Bible Review, October 1994
Features
Did King Solomon Violate the Second Commandment?
Readers Letter Sparks Article When reading Victor Hurowitzs Inside Solomons Temple, BR 10:02, a question suddenly occurred to me that I should have thought of years ago. In the shrine of the temple were two huge, gold-plated, olive-wood cherubim, writes Hurowitz. Did it never occur to the builders of the...Read more ›
King Saul—A Bungler from the Beginning
When creating the first woman, God says, “I will make [the man] a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).1 Emphasizing the words “for him,” the famous 11th-century Jewish exegete known as Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac) commented on this verse: “If he is worthy—a help; if he...Read more ›
Profiles in Scholarly Courage
Early days of New Testament criticism
More than two centuries ago, it occurred to a few European intellectuals that Jesus as a figure of history may have been quite different from Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. With the awareness of that potential difference, the scholarly quest for the Jesus of history began. At that time...Read more ›
What Was Paul Doing in “Arabia”?
About Paul’s missionary journeys to the west much has been written. But almost nothing has been said of his trip to Arabia. No wonder; it is barely mentioned, almost as an aside, in Galatians 1:17: “I went away into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus.” Few...Read more ›
The Shepherd of Hermas
An early tale that almost made it into the New Testament
The Shepherd of Hermas was one of the most popular Christian texts in the first centuries of the church. True, it did not make the final cut; that is, it was not included in the New Testament.a But it was considered canonical by the influential second-century church father Irenaeus. Tertullian,...Read more ›