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Bible Odyssey

@bibleodyssey.bsky.social

BibleOdyssey.org makes the people, places, passages, and cultural impact of the Bible accessible. With articles and interviews by biblical scholars, historians, and archaeologists, you will find everything you need for teaching and personal study.

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Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 4d ago

In the Hebrew Bible, horses do not belong in idyllic pastoral scenes or in the sporting arena. Instead they carry far more sinister connotations. Read more in Horses in the Hebrew Bible by Kirsty L. Jones buff.ly/ybOfE60

Horses in the Hebrew Bible
Kirsty L. Jones

Throughout Israel’s history, trusting in horses, chariots, and horsemen is paralleled with returning to Egypt and not trusting in God (Isa 31:1), and taking pride in horses and chariots is contrasted with taking pride in God (Ps 20:7).

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last wk.

Apocalyptic scenes and themes are frequently represented in modern films. Read more in Apocalypse in Cinema by Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.. buff.ly/kBwkG3H

Apocalypse in Cinema
Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.

Films such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Omen (1976), Prince of Darkness (1987), The Seventh Sign (1988), The Prophecy (1995), Stigmata (1999), End of Days (1999), Bless the Child (2000), and Lost Souls (2000) and postmillennial horrors such as Legion (2010) demonstrate an obsession with the figure of the antichrist, a figure popularized in Christian tradition as the opponent of Christ at the end of time.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2w ago

An extensive network of roads facilitated trade and communication throughout the Roman Empire. Read more in Roman Roads by Timothy Luckritz Marquis www.bibleodyssey.org/articles/rom...

Roman Roads
Timothy Luckritz Marquis

Rome did not just construct roads; the empire made sure travelers knew that roads were an essential part of Roman rule. Milestones and lares (votive statues protecting borders and roads) proclaimed Rome’s power.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2w ago

Sukkot, the most important biblical fall festival, originally celebrated the end of the harvest season and offered an opportunity to thank God for the bountiful harvest. The festival begins at sundown. Find out more in Feast of Booths (Sukkot) by Marc Zvi Brettler. buff.ly/B3AD6Lo

Feast of Booths (Sukkot)
Marc Zvi Brettler

A sukkah (plural sukkot) is a booth—a temporary hut. It could have many functions. For example, it could provide protection from the blazing sun (Jonah 4:4) or be set up in the fall harvest season so that the workers could guard the crop that had been picked. Living in these huts also allowed the workers maximum time in the field. It is this type of structure, mentioned in Isa 1:8...that gave this fall harvest festival the name found in Deut 16:13: “You shall keep the festival of booths [Hebrew sukkot] for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press.”

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2w ago

Did Jesus think he was divine? What about his followers? The full interview with Jonathan Potter is available at Bible Odyssey. buff.ly/0V4nDDM

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 3w ago

Yom Kippus begins at sundown. Find out more about the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar in the Bible Odyssey article Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) by Marc Zvi Brettler. buff.ly/hSiKhfG

Day of Atonement
(Yom Kippur)
Marc Zvi Brettler

The main biblical text that describes the Yom Kippur ritual is Lev 16, which uses Hebrew terms related to kippur sixteen times, most often in reference to parts of the tabernacle, the pre-temple sanctuary imagined to have accompanied the Israelites in their forty-year wilderness journey....The altar absorbs certain sins of the Israelites, and the main function of Yom Kippur is to cleanse these sins by using the blood of a purification offering (sometimes called a “sin offering”) as a type of ritual detergent.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 4w ago

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown. How and why was the biblical Rosh Hashanah celebrated? Find out more in Marc Zvi Brettler's article. buff.ly/dV6v4Ig

Rosh Hashanah
Marc Zvi Brettle

Rosh Hashanah, literally “the head (or beginning) of the year,” is the postbiblical name for the fall Jewish new year festival. This festival became especially important in the rabbinic period, when it was closely connected to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a week and a half later.r

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

The Biblical Time Machine speaks with Tawny Holm, one of the world’s leading experts on Aramaic, about the history of Aramaic, its literature, and its cultural significance. buff.ly/Nzx8K8d

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

What did Polycarp teach? Only one short writing by Polycarp survives: his Letter to the Philippians. Read more about Polycarp in Philip Abbott's Polycarp of Smyrna. buff.ly/hDrsmqK

Polycarp of Smyrna
Philip Abbott

Polycarp, a bishop from Smyrna in the early second century CE, was an important leader in the early Christian community. While he lived for more than sixty years in what is now Izmir, Turkey, Polycarp’s influence extended well beyond his hometown to the far reaches of the Roman Empire.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

What did it mean to be a judge in ancient Israel? Listen to the Biblical Time Machine interview with Dr Brandon Hurlbert. buff.ly/L5KsQ56

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

What did imitation—or mimesis—look like in early Christianity? Listen to the Biblical Time Machine interview with Professor Cornelis Bennema. buff.ly/X0mMDoT

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

The proliferation of AI tools has increased the number of approaches and methods available to translators. Read how this has an impact on the Bible in Douglas Estes's article Bible Translation and AI buff.ly/ezcOWa8

Bible Translation and AI
Douglas Estes

The primary way AI can assist in translation is by speeding up the process. For example, just as AI uses statistical models to predict what word will come next in a text or browser, so too translators can use similar statistical models to predict rough translations in a target language.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

Paul conceived of his mission to Gentiles as entirely consistent with God’s promises to Israel. Paul and Judaism by Paula Fredriksen buff.ly/b3iom4W

Paul and Judaism
Paula Fredriksen

Paul initially fought the Jesus movement, but he then joined it (Gal 1:13-24). In so doing, did he leave his ancestral religion, Judaism, for something else? Did Paul “convert”? Not in any usual sense of the word.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

"The time of Jesus—a period variously called late Second Temple Judaism, early Judaism, and even middle Judaism—had no single leader." Read more in. Amy-Jill Levine's article The Jewish Context of Jesus buff.ly/drmFMc8

The Jewish Context of JesuS
Amy-Jill Levine

Most Jews shared certain central beliefs and practices: they loved their God (Deut 6:5), followed the Torah, were the people Israel in covenantal relationship with their God, and shared a connection to their homeland and temple.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

Check out The “Other” Bible from Qumran by Sidnie White Crawford buff.ly/0NCQjR2

The “Other” Bible from Qumran

Sidnie White Crawford

Where did the Bible come from? The Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, did not exist in the canonical form we know prior to the early second century C.E.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

Was John a Mentor or Rival of Jesus? Dive into the topic in the article by Helen K. Bond buff.ly/qSLtjX8

Was John a Mentor or Rival of Jesus?
Helen K. BonD

At a very basic level, Jesus and the Baptist clearly had much in common. Both emerged in Herod Antipas’s Galilee in the 20s CE, both shared the prophetic hope for the restoration of Israel, and both expected God soon to intervene decisively in human affairs.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · last mo.

The Persian period was a significant era in the development of texts that would eventually become part of the biblical canons. Read more in The Persian Period by Jason M. Silverman. buff.ly/CJOyyjk

The Persian Period
Jason M. Silverman

The main narrative thread of the Hebrew Bible portrays events from creation to the Persian Empire. But often literature is not written during the time it depicts, and this is also true for the majority of the Hebrew Bible.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The texts of the Old Testament were the primary Scriptures for the writers of the New Testament, who used and interpreted them in a variety of creative ways. Read How Do New Testament Writers Use the Old Testament? by Isaac Morales buff.ly/loeuCis

How Do New Testament Writers Use the Old Testament?
Isaac Morales

The New Testament writers interpreted the events of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection through the lens of what Christians now call the Old Testament. When Paul says that Christ died and rose “in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3–4), he expresses a belief about Christ’s relationship to the sacred texts of first-century Jews that was common to early Christians.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Gospel of Matthew’s inclusion of four women from the Hebrew Bible in its genealogy of Jesus has long perplexed readers, but these women may hold a key to understanding the gospel as a whole. Read The Women in Matthew’s Genealogy by Caroline Parish and Kim Bauser McBrien. buff.ly/z3beesj

The Women in Matthew’s Genealogy
Caroline ParishKim and Bauser McBrien

All of the women in Matthew’s genealogy were in vulnerable positions. Whether through their own wits or their openness to God’s plans, however, they secured a future for themselves and their children.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In Gen 17:5, God renames Abram, the Israelite patriarch: “No longer shall your name be Abram." Read more in Abraham’s Family by Sarah Shectman buff.ly/RA3jFFr

Abraham’s Family
Sarah Shectman

We meet Abraham through his family: he is introduced near the end of a long genealogy that includes numerous ancestors as well as his two brothers, his wife, two nieces (one of whom is also a sister-in-law), and a nephew (Gen 11:22-32).

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Sayings Gospel Q is a hypothetical, reconstructed source document of Matthew and Luke, mostly consisting of sayings attributed to Jesus. Read more in The Sayings Gospel Q by Olegs Andrejevs buff.ly/48uY1P2

The Sayings Gospel Q
Olegs Andrejevs

Scholars struggled to explain why Matthew and Luke shared material that was not present in Mark. Rather than assuming that Luke read Matthew (or vice versa), scholars theorized that there was another source that Matthew and Luke used independently.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"The term torah is derived from the Hebrew word meaning 'to teach, instruct.'” Read more in The Torah/The Pentateuch by Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder. buff.ly/OvyXtvT

The Torah/The Pentateuch
Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder

The emergence of Judaism and Samaritanism in antiquity is closely linked to the process by which the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) became defined as the Torah of Moses.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

LGBTQ+ interpretation has grown considerably over the past twenty years, though many biblical texts have yet to be read with queer interpretive lenses. Find out more in LGBTQ+ Biblical Interpretation by Lynn R. Huber buff.ly/WSFgxVa

LGBTQ+ Biblical Interpretation
Lynn R. Huber

While many biblical interpreters engaged in LGBTQ+ interpretation identify as such, there are also interpreters who do not identify as LGBTQ+ who are committed to this type of interpretation, which includes uncovering the roles biblical texts play in shaping LGBTQ+ experiences in today’s world and finding ways these texts can be meaningful and even affirming for those within LGBTQ+ communities.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Who is a settler? How can being a non-Indigenous person on colonized land affect biblical interpretation? Read Aware-Settler Hermeneutics by Matthew Robert Anderson to discover new ways to interpret biblical stories. buff.ly/IREaN1W

Aware-Settler Hermeneutics
Matthew Robert Anderson

Reading the Bible with an aware-settler hermeneutic means learning to situate one’s interpretations in the context of settler identity and learning from the new understandings that arise as a result.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What Is Reception History? What can it reveal about the the connections between earlier interpretations of biblical texts and later readings? Read What Is Reception History? by Brennan Breed to find out more about the many ways the Bible can be read. buff.ly/tozzrUE

What Is Reception History?
Brennan Breed

Reception history explores all the different ways that people have received, appropriated, and used biblical texts throughout history.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What does the term womanist mean? What does a womanist perspective contribute to biblical studies? Read Womanist Biblical Interpretation by Vanessa Lovelace to find out more about the many ways the Bible can be read. buff.ly/KHx4veL

Womanist Biblical Interpretation
Vanessa Lovelace

The term womanist was first popularized by the widely acclaimed 1983 publication In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, a compilation of nonfiction essays by author and activist Alice Walker.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How many scholars believe that Q existed as a source for Matthew and Luke? Read Mark Goodacre's answer. buff.ly/lBibDHB

Q Source
Mark Goodacre

There have always been detractors, including some who dispute both tenets of the two-source theory, Markan priority, and Q.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Source criticism is a scholarly method for detecting written sources behind the biblical text. Read What Is Source Criticism? by Steven L. McKenzie buff.ly/RqrUW73

What Is Source Criticism?
Steven L. McKenzie

Source criticism entails three steps: determining the separate elements that make up a text, reconstructing the sources, and dating them.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The New Testament dress codes in 1 Timothy 2:9–10 and 1 Peter 3:1–6 use clothing regulations as a tool to shape women’s behaviors, dispositions, and self-understandings. Read more in Dress Codes in the New Testament by Kelsi Morrison-Atkins. buff.ly/V1wWagV

Dress Codes in the New Testament
Kelsi MorrisoN-Atkins

Texts that seek to regulate women’s dress and behavior are prescriptive rather than descriptive: they work to shape how women should dress and do not necessarily describe their actual clothing practices.

Bible Odyssey @bibleodyssey.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Read more about Nazareth in the Bible Odyssey article by James Riley Strange. buff.ly/RKd4txu

Nazareth
James Riley Strange

In the canonical gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, “Nazareth” is named only in connection with Jesus: it is his hometown and “of Nazareth” is often appended to his name (Matt 2:23; Mark 1:24; John 1:45; 19:19; Acts 2:22; 3:6).