Strata: Nahum Sarna (1923–2005)

Eminent Bible scholar Nahum M. Sarna, one of the first academics to meld the study of the Hebrew Bible and post-Biblical sources such as the Talmud and medieval Jewish commentaries, died in June at the age of 82. Sarna was a member of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board.

In his studies and his work, Sarna bridged the gap between traditional approaches to the Bible and modern scholarship. The study of the Bible was more than intellectual to Sarna—it was spiritual and moral. He utilized archaeology, ancient social customs and cultural history to create a deeper understanding of his subject matter. To him studying the Bible was not just “performing autopsy, in dissecting a literary corpse” as he called it in a column he wrote for our sister magazine Bible Review in June 1988. Studying the Bible was, rather, “interpreting a living literature of enduring vitality that for two and a half millennia has been a dynamic force in human history.”