Status Updates From The Bible: The Biography

“It was, Philo argued, foolish to read the first chapter of Genesis literally and to imagine that the world had been created in 6 days. The number 6 was a symbol of perfection.”

“In the older stories, there was no mention of Yahweh’s teaching being committed to writing. In the JE accounts, Moses had passed on Yahweh’s direction by word of mouth. The seventh-century reformers, however, added verses which explained that Moses ‘put all the commands of Yahweh into writing’ and read the sefer Torah to the people.

Spinoza, ibn ezra, Maimonides, Yavneh, Pharisees.. I have a lot to catch up on

A decent dive in Midrash chapter, into Yavneh and the Pharisees. A lot of modern day Jewish observance is based on this approach to making sense of post Temple realities. Which handily also work for exilic or at least diasporic and dispersed life. Remind me to dig more into Yavneh and the Pharisees.

However, this is a handy book at bridging the gap between the biblical scholarship of Kugel, and the archaeological history of The Bible Unearthed, and probably will assist significantly by adding the biblical detail to Paul Johnson.

Plus, random comment to remind myself, the destruction of the Temple was the destruction of the literal home of the earthly presence of God. Quite a loss.