Bible Review

See Lawrence E. Stager and Samuel R. Wolff, “Child Sacrifice at Carthage—Religious Rite or Population Control?” BAR 10:01.

Dry river beds through which water flows only intermittently when the winter rains come.

In the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Bible, the Hebrew ‘elim is translated into Greek eidola, which means gods, leaving no ambiguity about the sacred nature of the sexual intercourse here.

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) are the religiously neutral terms used by scholars, corresponding to B.C. and A.D.

The words of David Noel Freedman are very apropos: “What do we really know about the Council of Jamnia? Everybody quotes everybody else about this famous or infamous Council, but what are the ancient sources, and what are the reasonable inferences about its activity? Personally, I think it was a non-event, and not much happened.” (Correspondence with Freedman.)

Yavneh, nine miles northeast of Ashdod, is the site where the rabbis first assembled after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.

It was through the Septuagint, rather than the Hebrew Bible, that the Christian Church came to know the Jewish scriptures.

In Daniel 3 and 6, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and Darius of Persia, respectively, did make such claims; but in these cases, most present-day scholars interpret the claims as symbols or veiled references to the detestable Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–163 B.C.E.).

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) are the religiously neutral terms used by scholars, corresponding to B.C. and A.D.