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Philo, that brilliant Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, had thoughts on this. He saw the story of the "younger" son not just as a matter of birth order, but as a reflection of th...
Philo grapples with this very question: Why are the names "Lord" and "God" sometimes used together? His answer? It's all about God's attributes, specifically benevolence and kingly...
Take Noah’s blessing of his sons after the flood. It's a doozy. Specifically, let's zoom in on Japhet. Noah says, "God shall enlarge Japhet, and bid him to dwell in the house of Sh...
We often think of blessings as straightforward – good health, wealth, maybe a loving family. But what if there's a deeper layer to unpack? What if the blessings themselves aren’t e...
Take the story of Noah and his sons after the flood, specifically Ham and his son Canaan. We read in Genesis 9:27 that Canaan, not Ham, is cursed to be a servant. Why? What's going...
They tell a story. They hint at something deeper. Take Noah's sons: Shem, Ham, and Japhet. You'd think their order would be consistent. But it's not! Isn't that peculiar? Sometimes...
Philo tackles a seemingly simple question: why are Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the sons of Noah, listed in that specific order? Some might assume it's based on age, with the first-named...
We're so used to breezing past those genealogical lists in Genesis, but tucked within them are echoes of ancient understandings about the world and its peoples. Today, let's zoom i...
Let's take a detour into the world of ancient Jewish thought, specifically, a fascinating text known as the Midrash of Philo. Now, Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher livi...
