Posts by Julia Blum

THE REVERSAL OF EVIL We finished  our last post with the thesis, drawn largely from the work of Dr. Michael Heiser, that Second Temple Judaism saw in Genesis 6:1-4, not only the story of a supernatural rebellion, but one of the central passages in biblical theology and in understanding God’s plan in history: “Yes, the […]

TL;DR The Book of Enoch’s ‘Book of the Watchers’ is an important piece of Second Temple Jewish literature that shaped the cultural and theological context in which New Testament writers lived and wrote. THE BOOK OF THE WATCHERS Last time we began by speaking about “the Jewish scene in the time of Jesus”[1] and the […]

THE JEWISH SCENE IN THE TIME OF JESUS Those readers who have followed my blog for a while, know that I love series. There have been many series on this blog already: As Though Hiding His Face (The Hidden Messiah), Biblical Portraits (of Rebecca and of Judah), The Bible Stories You Did Not Know, The […]

SERMON ON THE MOUNT AND TORAH PORTION   Even among non-Christians, there is a general consensus that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the greatest moral discourse ever given. Have you ever thought of the possibility that the Sermon on the Mount could have been a sermon on a specific Torah Portion – probably even […]

  JUDAH AND HIS BROTHERS Last time, we left off our story just after the cup had been found in Benjamin’s sack. I suppose you understand that this already was a test. Theoretically, ten brothers could have gone home—they were absolutely free to do that, the steward was very clear: “he with whom it is […]

BACK IN CANAAN   We are back to our biblical portrait – but before we arrive at that scene and the speech of Judah that not only precedes, but actually causes Joseph’s revelation, we need to stop for a moment in Canaan. We will pick up this story exactly where we left off—we left the […]

My dear readers, even though we still have one installment left for Judah, I have to pause my biblical drawing and to say a few words about Festival of Shavuot which we will be celebrating in a couple days. We will complete Judah’s biblical portrait in the next post.   Shavuot in the Torah 15 ‘And […]

My dear readers, together we have witnessed the profound inner transformation that Judah went through in chapter 38, in his story with Tamar. Why was it important for us to see this transformation? The Torah wants to make sure we know that the Judah who comes to Egypt and talks to Joseph, is not the […]

THE HIDDEN MESSAGE Finally we are entering the most interesting part of the story, the “action” of the story, which according to the text happens “a long time afterward”—a long time after the events we discussed in the previous part. We read that a long time afterward”, “the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died” – […]

We continue drawing our biblical portrait—continue watching Judah on these pages. We have seen that, by placing the story immediately after the sale of Joseph, the Torah lets us know that the stories are connected. Before a reader delves into Joseph’s saga and follows the transformation of Joseph’s character, Scripture shows us the transformation of […]