Bible Review

See “Mining the History of the Alphabet at Serabit el-Khadem,” sidebar to “Frank Moore Cross—An Interview: Part III: How the Alphabet Democratized Civilization,” BR 08:06.

MMT stands for Miqsat Ma’aseh ha-Torah (literally, “Some Rulings Pertaining to the Torah”). See Lawrence H. Schiffman, “The Significance of the Scrolls,” BR 06:05; and James C. VanderKam, “The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essenes or Sadducees?” BR 07:02.

1Q stands for Qumran Cave 1, H for the Hodayot Scroll. Hodayot is the Hebrew word for psalms of thanksgiving.

In scholarly jargon, R stands for the redactor who edited and combined the various authorial strands of the Pentateuch.

Monsignor Patrick Skehan (1909–1980) taught for many years at Catholic University in Washington and was an original member of the Dead Sea Scroll editorial team.

The English words in parentheses are related to the Greek words and are given to aid memorization, while the symbol indicates the basic stem of the word in question.

See Robin Jensen, “What Are Pagan River Gods Doing in Scenes of Jesus’ Baptism?” BR 09:01.

See 2 Corinthians 2:9—“For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.”

An approach to biblical study, popular in the mid-20th century, which stressed the uniqueness, unity and authority of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and highlighted the revelatory acts of God in history.