In 1902, Friedrich Delitzsch argued in his Babel und Bibel (Babylon and the Bible) lecture series that the biblical texts are dependent upon and inferior to those of Babylonia. A key piece of evidence was the Hammurabi Stele, discovered only months before, but traditional scholars responded by maintaining the ethical superiority of Mosaic law.
Dr.
Felix Wiedemann
,
,
The requirement of a “life for a life,” recalling the lex talionis, is provided when a man accidentally kills a pregnant woman in a brawl. While this consequence is generally explained as capital punishment or monetary repayment, its legal formulation in the Covenant Collection is suggestive of live, human, substitution.
Dr.
Sandra Jacobs
,
,
The author of the Covenant Collection in Exodus knew the Laws of Hammurabi and revised them to fit with Israelite legal and ethical conceptions. This is clear when we compare their laws of assault in each.
Prof.
David P. Wright
,
,
Leviticus 18 includes an extensive list of prohibited sexual relations, including incest, but it does not mention relations between a father and daughter. How can this glaring omission be explained?
Dr.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
,
,
In the 14th century, R. Nissim of Marseilles suggested that God told Moses only the general command for the Tabernacle and the laws in the Torah, and Moses himself wrote the details and attributed them to God as a way of glorifying God. A close look at many passages in Deuteronomy suggests that this was an early conception of Moses’ role in commanding the mitzvot.
Dr. Rabbi
David Frankel
,
,
Ezekiel challenges the divine (in)justice of intergeneration
Dr. Rabbi
Zev Farber
,
,
Thoughts on Torah Min HaShamayim
Dr. Rabbi
Michael Harris
,
,
An Investigation of the Ideology Behind Deuteronomy 22:12-29
Dr.
Cynthia Edenburg
,
,
A Comparative Analysis
Dr.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
,
,
The word שור in Hebrew can refer to an ox or a bull, but which animal is the protagonist of the celebrated law of שור נגח, “the goring bovine”?
Dr.
Elaine Goodfriend
,
,
Jewish and Christian tradition ascribes authorship of the Pentateuch to Moses in the 13th century B.C.E. Is this what the Pentateuch itself implies about who wrote it and when?
Prof.
Christopher A. Rollston
,
,
The anomalous and paradoxical nature of the twelfth curse (Deuteronomy 27:26).
Rabbi
Uzi Weingarten
,
,
How do the laws of Leviticus 18 compare to the laws and practices of the Babylonians, Hittites, and Egyptians, and to the rest of the Bible?
Dr.
Eve Levavi Feinstein
,
,