Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship

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Bible's Historicity

Is the Bible historically accurate?

Persia’s Achaemenid Dynasty—If You Read the Bible Without History

Ezra-Nehemiah mentions only four of the twelve kings who ruled the Persian empire: Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes. The book of Daniel also speaks of four Persian kings, and adds a fictional Darius the Mede as their precursor. Historically, the Achaemenid period lasted 220 years, but using only the kings mentioned in the Bible, rabbinic texts reconstruct a 52-year Persian period.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Genesis and the Twilight of the Gods

The creation accounts, the Garden of Eden, the innovations and life spans of early humans, and the flood story are best understood as an Axial Age critique of polytheistic, mythical cosmology.

Dr. Rabbi

Norman Solomon

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“America Scroll” Unearthed Beneath the Lincoln Memorial

An archaeological find of biblical proportions is calling into question key aspects of U.S. history.

Pres.

Abraham Lincoln

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Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Joseph and the Famine: The Story’s Origins in Egyptian History

During the reign of Pharaoh Siptah, Egypt had a powerful vizier from the Levant named Baya, who dominated even the Pharaoh. Archaeological records and climatological studies show that this was right in the middle of a lengthy famine that affected the entire Mediterranean.

Prof.

Israel Knohl

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Text and Context: Torah and Historical Truth

Historical-critical and text-critical approaches to the Torah have a strong precedent in classical rabbinic literature. Yet Orthodox Jewish communities today pointedly resist these methods. It is time that critical thinking about the Torah be embraced within our educational systems.

Prof.

B. Barry Levy

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Do Biblical Laws Reflect a Tribal Society?

Was Israel ever a tribal society? Although some scholars accept the Bible’s depiction of Israel’s pre-monarchic society as a confederation of tribes, others have dismissed this as ahistorical. Can a study of biblical law help us resolve this question?

Prof.

Rami Arav

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Jehoshaphat’s Judicial Reform

The Book of Chronicles updates and reinterprets Deuteronomy’s court system.

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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Parry Moshe

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Exodus: Not the Only Tradition About Israel’s Past

The Torah implores us to remember and teach the exodus, yet surprisingly, some biblical passages seem unaware of this event and describe an alternative tradition: God found Israel in the wilderness.

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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The Exodus Story as Jewish Mnemohistory

Prof.

Carl S. Ehrlich

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Abraham, Smasher of Idols, and the Question of the Torah’s Historicity

Does Abraham really need to be historical in order to claim an important role in Jewish religious consciousness? Should the Torah be seen as a historical account reported by God, or simply as the story of God?

Dr. Rabbi

Amit Kula

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Bible Scholarship in Orthodoxy

Reflections on teaching biblical criticism in the classroom; a talk given at the Edah conference (2005).

Rabbi

Eric Grossman

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The Israelite Conquest of Jerusalem in the Bible: When and Who?

Jerusalem in the 14th century B.C.E. was a Canaanite city; by the 10th/9th century B.C.E. it was Israelite. The Bible records several different accounts of how it was conquered. What are we to make of these different traditions?

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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The Historical Exodus

The evidence for the Levites leaving Egypt and the introduction of YHWH into Israel.

Prof.

Richard Elliott Friedman

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Torah from Heaven: A Guide to the Four Questions

According to tradition, must we believe that the Torah is: Historical? Mosaic? Univocal? Perfect?

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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The Epistemic Standards of Biblical Scholarship

Sommer asks, “Can observant Judaism and modern biblical scholarship happily and honestly co-exist?” I’m concerned only with honesty, and will argue that Sommer’s theology fails to give an account of authoritativeness consistent with a commitment to biblical scholarship.

Prof. Rabbi

Jonathan W. Malino

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The Torah’s Exodus

Weighing the historicity of the exodus story entails more than addressing the lack of archaeological evidence.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Recounting the Census: A Military Force of 5,500 (not 603,550) Men

Prof.

Ben-Zion Katz M.D.

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Modern Faith in Sinai

Notwithstanding modern day biblical critical and historical critical claims, applying the tools of contemporary philosophy demonstrates how room still exists to have faith that something extraordinary happened to our ancestors and that this event had a permanent effect on the development of Torah and Judaism.

Dr. Rabbi

Samuel Lebens

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Reframing the Discourse

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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A Tale of Twelve Brothers

The historical symbolism of the twelve tribes and the geographical significance of the tribe of Benjamin.

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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The Exodus Story Is an Outer Garment

Rabbi

Herzl Hefter

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Torah’s Progressive Truth

Dr. Rabbi

Aaron Panken

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Cracks in the Edifice: A Personal Reflection

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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How Many Years Were the Israelites in Egypt?

Exodus 12:40 declares that the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years, yet evidence from other biblical texts suggests a much shorter sojourn.

Dr.

David Glatt-Gilad

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Who Was Living in the Land When Abraham Arrived?

Prof.

Yigal Levin

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