Hebrew Bible

Professor Jon D. Levenson argues that contrary to a very widespread misconception, the ancient rabbis were keenly committed to the belief that at the end of time, God would restore the deserving dead to life.

Professor Jon Levenson discusses the circumstances that influenced his choice to pursue biblical studies and how his involvement in the field may have affected the nature of his religious beliefs and behavior.

On Thursday, November 14, 2019, Kerry M. Sonia, WSRP Research Associate and Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Hebrew Bible, gave the lecture, “Like a Woman in Labor: The Ritual and Social Dimensions of Childbirth in the Hebrew Bible and...

The proposition that “the Bible needs to be read as great literature,” then, is in large part a product of modern secularity, with its skepticism of religious claims and authorities and its high evaluation of the supposedly independent judgment of the...

Given its practical goal, its theological purposes, and its lack of accountability to external data of the sort in which archaeologists trade, biblical historiography has a malleability that many modern readers find difficult to approve, writes Professor...

“It’s important—even if we don’t stay in the religious tradition we were raised in—to be grateful for it, whatever it is. God uses those traditions, those people, and the communities we were raised in to make us into the people we’re supposed to be.”...

Professor Jon Levenson writes about the new Museum of the Bible and how there is no universal way to read or exhibit the bible.

This summer, when you and your kids were sitting through The Secret Life of Pets or some other blockbuster, you were actually watching a pretty sophisticated cultural product. The reason it may not have seemed that way to you is because you grew up with...

This past fall, after 24 years, Peter Machinist retired from full-time teaching as the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages at Harvard University, serving as faculty both in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department and...

"Bow down before the one you serve," growl the lyrics to Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole." The track is the epitome of 1990s industrial pop music—a jagged bit of full-on rage against the capitalist machine. You wouldn't think that the tune's vocals...