The Israelite exodus from Egypt forms the foundational national origin narrative in the Hebrew Bible. It is a compelling and popular tale, and thus perplexing that only minimal supportive circumstantial evidence exists beyond the Bible. As a story that retained its centrality wi…
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In the remarkable text of Genesis 18:1–15, Yahweh appears to Abraham and the two share a meal and an intimate conversation. Throughout this encounter, the form which Yahweh assumes is described explicitly as that of a man. He is initially identified as one of three men ('ănāšîm …
Scholarship often characterizes magic in derogatory terms or defines it as illegitimate, in opposition to the positive, socially acceptable forms of religion. This dichotomy is not valid for ancient Israel. The diversity of sources represented in the Hebrew Bible attests to a va…
Concerns of fertility and birth make up a substantial part of ancient Near Eastern literature. Between the many gods, goddesses and demons of sex, fertility, birth, and midwifery, creation of life for the Hittites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Syrians and the Egyptians is presented i…
References to Egypt are twice as dense in the Pentateuch as elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. This dissertation explored and analyzed the ideological significance of the references to Egypt in the Pentateuch within the historical context of the production of the Pentateuch's final …
The problem of God punishing children for the sins of the fathers in the Old Testament has been one of the main subjects of scholarly disputes. This project investigates this issue with focus on the biblical Herem with special reference to Achan's case in Josh 5:13–8:29. This st…
The word “Dan” is unique in the Hebrew Bible because it alone refers not only to an eponymous ancestor and tribe of Israel (and its territory), but also to a city. In addition, there are important narratives about individual Danites, among them, Samson, and an anonymous blasphem…
Biblical Hebrew ’[special characters omitted]îm, despite its frequent use as a common noun meaning “deity” and its prominence as a designation for Israel's god, has received surprisingly little direct treatment in modern biblical scholarship, resulting in a general vagueness in …
The Bible presents the United Monarchy, particularly the reigns of David and Solomon, as the Golden Age of ancient Israel. That is the period in which the nation of Israel reached its zenith in military might, cultural glory, and economic prosperity. In addition, the figure of D…
This study is an inquiry into the lexical meanings of terms used to refer to persons at different stages of the human life cycle in the Hebrew Bible. The goal is not merely to define such terms in the traditional manner but to understand them from the perspective of the semantic…
This dissertation examines Assyrian and Hebrew military conquest accounts utilizing comparative historiography. Assyrian historiography has been vigorously studied in the last decade. Royal inscriptions were examined for Assyriological historiographic techniques. Hebrew conquest…
The Jews living east of the Jordan River have been largely ignored by scholars, but my research demonstrates that the region had a large and dynamic Jewish community, especially in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. These Jews settled mainly in Perea, a region bounded on the wes…
Many interpreters of the Fourth Gospel, ancient and modern, detect allusions to biblical texts about marriage. Some hear echoes of well betrothal narratives in John 4:4–42. Some perceive similarities between John 3:29, John 12:1–8, or John 20:1–18 and the Song of Songs. Others r…
Once a year on the Day of Atonement before entering the most holy place, the high priest brought to the door of the tabernacle two goats and cast lots over them. One lot was L'Adonai (to the LORD) and the other was L'Azazel (to or for Azazel). For over two thousand years student…
Understanding the artist Georges Rouault as a prophet for his time and place may provide a crucial key to the interpretation and valuation of his work, and its method of presentation. Prior studies have carefully analyzed his plastic technique, development of style and iconograp…
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the Exodus motif and its topicalization in the book of Haggai. In this dissertation, we demonstrate that Haggai used themes from Exodus 14–15. The themes of glory, temple, and holy war confirm the continuity of the post-exilic c…
This dissertation addresses a problem in the history of Israelite literature and religion long recognized by biblical scholars: what I call the “novelty” of biblical narrative. Long before Herodotus and even Homer, Israelite writers practiced a conspicuously innovative narrative…
The study concludes that the term habba`al in the OT is not a uniformly understood proper noun but a title, “the baal”, that had distinct uses in the north and the south. In northern sources, “the baal” refers to the Phoenician storm deity introduced by the Omrides—likely unders…
This dissertation examining ancient texts related to disabilities is an attempt to understand community responses to disabled persons among the peoples of the ancient world. By examining ANE law collections, societal conventions, and religious obligations toward the physically d…