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Near the end of the Thanksgiving Hymns collection comes a poem that captures the theology of the Qumran community in its purest form. The speaker—whether the Teacher of Righteousne...
The climax of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice arrives in the twelfth and thirteenth songs, when the text finally reaches the inner sanctum of the heavenly Temple—and encounters ...
The Genesis Apocryphon's account of Noah's birth is one of the most vivid nativity scenes in all of ancient Jewish literature—and it is deeply unsettling. The baby does not look hu...
The dead do not simply lie still. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, the righteous dead have a vast habit...
The Garden of Eden is not a meadow. It is a city of palaces. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, there are...
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi wanted to see Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death). The Messiah refused. "It is not fitting for the righteous to see it," he said, "for ...
Before Adam named the animals, God brought them before the angels and challenged them to do it first. They could not. Adam named every creature instantly. God turned to the angels ...
After the expulsion from Eden, Adam was separated from Eve for 130 years. He slept alone. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Mo...
Cain was the first city builder. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, after marrying his wife Qalmana, Cain...
Two angels told God not to create humanity. When the generation of the flood proved them right, Shemhazai and Azael stood before God and reminded Him: "Did we not say, 'Do not crea...
The Hebrew Bible names Adam's famous sons. But the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, names the ones you have never heard ...
How many people were alive before the flood? According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, an exact census was taken...
When the people of Babylon decided to build a tower reaching heaven, everyone had to make bricks. Everyone had to write their name on their brick. But twelve men refused. According...
The builders of the Tower of Babel were not just confused. They were transformed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gast...
After the flood, the entire earth was split into three portions. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, each ...
Nimrod was not merely a tyrant. He was the seed of the world's first false religion. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses G...
Abraham's entire family were idol-makers. They carved images and sold them in the streets. But Abraham ran the stall like a philosopher. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a...
The night Abraham was born, a star appeared in the sky and swallowed four other stars from the four corners of heaven. Nimrod's astrologers saw it and rushed to the king with a war...
Haran, the eldest son of Terah, made his living selling his father's idols to the Chaldeans. His younger brother Abraham refused to worship them. When the Chaldeans came to test bo...
After Simeon and Levi destroyed the men of Shechem, a great terror fell over every city in the region. The nations said: "If two sons of Jacob could exterminate an entire town, wha...
Esau had moved away from his brother Jacob, but the sages in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel say it was not because his hatred had cooled. "His anger did he bear perpetually, and he ke...
When Naphtali grew old and felt his strength fading, he gathered his children and gave them one final command. It was not about silver or gold. "I speak to you about a very easy ma...
Potiphar's wife tried every day to seduce Joseph. She dressed in her finest ornaments, changed her clothes constantly, and spoke to him with increasing urgency. But Joseph mastered...
After the Tower of Babel, the descendants of the nations scattered into separate companies. The Kittim settled in the plain of Campania by the river Tiber, while the children of Tu...
The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, preserves an unusual parallel timeline linking the rise of Rome with the suffering ...
In the 130th year after the Israelites went down to Egypt, Pharaoh had a dream. Sitting on his throne, he saw an old man holding a merchant's balance scale. The old man gathered up...
When Amram separated from his wife after Pharaoh's decree to drown all Hebrew boys, it was his young daughter Miriam who brought them back together. The Spirit of God came upon the...
When Pharaoh sought counsel on what to do about the growing Israelite population, he summoned three men: Reuel the Midianite, Job, and Balaam of Petor. Their answers determined the...
God told Moses that the time had come for Aaron to leave this world. Moses prayed all night, agonizing: "How can I tell my brother his life is ending?" God answered with a promise—...
When God told Moses that his time had come, Moses refused to accept it. He drew a circle on the ground, stood inside it, and declared: "I will not move from this place until the de...
Why did God Himself attend to the burial of Moses? Because of what Moses had done decades earlier in Egypt, when everyone else was busy loading up silver and gold for the exodus. W...
When Moses ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, a cloud crouched before him like a living creature. He did not know whether to ride it or grab hold of it. The cloud opened, swa...
While the Israelites traveled through the wilderness, seven clouds of glory surrounded them on every side. One cloud went in front, one behind, two flanked them on each side, and o...
Before the tenth plague struck, God executed judgment on every idol in Egypt. Stone gods shattered into fragments. Wooden gods rotted to dust. Idols of silver, brass, iron, and lea...
The quarrel between Korah and Moses began with a poor woman and her single ewe-lamb. She fed the lamb from her own bread and let it drink from her own cup. When she sheared its woo...
After Joshua died, Israel had no leader. The people asked God who should fight the Canaanites, and God told them to cast lots. The lot fell on Kenaz, from the tribe of Caleb, who b...
The period of the Judges was an era of divine intervention so direct that storms fought battles and fires executed corrupt leaders. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th...
Jephthah the Gileadite made a vow before battle: whatever came out of his house first to greet him upon his victorious return would be offered as a sacrifice to God. He crushed the...
From the Exodus to the destruction of the First Temple, Israel was exiled eight times. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses...
The destruction of the Temple happened on the eve of the ninth of Av, on the outgoing of the Sabbath, in a Sabbatical year. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century...
The most detailed account of the lost tribes of Israel comes from Eldad the Danite, a traveler whose report is preserved in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chron...
Two false prophets in Babylon, Ahab ben Kolaya and Zedekiah ben Maaseyah, used their religious authority to commit adultery and fraud. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 1...
In Babylon there lived a man named Jehoiachin whose wife Susanna was known for her beauty and her devotion to God. Her parents had raised her according to the Torah of Moses, and s...
Nebuchadnezzar's transformation was not a complete change from man to animal. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster i...
The fall of Babylon began with a friendship and ended with a finger. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, G...
God drew up the blueprints for a world. They failed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon and first translate...
On the third day of creation, the earth was a flat, featureless plain submerged under water. Then God spoke. Mountains erupted upward and scattered across the surface. Valleys tore...
God placed seven planets in the firmament and gave each one a distinct personality. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ...
