How to Read the Bible

later divisions found in medieval Hebrew manuscripts, which indicate verse endings by a musical note (called a silluh-a vertical line) under the final word, as well as what…

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However, only after eating from the tree of ultimate "knowledge," becoming sexual, and becoming mortal, does the tree of life come into focus. Eating from this tree would allow people to become both immortal and sexual, creating an overpopulation problem. The first couple was expelled not as punishment, but so that they might not "ta

This movement has two primary problems: (1) it begins with an assertion, not explicit in the Bible itself, that the Bible must be understood as literally true-as science,natural history, or history; and (2) it ignores evidence within the Bible that biblical texts…

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The name of the second part, Nevi'im, means "Prophets."

suggest that this material was not written in order to represent what actually happened, but rather, on the level of mythological material, to deal with such fundamental questions as: Why do we own this land? How should we react in the face of adversity?

In the first century c.E., Josephus (the great Jewish historian who wrote in Greek) knew of the Bible.5 He called it to hiera grammata ("The Holy Writings").6 He also called it grammasi ("that which is written")-often translated as "Scrip- ture"7 but better rendered uncapitalized, as "scripture."

In the Middle Ages, perhaps in the late first millennium c.E., scribes shortened Torah, Nevi'im, .-Khtuvim into the acronym 1'JT1, which is pronounced Tanakh.

Genesis 1-3 is…

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Thus, by 612, Babylon had assumed the power formerly held by Assyria. The rise of Babylonian power had begun a decade earlier, with the Babylonian king Nabopolassar (625-615). The kingdom of Judah rebelled against the Babylonians; following earlier policy, it was given several chances to fall into line after it rebelled. In 597, a group of Judeans,