Look at the head of this chapter: “And Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron. . .’” In other words, this specific chapter was meant exclusively for the Aaronid priesthood, and besides, the only man that could offer bread to Yahweh was the Aaronid priest (Ex 25:30). Chapters 21-22 might…

Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 in the original Hebrew are actually very vague texts. While many seem to assume that the meaning of these texts are perfectly clear, they have major difficulties. Most importantly, as Bruce Wells writes: “both contain the phrase מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י אִשָּׁה (vocalized as miškəbê ʾiššâ), a longstanding crux for interpreters. In fact, Jacques Berlinerblau…

Introduction of Information to Leviticus, the third book of the Torah and of the Old Testament 📜Samuel Sandmel writes:“The absence of narrative and the monotony of the Priestly style combine with our present attitudes about the contents to make the book heavy and dull for the present-day reader. Ancient rabbis and modern scholars have found…

According to Geraty (2015), most scholars who believe in a historical Exodus date this event to the 13th century BC, around the times of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

Exod 22:28 You shall not put off the skimming of the first yield of your vats. You shall give Me the firstborn among your sons. 22:29 You shall do the same with your cattle and your flocks: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.…

There’s no consensus, but many scholars would consider that there was an historical ark, probably belonging to a “portable shrine”, as found elsewhere in ancient West Asia (but I don’t have a systematic survey of their positions, see: https://brill.com/display/book/9789047401582/B9789047401582_s012.xml). A common hypothesis is that it was looted or destroyed during the Babylonian invasion; It’s the…

Analysis 📜Hill and Walton write:“The message of Exodus is summarized in two passages: the commission of Moses (6:2-9) and the preface to the covenant ceremony at Sinai (19:1-6). The three basic components of the message include (1) the judgment of the oppressor nation Egypt, (2) the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt by the…

Introduction The story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt is well known. There are some aspects of this text that appear strange—repetitions, awkward transitions, apparent gaps—but these could plausibly be attributed to authorial style (Schwartz, “Joseph’s Descent”; Seebass, Genesis III, 24–25). The brothers seem to decide to kill Joseph twice, once described…

Hamori adopts a similar position in her recent God’s Monsters. (Both Daniel McClellan and Esther Hamori here are scholars with solid credentials, vulgarising for popular audiences. See Hamori’s profile here and McClellan’s there.) David Carr in The Formation of Genesis 1-11 has a great section where he discusses the cultural backgrounds of the Eden narrative,…

Ancient traditions often assume or imply the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch: Similar assumptions can be found in other ancient authors such as Philo of Alexandria (d. ca. 50 CE, See, e.g., On the Change of Names, in which he quotes Genesis 1:26 and says “Moses teaches us here by implication the doctrine which he…