Bible Review

The Egyptians reclaimed a great amount of Israelite treasure when Pharoah Shishak invaded the Land of Israel several hundred years later ( see 1 Kings 14:25–26).

Several good English translations are available; the most complete and accessible is the Nag Hammadi Library edited by James M. Robinson (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1998).

Crimson and red suggest roughness and violence; hence Ishmael (Abraham’s firstborn) and Esau (Isaac’s firstborn) are rejected in favor of Isaac and Jacob, who are more passive and “civilized.”

Hirah, sent by Judah to find the woman he had intercourse with, uses the term kedashah (holy woman) in referring to Tamar. The narrator refers to Tamar as a zonah (prostitute), reflecting his own assessment.

In Hebrew the name of the person and the city differ slightly, but the coincidence and the habit of naming lands and cities after persons (or vice-versa) are well attested in the Hebrew Bible; I suspect there is meant to be at least a wordplay here.

The deity is sometimes called Yahweh (usually translated as “the Lord”) and sometimes Elohim (translated as “God”).

The patriarch’s name is changed from Abram in Genesis 17:5.

See Marcus Borg, “What Did Jesus Really Say?” BR 05:05, and Robert J. Miller, “The Gospels that Didn’t Make the Cut,” BR 09:04.