Latest Essays

The inscrutable story of the Akedah, can be better understood in light of its subversive sequel, the equally morally complex book of Job.

Ben Sorer u-Moreh as a Test Case

When does God reward and when does God inflict punishment and why? A comparison of the books of Kings and Chronicles demonstrates that the Chronicler, troubled by the theology of Kings in which children can be punished for the sins of their parents, rewrote Israel’s history.

The Difference between God’s “Name (שם)” and “Presence (כבוד)”

Deuteronomy prohibits certain groups from “enter[ing] the assembly of YHWH,” לא יבואו בקהל י־הוה, which likely reflects a ban on citizenship. Nevertheless, the oldest and most commonly known explanation for the term is as a prohibition against marriage, an interpretation already found in Kings and Ezra-Nehemiah.