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by Department of Bible, Bar-Ilan University
The Bible Bar – The Podcast of the Bible Department of Bar-Ilan University. Hosted by Dr. Joshua Berman, The Bible Bar offers a guided journey through the Bible, one chapter at a time, in conversation with leading scholars from Bar-Ilan University and across the globe. Drawing on the full spectrum of biblical studies, the podcast translates cutting-edge research into thoughtful, engaging discussions, helping listeners discover new depth and meaning in the text
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- 5 days ago31 min
Gen 36: Why Does the Bible List Esau’s Descendants?
Guest: Prof. Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan UniversityGenesis 36 presents a lengthy genealogy of Esau and the history of Edom, seemingly interrupting the narrative of Jacob and his family. Yet a closer look reveals striking parallels between the histories of Edom and Israel, suggesting that the chapter plays an important role in the larger design of Genesis. Prof. Yigal Levin joins us to explore how Genesis repeatedly structures its narratives around parallel family lines, tracing the descendants of those outside the chosen line alongside the ancestors of Israel. We examine how the history of Esau and Edom mirrors that of Jacob and Israel, from their genealogies and territorial development to their political institutions and kingship. What do these parallels tell us about the relationship between the two peoples, and why does Genesis insist on telling both stories?The discussion builds off of Prof. Levin's study, “Understanding Biblical Genealogies.” Currents in Research: Biblical Studies 9 (2001): 11–46.
- 1 weeks ago37 min
Gen 35: Rewriting Scripture: The Bible in the Second Temple Period
Host: Dr. Hillel Mali. In Genesis 35, Jacob returns to Bethel, where he had once vowed to build a house of God and dedicate a tenth of his possessions. But does he actually fulfill his promise? Ancient Jewish authors noticed the difficulties in the biblical account—and retold the story in surprising ways.In this episode of The Bible Bar, we speak with Bar-Ilan scholar Dr. Hillel Mali about the fascinating phenomenon of “rewritten Scripture” in Second Temple Judaism. Drawing on works such as the Book of Jubilees, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Aramaic Levi Document, they explore how ancient Jewish writers expanded, reshaped, and reinterpreted biblical narratives.Why did these authors feel free to retell sacred stories? Were they explaining Scripture, correcting it, or creating new versions of it?The conversation opens a window onto a rich and often unfamiliar world of ancient Jewish biblical interpretation—and reveals how the Bible continued to grow in meaning long after its stories were first told.
- 2 weeks ago35 min
Gen 34: Revenge in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
Guest: Dr. Deborah Geller. Was revenge always considered morally wrong? In the ancient Near East, avenging an offense could be a matter of honor, justice, and even moral obligation. How does this cultural background illuminate the troubling story of Dinah and the violent response of her brothers, Simeon and Levi?In this episode, Dr. Deborah Geller draws on her comparative research into revenge narratives in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern literature. We explore the role of honor in motivating revenge, the elaborate strategies employed by avengers, and the striking differences between how revenge is portrayed in ancient Near Eastern epics and in the Bible.Does Genesis 34 condemn Simeon and Levi, or does it leave room for understanding their actions? And what does the story reveal about the Bible's distinctive and often ambivalent attitude toward revenge?
- 3 weeks ago35 min
Gen 33: Why Don't People Forgive Each Other in the Hebrew Bible?
When Jacob finally meets Esau again in Genesis 33, he desperately wants reconciliation. He sends his brother an enormous gift, repeatedly calls Esau “my lord” and himself “your servant,” and bows before him seven times. But something we might expect is conspicuously absent: Jacob never apologizes. He never names what he did to Esau, expresses remorse, or asks his brother to forgive him.And Jacob is hardly unique. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, people reconcile after serious offenses—but they do not apologize and forgive one another in the way familiar to us. Indeed, the biblical vocabulary normally translated as “forgiveness” is reserved for the relationship between God and human beings.So how did people repair damaged relationships without apology and interpersonal forgiveness?In this episode, I discuss this question with Professor Elie Assis through the dramatic reunion of Jacob and Esau. We explore an ancient social world structured by hierarchy, honor, and status, in which repairing a relationship could mean something quite different from expressing remorse. Jacob’s bows, extravagant tribute, and repeated acknowledgment of Esau as his superior may reveal the Bible’s own grammar of reconciliation: an offense diminished another person’s standing, and repair required publicly restoring it.
- Sep 28, 202632 min
Gen 32: Did Jacob Wrestle with God or with Esau?
Guest: Dr. Brad Anderson. On the eve of his dreaded reunion with Esau, Jacob is left alone at night—and suddenly finds himself wrestling with a mysterious ish, a “man,” until daybreak. Who is this stranger? An angel? God? Esau’s guardian angel? Or even a projection of Jacob’s own inner struggle?In this episode, we speak with Dr. Bradford Anderson of Dublin City University about the long history of attempts to explain one of Genesis’s most enigmatic scenes. We explore rabbinic interpretations, modern proposals that identify Jacob’s opponent as a local deity, and psychological readings that see Jacob wrestling with his own troubled past.But the larger puzzle may lie in what happens the next morning. Genesis repeatedly draws striking parallels between Jacob’s encounter at Penuel and his encounter with Esau: messengers and camps, gifts and blessings, seeking favor, and above all, the language of seeing someone “face to face.” Jacob declares that he has seen God face to face and survived; when he meets Esau, he tells him, “Seeing your face is like seeing the face of God.”Why does Genesis deliberately blur these two encounters? And does Jacob really emerge from his nighttime struggle a changed man? The conversation concludes by reconsidering Jacob and Esau’s famous reconciliation: perhaps what repairs their relationship is not remorse or forgiveness, but Jacob’s willingness—at least publicly—to bow before the brother whose status he once sought to usurp.
- Sep 22, 202630 min
Gen 31 : Why Did Rachel Steal Her Father’s Gods?
Guest: Dr. Erin Derby. As Jacob and his family secretly flee from Laban, Genesis 31 drops a strange detail into the story: Rachel steals her father’s teraphim. Laban calls them his “gods”—and is desperate to get them back. But what exactly were teraphim, what were they used for, and why would Rachel steal them?In this episode we speak with Erin Darby, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and an expert on figurines, ritual, and material culture in ancient Israel. Looking beyond Genesis to the other appearances of teraphim in the Bible—from the story of Micah and the Danites in Judges to Michal’s deception of Saul’s men, and from Hosea and Zechariah to Josiah’s religious reforms—they uncover a suggestive pattern. Teraphim seem closely associated with divination and, strikingly, with Israel’s northern tribes and the descendants of Rachel. Genesis never explicitly condemns Rachel for taking the teraphim. Indeed, the patriarchal stories contain practices that later biblical law would prohibit, while Genesis itself often offers no comment at all. What does that tell us about the religious world portrayed in Genesis?
- Sep 14, 202631 min
Gen 30: More Than Spotted Sheep
Guest: Dr. Suzie ParkGenesis 30 ends with one of the strangest episodes in the Jacob story. Jacob agrees that his wages from Laban will consist of the spotted, speckled, and dark-colored animals—and then proceeds to peel branches, place them before the mating flocks, and somehow emerge with an abundance of precisely those animals.What are we supposed to make of this?Dr. Suzie Park joins us to look beyond attempts to explain Jacob’s methods through ancient animal husbandry, genetics, or beliefs about “maternal impression.” Paying close attention to the Hebrew wordplay that largely disappears in translation, Park argues that the story of the flocks is doing something much more ambitious.Why does the narrative repeatedly play on Laban’s name and the Hebrew word for “white”? What do the spotted and speckled animals have to do with Jacob himself? And why does this peculiar story appear precisely between the birth of Jacob’s children and his flight from Laban back to Canaan?The conversation explores how the transformation of Laban’s flock into Jacob’s flock reflects a much larger transformation taking place in the story: the emergence of Jacob, his wives, and his children from Laban’s household as a family—and ultimately a people—with an identity of their own.Further readingSong-Mi Suzie Park, “Transformation and Demarcation of Jacob’s ‘Flocks’ in Genesis 30:25–43: Identity, Election, and the Role of the Divine,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2010): 667–677.
- Sep 7, 202633 min
Gen 29: Love in the Hebrew Bible
Guest: Dr. Suzie Park. Genesis 29 tells us that Jacob loved Rachel—and that Leah was “hated.” But what does the Hebrew Bible actually mean when it speaks of love?Dr. Suzie Park, author of Love in the Hebrew Bible (Westminster John Know, 2023), joins us to explore the Hebrew verb ahav and the ways its biblical meaning extends far beyond our modern ideas of romantic feeling. Drawing on biblical narrative, Deuteronomy, and the language of ancient Near Eastern treaties, they examine love as loyalty, preference, action, and even an expression of power and social hierarchy.What does it mean that Isaac loved Esau while Rebekah loved Jacob? Why are women so rarely the subjects of the verb ahav? And why does biblical love so often seem to bring suffering in its wake?Returning to Genesis 29, the conversation sheds new light on the Bible’s striking claim that Jacob loved Rachel “more than Leah”—and on what the language of love and hate reveals about the painful hierarchy within Jacob’s household.
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About The Bible Bar
The Bible Bar – The Podcast of the Bible Department of Bar-Ilan University. Hosted by Dr. Joshua Berman, The Bible Bar offers a guided journey through the Bible, one chapter at a time, in conversation with leading scholars from Bar-Ilan University and across the globe. Drawing on the full spectrum of biblical studies, the podcast translates cutting-edge research into thoughtful, engaging discussions, helping listeners discover new depth and meaning in the text
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