Bible Review, June 1993
Features
Child Sacrifice: Returning God’s Gift
Barren women give birth to exceptional children
Six barren woman in the Bible receive an annunciation from God promising an end to their barrenness. In a 1983 article,1 Robert Alter borrowed the term “type-scene” from Homeric scholarship and used it to describe these six biblical stories about women who had difficulty conceiving but ultimately...Read more ›
Why Search for the Historical Jesus?
Currently I am working on a book on the historical Jesus, trying to determine what we can say about the life of Jesus here on earth in terms that would satisfy an objective historian. Contrary to my expectation, it has turned out to be a two-volume project...Read more ›
A Pre-Christian “Son of God” Among the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scroll Son of God text from Qumran Cave 4 has attracted attention both in scholarly publications and in the press because it contains remarkable parallels to the annunciation scene in the Gospel of Luke. The Aramaic text has been known for...Read more ›
How Job Fulfills God’s Word to Cain
Ronald S. Hendel’s article, “When God Acts Immorally—Is the Bible a Good Book?” BR 07:03, obviously touched a raw nerve. In examining the story of Cain, Hendel suggested that God may not be a perfect God, but a good God nevertheless, and that the...Read more ›