Most learners assume Modern Hebrew is close enough to read the Bible. The alphabet looks familiar, recognizable words appear on nearly every page, and some verses even seem understandable at first glance. But once you begin reading the biblical text more closely, something surprising happens. The language moves differently, carrying layers of meaning, poetry, and […]
Last time, we started to discuss the Last Supper. We reviewed the traditional approach: Jesus was crucified on Friday, and the Last Supper was indeed the Passover meal (Seder) that took place on Thursday night; we asked some questions bound up with this traditional approach – and today, we will try to answer these questions. […]
TL;DR: Ezekiel’s Vision of the Chariot, recorded in the Book of Ezekiel around 593 BCE, is one of the Bible’s most mysterious passages and has influenced Jewish mysticism and Christian apocalyptic literature for centuries. The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the major prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah […]
This coming Saturday night, Jews around the world will sit on the floors of their synagogues and read one of the saddest books in the entire Bible: the Book of Lamentations. For 25 hours – from sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday – they will not eat or drink anything. This is the grimmest […]
You are probably familiar with the English phrase “hold your peace” even if you do not use it in daily conversation. Many people mistakenly assume that the phrase is spelled “hold your piece“, but this actually a separate idiom (“say your piece“). So what exactly does “hold your peace” mean? In short, it means “keep your […]
Over the last 24 hours people all over Israel observed a very odd sight: rain in June. Especially large amounts of rain fell in the usually dry southern part of country, with a record 64 millimeters falling at Kibbutz Dorot located near the city of Sderot. The last time this amount of rain fell during […]
If you have ever been to Israel, you have most likely visited the most famous Jewish religious site in Jerusalem: the Western Wall. You are probably aware that this wall is but a small section of the massive retaining structure that once held up the esplanade of the Herodian Temple. But you are probably not […]
The latter half of the First Book of Samuel is mainly devoted to the story of King Saul’s rise and fall and his obsessive attempt to kill his apprentice David. In chapter 19, David escapes Saul by seeking refuge in the prophet Samuel’s hometown of Ramah. Apparently, David hides out among a band of ecstatic […]
In this post, I would like to take a closer look at one of the smallest and yet most beautiful churches that is connected with the events of Passion Week: the final week that Jesus spent in Jerusalem. Located on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem’s Old City, this […]
We here at the Israel Institute for Biblical Studies are strong advocates of the idea that to truly understand the Hebrew Bible, you need to read it in the original Hebrew. This sounds obvious, but very few people actually understand the reasoning behind this idea. Reading the words of the Hebrew prophets in translation – […]
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