Category Archives: Bible

NYU rolls out free course on Ancient Israel

Posted on December 30, 2011 by

New York University recently began rolling out a new addition to its free open education courses on its YouTube channel. The new arrival is Ancient Israel (YouTube) taught by Daniel Fleming. So far NYU has posted only six lectures from … Continue reading →

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Limmud: Jewish studies for the UK and the world

Posted on May 17, 2011 by

Limmud started out as a yearly Jewish studies conference for educators in Britain. Now, 30 years after its founding, Limmud, which means learning in Hebrew, is a worldwide movement with local organizations that organize Jewish study weekends and conferences in … Continue reading →

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Does God have a physical body?

Posted on November 25, 2010 by

Brace yourself for this one: the God of the Hebrew Bible has a real physical body. That’s what biblical scholar Benjamin Sommer argues in his lecture The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel: Part I (website, iTunes) … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Bible, Five-star professors, History, Idea of the week, iTunesU, Jewish studies, Lectures, Religion | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Listening notes for 11/16/10

Posted on November 16, 2010 by

The Wisdom Books (iTunes, website) In this episode of the San Francisco public radio program Forum, UC Berkeley biblical scholar Robert Alter discusses his new translation of the biblical wisdom books Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Alter’s mission is to give … Continue reading →

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The Book of Job and the problem of evil

Posted on July 5, 2010 by

It’s a problem as old as monotheism: how can a just, beneficent God allow bad things to happen to good people? That’s the problem at the heart of the biblical Book of Job, the story of the righteous Job who … Continue reading →

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The Challenge of Translating the Bible

Posted on June 28, 2010 by

Most modern translations of the Hebrew Bible have two deficiencies says UC Berkeley literary scholar Robert Alter: “a deficient sense of English style and a deficient sense of Hebrew style.” In his 2009 lecture The Challenge of Translating the Bible … Continue reading →

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A History of Jerusalem

Posted on April 12, 2010 by

How did a provincial hill-town, with no significant natural resources and far from major trade routes, become a holy city for millions of people? That’s the question archaeologist and biblical scholar Robert Cargill seeks to answer in his fascinating new … Continue reading →

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Doubt and the New Testament

Posted on November 2, 2009 by

Yale University religion professor Dale Martin has some words of warning for the students in his course Introduction to New Testament History and Literature (website, iTunes): “De omnibus dubitandum.” Say it loud, he tells his students. Say it with feeling. … Continue reading →

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10 new free courses at Yale

Posted on October 26, 2009 by

Yale’s excellent Open Yale Courses website just got even better. Ten new free courses are now available for your viewing/listening pleasure. The offerings now total 25, with 21 cross-listed on Apple’s iTunes U. Some of the new courses: Introduction to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic podcasts, Bible, Biology, Courses, Lectures, Literature | Tagged | 1 Comment

How the Biblical texts became Holy Scripture

Posted on August 25, 2009 by

After reading Bible scholar James Kugel’s great book, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now I was thrilled to find his lecture Can The Torah Make Its Peace With Modern Biblical Scholarship? (website). Kugel was … Continue reading →

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