Observation ·
Mosaic’s Defining Essays from 2025
By Jonathan SilverReflections on Israel, America, and the West that remind us we are not captive to fate.
Hebrew Bible
Latest Mosaic Content for Hebrew Bible
Observation ·
All Good Things Must Come to an End, but What Does That Have to Do with Summer?
By PhilologosPhilologos says farewell.
Response ·
There Are 70 Faces to the Torah. But Not All Interpretations Are Created Equal
By Ethan Dor-ShavCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Response ·
The Theological Implications of Reading Genesis as an Allegory for Evolution
By Zohar AtkinsCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Response ·
Uncovering the Darwinian Genesis
By Dru JohnsonCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Monthly Essay ·
How Evolutionary Biology Unlocks Genesis’s Theory of Man
By Ethan Dor-ShavThe Bible shows our humanity while taking us back to the solitary, deep-water worm of our primordial origins.
Observation ·
Did God Give Moses Ten Sayings, Ten Commandments, or Just Ten Things?
By PhilologosNeither Jewish nor Christian traditions call the Decalogue by its biblical name, but the phrases they choose reveal something about their different approaches to divine law.
Observation ·
Is Baruch Spinoza the Founder of Modern Anti-Semitism?
By Henry MechoulanBlinded by hatred, the Dutch philosopher dressed ancient prejudices in the garb of reason.
Observation ·
Did the First Thanksgiving Involve the Word “Thanksgiving”?
By PhilologosThe word was invented in translating the Psalm recited by the Pilgrims.
Observation ·
Where Did the Idea of Three “Abrahamic Faiths” Come From?
By PhilologosThe incompatible narratives of Judaism and Islam, and what the Bible has to say about them.
Observation ·
The Jewish Roots of the Christian Phrase “Turn the Other Cheek”
By PhilologosThe contrast between New Testament forbearance and Hebraic hard-heartedness is an idea that won't die.
Observation ·
Marilynne Robinson Promises Her Reading of Genesis Is Faithful to the Text. Is It?
By Jon D. LevensonOr does the highly lauded American author's new book revive some old prejudices?
Response ·
Twisted Tales: Christian Art Re-Presents the Hebrew Bible
By Larry SilverCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Monthly Essay ·
How Western Artists Used and Abused the Hebrew Bible
By Dr. Jacob WisseFor centuries, visual artists, nearly all Christian, turned to the Hebrew Bible for inspiration even more often than the New Testament. What did they find there, and did they treat it well?
Observation ·
How Much Plato Did Paul or the Rabbis Know?
By PhilologosA reader's question prompts Philologos to turn up a crucial link between the three.
Observation ·
The Battle of the Seventy Translators
By PhilologosHow many rabbis first translated the Hebrew Bible, and how many different translations did they produce?
Observation ·
How Many Egyptian Words Made It into Biblical Hebrew?
By PhilologosAnd does their presence illuminate the book of Exodus—or is it simply a sign that ancient Egypt was a powerful nation?
Observation ·
What Color Is Biblical Blue?
By PhilologosA hue like the sea, the sky, grass, and trees, available for $14.90 per gram at Amazon.
Observation ·
The Proof of the Exodus Hidden in the Ancient Word Sha’atnez
By PhilologosThe word , like a small number of other Egyptian loanwords in the Bible, testifies to a period in which the early Israelite nation, or a part of it, was in intimate contact with Egyptian life.
Monthly Essay ·
The Changing Faces of Israel’s Settlement Movement
By Daniel KaneWhat was 50 years ago a small band of religious farmer-soldiers has grown into a varied network of nearly half a million. Who are Israel's settlers and what do they really believe?
Observation ·
The Molten Flow of Primordial Chaos, Agitating the Chests of Men—or Not
By Jacob HowlandThe language of Homer delights in illuminating the world at length. The language of the Bible, by contrast, is compact, but fraught with the agitated flow of emotions.
Observation ·
Not Everything Is a Charging Boar
By Jacob HowlandThe signal achievement of Genesis is to find heroism not just on the field of battle—where Odysseus, too, excels—but on the hardscrabble ground of everyday life.
Observation ·
Homeric and Biblical Nobodies
By Jacob HowlandWhy, in the Hebrew Bible and the Odyssey alike , does the overweening human ambition to become somebody end in lowly banishment and dispersion?
Observation ·
A Mysterious Erasure in a 700-Year-Old Manuscript of the Hebrew Bible
By Marc Michael EpsteinOne recent Saturday morning, I was following the Torah portion from a late-13th-century manuscript and noticed some strange faded text and stress lines. What did they mean?
Observation ·
The Connection Between a Just-Discovered Ancient Hebrew Inscription and Modern Yiddish
By Philologos"An earthquake in biblical scholarship” is how the discovery has been described. That's true, as are the connections it reveals between ancient languages and modern ones.
Observation ·
Sex and the Ancient City
By Jacob HowlandThe Hebrew Bible and the Odyssey are both preoccupied by the moral and political consequences of ungoverned sexuality and aggression.
Observation ·
Why the Bible Uses the Word “And” So Much
By PhilologosThe Hebrew of the Bible has many more and s than does modern English prose, a feature that's surprisingly crucial to its literary power.
Observation ·
Should Moses Be Called Moshe?
By PhilologosA new edition of the Hebrew Bible edited by the late Jonathan Sacks Hebraizes its names in a way that bibles almost never do. Why, and what's at stake?
Observation ·
Should Jews Read Homer?
By Jacob HowlandDespite extensive similarities, few readers have studied Genesis together with the Odyssey in hopes of illuminating the human condition. What lies waiting to be discovered?
Observation ·
More on the Differences Between “Jew,” “Hebrew,” and “Israeli”
By PhilologosAnd why each has been preferred in different times and places.
