The Hebrew Bible is the cornerstone of Judaism and Jewish culture; as such, it also provides the foundation for the other two monotheistic religions, Christianity and Islam. It is a book that embodied numerous revolutions, the most prominent of which was the Monotheistic Revolution, the replacement of polytheism with the belief in one all-powerful God who both created the world and governs it. Among the other revolutionary ideas that are put forward by the Bible we find the establishment of the Sabbath, the granting of one city — Jerusalem — a monopoly over holiness, the opposition to human kingship, and the moral dimensions of prophecy, to name just a few. Over the centuries and millennia, these revolutionary ideas have continued to attract and inspire readers, believers, interpreters and artists.

The character of the Epistle to the Hebrews differs greatly from all other letters included in the New Testament. It is actually a sermon interpreting numerous biblical verses with the aim to substantiate its unique claim for Jesus' heavenly priesthood. The reliance on biblical proof-texts enables the writer to establish his innovative claims vis-a-vis both the broader Jewish tradition and the competing outlooks existing within the Jesus movement itself. The eight conversations in the book discuss the Epistle's interpretative strategies in order to unearth the worldview of its author and the nature of its target audience.

This book contains eight conversations on the Gospel of John between the Bible scholar Yair Zakovitch and Early Christianity scholar Serge Ruzer. The Gospel of John, the Fourth Gospel, differs considerably from the other three canonical Gospels, representing an independent writing and outlook. Usually dated to the end of the first century CE, this composition reflects a particular offshoot of early Christian identity being defined vis-à-vis both Jewish messianic beliefs of broader appeal and perceptions current among other groups within the Jesus movement. Accordingly, the conversations in the book deal with the issues crucial for understanding John's polemical strategies: Jesus as second Moses (inter alia, when performing wonders); crucifixion and sacrifice of Isaac; Jews in the Forth Gospel; biblical exegesis employed in John; the Prologue of John as programmatic introduction and hermeneutical key; and, finally, the author of John as a diligent editor of an inherited narrative and as a daring innovator vis-à-vis the Synoptic tradition reflected in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The discussion highlights two intriguing features of the Fourth Gospel: the first – its complicated balancing act between the desire to present the claim for Jesus’ messiahship as continuation of biblical expectations and propagating ideas both daring and innovative; the second – its being a witness for Jewish beliefs otherwise attested only in much later rabbinic sources. This turns John into a precious witness both for developments within earliest Christianity and for trajectories in broader Judaism.

It is possible to trick the sense of sight, the sharpest of the human senses but it is not possible to trick God. Most costumes are revelations of deceit or escape from God, but they will all be punished. These stories reveal a close connection to the drama world, where a costume plays such a large part. It is a legitimate question to ask if the Biblical narrative has roots in the drama world.

Aramaic translations were considered a reliable source for Jewish prayers when reading the Torah on Shabbat and holidays at synagogues. Translation did not serve only as an instrument for explaining the Torah, but also for expanding and enriching it, enabling readers and listeners to learn from it and make it more relevant to their personal lives. The Israelites’ houses of prayer produced multiple rich spiritual texts – sermons, prayers and liturgical poems – and were occupied by believers who regularly recited and translated the Holy Scriptures. Jewish tradition and history have luckily preserved quite a few Aramaic translations, the most interesting of which is attributed to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, a text that accurately depicts the literary qualities and conceptual world of translation.

This essay is a 'close reading' of the biblical story in question, in order to better understand the continuation of the interpretations of the story - in the Bible and beyond - trends that emerge from the story itself, and how they deviate from it.

The Exodus, the central event in the historiography of the Bible and in the collective memory of the biblical period, represents an historical watershed; it shapes the recounting of events both before and after it. In this book, the influence of the Exodus tradition on the ideological – literary shaping of the biblical historiography is investigated, with particular attention paid to such questions as: Why were the Israelites enslaved in Egypt? Why did the Exodus traditions take on such enormous dimensions in the Bible? How is this phenomenon related to the separatism promoted as ideal in the Hebrew Scriptures?