Figuring out what to do with the ‘Song of Songs’ has preoccupied people reading the Bible for centuries.
'Song of Songs' illustrated by Florence Kingsford/Southern Methodist University/Wikimedia Commons
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.
‘Departure for Canaan,’ a detail of a 13th-century mosaic from the dome of Abraham in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.
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A scholar of the ancient Near East explains how loan forgiveness was handled thousands of years ago in the Bible and royal decrees.
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.
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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.
A 12th-century commentary on the Book of Job shows Satan transmitting a disease to him.
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The Jewish festival of Shavuot dates back to biblical times, but its significance has changed over the centuries.
Sara Hurwitz, Amy Eilberg, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Sally J. Priesand, each of whom was the first female rabbi in her branch of Judaism.
Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives
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.
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.
Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images
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.
Some ancient theologians argued that the Israelites deserved a share of Egypt’s wealth after being enslaved for centuries.
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The researchers used machine learning to study the 2,000-year-old document.
Israel Antiquities Authority conservator Tanya Bitler shows newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea Scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem.
AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner
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.
Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Senate Television via AP
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.
A doll representing the infant Jesus in St. Catherine’s, the Franciscan church in the town of Bethlehem.
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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.
Many people believe in the idea of a soulmate - one person who will make us whole and happy.
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