-15T12:18:22Z
2022-09-15T12:18:22Z
Debates about migration have never been simple – just look at the Hebrew Bible
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481224/original/file-20220826-26-etgu94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C1014%2C669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Departure for Canaan,' a detail of a 13th-century mosaic from the dome of Abraham in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/departure-for-canaan-mosaic-detail-from-the-dome-of-abraham-news-photo/170915184?adppopup=true">De Agostini Photo Library/De Agostini via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today, the Bible is often invoked during public debates about immigration. From former Attorney General <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/romans-13/562916/">Jeff Sessions</a> to <a href="https://www.hias.org/2000rabbis">a group of 2,000 rabbis</a>, people have referred to the Bible to explain their differing positions on immigration and refugees. <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-paul-and-the-border-debate-why-cherry-picking-bible-passages-misses-the-immigrant-experience-in-ancient-rome-155021">Several specialists</a> in biblical studies <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/what-does-the-bible-say-about-strangers-migrants-and-refugees/">have spoken and written</a> about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/10/franklin-graham-said-immigration-is-not-a-bible-issue-heres-what-the-bible-says/">what the text says on the topic</a>.</p>
<p>One thing is clear: Migration matters in the Bible. Stories about it are common – from the Book of Genesis, where the patriarch Abraham obeys God’s command <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+12-22&version=NRSVUE">to leave his homeland in Mesopotamia</a>, to the Moabite woman Ruth, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ruth+1%3A6-20&version=NRSVUE">who migrates to Bethlehem</a> out of love for her Judean mother-in-law, Naomi, to the Jews’ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+137&version=NRSVUE">forced migration</a> to Babylonia.</p>
<p>But these many voices do not necessarily boil down to a single theology or ethical framework. As <a href="https://www.fordham.edu/info/23704/theology_faculty">a scholar of the Hebrew Bible</a>, I study how themes of migration mattered in the making of scripture, as well as in how the text has been circulated, debated and interpreted by readers across the globe. </p>
<p>Discussions about migration are always complicated, because migrants’ <a href="https://www.iamanimmigrant.com/stories/">real-life experiences</a> do not easily translate into simple bureaucratic categories.</p>
<p>Modern societies defined by the ideas of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/591580">citizenship</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2021.1895672">borders</a> tend to classify modern migrants into legal binaries, each with its own rights and restrictions: <a href="https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc851">resident vs. nonresident</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/undocumented_immigrant">documented vs. undocumented</a>, <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waiver-program/requirements-immigrant-and-nonimmigrant-visas">immigrant vs. nonimmigrant</a>. Ancient Israel, too, relied on legal categories to try to make sense of migration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows two women in robes embracing in the desert, while another woman looks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481229/original/file-20220826-14204-tw4ry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Ruth and Naomi’ (1886), by Philip Hermogenes Calderon, shows Ruth embracing her mother-in-law, Naomi, and pleading to go to Bethlehem with her.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ruth-and-naomi-ruth-embracing-her-mother-in-law-naomi-with-news-photo/1160945835?adppopup=true">Photo by The Print Collector/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ancient Israelite law</h2>
<p>The Hebrew Bible’s legal passages discuss people who have come to Israel from other places and how they should be treated. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2024%3A14&version=NRSVUE">prescribes a law</a> that protects poor and destitute workers from being exploited, no matter if they are fellow Israelites or not.</p>
<p>There are two Hebrew terms that recognize different kinds of strangers in the community, with differing status and privileges.</p>
<p>The first, “ger,” can be translated as “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/foreigner-and-the-law-perspectives-from-the-hebrew-bible-and-the-ancient-near-east/oclc/758877753&referer=brief_results">resident alien</a>.” In other words, it is a legal category for people who are not “citizens,” in the language used today, but who have permission to reside there. In the Hebrew Bible, the term does not distinguish between voluntary immigrants and forced refugees.</p>
<p>People in the “ger” category are embraced as part of the Israelite community. For example, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A14&version=NRSVUE">law in the Book of Numbers</a> dictates that the “ger” are eligible to participate in a sacrificial ritual to the God of Israel, just like the locals.</p>
<p>The Book of Numbers further protects the “ger” by stipulating that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A15-16&version=NRSVUE">there will be one law</a> for both the Israelites and the immigrants throughout the generations. Whether locals or not, they are equally subject to the rules about offerings and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=leviticus+17%3A8-15&version=NRSVUE">other standards for holiness</a>. When the community makes an offering as atonement for sin, the immigrant population <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15%3A24-31&version=NRSVUE">is also considered forgiven</a>.</p>
<p>On the other hand, migrants called “nokri” – commonly translated as “foreigner” – have a more restricted social status. Deuteronomy <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2023&version=NRSVUE">prohibits Israelites from charging interest</a> on loans to a fellow Israelite, but not to “nokri.” Likewise, the law commands Israelites to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+15%3A1-3&version=NRSVUE">forgive each other’s debts</a> every seventh year, but not debts of “nokri.”</p>
<h2>Strangers themselves</h2>
<p>The Hebrew Bible’s view on strangers is not just about dealing with others. Biblical ideas about foreignness are forged through the Israelites’ own experiences and collective memories about being strangers.</p>
<p>In the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, a main reason to protect strangers is repeatedly given: Because Israelites themselves <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy+10%3A19&version=NRSVUE">were “ger” in the land of Egypt</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows men pulling a wagon with a heavy statue of a lion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481227/original/file-20220826-26-lwlcfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Israel in Egypt’ (1867), by Edward John Poynter, imagines a biblical scene of Israelite slaves constructing cities in Egypt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/israel-in-egypt-1867-dramatic-scene-set-in-ancient-egypt-news-photo/464477583?adppopup=true">Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The many meanings of foreignness are also explored in biblical literature from after the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Some groups returned to the land of Judah, some remained in Babylon and some had never left in the first place.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther%201&version=NRSVUE">The Book of Esther</a>, for example, concerns the life of the diaspora community living in Persia. The story unfolds mainly through the actions of Queen Esther, who carries a dual identity as a Jew and as a Persian, and its central themes deal with the struggle to survive in a foreign land.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the protagonists in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are repatriates who had previously lived in Mesopotamia, but encountered a new sense of foreignness upon their return. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=nehemiah+13%3A23-25&version=NRSVUE">Nehemiah Chapter 13</a> describes Nehemiah’s shock when he learns that Jews had married women from surrounding cultures, and half of their children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065809-007">only spoke other languages</a>.</p>
<p>The Bible speaks about migration with many different voices – even beyond its pages. Migrant communities across the globe have continued to read and interpret it <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/latinxs-the-bible-and-migration/oclc/1194467037&referer=brief_results">through the lens of their own experiences</a> ever since, opening up new possibilities for understanding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ki-Eun Jang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Bible is full of stories about migrants. That doesn’t mean it has a simple takeaway message about them.
Ki-Eun Jang, Assistant Professor of Theology (Bible in Global Cultures), Fordham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183782
2022-07-26T11:57:15Z
2022-07-26T11:57:15Z
Proclaim debt amnesty throughout all the land? A biblical solution to a present-day problem
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475172/original/file-20220720-11760-dzfe0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C11%2C2481%2C1860&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of a restoration edict of Ammisaduqa, one of the rulers of ancient Babylon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/339237001">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Student loan debt is one of the most burdensome forms of debt in America today. According to oft-cited statistics, <a href="https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/portfolio">approximately 43 million Americans</a> have student loan debt, cumulatively amounting to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/this-is-how-student-loan-debt-became-a-1point7-trillion-crisis.html">around US$1.7 trillion</a>. The exorbitant costs of higher education in the United States, combined with the fact that educational credentials serve as a ticket to decent employment, require many students to take out loans that follow them long past graduation – and that are almost impossible to <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-student-loans-be-cleared-through-bankruptcy-4-questions-answered-166308">discharge in bankruptcy</a>. </p>
<p>Hence, calls for cancellation of student loan debt by legislative or executive action keep intensifying, and President Joe Biden is expected to respond by <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-would-student-loan-forgiveness-really-work?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_4436193_nl_Academe-Today_date_20220609&cid=at&source=ams&sourceid=&cid2=gen_login_refresh">ordering cancellation of some amount</a>, notwithstanding arguments against any blanket debt amnesty.</p>
<p>Yet this very policy is inscribed on <a href="https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-libertybell.htm">the U.S. Liberty Bell</a>. “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof!” it declares, quoting <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.25.10?lang=bi&aliyot=0">the biblical Book of Leviticus, 25:10</a>. The Hebrew word translated “liberty,” “derōr,” actually refers to debt amnesty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large bell is displayed on a stand, with a shady courtyard in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475220/original/file-20220720-16-pwtyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Liberty Bell, with its famous crack, in Philadelphia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/close-up-of-the-liberty-bell-news-photo/144082290?adppopup=true">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the world of the Bible, it was customary to cancel all noncommercial debts from time to time. As <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/vonda001">a scholar of the ancient Near East</a>, I’ve read many cuneiform tablets that record how people then – like Americans today – often went into debt to meet living expenses. They might mortgage their property to keep a roof over their heads, only to find that ever-accruing interest made it impossible to pay off the principal. </p>
<p>They faced the additional risk of debt bondage: People lacking sufficient property to secure their debts would have to pledge their dependents or even their own selves to their creditors. <a href="https://brill.com/view/title/7176">Their creditors thus became their masters</a>, and those pledged for debt were effectively enslaved, unless and until they were redeemed. A decree of debt amnesty would wipe the slate clean, springing people from bondage and restoring their freedom as well as their fortunes.</p>
<h2>Kings clean the slate</h2>
<p>The earliest recorded instances of this practice come from ancient Sumer, a land in the south of what is now Iraq. <a href="http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/corpus">Urukagina</a>, ruler of the city of Lagash around 2400 B.C., decreed a debt amnesty soon after he came to power, releasing people living in debt bondage to go home and even clearing the prisons. In the Sumerian language, this amnesty was termed “<a href="http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/nepsd-frame.html">amargi</a>” – “return to mother” – for it restored people to their families.</p>
<p>Urukagina was not the first to issue such a decree, and it may already have become traditional by his time. The practice of decreeing debt amnesty is widely documented in the Semitic-speaking kingdoms of Syria and Mesopotamia during the early second millennium B.C. Debt amnesty was routinely triggered by the death of a ruler: His successor would <a href="http://www.archibab.fr/T16766">raise a golden torch</a> and decree “andurāru,” or “restoration” – the Akkadian equivalent of Hebrew “deror.” The stated purpose of such decrees was to establish or reestablish equity. A king’s foremost duty was to maintain “justice and equity,” as Hammurabi of Babylon claimed to do when promulgating <a href="https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010174436">his laws</a> around 1750 B.C.</p>
<p>While lending at interest was not considered unjust, debt that deprived families of their property and liberty created inequity, which had to be remedied. A decree of “andurāru” restored equity, liberty and family property by canceling debts incurred for subsistence – including tax arrears owed to the state – while leaving commercial debts untouched. When Hammurabi was on his deathbed, his son Samsu-iluna took power and <a href="http://www.archibab.fr/4dcgi/listestextes3.htm?T13">issued a decree</a> remitting noncommercial debts, canceling arrears and forbidding their collection; thus, he declared, “I have established restoration throughout the land.” </p>
<p>A decree of restoration could also be issued to address political or economic crisis. The usurper or conqueror, having subjected a people to his rule, could establish their “restoration,” both remitting debts and enabling those captured during hostilities to go free. Hammurabi himself did this <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/hammurabi-of-babylon-9781350197787/">upon conquering the kingdom of Larsa</a>, which was part of ancient Sumer.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A stone relief shows two men with long beards: one standing, with a hand to his mouth, the other seated and holding a staff." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475894/original/file-20220725-12-p1oza7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=945&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail of a relief of King Hammurabi before the sun-god Shamash, from a stone stele inscribed with his proclamation of laws and dedicated around 1750 B.C., discovered at Susa in present-day Iran.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/diorite-stela-with-the-code-of-hammurabi-detail-showing-the-news-photo/142931321?adppopup=true">DEA / G. Dagli Orti/DeAgostini via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus the conqueror could pose as a liberator setting a disordered realm to rights. The idea was to restore the inhabitants of the land to their original condition, before incurring debt, losing their property or losing their liberty.</p>
<h2>Not so forgiving</h2>
<p>The issuance of debt-canceling decrees was sporadic, not periodic, so one never knew when it would occur. But everyone knew it would happen sooner or later. Financiers would therefore prepare for this eventuality to avoid taking losses whenever debts were abruptly remitted and their collection prohibited. They used various methods to insulate transactions and investments from debt remission – because otherwise who would ever offer credit to those in need? </p>
<p>They <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/699392">developed legal fictions</a> to disguise mortgage loans, debt bondage, and the like as contracts of other kinds, avoiding their cancellation by decree. The <a href="https://www.kriso.ee/context-scripture-volume-2-monumental-inscriptions-db-9789004106192.html?lang=eng">decree of Ammi-ṣaduqa</a>, a king of Babylon in the 17th century B.C., explicitly prohibits such subterfuge, but regulation was a step behind entrepreneurs. Clever financial instruments immunized debt from amnesty and kept credit, as well as profit, flowing.</p>
<p>Ultimately a program for periodic debt cancellation was developed in biblical law. <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.15?lang=bi&aliyot=0">The Book of Deuteronomy</a> requires remission of debts among Israelites every seventh year, using the term “šemiṭṭah” – “remission” – and stipulating that every creditor should remit the debt owed him. <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.25.10?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en">The Book of Leviticus</a> adds the requirement to proclaim amnesty, Hebrew “deror,” after every seventh cycle of seven years, restoring every Israelite to his property and family in the 50th year – <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.25.9?lang=bi&aliyot=0">the jubilee</a> year. Recognizing that a predictable debt amnesty would only make creditors’ planning easier, <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.15?lang=bi&aliyot=0">Deuteronomy 15:9</a> warns against refusing to lend as the seventh year approaches. </p>
<p>The biblical authors must have had some experience with creditors’ efforts to evade the requirement to remit debts. According to <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Jeremiah.34.9?lang=bi">the Book of Jeremiah</a>, when Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, decreed “deror” in the face of the Babylonian invasion of 587 B.C., creditors agreed to release their enslaved fellow Judeans, then found ways to force them back into bondage.</p>
<p>Not only was the ostensible purpose of debt-remission decrees <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/699392">defeated by creative credit instruments</a>, the true purpose of such decrees was not to fix the problems that made them necessary. People would still need to go into debt to survive, pay their taxes and keep a roof over their heads. They would still risk impoverishment, debt bondage and eventual enslavement. Sporadic debt cancellation did not eliminate chronic indebtedness, nor was it meant to.</p>
<p>Instead, the function of such decrees was to restore socioeconomic balance – and the tax base – enough that the cycle of borrowing to survive could start over. In a sense, debt amnesty actually served to restore society to its ideal state of inequity, so that it would always need the same remedy again.</p>
<p>This dynamic is worth considering amid calls for canceling student loan debt. Certainly a student debt amnesty would benefit <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/22/student-loan-borrowers/">millions</a> whose lives are shackled by interest on loans they took out in the hope that a degree would guarantee them gainful employment. It would do nothing to <a href="https://wdet.org/2020/12/09/forgiving-student-loans-wont-fix-the-root-cause-of-the-student-debt-crisis/">address the problems</a> that make incurring such debt necessary. </p>
<p>As long as higher education is treated simultaneously as a private good and a job requirement, people will still need to go into debt to get degrees. Then the same remedy will have to be applied again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eva von Dassow was awarded a fellowship funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities at the American Academy in Rome (2016). </span></em></p>
A scholar of the ancient Near East explains how loan forgiveness was handled thousands of years ago in the Bible and royal decrees.
Eva von Dassow, Associate professor of Ancient History, University of Minnesota
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186983
2022-07-20T12:22:02Z
2022-07-20T12:22:02Z
What the Bible actually says about abortion may surprise you
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474399/original/file-20220716-16-ksf3wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C6%2C996%2C683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activist Jason Hershey reads from a Bible as he protests in front of the U.S. Supreme Court with the anti-abortion group Bound for Life in 2005 in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pro-life-activist-jason-hershey-reads-from-a-bible-as-he-news-photo/56303642?adppopup=true">Win McNamee via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the days since the Supreme Court <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823">overturned Roe v. Wade</a>, which had established the constitutional right to an abortion, some <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article262921023.html">Christians have cited the Bible</a> to argue why this decision should either be celebrated or lamented. But here’s the problem: This 2,000-year-old text says nothing about abortion.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.fresno.edu/person/001g000001wnx9yiac/melanie-howard">a university professor of biblical studies</a>, I am familiar with faith-based arguments Christians use to back up views of abortion, whether for or against. Many people seem to assume the Bible discusses the topic head-on, which is not the case. </p>
<h2>Ancient context</h2>
<p>Abortions were <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674168763">known and practiced</a> in biblical times, although the methods differed significantly from modern ones. The second-century <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/n870zr06z">Greek physician Soranus</a>, for example, recommended fasting, bloodletting, vigorous jumping and carrying heavy loads as ways to end a pregnancy. </p>
<p>Soranus’ <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/n870zr06z">treatise on gynecology</a> acknowledged different schools of thought on the topic. Some medical practitioners forbade the use of any abortive methods. Others permitted them, but not in cases in which they were intended to cover up an adulterous liaison or simply to preserve the mother’s good looks. </p>
<p>In other words, the Bible was written in a world in which abortion was practiced and viewed with nuance. Yet the Hebrew and Greek equivalents of the word “abortion” do not appear in either the Old or New Testament of the Bible. That is, the topic simply is not directly mentioned. </p>
<h2>What the Bible says</h2>
<p>The absence of an explicit reference to abortion, however, has not stopped its opponents or proponents from looking to the Bible for support of their positions.</p>
<p>Abortion opponents turn to several biblical texts that, taken together, seem to suggest that human life has value before birth. For example, the Bible opens by describing the creation of humans “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen+1%3A27&version=NRSVUE">in the image of God</a>”: a way to explain the value of human life, presumably even before people are born. Likewise, the Bible describes several important figures, including the prophets <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+1%3A5&version=NRSVUE">Jeremiah</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa+49%3A1&version=NRSVUE">Isaiah</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal+1%3A15&version=NRSVUE">the Christian Apostle Paul</a>, as having being called to their sacred tasks since their time in the womb. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+139&version=NRSVUE">Psalm 139</a> asserts that God “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+139%3A13-15&version=NRSVUE">knit me together in my mother’s womb</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows God's hand reaching out to touch Adam, the first human in the Bible's story of creation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Creation of Adam’ from the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-creation-of-adam-from-the-sistine-chapel-ceiling-by-news-photo/566419839?adppopup=true">GraphicaArtis/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, abortion opponents are not the only ones who can appeal to the Bible for support. Supporters can point to other biblical texts that would seem to count as evidence in their favor. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exod+21%3A22-25&version=NRSVUE">Exodus 21</a>, for example, suggests that a pregnant woman’s life is more valuable than the fetus’s. This text describes a scenario in which men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and cause her to miscarry. A monetary fine is imposed if the woman suffers no other harm beyond the miscarriage. However, if the woman suffers additional harm, the perpetrator’s punishment is to suffer reciprocal harm, up to life for life.</p>
<p>There are other biblical texts that seem to celebrate the choices that women make for their bodies, even in contexts in which such choices would have been socially shunned. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mk+5%3A25-34&version=NRSVUE">The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark</a>, for example, describes a woman with a gynecological ailment that has made her bleed continuously taking a great risk: She reaches out to touch Jesus’ cloak in hopes that it will heal her, even though the touch of a menstruating woman was believed to cause ritual contamination. However, Jesus commends her choice and praises her faith. </p>
<p>Similarly, in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ follower Mary <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+12%3A1-8&version=NRSVUE">seemingly wastes resources</a> by pouring an entire container of costly ointment on his feet and using her own hair to wipe them – but he defends her decision to break the social taboo around touching an unrelated man so intimately.</p>
<h2>Beyond the Bible</h2>
<p>In the response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Christians <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/25/us/abortion-christian-debate-blake-cec/index.html">on both sides of the partisan divide</a> have appealed to any number of texts <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/tony-evans-urges-christians-to-promote-a-womb-to-the-tomb-strategy-for-pregnant-women.html">to assert that their particular brand of politics is biblically backed</a>. However, if they claim the Bible specifically condemns or approves of abortion, they are skewing the textual evidence to fit their position.</p>
<p>Of course, Christians can develop their own faith-based arguments about modern political issues, whether or not the Bible speaks directly to them. But it is important to recognize that although the Bible was written at a time when abortion was practiced, it never directly addresses the issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie A. Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Faith can inform opinions about abortion on both sides of the political debate, but the Bible itself says nothing directly about the topic, a biblical scholar explains.
Melanie A. Howard, Associate Professor of Biblical & Theological Studies, Fresno Pacific University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183516
2022-07-15T12:18:49Z
2022-07-15T12:18:49Z
Monsters are everywhere in the Bible – and some are even human
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472887/original/file-20220706-14-meljv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C1017%2C625&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 12th-century commentary on the Book of Job shows Satan transmitting a disease to him.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/illuminated-drop-cap-depicting-satan-transmitting-a-disease-news-photo/541321495?adppopup=true">DeAgostini Picture Library via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is a “monster”? For most Americans, this word sparks images of haunted houses and horror movies: scary creations, neither human nor animal, and usually evil.</p>
<p>But it can be helpful to think about “monsters” beyond these knee-jerk images. Ever since the 1990s, humanities scholars have been <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-monster-theory-reader">paying close attention</a> to “monstrous” bodies in literature: characters whose appearance challenges common ideas about what’s normal.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/near-eastern-judaic/people/faculty/richey.html">Biblical scholars like me</a> have followed in their footsteps. The Bible is full of monsters, even if they’re not Frankenstein or Bigfoot, and these characters can teach important lessons about ancient authors, texts and cultures. Monsterlike characters – even human ones – can convey ideas about what’s considered normal and good or “deviant,” disturbing and evil.</p>
<h2>Hidden messages</h2>
<p>Sometimes, monsters’ bodies are depicted in ways that reflect racist or sexist stereotypes about “us” versus “them.” Literary theorist <a href="https://english.columbia.edu/content/jack-halberstam">Jack Halberstam</a>, for example, <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/skin-shows">has written</a> about how Dracula and other vampires reveal antisemitic symbolism – even on Count Chocula cereal boxes. Such images often draw on <a href="https://www.anumuseum.org.il/blog-items/myth-vampire-jew-blood-libels/">antisemitic tropes that have been around for centuries</a>, portraying Jewish people as shadowy, bloodsucking parasites.</p>
<p>Biblical monsters are no less revealing. In the Book of Judges, for example, the judge Ehud confronts the grotesque Moabite king Eglon, who is fatally fat and dies in an explosion of his own feces when a sword gets stuck in his stomach – though most <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Judges.3.22?lang=bi">modern translations</a> render this a bit more chastely: “[Eglon’s] fat closed over [Ehud’s] blade, and the hilt went in after the blade – for he did not pull the dagger out of his belly – and the filth came out.”</p>
<p>In describing Eglon, the text also teaches Israelites how to think about their Moabite neighbors across the Jordan River. Like their emblematic king, Moabites are portrayed as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089219862807">excessive and disgusting</a> – but ridiculous enough that Israelite heroes can defeat them with a few tricks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows two soldiers on either side of a young man in a simple robe above a giant's head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472892/original/file-20220706-160-ng8ozt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘David with the Head of Goliath and two Soldiers,’ from 1615. Found in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/david-with-the-head-of-goliath-and-two-soldiers-c-1615-news-photo/919731208?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Figures like Eglon and the famous Philistine giant Goliath, <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/I_Samuel.17.29?lang=bi">who battles the future King David</a>, offer opportunities for biblical authors to subtly instruct readers about other groups of people that the authors consider threatening or inferior.</p>
<h2>‘Why me?’</h2>
<p>But the Bible sometimes draws a relatable human character and then inserts twists, playing with the audience’s expectations.</p>
<p>In my own recent work, I have suggested that this is exactly what’s going on with <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Job?tab=contents">the Book of Job</a>. In this mostly poetic book of the Bible, “The Satan” claims that Job acts righteously only because he is prosperous and healthy. God grants permission for the fiend to test Job by causing his children to be killed, his livestock to be stolen and his body to break out in painful boils.</p>
<p>Job is then approached by three friends, who insist that he must have done something to prompt this apparent punishment. He spends the rest of the book debating with them about the cause of his torment.</p>
<p>The book is full of monsters and already <a href="https://doi.org/10.5840/jrv201581014">a familiar topic</a> in monster studies. In chapters 40-41, God boasts about two superanimals that he has created, called Leviathan and Behemoth. A mysterious, possibly maritime monster <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Job.26.14?lang=bi">called Rahab</a> appears twice. Both Job and his friends refer to <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Job.4.16?lang=bi">vague nighttime visions</a> that terrify them. </p>
<p>And of course there’s another “monster,” too: Job’s test is instigated by “the Satan.” Later in history, this figure <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7250/the-satan.aspx">became the archfiend of Jewish and Christian theology</a>. In the Book of Job, though, he’s simply portrayed as a crooked minion, a shifty member of God’s heavenly court.</p>
<p>But I’d argue there’s another “monster” hiding in plain sight: the man at the center of it all. As biblical scholars like <a href="https://faculty.txstate.edu/profile/1922178">Rebecca Raphael</a> and <a href="https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/professor-katherine-southwood/">Katherine Southwood</a> <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/biblical-corpora-9780567028020/">have pointed out</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Jobs-Body-and-the-Dramatised-Comedy-of-Moralising/Southwood/p/book/9780367462574">Job’s body</a> is central to the book’s plot.</p>
<p>Job stoically tolerates Satan’s attacks on his livestock and even his children. It is only after <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Job.2.8?lang=bi">the second attack</a>, which produces “a severe inflammation on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head,” that he lets out a deluge of complaints.</p>
<p>To illustrate his suffering, <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Job.30.31?lang=bi">Job repeatedly describes his bodily decay</a> with macabre, gruesome images: “My skin, blackened, is peeling off me. My bones are charred by the heat.” And, “My flesh is covered with maggots and clods of earth; My skin is broken and festering.” </p>
<h2>‘Monstrous’ wonder</h2>
<p>Job’s body is so transformed that he, too, can be seen as a “monster.” But while Job might think that the deity prefers ideal human bodies, this is not necessarily the case. </p>
<p>In the book’s telling, God sustains unique, extraordinary monsters who would seem, at first glance, to be evil or repellent – but actually serve as prime examples of creation’s wonder and diversity. And it is Satan, not God, who decides to test Job by afflicting him physically.</p>
<p>Some books in the Bible indeed view monsters as simplistic, inherently evil “others.” The prophet Daniel, for example, <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Daniel.7.3?lang=bi">has visions of four hybrid beasts</a>, including a winged lion and a multiheaded leopard. These were meant to symbolize <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004443280_005">threatening ancient empires</a> that the chapter’s author despised.</p>
<p>The Book of Job does something radical by pushing against this limited view. Its inclusive viewpoint portrays the “monstrous” human as a sympathetic character who has his place in a diverse, chaotic world – challenging readers’ preconceptions today, just as it might have thousands of years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madadh Richey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The field of ‘monster studies’ looks at how texts reflect ideas about what’s evil, weird or scary.
Madadh Richey, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182717
2022-05-31T12:10:04Z
2022-05-31T12:10:04Z
Shavuot: A Jewish holiday of renewing commitment to God
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465434/original/file-20220526-19-r2kkhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3876%2C2590&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man in Israel harvests wheat ahead of the holiday of Shavuot.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Mideast%20Israel%20Palestinians%20Shavuot/02cafb190b254ab4ad473b6611b6915e?Query=shavuot&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=200&currentItemNo=150">AP Photo/Ariel Schalit</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The festival of Shavuot, marked this year on June 5 and 6, celebrates the biblical story of God revealing Torah – Jewish scriptures and teachings – to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. This gift, and the observance of Torah’s principles, is at the core of the Jews’ relationship with God, referred to as the “covenant.”</p>
<p>Shavuot has deeply agrarian roots. As <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/alan-avery-peck">a scholar of early Rabbinic Judaism</a>, I know that the holiday has evolved significantly over the centuries, as has Judaism itself. Today, rather than primarily marking the harvest, Shavuot observance transports the Jewish community back to Sinai, to symbolically experience the awe of revelation and personally recommit to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/secondcovenant.shtml#:%7E:text=The%20covenant%20that%20God%20gave,they%20were%20his%20chosen%20people">the covenant</a>.</p>
<h2>Ancient roots</h2>
<p>In the Hebrew Bible, Shavuot marks the harvest of the first summer grain. Each Passover, which is celebrated midspring, the Israelites brought a sheaf of the earliest post-winter barley harvest to the Jerusalem Temple. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lev+23%3A9-21&version=NRSVUE">Fifty days later</a>, on Shavuot, they brought the first of the summer wheat harvest, which they presented as an offering to God.</p>
<p>In Hebrew, the word “Shavuot” means “weeks,” referring to the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. The 49 days between are a period known as “The Counting of the Omer.” </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A woman holds a large scroll behind a tray of brightly colored fruit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465436/original/file-20220526-24-zgfpn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1092&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rabbi Laura Geller holds the Torah in a synagogue in Beverly Hills, California, as she discusses Shavuot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rabbi-laura-geller-poses-for-a-portrait-holding-the-torah-news-photo/566037751?adppopup=true">Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Passover and Shavuot thus are linked as holidays that, in the Bible, thanked God for the harvests that sustained people year to year. Jewish scriptures refer to Shavuot as the Festival of the Harvest, “Chag Ha-Katzir,” and Day of First Fruits, “Yom Ha-Bikkurim.” In modern times, synagogue sanctuaries <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shavuot-decorations/">are decorated on Shavuot</a> with greenery, baskets of fruit or other produce that represent the bounty of the land and the divine blessing that helps it grow.</p>
<h2>A holiday transformed</h2>
<p>But Shavuot gradually evolved, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818790">as did other Jewish practices</a>, after <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/destruction-second-temple-70-ce">the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple</a> in AD 70. This dramatic event meant an end to animal sacrifices and agricultural offerings. In their place, Jews paid increased attention to the observance and study of Torah.</p>
<p>Since then, Shavuot has taken on new symbolism, based on its timing in the Jewish calendar. Passover, 49 days before, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-passover-as-in-the-past-will-be-a-time-to-recognize-tragedies-and-offer-hope-for-the-future-157087">commemorates the Jews’ deliverance from slavery</a>. According to scripture, God gave Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai soon after their escape from Egypt. Therefore, people imagine that the counting between Passover and Shavuot represents the Jewish people’s progress from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to Sinai – toward knowledge of God that is revealed through the study and observance of Torah.</p>
<p>On the surface, these holidays mark one-time events. But Shavuot reframes them to represent an ongoing ethical commitment. The prayers and rituals of Passover emphasize God’s desire that <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/490469/for-your-seder-table-discussion-three-stories-of-oppression-liberation-and/">no one be oppressed</a>. Seven weeks later, at Shavuot, the Jewish people recommit themselves to Torah’s revealed principles and practices – traditions that Jews are encouraged to use to oppose oppression and create a better world.</p>
<p>In this context, the 49-day Counting of the Omer leads to a heightened reflection on Jews’ responsibilities in a flawed world. To encourage serious contemplation, during the counting, Jews who are traditionally observant <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/476754/jewish/Approved-Dates-for-a-Wedding.htm">do not schedule weddings</a> or other joyous celebrations and do not engage in activities that might distract from the deep purpose of this sacred time.</p>
<p>Increasingly today, programs of daily reflection and meditation have been developed to turn the Counting of the Omer into a seven-week time of <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/276672/jewish/Daily-Spiritual-Guide.htm">meditation and personal spirituality</a>.</p>
<h2>All-night celebration</h2>
<p>When Shavuot arrives, the community gathers in worship, which includes the reading of the Bible’s Sinai narrative and Ten Commandments. While the Commandments are read, the congregation stands to accept the covenant, just as scripture says the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. To heighten this symbolic reaffirmation, some congregations prepare <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-shavuot-marriage-contract/">wedding contracts</a> that imagine the Jewish people and God as spouses, mutually committed to the value of “<a href="https://time.com/5441818/pittsburgh-tikkun-olam-history/">Tikkun Olam</a>,” or repairing the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young boys walk under a canopy as they clutch Torah scrolls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465437/original/file-20220526-18-7okos2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra Orthodox children march with Torah scrolls in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood during Shavuot celebrations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-children-march-with-torah-scrolls-at-mea-news-photo/71088873?adppopup=true">Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One beautiful part of communal Shavuot worship is chanting the biblical <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ruth">Book of Ruth</a>. Ruth was a woman from the ancient region of Moab who left her own nation and homeland to join the people of Israel, and is remembered today as the first convert to Judaism. Her story is relevant because it takes place in the harvest season and, perhaps, because Ruth was a great-grandmother to the Jewish hero King David, who legend says <a href="https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/why-king-david-matters/">died on Shavuot</a>. And as a convert, Ruth willingly took on the obligations outlined for Jews in Torah – just as all Jews renew their covenant with God on Shavuot.</p>
<p>Another Shavuot tradition is eating dairy foods, such as blintzes and cheesecake. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-dairy-on-shavuot/">The origins of this custom are not clear</a>, and many diverse reasons have been suggested. Some say eating milk products reflects the biblical description of Israel as <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.3.9?ven=The_Contemporary_Torah,_Jewish_Publication_Society,_2006&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=bi&aliyot=0">a land flowing with milk and honey</a>, or that the Israelites, when they received the revelation at Sinai, were like spiritual newborns. Whatever the reason, the practice renders Shavuot a unique culinary experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="In this black and white photo, an elderly woman and young boy tie tree branches to a post as decoration." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465809/original/file-20220527-11-xbcqwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Esther Zolkowitz, 90, passes green branches imported from Israel to 7-year-old Allen Mayer as they decorate a synagogue for Shavuot in 1952.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tomorrow-at-sundown-begins-the-traditional-holiday-of-news-photo/516560616?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some 600 years ago, Jewish mystics in Safed, <a href="https://www.safed.co.il/shavuot-in-tzfat.html">a hilltop town in Israel</a>, developed a custom of staying up late on Shavuot eve to study Torah, underscoring their commitment to religious learning. These study sessions, called “<a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tikkun-leil-shavuot/">Tikkun Leil Shavuot</a>,” are today a central part of Shavuot observance. </p>
<p>A Tikkun Leil Shavuot might go all night and conclude when it is time for morning prayers. Or it might continue until midnight, understood by the mystics to be a <a href="https://hillel.harvard.edu/blog/mystery-midnight">particularly auspicious time</a> for connecting with God. These events have evolved to offer something for everyone, from well-educated adults to schoolchildren.</p>
<p>Bringing the community together to study, these celebrations highlight what is most important about Shavuot. In Judaism, community, Torah and the covenant with God create a world of meaning and purpose. The holiday is a reminder that in life, as in study, people do not go it alone.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Exodus%2024%3A7">Exodus 24</a> teaches that when God revealed Torah at Sinai, the Jewish people said, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will listen!” This year, on June 5 and 6, they will make that same statement again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Jewish festival of Shavuot dates back to biblical times, but its significance has changed over the centuries.
Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181391
2022-05-27T17:02:10Z
2022-05-27T17:02:10Z
The ordination of the first female rabbi 50 years ago has brought many changes – and some challenges
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465149/original/file-20220524-19-c9gyrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C14%2C1943%2C1434&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sara Hurwitz, Amy Eilberg, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Sally J. Priesand, each of whom was the first female rabbi in her branch of Judaism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1972, as <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/priesand-sally-jane">Sally J. Priesand</a> became the first woman ordained a rabbi by a Jewish seminary, her 35 male classmates spontaneously rose to their feet to acknowledge her historic feat. </p>
<p>For nearly 2,000 years, the position of rabbi – which literally means “my master” or “my teacher” - was limited to men. The only exception during all those years had been Rabbi Regina Jonas, <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina">who was ordained in a private ceremony in Germany</a> in 1935. Jonas perished at Auschwitz in 1944, and the details of her life <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41444469">were discovered</a> in archives after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students in black regalia seated along three rows for a class photograph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rabbi Sally Priesand with her 35 male classmates and faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 3, 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thirty-seven years after Jonas’ pioneering first, Rabbi Priesand’s ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary of <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jewish-denominations/">Reform Judaism</a>, the largest denomination of religious affiliation among American Jews, opened the door to hundreds of women becoming rabbis. </p>
<p>As a rabbi and <a href="https://www.carolebalin.com/author">historian</a> <a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-sacred-calling-four-decades-of-women-in-the-rabbinate">of Jewish women in the modern era</a>, I know that while the advent of women as ordained religious leaders has changed the face of the rabbinate, the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/justice-justice-you-shall-pursue/">values of equity and justice </a> codified in the Hebrew Bible have not yet been fully realized when it comes to gender.</p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>The rise and integration of women into the rabbinate over the past five decades has transformed many aspects of Jewish life, especially in North America, where they primarily serve. A smaller number are employed in Israel, Europe and Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A female student holding a Torah scroll." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sally Priesand as a student rabbi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An estimated 1,500 women have become rabbis across every major Jewish denomination. After Rabbi Priesand in 1972, Rabbi <a href="https://jwa.org/rabbis/narrators/sasso-sandy">Sandy Eisenberg Sasso</a> was the first in the Reconstructionist movement in 1974, Rabbi <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eilberg-amy">Amy Eilberg</a> in the Conservative movement in 1985 and Rabba <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hurwitz-sara">Sara Hurwitz</a> in Modern Orthodoxy in 2009. </p>
<p>The use of the professional title “rabbi” for an ordained woman remains controversial among Orthodox Jews as it derives from the masculine Hebrew word “rav,” the title given to men at ordination. As a result, some use “<a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/rabbi-rabba-maharat-rabbanit-orthodox-jewish-women-whats-title">rabba</a>,” the feminine rendering of “rav” in Hebrew, while others use “maharat,” a Hebrew acronym for a female leader of Jewish law, spirituality and Torah. </p>
<p>Classes at liberal Jewish seminaries today often consist of at least equal numbers of male- and female-identifying rabbinical candidates. <a href="https://www.yeshivatmaharat.org/mission-and-p2">Maharat</a> in New York City was founded in 2009 as the first institute to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy. Over 50 women have been ordained since then.</p>
<p>Along with female academics, female rabbis have expanded the canon of Jewish study and stretched the parameters of Jewish practice to include women and their perspectives. </p>
<p>New commentary based on the <a href="https://wrj.org/spirituality/torah-study/torah-womens-commentary">Torah</a> – which means Jewish learning in general but refers literally to the first five books of the Bible contained in the scroll regularly read in synagogue – has recovered the stories of biblical women and treated them with the academic rigor usually reserved for biblical men. Women, alongside men, are studying classical legal texts and responding knowledgeably to questions that inform practice.</p>
<p>Feminist Jewish theologians have questioned the ways in which <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/engendering-judaism/">God</a>
is described and understood, challenging the centrality of both male imagery and hierarchy in Jewish religious thinking and leading to the production of prayer books with gender-inclusive language. </p>
<p>Moreover, female rabbis have been instrumental in creating <a href="https://www.ritualwell.org/">rituals</a> to acknowledge milestones relating to women’s experiences. So, for instance, baby namings welcoming girls into the covenant now coexist alongside those for boys, and new religious ceremonies marking the first menstrual period and menopause have emerged.</p>
<p>By dint of their presence as religious authorities, female rabbis are toppling the traditional gendered differentiation of roles between Jewish women and men and democratizing Jewish communities. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, for instance, women are no longer relegated to lighting candles and men alone privileged with reciting Kiddush, the blessing over the wine, on the Jewish Sabbath. Female scholar-rabbis now teach and, in some cases, lead seminaries, like <a href="https://hebrewcollege.edu/about/president/">Boston’s Hebrew College</a> and <a href="https://www.jtsa.edu/team/shuly-rubin-schwartz/">New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary</a>. </p>
<p>They are also challenging conventional definitions of professional success by raising questions about work-life balance pertinent to all rabbis, regardless of gender.</p>
<h2>Fighting for equality</h2>
<p>While their impact on Jewish life has been significant, female rabbis continue to face considerable challenges.</p>
<p>Teams deployed to Reform synagogues in the early 1980s to interview Jews about their qualms regarding female rabbis’ initial entry into the workplace yielded <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120718002329/http://data.ccarnet.org/journal/997cb.html">comments</a> such as “the rigors of the rabbinate are too great and women too weak for the demanding routine,” “women do not know how to, nor care to, wield power or authority” and “women who succeed will reflect poorly on their [male] colleagues.” These have given way to far more egregious claims of gender discrimination and <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/10/22/in-a-first-conservative-movement-publishes-list-of-expelled-rabbis-to-website/">sexual misconduct</a> at <a href="http://huc.edu/sites/default/files/About/PDF/HUC%20REPORT%20OF%20INVESTIGATION%20--%2011.04.21.pdf">seminaries</a> and <a href="https://10pzbn347s7w1b9a412ijnxn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Alcalaw-Report-of-Investigation.pdf">synagogues </a>in the wake of the #MeToo movement. </p>
<p>Equity in the Jewish workplace has yet to materialize. There is, for instance, an 18% <a href="https://10pzbn347s7w1b9a412ijnxn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Winter-2022-_-The-Gender-Wage-Gap-in-the-Reform-Movement-An-Updated-United-Data-Narrative-_-Savannah-Noray.pdf">gender-based wage gap</a> among Reform rabbis in congregations. The <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabbis-in-united-states">acceptance</a> of female rabbis in Orthodox Judaism remains highly contested. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.23.3.01">continues to reiterate its opposition</a> to ordaining women. For sectors further to the right, like the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim, affirmations of male and female difference make the question of women rabbis moot. </p>
<p>Organizations like the <a href="https://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/">Women’s Rabbinic Network</a> and the three-year-old grassroots Facebook group known as <a href="https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-week-that-all-jewish-women-turned-invisible/?utm_source=August+21%2C+2019&utm_campaign=Wed+August++21&utm_medium=email">Year of the Jewish Woman</a> are seeking to root out inequities. Plans to thoroughly revise the ethics code of Reform rabbis have been set in motion, and the Women’s Rabbinic Network continues to advocate for passage of a uniform family and medical leave policy.</p>
<h2>‘Little girls can grow up knowing they can be rabbis’</h2>
<p>The truth is that the days of a rabbi envisioned as a white man with a beard in a dark suit are coming to a close. </p>
<p>In more recent years, the diversity engendered by women in the rabbinate has expanded to include <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stanton-alysa">rabbis of color</a>, <a href="http://huc.edu/news/2022/02/09/alum-spotlight-rabbi-rebecca-l-dubowe-93">rabbis with disabilities</a>, <a href="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/ra-spotlight-rachel-isaacs-nurturing-small-town-jewish-life">openly gay rabbis</a> and <a href="http://www.transtorah.org/whoweare.html">transgender rabbis</a>. In May 2022, the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion issued a certificate of ordination to a nonbinary candidate for the first time in its 147-year history. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman removes a Torah scroll from the ark, a cabinet that houses scrolls of the Hebrew Bible." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, the first Chinese American rabbi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ClergyStressToughJobMadeTougher/2201668b01af41dcac4d3263c81262c1/photo?Query=Rabbi%20Jacqueline%20Mates-Muchin&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Noah Berger</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh <a href="https://forward.com/israel/3416/tinseltown-rabbi-saves-a-prayer-for-prime-time-sho/">appeared on the long-running medical television drama</a> “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2005 (as herself), and Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, who is the first Chinese American rabbi, <a href="https://jweekly.com/2020/08/18/oakland-rabbi-opens-democratic-national-conventions-jewish-event/">addressed</a> the Democratic National Convention’s Jewish American Community Meeting in 2020, they were smashing the so-called stained-glass ceiling and enabling all Jews to consider the rabbinate as a calling. </p>
<p>As Priesand <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTKsjivpGU&ab_channel=Women%27sRabbinicNetwork">told me during an interview in May 2021</a>, “One of the things I’ve always been proudest of is that little girls can grow up knowing they could be rabbis if they want to. And I’ve worked really hard not just to open the door but to hold it open for others to follow in my footsteps.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole B. Balin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rabbi Sally J. Priesand’s ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion opened the doors to hundreds of women becoming rabbis.
Carole B. Balin, Professor Emerita of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172281
2021-11-30T13:32:08Z
2021-11-30T13:32:08Z
This Hanukkah, learn about the holiday’s forgotten heroes: Women
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434312/original/file-20211129-15-187mjhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C9%2C1001%2C671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Jewish woman lights a candle for the festival of Hanukkah at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jewish-woman-lights-a-candle-for-the-festival-of-hanukkah-news-photo/94374005">Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah commemorates <a href="https://theconversation.com/hanukkahs-true-meaning-is-about-jewish-survival-88225">ancient Jews’ victory</a> over the powerful Seleucid empire, which ruled much of the Middle East from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.</p>
<p>On the surface, it’s a story of male heroism. A ragtag rebel force led by a rural priest and his five sons, called the Maccabees, freed the Jews from oppressive rulers. Hanukkah, which means “rededication” in Hebrew, celebrates the Maccabees’ victory, which allowed the Jews to rededicate their temple in Jerusalem, the center of ancient Jewish worship.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/alan-avery-peck">a professor of Jewish history</a>, I believe that seeing Hanukkah this way misses the inspiring women who were prominent in the earliest tellings of the story. </p>
<p>The bravery of a young widow named Judith is at the heart of <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/judith-apocrypha">an ancient book</a> that bears her name. The heroism of a second woman, an unnamed mother of seven sons, appears in a book known as 2 Maccabees.</p>
<h2>Saving Jerusalem</h2>
<p>These books are not included in the Hebrew scriptures, but appear in other collections of religious texts known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Septuagint">the Septuagint</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">the Apocrypha</a>.</p>
<p>According to these texts, Judith was a young Israelite widow in a town called Bethulia, strategically situated on a mountain pass into Jerusalem. To besiege Jerusalem, the Seleucid army first needed to capture Bethulia.</p>
<p>Facing such a formidable enemy, the townsfolk were terrified. Unless God immediately intervened, they decided, they would <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+7&version=NRSV">simply surrender</a>. Enslavement was preferable to certain death. </p>
<p>But Judith scolded the local leaders for testing God, and was brave enough to take matters into her own hands. Removing her widow’s clothing, she entered the enemy camp. She beguiled the Seleucid general, Holofernes, with her beauty, and promised to give her people over to him. Hoping to seduce her, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+12&version=NRSV">Holofernes prepared a feast</a>. By the time his entourage left him alone with Judith, he was drunk and asleep. </p>
<p>Now she carried out her plan: cutting off his head and escaping back to Bethulia. The following morning, the discovery of Holofernes’ headless body left the Seleucid army trembling with fear. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judith+15&version=NRSV">Soldiers fled</a> by every available path as Bethulia’s Jews, recovering their courage, rushed in and slaughtered them. Judith’s bravery saved her town and, with it, Jerusalem.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dark painting depicts a woman holding a sword and a man's decapitated head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434313/original/file-20211129-19-1mmwsgf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Judith has inspired artists for centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_aux_portes_de_B%C3%A9thulie">"Judith aux portes de Béthulie," by Jules-Claude Ziegler/Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A family’s sacrifice</h2>
<p>The book of 2 Maccabees, Chapter 7, meanwhile, relates the story of an unnamed Jewish mother and her seven sons, who were seized by the Seleucids. </p>
<p>Emperor Antiochus commanded that they eat pork, which is forbidden by the Torah, to show their obedience to him. One at a time, the sons refused. An enraged Antiochus subjected them to unspeakable torture. Each son withstood the ordeal and is portrayed as a model of bravery. Resurrection awaits those who die in the service of God, they proclaimed, while for Antiochus and his followers, only death and divine punishment lay ahead.</p>
<p>Throughout these ordeals, their mother <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Maccabees+7&version=NRSV">encouraged her sons</a> to accept their suffering. “She reinforced her woman’s reasoning with a man’s courage,” as 2 Maccabees relates, and admonished her sons to remember their coming reward from God. </p>
<p>Having killed the first six brothers, Antiochus promised the youngest a fortune if only he would reject his faith. His mother told the boy, “Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again along with your brothers.” The story in 2 Maccabees ends with the simple statement that, after her sons’ deaths, the mother also died. </p>
<p>Later retellings give the mother a name. Most commonly, <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hannah-mother-of-seven">she is called Hannah</a>, based on a detail in <a href="https://biblehub.com/jps/1_samuel/2.htm">the biblical book of 1 Samuel</a>. In this section, called the “prayer of Hannah,” the prophet Samuel’s mother refers to herself as having borne seven children.</p>
<h2>Working with God</h2>
<p>Jewish educator and author <a href="https://gsehd.gwu.edu/directory/brown-erica">Erica Brown</a> has emphasized a lesson we should learn from the story of Judith, one that emerges from 2 Maccabees as well. “Just like the Hanukkah story generally, the message of these texts is that it’s not always the likely candidates who save the day,” <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yet-another-miracle/">she writes</a>. “Sometimes salvation comes when you least expect it, from those who are least likely to deliver it.”</p>
<p>Three hundred years after the Maccabean revolt, Judaism’s earliest rabbis stressed a similar message. Adding a new focus to Hanukkah, they spoke of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/85895?lang=bi">a divine miracle</a> that occurred when the ancient Jews took back the Temple and wanted to relight the holy “<a href="https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/dvar-torah/eternal-flame-within-us-all">eternal flame</a>” inside. They found just one small vessel of oil, sufficient to light the flame for only one day – but it lasted eight days, giving them time to produce a new supply.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.hartman.org.il/person/rabbi-prof-david-hartman/">the influential rabbi</a> David Hartman <a href="https://www.hartman.org.il/the-courage-to-defy-mass-culture-reflections-on-the-lights-of-hanukkah/">pointed out</a>, the Hanukkah story celebrates “our people’s strength to live without guarantees of success.” Some ordinary person, he points out, took the initiative to rekindle the eternal flame, despite how futile doing so may have seemed.</p>
<p>Ever since, Judaism has increasingly focused on the interaction of the human and the divine. The Hanukkah story teaches listeners that they all must play a part to repair a hurting world. Not everyone needs to be a Judith or Hannah; but, like them, we humans can’t wait for God to take care of it.</p>
<p>In synagogues, one of the readings for the week during Hanukkah is from <a href="https://biblehub.com/jps/zechariah/4.htm">the prophet Zechariah</a>, who proclaimed, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” These words succinctly capture the meaning of Hanukkah and express what Jews might think about while lighting the Hanukkah candles: our responsibility to act in the spirit of God to create the miracles the world needs to become a place of beauty, equity and freedom. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation’s politics, science or religion articles each week.</em><a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-best">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Jewish festival of Hanukkah, which in 2022 begins on the evening of Dec. 18, focuses on the story of the male Maccabees. But women are also heroes in histories from that era, including Judith and Hannah.
Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160149
2021-05-07T12:44:22Z
2021-05-07T12:44:22Z
Lag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399048/original/file-20210505-15-1fgken9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C5%2C3453%2C2305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-jerusalem-a-condolence-message-and-candles-news-photo/1232635524?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Because of COVID-19, this year’s event was less crowded, but even so, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/110-years-ago-100-people-fell-from-a-balcony-at-mt-meron-11-were-killed">over 100,000 people</a> were packed into a space with a capacity for perhaps 15,000. This <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-israeli-religious-festival-11619748818">overcrowding reportedly</a> contributed to the recent tragedy, in which at least 45 people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews known as “Haredim” in Hebrew, died in a stampede. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1387912885821755399"}"></div></p>
<p>This is by far the largest pilgrimage of Jews to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai</a>.</p>
<p>I have participated twice in the pilgrimage – once in 1994 as a newly observant Jew seeking religious meaning, and again in 2001 as a <a href="https://jewish.cofc.edu/documents/jewish-studies-faculty-and-staff-bios/joshua-shanes,-associate-director.php">scholar of Jewish history</a>. What fascinates me about this pilgrimage is the way it weaves together Jewish mysticism, folk practices and modern-day nationalism. </p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>The Jewish practice of worshipping at the graves of holy men is at least a thousand years old. Many Jews – particularly those whose ancestry comes from the Arab world, called “Mizrahim” or “Sephardim” – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490">believe that these saints can act as their advocates</a> in the “celestial court.” They pray at their gravesites for everything from children to good health to a livelihood. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage to Meron, in the hills of the Galilee near Safed in the northern part of Israel, <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/">initially focused on the graves of other holy figures</a> said to be buried there, particularly the early rabbinic sages Hillel and Shamai, whose debates on Jewish law helped lay the foundation for rabbinic Judaism 2,000 years ago. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Jews-of-Spain/Jane-S-Gerber/9780029115749">Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492</a>, Safed grew into an important center of Jewish mysticism, <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/kabbalah-a-very-short-introduction-9780195327052?cc=us&lang=en&">known in Hebrew as Kabbalah</a>. The most important and influential of these mystics was the 16th-century scholar Isaac Luria, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">whose innovative teachings</a> transformed Judaism and Jewish history. Under his influence, the focus of the Meron pilgrimage shifted to Shimon, whose burial place was among the many such graves of ancient rabbis that Luria <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1174">“identified” with supernatural guidance</a>. </p>
<p>Shimon is by tradition credited with the composition of the Zohar, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=6634">the core text of all subsequent Jewish mysticism</a>, though scholars have determined it was actually composed in 13th-century Spain. </p>
<p>Sixteenth-century mystics, and the Jews who follow in their footsteps, are thus particularly interested in connecting to him. They are especially interested in doing so on the anniversary of his death, when the Zohar states he revealed the deepest secrets about God, and pilgrims expect to experience a taste of that revelation. Since at least the <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/?fbclid=IwAR2jQqJFvOdpZl_JuiIlZia5MJR1gyvHrFqiiRkiYmgJkBMMwRKEzP4sjy8">18th century</a>, that date has been accepted as Lag BaOmer. </p>
<h2>The pilgrimage</h2>
<p>The Hebrew name of the holiday Lag BaOmer literally reflects its date in the Jewish calendar, the 33rd day of the Omer, the ritual counting of 50 days from the holiday of Passover, commemorating the exodus from Egypt, to Shavuot, commemorating God’s revelation and giving of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/glossary/torah/">Torah</a>, the Jewish holy canon.</p>
<p>These seven weeks are traditionally days of mourning commemorating the death of 24,000 students of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/holidays/expressions_of_mourning_in_sefirat_haomer/">great sage Rabbi Akiva</a> in the second century by plague, seen as a punishment by God. Only five people survived, including Shimon. Haircuts, music, weddings and all celebrations are prohibited during that seven-week period. </p>
<p>On Lag BaOmer, the restrictions are lifted in accordance with the tradition that on this day the plague ended. <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Mystical tradition credits this to Shimon’s death</a>, which was understood as having the power to eradicate the decree of the plague. According to that tradition, Shimon instructed that the day of passing be celebrated rather than mourned, and thus was born the celebration we know today.</p>
<h2>Rituals and prayers</h2>
<p>In the 20th century, even before the founding of Israel, the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron grew into a mass event.</p>
<p>Pilgrims light bonfires symbolizing the light of Torah revealed by Shimon, or perhaps the literal fires that the Zohar states surrounded him at the moment of his death. In fact, they <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">are lit not only at Meron</a>, but throughout Israel and the world, although for some secular Zionists it evokes not Shimon but instead the <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">“Bar Kochba” military rebellion against Rome</a> that occurred around the same time. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490?seq=1">earliest pilgrims were mostly Moroccan Jews</a> who arrived in Israel intent on continuing their tradition of graveside visits to saints, convinced of the possibility of magical remedies and blessings through their holy intervention.</p>
<p>Many pilgrims celebrate the kabbalistic custom of giving a boy his first haircut, leaving behind the sidelocks, at 3 years of age. In recent years, ultra-Orthodox Jews of European ancestry – especially Hasidim – have increasingly dominated the site, although all sectors of Jewish society are represented there. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage is one of the only truly widespread expressions of folk religion in Judaism today. As anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0228.xml">Edith Turner</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">wrote in her classic essay on Meron</a>, pilgrims come to Meron with deep faith in its power to bring blessings to them. “This is a popular celebration, with a long history that shimmers through the events at various points.”</p>
<p>The celebration is an intense, highly packed event that offers participants an ecstatic experience of communing with God in a collective of tens, even hundreds of thousands, of fellow Jews. </p>
<p>I can certainly attest to this effect. In 1994, at the start of my journey into Orthodox Judaism, I joined the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron. At that time, the festival hosted many Moroccan Jews, who camped outside the main grounds. Several among them had live animals ready to be slaughtered and eaten to celebrate their sons’ first haircuts. The Ashkenazic Hasidic Jews – <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hasidism">sects of Jews from Eastern Europe</a> deeply influenced by Jewish mysticism and devoted to their leaders – dominated the inner spaces of the compound. </p>
<p>Everywhere I walked, people offered me free drinks, convinced of the promise that it would bring blessings to their family. Meanwhile, gender-segregated crowds <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1387837918132195330">sang and danced in unison</a> for hours into the night, creating a palpable sense of euphoria and connection to a collective eternity. Some of us pushed inside to approach the gravesite and prayed for blessings of success, while others pushed to reach closer to the bonfires. </p>
<p>There were several fires, each representing a different Jewish community, although by custom the main fire is lit by the head of the “Boyan” Hasidim, so called because their leaders originally lived in the city of Boyan in Ukraine. It was in the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/what-is-toldot-aharon-hassidic-sect-whose-members-were-killed-at-meron-666808">area of a different Hasidic group, known as Toldos Aharon</a>, that the tragedy on April 30, 2021, occurred. This group <a href="https://twitter.com/moshe_nayes/status/1387889426412544014">can be seen dancing</a> this year, just before the tragedy. </p>
<p>By the time I returned in 2001, I had become a full-fledged Hasid myself and was living in Betar Illit, a massive Haredi settlement south of Jerusalem. I recall far fewer Moroccan families camping in tents. But the number of Haredim, joined by Sephardim, modern Orthodox and even secular pilgrims seemed to have exploded, serving to enhance that sense of eternal community, of Jewish connection across time and space. </p>
<p>I have long since left that Hasidic world, for a variety of reasons. But I do not for a moment discount the very real experience of divinity and eternity enjoyed by Meron pilgrims, and their deep need to return to it each year. </p>
<h2>Political overtones</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-jews-attend-the-funeral-of-one-of-the-news-photo/1232607694?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen Magen GIL /AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The events leading up to the deadly stampede need to be viewed in context of Haredi society in Israel – <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2020/?chapter=34272">today about 12% of the population, but growing rapidly</a> – and the power wielded by its leaders. Israel’s first prime minister, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">David Ben Gurion, granted Haredim extensive autonomy</a> in their education system, military deferments, welfare funding and more. Israel’s parliamentary system, which offers small political parties disproportionate power, has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">carefully protected and expanded that autonomy</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, Haredi leaders have successfully fought enforcement of government oversight and safety regulations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/17/world/middleeast/israel-orthodox-jews-haredim.html">from COVID-19 restrictions</a> to the Meron festival. Aryeh Deri, the interior minister and leader of the Sephardic Shas party, said on the eve of Lag BaOmer: “This is a holy day, and the largest gathering of Jews [each year].” Bad things, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">he promised</a>, don’t happen to Jews on religious pilgrimage: “One should trust in Rabbi Shimon in times of distress.” </p>
<p>Similar sentiments were <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-leading-rabbi-thinks-not-studying-torah-is-more-dangerous-than-coronavirus-1.8677335">voiced by Haredi leaders</a> when they prematurely opened their schools last year, promising that Torah study would hold the plague at bay. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">Countless officials</a> had warned that Meron was a disaster waiting to happen.</p>
<p>One hopes that this tragedy will lead Haredim and other Israelis to accept government oversight and limits at the site. </p>
<p>One should not for a moment, however, discount the vital need of members of this community to bond with one another and God at this place, any more than we would discount the legitimacy of other religious and secular communities finding it elsewhere. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, in which 45 people died recently, takes place each year to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159189
2021-04-28T12:13:34Z
2021-04-28T12:13:34Z
Ancient Christian thinkers made a case for reparations that has striking relevance today
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396859/original/file-20210423-13-7dpil7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1580%2C1081&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some ancient theologians argued that the Israelites deserved a share of Egypt's wealth after being enslaved for centuries.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/egyptian-taskmasters-treat-the-hebrew-slaves-harshly-with-news-photo/173447141?adppopup=true">Culture Club/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reparations to Black Americans for centuries of slavery and oppression have been discussed for a long time. But ever since journalist and author <a href="https://ta-nehisicoates.com/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a> wrote “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">The Case for Reparations</a>” in The Atlantic in 2014, the conversation has taken on a new urgency. In 2021 a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/politics/reparations-slavery-house.html">House committee voted</a> to create a commission to consider reparations. </p>
<p>However, debates over compensating a group of people for past injuries or abuses date back to at least the early centuries of the common era. As a <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/david-lincicum/">professor of theology</a> who teaches about Jewish and Christian antiquity, I have studied how the logic of reparations has roots in the Hebrew Bible and in early Christian biblical interpretation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates testifies during a 2019 hearing on slavery reparations" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396861/original/file-20210423-19-1gvi7w1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates testifies during a 2019 hearing on slavery reparations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/writer-ta-nehisi-coates-testifies-during-a-hearing-on-news-photo/1150823656?adppopup=true">Zach Gibson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exodus from Egypt</h2>
<p>The classic text for thinking about reparations is the story of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, recounted in detail in the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament. </p>
<p>The Israelites had been enslaved by the Egyptians and subjected to forced labor for hundreds of years. As the story goes, through divine intervention and the leadership of the prophet Moses, the people were set free and allowed to depart Egypt.</p>
<p>As God announces the plan in advance to Moses, <a href="https://www.bibleref.com/Exodus/3/Exodus-chapter-3.html">he assures him</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed; each woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman living in the neighbor’s house for jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When the Israelites ask as commanded, the Egyptians surprisingly comply. “And so,” the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+12%3A35-36&version=NIV">text laconically summarizes</a>, “they plundered the Egyptians.”</p>
<h2>Literal or allegorical plunder?</h2>
<p>The story seems to have been a source of embarrassment to Jews and Christians in antiquity and even <a href="https://www.thetorah.com/article/despoiling-the-egyptians-a-concerning-jewish-legacy">in more recent times</a>.</p>
<p>Whether deceit was involved has been a matter of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1516876">scholarly discussion</a>, but at least one ancient historian used the account to paint the Jews of his day in a dim light. Around the turn of the millennium, <a href="http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/english/trans36.html">Pompeius Trogus</a> wrote that Moses led the Israelites in “carrying off by stealth the sacred utensils of the Egyptians.”</p>
<p>Perhaps in light of similar accusations, some Jews and, subsequently, Christians, interpreted the text as a story about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04768-3_25">symbolic and not literal plunder</a>.</p>
<p>The Jewish Alexandrian philosopher Philo, an older contemporary of Jesus in the first century, <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/philo_judaeus-moses_i_ii/1935/pb_LCL289.349.xml">interpreted the event literally</a> and justified the Israelites’ actions. </p>
<p>“For what resemblance is there between forfeiture of money and deprivation of liberty,” he wrote, “for which men of sense are willing to sacrifice not only their substance but their life?” </p>
<p>In other words, the Israelites were in the right to take material goods from the Egyptians since the Egyptians had deprived them of the far greater good of freedom.</p>
<p>But in <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/philo_judaeus-who_heir_divine_things/1932/pb_LCL261.423.xml?result=1&rskey=u3BbY4">another treatise</a>, Philo gave an allegorical interpretation in which the Egyptians’ wealth represented pagan philosophy. </p>
<p>He felt that ideas that might originate in “pagan” philosophy could be put to good use – or “plundered” – for Jewish purposes. By way of comparison, one might imagine a contemporary preacher using, say, insights from psychoanalysis to elucidate the meaning of a biblical passage. </p>
<p>Two centuries later, the Christian scholar <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/origen/">Origen of Alexandria</a> used a similar argument to <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0415.htm">make the case</a> that “pagan” philosophy should be studied by Christians as the “adjunct to Christianity” – to prepare for and supplement true Christian teaching. He justifies this taking of intellectual property by using the example of the Israelites making off with the Egyptians’ possessions. He understood the biblical text’s account of the plundering of the Egyptians to be a symbolic authorization for Christians to take the intellectual property of the surrounding pagan culture.</p>
<p>Subsequent Christians theologians, from <a href="https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/ddc2.html">St. Augustine</a> in the late fourth century onward throughout the medieval period, took up this line of interpretation. </p>
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<h2>‘Not just a few dishes’</h2>
<p>But Philo’s literal understanding of the passage – that the Israelites took property from the Egyptians as a form of just repayment for their enslavement – also found followers among the early Christians. </p>
<p>In the second century A.D., a debate raged in the Christian Church as to whether the Jewish scriptures should be authoritative for Christians. <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/marcion.html">Marcion</a>, a charismatic leader from the Black Sea region, contended that the Hebrew Bible attested an inferior god and so should be discarded. He and his followers urged that it contained morally reprehensible stories, and held up the plundering of the Egyptians as an example.</p>
<p>The theologians Irenaeus of Lyons and Tertullian of North Africa, who argued for what ultimately became the form of Christian belief backed by political authorities, however, disagreed. </p>
<p>Irenaeus replied to the Marcionite argument in his treatise “<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/irenaeus.html">Against Heresies</a>,” which contains a remarkable display of the <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103430.htm">logic of reparations</a>.</p>
<p>He writes that the Egyptians held the Israelites in “abject slavery” while at the same time contemplating their “utter annihilation.” Meanwhile, the Israelites built them “fenced cities” and made them even more wealthy.</p>
<p>“In what way, then,” Irenaeus asks, “did the Israelites act unjustly, if out of many things they took a few?”</p>
<p>His argument is straightforward: The Israelites deserved to be repaid for their forced labor. They contributed to the wealth of the Egyptians, and so had a right to a share of it.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Engraving depicting early Christian author Tertullian" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396860/original/file-20210423-13-7asvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early Christian author Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, aka Tertullian, circa A.D. 200.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/engraving-depicting-early-christian-author-quintus-news-photo/526581582?adppopup=true">Adoc-Photos/Corbis Historical Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some 25 years later, Tertullian wrote a systematic refutation of Marcion’s position, entitled “<a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103430.htm">Against Marcion</a>.” In it, he repeated some of Irenaeus’ arguments, including his <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/evans_marc_06book2_eng.htm">case for reparations</a>.</p>
<p>Tertullian imagines a court in his own day hearing the claims of “the Hebrews.” He argues that no amount of gold and silver could repay the Israelites for their hardship. “[They] were free men reduced to slavery,” he writes. “If their legal representatives were to display in court no more than their shoulders scarred with the abusive outrage of whippings, any judge would have agreed that the Hebrews must receive in recompense not just a few dishes and flagons … but the whole of those rich men’s property.”</p>
<p>Particularly notable is the fact that Tertullian makes the case for reparations to be paid to the descendants of the Israelites who had been forcibly enslaved centuries earlier. Although the force of the passage is driven by a debate about scriptural interpretation, its logic strikingly anticipates the case for reparations in the U.S. today.</p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338598/original/file-20200529-78871-1g5gse5.jpg?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">University of Notre Dame Department of Theology is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.</a></p>
<footer>The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lincicum does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The biblical story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt is also a historical tale of reparations after enslavement.
David Lincicum, Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159169
2021-04-21T18:00:53Z
2021-04-21T18:00:53Z
Dead Sea Scrolls: two scribes probably wrote one of the manuscripts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396264/original/file-20210421-23-if1yhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C98%2C4527%2C2943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/qumran-israel-january-06-2017-dead-555874084">Shutterstock/Lerner Vadim</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dead-sea-scrolls-are-a-priceless-link-to-the-bibles-past-105770">Dead Sea Scrolls</a> were <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-wrote-the-dead-sea-scrolls-11781900/">accidentally discovered</a> over 70 years ago in a cave in the Palestinian territories, they have been a source of fascination.</p>
<p>The scrolls are famous for containing the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. But exactly who wrote these important documents has been a mystery. Now, thanks to the use of technology, we’re getting closer to understanding some of the background to these enigmatic texts.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249769">a new study</a>, researchers at the University of Gronigen’s Qumran Institute have put together a robust investigation into the palaeography – the study of old handwriting – of one of the scrolls. </p>
<p>Through a series of painstaking processes including digitisation, machine reading and statistical analysis, the team propose that two scribes with very similar handwriting probably wrote the two halves of the manuscript. </p>
<p>The scroll in question, 1QIsaa, is a large manuscript and <a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-sea-scrolls-deciphered-esoteric-code-reveals-ancient-priestly-calendar-91777">one of seven</a> found near the Dead Sea at Qumran, the Palestinian territories, in 1947. The 2,000-year-old scroll preserves the 66 chapters of the Hebrew Bible’s Book of <a href="https://theconversation.com/seal-of-the-prophet-isaiah-sorting-out-fact-from-fantasy-92296">Isaiah</a> and predates other Hebrew manuscripts of Isaiah by over 1,000 years.</p>
<h2>Two scribes</h2>
<p>The authors trained an algorithm to separate the ink from its background, the leather or the papyrus of the scroll. Then, the algorithm studied every character, looking for small changes that might signal a different writer. This kind of algorithmic technology, shown in the image below, has started to be used in biblical studies, and the wider digital humanities, in just the last few years.</p>
<p>To some extent, the new paper overturns the argument that the original text was the work of one scribe. At the end the 27th column of text out of 54, the researchers found a break in the manuscript – both a gap of three lines and a change in material. A second sheet is stitched onto the first, and at this stage, the authors suggest, the scribe also changed. </p>
<p>This result adds to the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-wrote-the-dead-sea-scrolls-11781900/">general assumption</a> and some <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-wrote-the-dead-sea-scrolls-11781900/">previous research</a> suggesting there were perhaps teams of scribes who worked together on the Dead Sea Scrolls, with some working as apprentices to the more senior members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two blue colour maps of full characters from the Dead Sea Scroll collection." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396051/original/file-20210420-23-1ne94a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every use of same character was analysed for small differences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/emb/262472.php">Maruf A. Dhali, University of Groningen</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A different scribe is not the only possible explanation, however. The authors note that a change of pen, the sharpening of a nib, a change in writing conditions or in the health of the scribe could contribute to the difference they found. Still, the difference seems pretty clear, and a change of scribe is the most likely conclusion. </p>
<h2>21st-century Bible study</h2>
<p>Computers are an increasingly important part of 21st-century text analysis. I have seen increasing numbers of papers at conferences on the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament exploring various aspects of the process of transferring texts into digital artefacts (such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-was-the-first-bible-like-102005">Codex Sinaiticus project</a>), the issues relating to how different projects can make use of each other’s data, and the success – or otherwise – of machine-learning processes.</p>
<p>Biblical scholars, including a group of <a href="http://members.unine.ch/jacques.savoy/Articles/StPaul.pdf">researchers in Switzerland</a>, are using machine learning and stylometry – the study of linguistic style – to determine which new letters were authored by Paul the Apostle, for example. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One of the caves in which the scrolls were found at the ruins of Khirbet Qumran in the desert of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396265/original/file-20210421-15-1rbht6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Qumran caves, where the scrolls were found.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cave-dead-sea-scrolls-known-qumran-96106568">Shutterstock/Sean Pavone</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Others are modelling texts to explore historical themes across <a href="http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1595/paper5.pdf">the Hebrew Bible</a>. Machine learning is also being used <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259574946_The_Tesserae_Project_Intertextual_analysis_of_Latin_poetry">for text mining</a> – where a target text is compared with many <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2517978.2517985">other similar texts</a> to find parallel uses of the same words or ideas – to explore variations between different texts. The number of positive results found this way usually far outreaches the number proposed by human commentators. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-sea-scrolls-how-we-accidentally-discovered-missing-text-in-manchester-138869">Dead Sea Scrolls: how we accidentally discovered missing text – in Manchester</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The sheer number of possibilities currently produced also exceeds the number of research hours available to determine which are useful for ongoing research and which need to be dismissed as chance parallels. At the moment, the machine-learning tools need refinement but they will get there.</p>
<p>While the use of artificial intelligence in the title of the new study might suggest that computers have taken over the role of the scholars in the northern Netherlands, this is certainly not the case. But the shift to the digital offers a new opening for the study of sacred texts, particularly the Christian scriptures and the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<p><em>This piece was amended after publication to say that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the Palestinian territories rather than Israel, and in 1947.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Phillips does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The researchers used machine learning to study the 2,000-year-old document.
Peter Phillips, Research Fellow in Digital Theology, Director of CODEC Research Centre, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157423
2021-03-19T02:53:54Z
2021-03-19T02:53:54Z
Cave of Horror: fresh fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls echo dramatic human stories
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390306/original/file-20210318-23-qbudbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C24%2C3979%2C2634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Israel Antiquities Authority conservator Tanya Bitler shows newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea Scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210316001527807791?path=/aap_dev11/device/imagearc/2021/03-16/c6/11/f9/aapimage-7exq4avhs4911cmfv8ve_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Tuesday <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/israeli-experts-announce-discovery-of-more-dead-sea-scrolls-20210317-p57bc9.html">news broke</a> of the discovery of fresh fragments of a nearly 2,000-year-old scroll in Israel. The fragments were said to come from the evocatively named Cave of Horror, near the western shore of the Dead Sea.</p>
<p>The finds were announced with attention-grabbing headlines that these were new fragments of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and some of our earliest evidence for the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum.</p>
<p>But more than just remnants of ancient text, the discovery reflects the troubled history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and tells human stories of revolution, a desperate search for safety and archaeological ingenuity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dead-sea-scrolls-how-we-accidentally-discovered-missing-text-in-manchester-138869">Dead Sea Scrolls: how we accidentally discovered missing text – in Manchester</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>People of the scroll</h2>
<p>Information is still coming out, but unusually for ancient discoveries of this kind, we know something about the people who hid the scroll.</p>
<p>The Cave of Horror is one of a <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/discovery-sites">series of eight caves in the canyon of Naḥal Ḥever</a>, which were used as places of refuge during a Jewish revolt against Rome (132–135 CE)in the time of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hadrian">emperor Hadrian</a>. The revolt was led by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bar-Kokhba-Jewish-leader">Simon bar Kochba</a> (or Simon bar Kosebah, as he is also known in ancient sources), who was thought by his followers to be the Messiah.</p>
<p>The cave has been known to archaeologists since 1953, but it wasn’t until 1961 that it was excavated by a team led by the Israeli archaeologist, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/BIBLARCH3209353?journalCode=biblarch">Yohanan Aharoni</a>. The new fragments were found as part of a larger project to search for new manuscripts, which is being conducted by the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/default_en.aspx">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> (IAA).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390319/original/file-20210318-21-y05k4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caves and cliffs near the Dead Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1554401922-3ac1c68b2715?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2251&q=80">Dave Herring/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cave is <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/discovery-sites">remote and difficult to access</a>, which is doubtless why it was used as a hiding place. Aharoni describes the entrance as being 80 meters below the edge of the canyon with a drop of hundreds of meters below it. The team who first explored the cave in 1955 had to use a 100-meter-long rope ladder to reach the opening.</p>
<p>The nickname <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27924906?seq=1">Cave of Horror</a> was given to the cave because of a large number of skeletons, including children’s skeletons, that were found inside. Together with the skeletons were personal documents, a fragmentary copy of a prayer written in Hebrew, and the scroll to which these fragments belong, which was hidden at the back of the cave.</p>
<p>Remains of a Roman camp at the top of the cliff suggests the refugees sheltering there died as a result of a Roman siege. The occupants were determined not to surrender. There were no signs of wounds on the skeletons, suggesting the occupants died as a result of hunger and thirst, or possibly smoke inhalation from a fire in the centre of the cave.</p>
<p>They buried their most prized possessions, including the scroll from which these fragments come, to keep them safe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in lab holds up ancient items" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390314/original/file-20210318-15-h9op8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210316001527807714?path=/aap_dev11/device/imagearc/2021/03-16/5f/2d/9d/aapimage-7exq35n5k90cxo118ve_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our oldest biblical texts</h2>
<p>The photographs and reports released by the IAA indicate the fragments contain our earliest copy of Zechariah 8:16–17 and one of our earliest copies of Nahum 1:5–6. The fragments appear to be missing pieces of a scroll already known to scholars — the <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/8Hev1-1">Greek Minor Prophets scroll from Naḥal Ḥever</a>, or 8ḤevXIIgr to give it its official designation.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, the scroll is a copy of the Greek translation of the biblical minor prophets, containing portions of the books of Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah. The “minor prophets” or “the twelve” customarily describes the books spanning from Hosea to Malachi in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. </p>
<p>Among other things, the minor prophets include the story of Jonah being swallowed by a “great fish”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dead-sea-scrolls-are-a-priceless-link-to-the-bibles-past-105770">The Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible's past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Don’t say His name</h2>
<p>The ancient Hebrew scriptures were first translated into Greek for the benefit of Greek-speaking Jews who had begun to lose contact with their Hebrew roots. Ancient sources, such as the letter of Aristeas, indicate the work of translating the scriptures into Greek probably began in Egypt, some time around 200 years before Christ.</p>
<p>A fascinating feature of the Greek Minor Prophets scroll is the fact the name of God is written in Hebrew, not Greek. <a href="https://repository.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/31606">This practice</a> stems back to the prohibition in Exodus 20:7 against “taking God’s name in vain”. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls attest several practices for avoiding accidentally pronouncing the divine name while reading aloud. These include substituting dots in place of the letters and the use of an archaic form of the Hebrew alphabet. </p>
<p>This custom is the basis for the modern practice of writing Lord in capital letters in modern editions of the Bible.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old papers rolled up in rubble" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390315/original/file-20210318-15-jrm7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A photo of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the 1940s, before they were unravelled.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=dead+sea+scrolls&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Dead_Sea_Scrolls_Before_Unraveled.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Abraham Meir Habermann</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beating the looters</h2>
<p>Shortly after the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 it became apparent the rare ancient manuscripts had financial value. This led to a race between archaeologists and local Bedouin to discover more scroll fragments. </p>
<p>Consequently, it can be difficult to verify the archaeological provenance of many of the Dead Sea Scrolls remnants.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-23/bible-museum-admits-five-of-its-dead-sea-scrolls-are-fake/10420800">fake scrolls have found their way into at least one modern museum collection</a>. A new manuscript discovery with secure archaeological provenance, like the one announced last week, is immensely important.</p>
<p>Perhaps most excitingly, these new fragments leave open the tantalising possibility there are more scrolls out there, waiting to be found.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-scrolls-at-the-museum-of-the-bible-106012">Fake scrolls at the Museum of the Bible</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Wearne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What’s fascinating about the latest Dead Sea Scrolls discovery is how it reflects the stories of those who wrote the ancient texts, those who kept them safe and the archaeologists who found them.
Gareth Wearne, Lecturer in Biblical Studies, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153757
2021-01-21T20:38:38Z
2021-01-21T20:38:38Z
Sen. Ossoff was sworn in on pioneering Atlanta rabbi’s Bible – a nod to historic role of American Jews in civil rights struggle
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380059/original/file-20210121-21-1n3uc4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C12%2C2802%2C1552&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff on Capitol Hill in Washington. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HarrisSenate/bb5f4903643b472a9d1575605f37536f/photo?Query=Sen.%20Jon%20Ossoff,%20D-Ga.,%20on%20the%20floor%20of%20the%20Senate%20Wednesday,%20Jan.%206,%202021,%20on%20Capitol%20Hill%20in%20Washington.%20Senate%20Television%20via%20AP&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2&currentItemNo=0">Senate Television via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-ossoff-s-expected-georgia-win-will-make-jewish-history-1.9428335">The first Jewish senator in Georgia history</a>, Jon Ossoff, was sworn in on Jan. 20, on what his office described in a <a href="https://twitter.com/jake_best_/status/1351652208945885185?s=21">tweet</a> as a “Hebrew scripture that belonged to historic Atlanta Rabbi Jacob Rothschild.”</p>
<p>It left many wondering what exactly the Hebrew scripture meant, and what the relevance was of using this particular copy.</p>
<p>The term “Hebrew scripture” usually refers to the 24 books that Christians denominate as the Old Testament. These biblical books, originally written in Hebrew, are ordered differently in Judaism and Christianity.</p>
<p>In Ossoff’s case, the volume selected was a well-thumbed copy of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, which Jews known as the Torah, edited with commentary by the American-educated former <a href="https://www.jewishideas.org/article/bridge-across-tigris-chief-rabbi-joseph-herman-hertz">Chief Rabbi of Britain Joseph H. Hertz</a>. That, for many years, <a href="https://jewishaction.com/jewish-world/history/the-story-of-the-synagogue-chumash/">was the edition</a> of the Torah found in most American synagogues and temples. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/near-eastern-judaic/people/faculty/sarna.html">scholar of American Jewish history</a>, I recognize that in emphasizing the book’s tie to Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild, Ossoff appeared to be making a statement about Black-Jewish relations – <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/01/04/georgia-black-jewish-campaign-is-the-latest-chapter-in-an-old-story-warnock-ossoff/">a central theme in his campaign</a> and a signal of his ties to Congressman John R. Lewis, his mentor, as well as Rev. Raphael Warnock, his fellow incoming Georgia senator. </p>
<h2>A Jewish translation of Scripture</h2>
<p>First, the selection of the Bible upon which Jon Ossoff was sworn deserves attention. This Hebrew-English text employs the <a href="https://biblehub.com/jps/">1917 translation</a> produced by the Jewish Publication Society, then located in Philadelphia. </p>
<p>It is a distinctive Jewish translation of scripture. Though modeled on the majestic language and cadence of the famous <a href="https://time.com/4821911/king-james-bible-history/">King James Bible</a>, authorized by the Church of England and first published in 1611, it nevertheless introduced many new translations from the original Hebrew based on updated scholarship and longstanding Jewish interpretive traditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The King James Bible" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380045/original/file-20210121-15-1xypp4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first King James Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1612_First_Quarto_of_King_James_Bible.jpg">Jeremylinvip/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“It was a Bible translation to which American Jews could point with pride as the creation of the Jewish consciousness on a par with similar products of the Catholic and Protestant churches,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/21/archives/dr-abraham-a-neuman-jewish-historian-dies.html">historian Abraham Neuman</a> <a href="http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1940_1941_3_SpecialArticles.pdf">observed</a> in 1940. “To the Jews it presented a Bible which combined the spirit of Jewish tradition with the results of biblical scholarship, ancient, medieval and modern. To the non-Jews it opened the gateway of Jewish tradition in the interpretation of the Word of God,” he noted. </p>
<p>Thanks to the 1917 translation, American Jews <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-bible-with-and-without-jesus-amy-jill-levinemarc-zvi-brettler?variant=32117339717666">no longer had to depend on other</a> translations to understand “their Bible” – they now had a Bible translation of their own.</p>
<p>Ossoff was making a profoundly Jewish statement in selecting the volume on which he was sworn in. Earlier, President Biden made a similar Catholic statement by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/politics/bible-inauguration-biden.html">being sworn in on a Celtic Bible</a> featuring the Catholic <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/rhe/">Douay-Rheims</a> translation, published in the 17th century to <a href="http://www.tcseagles.org/faculty/nchilds/editoruploads/files/Timeline_of_Bible_Translation_History.pdf">uphold Catholic tradition</a> in the face of the Protestant Reformation. </p>
<h2>Atlanta’s rabbi</h2>
<p>The book itself belonged to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Voice.html?id=a4-8rmTtzO0C">Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild</a>, who served from 1946 until his death in 1973 as the rabbi of Atlanta’s oldest and most prominent Reform congregation, Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, known as “<a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/government/departments/city-planning/office-of-design/urban-design-commission/the-temple-hebrew-benevolent-congregation">The Temple</a>.” </p>
<p>As an outspoken proponent of civil rights, he supported school desegregation; invited Black clergy like <a href="https://www.mmuf.org/about/dr-benjamin-e-mays">Benjamin E. Mays</a>, president of Morehouse College, to speak to his congregants; and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Voice.html?id=a4-8rmTtzO0">wrote</a> that Jews bore a special responsibility “to erase inequality.” </p>
<p>To punish Rothschild and as a warning to others, white supremacist members of The Confederate Underground, a collective name for various right-wing extremist organizations in the 1950s, on Oct. 12, 1958, bombed The Temple, <a href="http://melissafaygreene.com/book/the-temple-bombing/">in a blast that was reportedly felt for miles around</a>. </p>
<p>Until the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html">mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue</a> almost exactly 60 years later, on Oct. 27, 2018, the temple bombing was the most devastating attack in history on an American synagogue. Rothschild refused to be frightened off and remained at The Temple’s helm.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rabbi Jacob Rothschild and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380039/original/file-20210121-13-dwvqqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rabbi Jacob Rothschild with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta on Jan. 28, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MLK/b6c8bdddf486441da3ce8079c7dc7d12/photo?Query=Rabbi%20Jacob%20Rothschild&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1960s, Rabbi Rothschild met Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who had <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/ebenezer-baptist-church-atlanta-georgia">joined his father as co-pastor</a> of Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Rothschilds and the Kings became friends, and, in 1963, Rothschild introduced King when he spoke before a packed audience of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, known today as the <a href="https://urj.org/">Union for Reform Judaism</a>, at its biennial gathering. </p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Later, he played a central role in organizing a large Atlanta dinner honoring King for winning the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. When King was assassinated in 1968, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Voice.html?id=a4-8rmTtzO0C">Rabbi Rothschild delivered the eulogy</a> at the city-wide service in Atlanta in his memory. </p>
<h2>Rothschild’s message and Ossoff’s</h2>
<p>Citing the same biblical passages heard at President Biden’s inauguration, Rothschild <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Voice.html?id=a4-8rmTtzO0C">called for America to become</a> “a land where a man does not lift up sword against his neighbor, but where each sits under his own vine and under his own fig tree and there is none to make him afraid.”</p>
<p>In deciding to be sworn in on the “Hebrew scripture” that belonged to Rabbi Rothschild, Senator Ossoff gestures back to this relationship that once brought Black and Jewish Americans together in a common quest. </p>
<p>In this gesture, he is delivering the same message as King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, did in 1984, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Voice.html?id=a4-8rmTtzO0C">when she wrote</a> that the story of Rabbi Rothschild serves as “an inspiring story of commitment and brotherhood during an exciting, creative period of American history.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan D. Sarna knows members of Rabbi Rothschild's family. </span></em></p>
In choosing a Hebrew Bible belonging to a civil rights leader, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, Sen. Jon Ossoff appeared to be sending out a message on the strong historic ties between Black people and Jews.
Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150828
2020-12-15T20:09:45Z
2020-12-15T20:09:45Z
Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Why the Gospels disagree over the circumstances of Christ’s birth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374897/original/file-20201214-21-1rqjhks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C44%2C2923%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A doll representing the infant Jesus in St. Catherine's, the Franciscan church in the town of Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/doll-representing-the-infant-jesus-is-seen-behind-votive-news-photo/56450691?adppopup=true">David Silverman/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every Christmas, a relatively <a href="https://time.com/5752224/bethlehem-christmas/">small town in the Palestinian West Bank</a> comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago. </p>
<p>Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus’ birth at all. </p>
<p>The Gospels’ different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a <a href="https://wipfandstock.com/a-pneumatology-of-race-in-the-gospel-of-john.html">scholar</a> of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15700747-03903016">ethnic identity</a>, including genealogies. </p>
<p>Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one’s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/race-9781350125001/">Greco-Roman era</a>, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur. </p>
<h2>Gospel of Matthew</h2>
<p>According to the Gospel of Matthew, the first Gospel in the canon of the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Jesus was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1&version=NASB">born</a>. The story begins with wise men who come to the city of Jerusalem after seeing a star that they interpreted as signaling the birth of a new king. </p>
<p>It goes on to describe their meeting with the local Jewish king named Herod, of whom they inquire about the location of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel says that the star of Bethlehem subsequently leads them to a house – not a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A11&version=NASB">manger</a> – where Jesus has been born to Joseph and Mary. Overjoyed, they worship Jesus and present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were valuable gifts, especially frankincense and myrrh, which were costly fragrances that had medicinal use. </p>
<p>The Gospel explains that after their visit, Joseph has a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A13&version=NASB">dream</a> where he is warned of Herod’s attempt to kill baby Jesus. When the wise men went to Herod with the news that a child had been born to be the king of the Jews, he made a plan to kill all young children to remove the threat to his throne. It then mentions how Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus leave for Egypt to escape King Herod’s attempt to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A16-18&version=NIV">assassinate</a> all young children. </p>
<p>Matthew also says that after <a href="https://lexundria.com/j_aj/17.188-17.205/wst">Herod dies</a> from an illness, Joseph, Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem. Instead, they travel north to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A19-23&version=NASB">Nazareth in Galilee</a>, which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel.</p>
<h2>Gospel of Luke</h2>
<p>The Gospel of Luke, an account of Jesus’ life which was written during the same period as the Gospel of Matthew, has a different version of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel of Luke starts with Joseph and a pregnant Mary in Galilee. They journey to Bethlehem in response to a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-4&version=NASB">census</a> that the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus required for all the Jewish people. Since Joseph was a descendant of King David, Bethlehem was the hometown where he was required to register. </p>
<p>The Gospel of Luke includes no flight to Egypt, no paranoid King Herod, no murder of children and no wise men visiting baby Jesus. Jesus is born in a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A7&version=NASB">manger</a> because all the travelers overcrowded the guest rooms. After the birth, Joseph and Mary are visited not by wise men but <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A8-20&version=NASB">shepherds</a>, who were also overjoyed at Jesus’ birth.</p>
<p>Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus’ location in Bethlehem by angels. There is no guiding star in Luke’s story, nor do the shepherds bring gifts to baby Jesus. Luke also mentions that Joseph, Mary and Jesus leave Bethlehem eight days after his birth and travel to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22&version=NASB">Jerusalem</a> and then to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A39&version=NASB">Nazareth</a>. </p>
<p>The differences between Matthew and Luke are nearly impossible to reconcile, although they do share some similarities. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/john-p-meier/">John Meier</a>, a scholar on the historical Jesus, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300140187/marginal-jew-rethinking-historical-jesus-volume-i">explains</a> that Jesus’ “birth at Bethlehem is to be taken not as a historical fact” but as a “theological affirmation put into the form of an apparently historical narrative.” In other words, the belief that Jesus was a descendant of King David led to the development of a story about Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/11/us/raymond-e-brown-70-dies-a-leading-biblical-scholar.html">Raymond Brown</a>, another scholar on the Gospels, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300140088/birth-messiah-new-updated-edition">also states</a> that “the two narratives are not only different – they are contrary to each other in a number of details.” </p>
<h2>Mark’s and John’s Gospels</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Nativity scene showing the birth of Jesus in a manger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/december-2020-lower-saxony-wieda-nativity-figures-are-news-photo/1229988769?adppopup=true">Swen Pförtner/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What makes it more difficult is that neither the other Gospels, that of Mark and John, mentions Jesus’ birth or his connection to Bethlehem.</p>
<p>The Gospel of Mark is the earliest account of Jesus’ life, written around A.D. 60. The opening chapter of Mark says that Jesus is from “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A9&version=NASB">Nazareth of Galilee</a>.” This is repeated throughout the Gospel on several <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A24%3B+6%3A1-6%3B+10%3A47%3B+16%3A6+&version=NASB">occasions</a>, and Bethlehem is never mentioned. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A47&version=NIV">blind beggar</a> in the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus as both from Nazareth and the son of David, the second king of Israel and Judah during 1010-970 B.C. But King David was not born in Nazareth, nor associated with that city. He was from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+samuel+17%3A12&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. Yet Mark doesn’t identify Jesus with the city Bethlehem. </p>
<p>The Gospel of John, written approximately 15 to 20 years after that of Mark, also does not associate Jesus with Bethlehem. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A43-45&version=NASB">Galilee</a> is Jesus’ hometown. Jesus finds his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A43%3B+21%3A2&version=NASB">first disciples</a>, does several <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A11%3B+4%3A54&version=NASB">miracles</a> and has brothers in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A1-9&version=NASB">Galilee</a>. </p>
<p>This is not to say that John was unaware of Bethlehem’s significance. John mentions a debate where some Jewish people referred to the prophecy which claimed that the messiah would be a descendant of David and come from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A40-52&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. But Jesus according to John’s Gospel is never associated with Bethlehem, but with Galilee, and more specifically, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A45-46%3B+7%3A41&version=NASB">Nazareth</a>. </p>
<p>The Gospels of Mark and John reveal that they either had trouble linking Bethlehem with Jesus, did not know his birthplace, or were not concerned with this city. </p>
<p>These were not the only ones. Apostle Paul, who wrote the earliest documents of the New Testament, considered Jesus a descendant of David but does not associate him with <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A3%3B+2+Tim+2%3A8&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. The Book of Revelation also affirms that Jesus was a descendant of David but does not mention <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+5%3A5%3B+22%3A16&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. </p>
<h2>An ethnic identity</h2>
<p>During the period of Jesus’ life, there were multiple perspectives on the <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7717/the-messianic-theology-of-the-new-testament.aspx">Messiah</a>. In one stream of Jewish thought, the Messiah was expected to be an everlasting ruler from the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+49%3A10%3B+2+Samuel+7%3A11-16%3B+Isaiah+11%3A1-5%3B+Jeremiah+23%3A5-6&version=NASB">lineage of David</a>. Other Jewish texts, such as the book <a href="http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_ot/2esdr.htm">4 Ezra</a>, written in the same century as the Gospels, and the Jewish sectarian <a href="https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/38/38-1/JETS_38-1_011-027_Bateman.pdf">Qumran literature</a>, which is written two centuries earlier, also echo this belief. </p>
<p>But within the Hebrew Bible, a prophetic book called <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=micah+5%3A2&version=NASB">Micah</a>, thought to be written around B.C. 722, prophesies that the messiah would come from David’s hometown, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Micah+5%3A2&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. This text is repeated in Matthew’s version. Luke mentions that Jesus is not only genealogically connected to King David, but also born in Bethlehem, “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2%3A11&version=NASB">the city of David</a>.” </p>
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<p>Genealogical claims were made for important ancient founders and political leaders. For example, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0110%3Acard%3D41">Ion</a>, the founder of the Greek colonies in Asia, was considered to be a descendant of Apollo. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/alexander*/3.html">Alexander the Great</a>, whose empire reached from Macedonia to India, was claimed to be a son of Hercules. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html">Caesar Augustus</a>, who was the first Roman emperor, was proclaimed as a descendant of Apollo. And a Jewish writer named Philo who lived in the first century wrote that <a href="http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book9.html">Abraham and the Jewish priest and prophets</a> were born of God.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether these claims were accepted at the time to be true, they shaped a person’s ethnic identity, political status and claims to honor. As the Greek historian Polybius explains, the renown deeds of ancestors are “<a href="http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Polyb.%206.54">part of the heritage of posterity</a>.” </p>
<p>Matthew and Luke’s inclusion of the city of Bethlehem contributed to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah from a Davidic lineage. They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus’ genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city. Birth stories in Bethlehem solidified the claim that Jesus was a rightful descendant of King David. </p>
<p>So today, when the importance of Bethlehem is heard in Christmas carols or displayed in Nativity scenes, the name of the town connects Jesus to an ancestral lineage and the prophetic hope for a new leader like King David. </p>
<p>
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<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">Fuller Theological Seminary is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.</a></p>
<footer>The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The differences in the Gospels are hard to reconcile. That’s because, says a scholar, they offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity.
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Adjunct Assistant Professor of the New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/113906
2019-05-17T10:45:04Z
2019-05-17T10:45:04Z
What’s behind the belief in a soulmate?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274704/original/file-20190515-60563-15cr0bg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people believe in the idea of a soulmate - one person who will make us whole and happy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tender-loving-senior-wife-caress-beloved-1207103986?src=D4REDrfJgcEZdRYM2qtI3Q-1-44">fizkes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United States appears to be in a romantic slump. Marriage rates have <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/11/the-share-of-americans-living-without-a-partner-has-increased-especially-among-young-adults/">plummeted</a> over the last decade. And compared to previous generations, young single people today are perhaps spending more time on social media <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/tinder-changed-dating/578698/">than actual dating</a>. They are also having <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/membership/archive/2018/11/whats-causing-the-sex-recession/575890/">less sex</a>.</p>
<p>Despite these trends, a yearning for a soulmate remains a common thread across the generations. Most Americans, it seems, are still looking for one. According to a 2017 <a href="https://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2017/02/two-thirds_of_americans_believe_in_a_soulmate_poll.html">poll</a> two-thirds of Americans believe in soulmates. That number far surpasses the percentage of Americans who believe in the <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/04/Beliefs-about-God-FOR-WEB-FULL-REPORT.pdf">biblical God</a>. </p>
<p>The idea that there is a person out there who can make each of us happy and whole is constantly conveyed through portrayals in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls008719611/?sort=release_date,desc&st_dt=&mode=detail&page=1">films,</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/">books,</a> <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a41698/find-your-soulmate-in-8-simple-questions/">magazines</a> and <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/02/08/tv-show-couples-love-lessons_a_23356753/">television</a>. </p>
<p>What accounts for the persistence of the soulmate ideal in the contemporary age?</p>
<h2>Origins of the soulmate myth</h2>
<p>Ten years ago, after a hard breakup, I decided to investigate. As a scholar of <a href="https://skidmore.academia.edu/BradleyOnishi">religion and culture</a> who was trained in the history of ideas, I was interested in connecting the various iterations of the soulmate ideal through time. </p>
<p>One early use of the word <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=eng_pubs">“soulmate”</a> comes from the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1320004/_Soulmates_in_The_Encyclopedia_of_Love_in_World_Religions_ABC-CLIO_World_Religions_Project_Ed._Dr._Yudit_Kornberg_Greenberg_Santa_Barbara_California_et._al._November_2007_pp._593-597">letter from 1822</a>: “To be happy in Married Life … you must have a Soul-mate.” </p>
<p>For Coleridge, a successful marriage needed to be about more than economic or social compatibility. It required a spiritual connection. </p>
<p>Several centuries prior to Coleridge, the Greek philosopher Plato, in his text “Symposium,” wrote about the reasons behind the human yearning for a soulmate. Plato quotes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-plato-can-teach-you-about-finding-a-soulmate-72715">poet Aristophanes as saying</a> that all humans were once united with their other half, but Zeus split them apart out of fear and jealousy. <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html">Aristophanes explains</a> the transcendent experience of two soulmates reuniting in the following way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself … the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The religious sources</h2>
<p>These references aren’t limited to Coleridge and Plato. In numerous religious traditions, the human soul’s connection to God has been envisioned in similar ways. While the examples from religious traditions are numerous, I will mention just two from Judaism and Christianity. </p>
<p>At different points in the history of these these two faith traditions, mystics and theologians employed erotic and marital metaphors to understand their relationships with God. Despite important differences, they both envision amorous union with the one divine force as the pathway to true selfhood, happiness and wholeness.</p>
<p>This idea is expressed in the Hebrew Bible, where God is consistently seen as the one to whom his chosen people, Israel, are betrothed. “For your Maker is your husband,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+54&version=NRSV">a passage in the Hebrew Bible</a> says. Israel – the ancient kingdom, not the modern nation-state – plays the role of God’s spouse. </p>
<p>Throughout Israelite history this idea frames the relationship between the people of Israel and God, whom they know as Yahweh. When Yahweh ratifies his covenant with Israel, his chosen people, he is often referred to as Israel’s husband. In turn, Israel is envisioned as Yahweh’s wife. For the Israelites, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+31%3A31-32&version=NRSV">the divine one</a> is also their <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+2&version=NRS">romantic soulmate</a>. </p>
<p>This is illustrated in the Song of Songs, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Solomon+1&version=NRSV">an erotic love poem</a> with a female narrator. The Song of Songs is written from the perspective of a woman longing to be with her male lover. It’s filled with vivid physical descriptions of the two characters and the delights they take in each other’s bodies.</p>
<p>“Your channel is an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits,” the narrator recounts her man saying to her, before proclaiming that her garden is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Solomon+4&version=NRSV">“a fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon</a>.”</p>
<p>Song of Songs is not only an unquestioned part of Jewish and Christian scripture, it’s been understood for millennia by Jewish sages as the key to understanding the most important events in Israelite history. </p>
<h2>Erotic mysticism</h2>
<p>By the second century A.D., Christians too began framing their relationship with the divine in erotic terms through the Song of Songs. </p>
<p>One of the first, and most influential, was <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/origen/">Origen of Alexandria</a>, a second-century mystic who became the first great Christian theologian. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Song_of_Songs.html?id=Mjxy0Fl7VMsC">According to him</a>, the Song is the key to understanding the soul’s relationship to Christ. </p>
<p>Origen calls it an “epithalamium,” which is a poem written for a bride on the way to the bridal chamber. For him, the Song is “a drama and sang under the figure of the Bride,” who is about to wed her groom, “the Word of God.”</p>
<p>Origen views Jesus as his divine soulmate. He anticipates the end of time when his soul will “cleave” to Christ, so that he will never be apart from him again – and he does this by using erotic terms.</p>
<p>His writings on the Song founded a rich and expansive tradition of Christian <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=99CNMQmzpKIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=song+of+songs+mysticism+christianity&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj--4qquZ3hAhUSVN8KHRpcBl4Q6AEINDAC#v=onepage&q=song%20of%20songs%20mysticism%20christianity&f=false">mystical texts</a> based on the soul’s erotic and marital union with Christ.</p>
<h2>The power of the myth</h2>
<p>By tracing the soulmate ideal to these religious sources it’s possible to gain fresh perspective on its power and function in an age when more Americans identify as having no religious <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-number-of-americans-with-no-religious-affiliation-is-rising/">affiliation</a>. </p>
<p>The soulmate myth informs the reality show “The Bachelor,” where young women wait for the attention of one chosen “bachelor” in hopes of finding true love. It is the same in the film adaptation of Nicholas Spark’s novel “The Notebook,” which follows the path of two lovers separated at various times by war, family and illness. </p>
<p>And then there are the Tinder users – wading through an excess of possible romantic partners, perhaps hoping that their one and only will eventually make them whole and happy. </p>
<p>In light of the myth’s history, it’s not surprising that even at a time when fewer Americans may be turning to God, they are still looking for their one true soulmate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley Onishi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many of us go through life in the hope of finding the ideal soulmate – our missing half. The reason may be deeply embedded in religious beliefs.
Bradley Onishi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Skidmore College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105770
2018-10-30T10:46:01Z
2018-10-30T10:46:01Z
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible’s past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242793/original/file-20181029-76405-l67pp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A conservator works with a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 145 at The Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Dead-Seas-Scrolls/0f2dad3960dc468883fa8ef8722950b7/33/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., in 2018 <a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/press/press-releases/museum-of-the-bible-releases-research-findings-on-fragments-in-its-dead-sea-scrolls-collection">removed five Dead Sea Scrolls</a> from exhibits after tests confirmed these fragments were <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685179-12341428">not from ancient biblical scrolls</a> but forgeries.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the Green family, owners of the craft-supply chain Hobby Lobby, has <a href="https://lyingpen.com/2018/03/27/the-post-2002-dss-like-fragments-a-price-list/">paid millions of dollars</a> for fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be the crown jewels in the museum’s exhibition showcasing the history and heritage of the Bible. </p>
<p>Why would the Green family spend so much on small scraps of parchment? </p>
<h2>Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery</h2>
<p>From the first accidental discovery, the <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">story of the Dead Sea Scrolls</a> is a dramatic one.</p>
<p>In 1947, Bedouin men herding goats in the hills to the west of the Dead Sea entered a cave near Wadi Qumran in the West Bank and stumbled on clay jars filled with leather scrolls. Ten more caves were discovered over the next decade that contained tens of thousands of fragments belonging to over 900 scrolls. Most of the finds were made by the Bedouin. </p>
<p>Some of these scrolls were later acquired by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities through complicated transactions and a few by the state of Israel. The bulk of the scrolls came under the control of the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/modules_eng.aspx?menu=10">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> in 1967. </p>
<p>Included among the scrolls are the oldest copies of books in the Hebrew Bible and many other ancient Jewish writings: prayers, commentaries, religious laws, magical and mystical texts. They have shed much new light on the origins of the Bible, Judaism and even Christianity. </p>
<h2>The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls</h2>
<p>Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated to the 10th century A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 225 <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">copies of biblical books</a> that date up to 1,200 years earlier. </p>
<p>These range from small fragments to a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther and Nehemiah. They show that the books of the Jewish Bible were known and treated as sacred writings before the time of Jesus, with essentially the same content. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there was no “Bible” as such but a loose assortment of writings sacred to various Jews including numerous books not in the modern Jewish Bible. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two men stand on the foundations of the ancient Khirbet Qumran ruins, which lie on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan, in 1957. The ruins are above the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Jordan-QUMR-/fd0373fddce6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/138/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls show that in the first century B.C. there were <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4611/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-the-origins-of-the-bible.aspx">different versions</a> of books that became part of the Hebrew canon, especially Exodus, Samuel, Jeremiah, Psalms and Daniel.</p>
<p>This evidence has helped scholars understand how the Bible came to be, but it neither proves nor disproves its religious message.</p>
<h2>Judaism and Christianity</h2>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls are unique in representing a sort of library of a particular Jewish group that lived at Qumran in the first century B.C. to about 68 A.D. They probably belonged to the Essenes, a strict Jewish movement described by several writers from the first century A.D. </p>
<p>The scrolls provide a rich trove of <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/the-complete-world-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-softcover">Jewish religious texts</a> previously unknown. Some of these were written by Essenes and give insights into their views, as well as their conflict with other Jews including the Pharisees. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls contain nothing about Jesus or the early Christians, but indirectly they help to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and why his message drew followers and opponents. Both the Essenes and the early Christians believed they were living at the time foretold by prophets when God would establish a kingdom of peace and that their teacher revealed the true meaning of Scripture. </p>
<h2>Fame and forgeries</h2>
<p>The fame of the Dead Sea Scrolls is what has encouraged both forgeries and the shadow market in antiquities. They are often called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century because of their importance to understanding the Bible and the Jewish world at the time of Jesus. </p>
<p>Religious artifacts especially attract forgeries, because people want a physical connection to their faith. The so-called <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469614571/resurrecting-the-brother-of-jesus/">James Ossuary</a>, a limestone box, that was claimed to be the burial box of the brother of Jesus, attracted much attention in 2002. A few years later, it was found that it was indeed an authentic burial box for a person named James from the first century A.D., but by adding “brother of Jesus” the forger made it seem priceless.</p>
<p>Scholars eager to publish and discuss new texts are <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-dead-sea-scroll-fakes-abound-and-scholars-admit-they-share-the-blame-1.6600900?=&ts=_1540825933778">partly responsible</a> for this shady market. </p>
<p>The confirmation of forged scrolls at the Museum of Bible only confirmed that artifacts should be viewed with highest suspicion unless the source is fully known. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/los-manuscritos-del-mar-muerto-son-un-vinculo-inestimable-con-el-pasado-de-la-biblia-106029"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Falk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The real scrolls are considered priceless. Here’s why.
Daniel Falk, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100077
2018-08-01T10:37:21Z
2018-08-01T10:37:21Z
What the early church thought about God’s gender
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230043/original/file-20180731-136673-128azg9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Episcopal_Church_(Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida)#/media/File:Sanctuary.JPG">Carolyn Fitzpatrick</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.episcopalchurch.org">Episcopal Church</a> has decided to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/18/the-episcopal-church-will-revise-its-beloved-prayer-book-but-doesnt-know-when/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e4113671ca0&wpisrc=nl_faith&wpmm=1">revise its 1979 prayer book</a>, so that God is no longer referred to by masculine pronouns. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bcponline.org">prayer book</a>, first published in 1549 and now in its fourth edition, is the symbol of unity for the <a href="http://www.anglicancommunion.org/identity/about.aspx">Anglican Communion</a>. The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion founded in 1867. While there is no clear timeline for the changes, religious leaders at the denomination’s recent triennial conference in Austin have agreed to a demand to replace the masculine terms for God such as “He” and “King” and “Father.”</p>
<p>Indeed, early Christian writings and texts, all refer to God in feminine terms.</p>
<h2>God of the Hebrew Bible</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hebrew Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stockcatalog/25547697457">Stock Catalog</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C7&q=david+wheeler-reed&btnG=">scholar of Christian origins and gender theory</a>, I’ve studied the early references to God.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A27&version=NRSV">Genesis</a>, for example, women and men are created in the “Imago Dei,” image of God, which suggests that God transcends socially constructed notions of gender. Furthermore, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+32%3A18&version=NRSV">Deuteronomy</a>, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195133242.001.0001/acprof-9780195133240">written in the seventh century B.C.</a>, states that God gave birth to Israel.</p>
<p>In the oracles of the eighth century prophet <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+42%3A14&version=NRSV">Isaiah</a>, God is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.</p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+8%3A22-23&version=NRSV">Book of Proverbs</a> maintains that the feminine figure of Holy Wisdom, <a href="https://cac.org/sophia-wisdom-of-god-2017-11-07/">Sophia</a>, assisted God during the creation of the world. </p>
<p>Indeed, The Church Fathers and Mothers understood Sophia to be the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos">“Logos,”</a> or <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-18&version=NIV">Word of God</a>. Additionally, Jewish rabbis equated the Torah, the law of God, with Sophia, which means that feminine wisdom was with God from the very beginning of time.</p>
<p>Perhaps one of the most remarkable things ever said about God in the Hebrew Bible occurs in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3&version=NRSV">Exodus 3</a> when Moses first encounters the deity and asks for its name. In verse 14, God responds, “I am who I am,” which is simply a mixture of <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/10-things-yahweh-means">“to be” verbs</a> in Hebrew without any specific reference to gender. If anything, the book of Exodus is clear that God is simply “being,” which echoes later Christian doctrine that God is <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/pneuma/v-1">spirit</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the personal name of God, <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-of-god">Yahweh</a>, which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God’s name in Hebrew, “Yah,” is feminine, and the last part, “weh,” is masculine. In light of Exodus 3, the feminist theologian <a href="https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Mary-Daly-Beyond-God-the-Father-Toward-a-Philosophy-of-Womens-Liberation.pdf">Mary Daly</a> asks, “Why must ‘God’ be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and dynamic of all.”</p>
<h2>God in the New Testament</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/bible-the-gospel-of-john-3520556/">kolosser417</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the New Testament, Jesus also presents himself in feminine language. In <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/23-37.htm">Matthew’s Gospel</a>, Jesus stands over Jerusalem and weeps, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” </p>
<p>Furthermore, the author of Matthew equates Jesus with the feminine Sophia (wisdom), when he writes, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” In Matthew’s mind, it seems that Jesus is the feminine Wisdom of Proverbs, who was with God from the beginning of creation. In my opinion, I think it is very likely that Matthew is suggesting that there is a spark of the feminine in Jesus’ nature.</p>
<p>Additionally, in his letter to the <a href="http://www.usccb.org/bible/galatians/0">Galatians</a>, written around 54 or 55 A.D., Paul says that he will continue “in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” </p>
<p>Clearly, feminine imagery was acceptable among the first followers of Jesus.</p>
<h2>The church fathers</h2>
<p>This trend continues with the writings of the Church fathers. In his book <a href="https://st-takla.org/books/en/ecf/002/0020442.html">“Salvation to the Rich Man,”</a> <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/evangelistsandapologists/clement-of-alexandria.html">Clement</a>, the bishop of Alexandria who lived around 150-215 A.D., states, “In his ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother. The father by loving becomes feminine.” It’s important to remember that Alexandria was one of the most important Christian cities in the second and third centuries along with Rome and Jerusalem. It was also the hub for Christian intellectual activity.</p>
<p>Additionally, in another book, “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02091.htm">Christ the Educator</a>,” he writes, “The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father and mother.” <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/augustine-of-hippo.html">Augustine</a>, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo in North Africa, uses the image of God as mother to demonstrate that God nurses and cares for the faithful. <a href="https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/19-psalms/text/books/augustine-psalms/augustine-psalms.pdf">He writes</a>, “He who has promised us heavenly food has nourished us on milk, having recourse to a mother’s tenderness.” </p>
<p>And, <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-gregory-of-nyssa/">Gregory</a>, the bishop of Nyssa, one of the <a href="https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/the-three-cappadocians/">early Greek church fathers</a> who lived from 335-395 A.D., speaks of God’s unknowable essence – God’s transcendence – in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=E2NStO5kLqkC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=The+divine+power,+though+exalted+far+above+our+nature+and+inaccessible+to+all+approach,+like+a+tender+mother+who+joins+in+the+inarticulate+utterances+of+her+babe,+gives+to+our+human+nature+what+it+is+capable+of+receiving+nyssa&source=bl&ots=moBVMhAlyo&sig=fsWjDAO2cr1mBog6pvIuy8DUPVE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_1OTSpLjcAhVkg-AKHewqDQIQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q&f=false">feminine terms.</a> He says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What is God’s gender?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do images limit our religious experience?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spbpda/14168383736/in/photolist-nA1ESd-dbhTWL-b6fKUV-dvP12P-iA2fs9-6xCQfA-WrcVkg-aabhnB-DTP354-a9sem3-cUmDRy-bH6GGH-4JEdMT-eaujPx-eEKdMv-fcLrs8-aaijXb-9pJERP-dQEGMa-ZhMSaC-67iAmy-4PP32o-aa9yxM-dBsy8B-67ixL3-o96QZo-67izg1-c9NnNQ-8sNUMg-cty7iC-8CqH3f-5HM1fi-WRBLpk-9EBApX-SQTTW8-a9hwe9-8vRUWH-Be3puZ-a9i7sE-ec1NAW-ezMxga-b6fK3F-5qKRPx-dQ79LW-i9jSBX-5Qzj2V-4nWZHg-jw2Fu9-aa9pDg-8zYZUN">Saint-Petersburg Theological Academy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Modern followers of Jesus live in a world where images risk becoming socially, politically or morally inadequate. When this happens, as the feminist theologian <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/plaskow-judith">Judith Plaskow</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Standing_Again_at_Sinai.html?id=mJX78S4ejiAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">notes</a>, “Instead of pointing to and evoking the reality of God, [our images] block the possibility of religious experience.” In other words, limiting God to masculine pronouns and imagery limits the countless religious experiences of billions of Christians throughout the world.</p>
<p>It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the words and warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, “<a href="http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20080828_1.htm">si comprehendis non est Deus</a>.” If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wheeler-Reed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In early Christian texts, God gives birth to Israel and is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.
David Wheeler-Reed, Visiting Assistant Professor, Albertus Magnus College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94560
2018-04-18T10:42:34Z
2018-04-18T10:42:34Z
What is hell?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214800/original/file-20180413-540-spnd4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The abyss of hell.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Sandro_Botticelli_-_The_Abyss_of_Hell_-_WGA02853.jpg">Sandro Botticelli.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent dispute over whether Pope Francis denied the existence of hell in an interview <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-did-not-tell-journalist-there-is-no-hell-vatican-says/">attracted wide attention</a>. This isn’t surprising, since the belief in an afterlife, where the virtuous are rewarded with a place in heaven and the wicked are punished in hell, is a core teaching of Christianity.</p>
<p>So what is the Christian idea of hell?</p>
<h2>Origins of belief in hell</h2>
<p>The Christian belief in hell has developed over the centuries, influenced by both Jewish and Greek ideas of the afterlife. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13563-sheol">earliest</a> parts of the Hebrew Bible, around the eighth century B.C., described the afterlife as Sheol, a shadowy, silent pit where the souls of all the dead lingered in a minimal state of silent existence, forever outside of the presence of God. By the sixth century B.C., Sheol was increasingly viewed as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z3LJDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT257&dq=elledge+josephus&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv8pKZoq7aAhViS98KHWNzDtwQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=wicked%20&f=false">temporary place</a>, where all the departed awaited a bodily resurrection. The righteous would then dwell in the presence of God, and the wicked would suffer in the fiery torment that came to be called <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6558-gehenna">“Gehenna,”</a> described as a cursed place of fire and smoke.</p>
<p>Early depictions of the afterlife in ancient Greece, an underworld realm called “Hades,” are similar. There, the listless spirits of the dead <a href="http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/shade.html">lingered in an underground twilight existence</a>, ruled by the god of the dead. Evildoers suffered gloomy imprisonment on an even deeper level called <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Tartarus/tartarus.html">“Tartarus.”</a> </p>
<p>Beginning in the fourth century B.C., after the Greek King Alexander the Great conquered Judea, elements of <a href="https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/james-tabor/ancient-judaism/death-afterlife-future/">Greek culture</a> began to influence Jewish religious thought. By time of the first gospels, between 65 and 85 A.D., Jesus refers to the Jewish belief in the eternal fire of <a href="http://biblehub.com/mark/9-43.htm">Gehenna</a>. Elsewhere, he mentions evildoers’ banishment from the <a href="http://biblehub.com/luke/13-28.htm">kingdom of God</a>, and the “blazing furnace” where the <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/13-42.htm">wicked</a> would suffer sorrow and despair and “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Jesus also mentions the Greek Hades when describing how the forces of evil – “the <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-18.htm">gates of Hades</a>” – would not prevail against the church.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214797/original/file-20180413-127631-10km2e4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Depiction of the seven deadly sins and the four last things of man (death, judgment, heaven and hell).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hieronymus_Bosch-_The_Seven_Deadly_Sins_and_the_Four_Last_Things.JPG">Hieronymus Bosch or follower.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Medieval ideas of hell</h2>
<p>In early Christianity, the fate of those in hell was described in different ways. Some theologians taught that eventually all evil human beings and even Satan himself would be <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5881.15-origen-eusebius-the-doctrine-of-apokatastasis-and-its-relation-to-christology-ilaria-ramelli">restored to unity with God</a>. Other <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rOYsSHCWV1gC&pg=PT301&lpg=PT301&dq=arnobius+annihilationism&source=bl&ots=QmIeUs0aBs&sig=ixTDP5ANuLayRXniKVZIXppn94s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLxaT0mbPaAhXps1kKHRjEC1c4ChDoAQg-MAU#v=onepage&q=arnobius%20annihilationism&f=false">teachers</a> held that hell was an “intermediate state,” where some souls would be purified and others annihilated. </p>
<p>The image that dominated in antiquity eventually prevailed. Hell was where the souls of the damned suffered torturous and unending punishment. Even after the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world, the wicked would be sent back to Hell for eternity. </p>
<p>By the beginning of the fifth century, this doctrine was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IwGePQYd4l0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=augustine+city+of+god&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO0sz4t67aAhViiOAKHZzXC-kQ6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=hell%20eternal&f=false">taught throughout western Christianity</a>. It was reaffirmed officially by popes and councils throughout the Middle Ages. </p>
<p>Medieval theologians continued to stress that the worst of all these torments would be eternal separation from God, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kHk6edSEYZEC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=poena+damni+theology&source=bl&ots=9Y8FYqZKZM&sig=I5MxOuv7UpCuPzpeZliTRfq1IuQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2r4HUobPaAhWitlkKHV4eBEoQ6AEINjAB#v=onepage&q=poena%20damni%20theology&f=false">“poena damni.”</a> Medieval <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4dzynjFfX7kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=le+goff+purgatory&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwib-ISEwK7aAhUQuVMKHeDHBu4Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=visions&f=false">visions of the afterlife</a> provided more explicit details: pits full of dark flames, terrible cries, gagging stench, and rivers of boiling water filled with serpents. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214796/original/file-20180413-560-1eggkaz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cerberus, with the gluttons in Dante’s third circle of hell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus#/media/File:Cerberus-Blake.jpeg">William Blake</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the most fulsome description of hell was offered by the Italian poet Dante at the beginning of the 14th century in the first section of his <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-dantes-divine-comedy-84603">“Divine Comedy.”</a> Here the souls of the damned are punished with tortures <a href="http://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html">matching their sins.</a> Gluttons lie in freezing pools of garbage, while murderers thrash in a river of boiling blood. </p>
<h2>Hell is God’s absence</h2>
<p>Today, these images seem to be part of a past that the 21st century has outgrown. However, the official textbook of Catholic Christianity, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” reaffirms the Catholic belief in the eternal nature of hell. It omits the gory details found in earlier attempts to describe the hellish experience, but <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P2O.HTM">restates</a> that the chief pain of hell is eternal separation from God.</p>
<p>The Vatican <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/world/europe/pope-francis-hell-scalfari.html">insisted</a> that the pope was misquoted by the journalist. But theologians have pointed out that Pope Francis has stressed the <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/signs-times/pope-francis-and-hell">reality of hell</a> several times in recent years. Indeed, for today’s Catholics at least, hell still means the hopeless anguish of God’s absence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce is a Roman Catholic member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the USA, a national ecumenical dialogue group sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Episcopal Church.</span></em></p>
The meaning of hell might have changed over the centuries, but for devout Christians it remains a core part of their faith.
Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92296
2018-02-23T11:34:23Z
2018-02-23T11:34:23Z
Seal of the Prophet Isaiah: sorting out fact from fantasy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207637/original/file-20180223-108146-1qqxv6y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The remains of what has been identified as Isaiah's seal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ouria Tadmor/ Eilat Mazar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an article in <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/prophet-isaiah-signature-jerusalem/">Biblical Archaeology Review</a> Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist associated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced the discovery of a clay seal that appears to bear the name of the biblical prophet Isaiah, who lived in the eighth century BC. The 2,700-year-old seal impression was unearthed <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/the-ophel-treasure/">in the Ophel</a>, an ancient fortified area located at the base of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where Mazar has been excavating for some years.</p>
<p>Isaiah is one of the most important Old Testament prophets, who predicted the birth of Jesus Christ. He also appears to have been an important court official, worthy of carrying his own seal. In her article, Mazar argues that the inscription on the seal should be translated as “belonging to the prophet Isaiah”. In other words, this small clay nugget preserves what might be called the “signature” of the biblical prophet.</p>
<p>Mazar’s translation is complicated by the fact that the seal is partially damaged: the second part of the inscription that contains the word for “prophet” is missing its final letter and is thus incomplete. Some, like noted paleographer Christopher Rollston, <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/prophet-isaiah-jerusalem-seal-archaeology-bible/">have pointed</a> to the possibility that these letters are just a surname. Anticipating this objection, Mazar offers some persuasive arguments about why we should translate the inscription as belonging to “Isaiah the prophet”. But because the seal is damaged, the question of how to read the seal will never be fully resolved.</p>
<p>These translation issues aside, there is the larger question of what the discovery of an authentic Isaiah seal actually means.</p>
<h2>Isaiah the man</h2>
<p>In the first place, the seal confirms something scholars never doubted: Isaiah was an historical figure who lived and worked in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC. According to the beginning of the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+1">Isaiah</a>, he enjoyed a lengthy career that spanned the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. </p>
<p>In addition to writing some of the most eloquent, theologically significant, and historically influential poetry in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah was an important man in his own day. The composite biblical portrait of Isaiah portrays him as an authority figure in ancient Jerusalem. He was important enough to be called upon by King Hezekiah – one of the Bible’s few “good” kings – for advice and seemed to have unencumbered access to the monarch (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2019:20">2 Kings 19:20; 20</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207622/original/file-20180223-108122-aida3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Isaiah as portrayed on an 18th-century Russian icon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the seal truly belongs to Isaiah, then it cements the scholarly view that Isaiah was – in contrast to itinerant outsider prophets such as Amos or John the Baptist – a professional religious worker who enjoyed the privileged status that accompanied being an adviser of the king. In short: it adds texture to our impression of ancient Israelite religio-political affairs. </p>
<p>For Christians, documenting evidence of the life of Isaiah holds particular importance. Christian tradition interprets Isaiah’s words as prophecies about the Virgin Birth, the nature of being a messiah and the universal relevance of Jesus’ messianic identity to both gentiles and Jews. Indeed, in some <a href="http://christians-worldview.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/isaiah-fifth-evangelist.html">circles</a>, he is known as “The Fifth Evangelist”, a title that implicitly places him on a par with the writers of the New Testament gospels. </p>
<h2>Politicising history</h2>
<p>The danger with an exciting find like this one is that the growing excitement over the discovery will move away from its particular historical relevance. In the past, artefacts that overlap with biblical records have taken on a talismanic quality in which a new find is used to support broader religious, political, and ideological claims. </p>
<p>To name but two examples: the reference to the Israelite people in the <a href="https://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/merneptah-stele-faq.htm">Victory Stele</a> of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (1207BC), which is the earliest reference to Israel outside the Bible, and the <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/the-tel-dan-inscription-the-first-historical-evidence-of-the-king-david-bible-story/">mention of the House of David</a> in the Tel Dan inscription, from the 9th-century BC, are often <a href="http://www.truthnet.org/index.php/25-reasons-to-believe/398-12-reason-biblical-archeology">cited</a> as evidence that the biblical narrative is true.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207623/original/file-20180223-108125-s4afc7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ophel in Jerusalem: the Kidron Valley and Mount of Olives are in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JPF-Ophel_-_City_of_David.JPG">Joe Freeman via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In October 2017, the American evangelical politician Michelle Bachman <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/michele-bachmann-every-archaeological-find-has-only-proved-the-authenticity-of-the-bible/">remarked</a> that “every archaeology (sic) find that has ever come forward has only proved the authenticity of the Bible”. Looking past the deeply problematic omission of the many discoveries that conflict with biblical historical narratives, Bachman is leveraging historical artefacts about the past to make grand sweeping statements about the accuracy of the Bible.</p>
<h2>Digging up the past</h2>
<p>The tendency to use archaeological artefacts in this way is hardly unique to the archaeology of the Iron Age Levant. The same phenomenon <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-ugly-nationalist-politics-of-human-origins">is at work</a> in efforts to identify and claim national ownership of the earliest human remains. Evolutionary theories about the geographical origins of the human race are closely tied to nationalism and politics. As anthropologist <a href="https://evolution-institute.org/profile/jonathan-marks/">Jon Marks</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Ex-Apes-Think-about-Evolution/dp/0520285824/ref=as_at?linkCode=w50&tag=thedailybeast-autotag-20&imprToken=lpjOCJ.Gk2zh0DSzrZJp2A&slotNum=0">argued</a>, those who claim to own the earliest example of human remains get to play a pivotal role in the story of human evolution.</p>
<p>All attempts to tell history are also weighed down by our current commitments: whether scholars choose to write about military heroes, women, slaves or animals reveals a great deal about what is valuable to us. And yet, there is something especially problematic about biblical archaeology, which, from its inception, self-consciously <a href="http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/religion-and-spirituality-digging-for-faith/675.aspx">defined</a> itself as the pursuit of material evidence that would lend tangible support to theological and textual claims.</p>
<p>The stakes are much higher when the finds take place in the politically charged environs of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-clashes-in-jerusalem-fed-by-extreme-israeli-counter-measures-47669">Temple Mount</a>. Frequently, representatives on both sides of the Israel/Palestinian divide interpret the discovery of remnants of the past in light of competing claims to ownership of the land. Too often the fetishisation of archaeological finds turns historical artefacts into ideological relics. </p>
<p>In the case of the Isaiah seal, the disputes about the way the text is translated might provide the basis for politically motivated disputes about its authenticity. And the mere potential for ideologically (as opposed to intellectually) based disagreement will make it difficult to have thoughtful conversations about its significance.</p>
<p>The Isaiah seal offers important evidence about religious life during the Judahite monarchy. But the seal does not authenticate broader religious or political claims about the authenticity and historical accuracy of what Christians call the Old Testament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candida Moss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The discovery of the signature of Christianity’s favourite prophet has caused a stir, but what does it mean?
Candida Moss, Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88225
2017-12-07T18:47:06Z
2017-12-07T18:47:06Z
Hanukkah’s true meaning is about Jewish survival
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198025/original/file-20171206-31532-4wxjt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/101422984?src=SCgcp5hYcu4pdFCFBZP2cA-1-67&size=huge_jpg">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every December Jews celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most visible Jewish holiday.</p>
<p>While critics sometimes identify Christmas as promoting the prevalence in America today of what one might refer to as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/hanukkah-sucks-amirite/419649/">Hanukkah kitsch</a>, this assessment misses the social and theological significance of Hanukkah within Judaism itself. </p>
<p>Let’s consider the origin and development of Hanukkah over the past more than 2,000 years.</p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>Though it is 2,200 years old, <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/jewish-literature-between-bible-and-mishnah-2nd-ed-stand-alone-cd-rom">Hanukkah</a> is one of Judaism’s newest holidays, an annual Jewish celebration that does not even appear in the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<p>The historical event that is the basis for Hanukkah is told, rather, in the post-biblical Books of the Maccabees, which appear in the Catholic biblical canon but are not even considered part of the Bible by Jews and most Protestant denominations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Maccabees receive their father’s blessing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Maccabees_receive_their_father's_blessing.jpg">The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the Greco-Roman model of celebrating a military triumph, Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">to celebrate the victory</a> of the Maccabees, a ragtag army of Jews, against the much more powerful army of King Antiochus IV of Syria. </p>
<p>In 168 B.C., Antiochus outlawed Jewish practice and forced Jews to adopt pagan rituals and assimilate into Greek culture. </p>
<p>The Maccabees revolted against this persecution. They captured Jerusalem from Antiochus’s control, removed from the Jerusalem Temple symbols of pagan worship that Antiochus had introduced and restarted the sacrificial worship, ordained by God in the Hebrew Bible, that Antiochus had violated. </p>
<p>Hanukkah, meaning “dedication,” <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">marked this military victory</a>
with a celebration that lasted eight days and was modeled on the festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) that had been banned by Antiochus.</p>
<h2>How Hanukkah evolved</h2>
<p>The military triumph, however, was short-lived. The Maccabees’ descendants – the Hasmonean dynasty – routinely violated their own Jewish law and tradition. </p>
<p>Even more significantly, the following centuries witnessed the devastation that would be caused when Jews tried again to accomplish what the Maccabees had done. By now, Rome controlled the land of Israel. In A.D. 68-70 and again in A.D. 133-135, the Jews mounted passionate revolts to rid their land of this foreign and oppressing power. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFrancesco_Hayez_017.jpg">Francesco Hayez, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first of these revolts ended in the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, the preeminent center of Jewish worship, which had stood for 600 years. As a result of the second revolt, the <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">Jewish homeland was devastated</a> and countless Jews were put to death.</p>
<p>War no longer seemed an effective solution to the Jews’ tribulations on the stage of history.</p>
<p>In response, a new ideology deemphasized the idea that Jews should or could change their destiny through military action. What was required, rabbis asserted, was not battle but perfect observance of God’s moral and ritual law. This would lead to God’s intervention in history to restore the Jewish people’s control over their own land and destiny.</p>
<p>In this context, rabbis rethought Hanukkah’s origins as the celebration of a military victory. Instead, they said, Hanukkah should be seen as commemorating a miracle that occurred during the Maccabees’ rededication of the temple: <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">The story now told</a> was how a jar of temple oil sufficient for only one day had sustained the temple’s eternal lamp for a full eight days, until additional ritually appropriate oil could be produced. </p>
<p>The earliest version of this story <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.21b?lang=bi">appears in the Talmud</a>, in a document completed in the sixth century A.D. From that period on, rather than directly commemorating the Maccabees’ victory, Hanukkah celebrated God’s miracle.</p>
<p>This is symbolized by the kindling of an eight-branched candelabra (“Menorah” or “Hanukkiah”), with one candle lit on the holiday’s first night and an additional candle added each night until, on the final night of the festival, all eight branches are lit. The ninth candle in the Hanukkiah is used to light the others.</p>
<p>Throughout the medieval period, however, Hanukkah remained a <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">minor Jewish festival</a>. </p>
<h2>What Hanukkah means today</h2>
<p>How then to understand what happened to Hanukkah in the past hundred years, during which it has achieved prominence in Jewish life, both in America and around the world? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanukkah today responds to Jews’ desire to see their history as consequential.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/candles-menorah-light-hanukkah-897776/">Pixabay.com/en</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The point is that even as the holiday’s prior iterations reflected the distinctive needs of successive ages, so Jews today have reinterpreted Hanukkah in light of contemporary circumstances – a point that is detailed in religion scholar <a href="https://academics.rowan.edu/chss/departments/philosophy/faculty/AshtonDianne.html">Dianne Ashton’s</a> book, <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">“Hanukkah in America.”</a></p>
<p>Ashton demonstrates while Hanukkah has evolved in tandem with the extravagance of the American Christmas season, there is much more to this story. </p>
<p>Hanukkah today <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">responds to Jews’ desire</a> to see their history as consequential, as reflecting the value of religious freedom that Jews share with all other Americans. Hanukkah, with its bright decorations, songs, and family- and community-focused celebrations, also fulfills American Jews’ need to reengage disaffected Jews and to keep Jewish children excited about Judaism. </p>
<p>Poignantly, telling a story of persecution and then redemption, Hanukkah today provides a historical paradigm that can help modern Jews think about the Holocaust and the emergence of Zionism. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In short, Hanukkah is as powerful a commemoration as it is today because it responds to a host of factors pertinent to contemporary Jewish history and life. </p>
<p>Over two millennia, Hanukkah has evolved to narrate the story of the Maccabees in ways that meet the distinctive needs of successive generations of Jews. Each generation tells the story as it needs to hear it, in response to the eternal values of Judaism but also as is appropriate to each period’s distinctive cultural forces, ideologies and experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. to celebrate military victory, but the meaning has changed over time with the circumstances of the Jewish people.
Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross
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