1,629 related texts · 12 related myths · Page 5 of 34
Book of Jubilees turns to Esau — Edom and the Patriarchs. It all starts with Esau, wrestling with a dark thought: "I shall die; of what profit to me is this birthright?" for a seco...
Sometimes, the answer is unsettlingly simple. The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus with a unique perspective, offers a stark ...
BAM! Disaster strikes. "They announced this to Jacob saying: 'Behold, the kings of the Amorites have surrounded thy sons, and plundered their herds.'" Can you imagine the panic? Th...
Book of Jubilees turns to The Forgotten Kings of Edom Before Israel Had Kings. Chapter 38 of Jubilees, in particular, offers a tantalizingly brief list of Edomite kings. It's almos...
Remember, he's on this journey to retrieve some money owed to his father. Accompanied by the angel Raphael in disguise, he's about to encounter a family mystery that will change ev...
The Letter of Aristeas, an ancient text that purports to describe the translation of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek Septuagint, touches on just that question. And it does so in a ...
The ancient world wrestled with these questions too, and sometimes, we find their wisdom tucked away in unexpected places. The Letter of Aristeas, framed as an account of the Septu...
The story of the Maccabees gives us a glimpse. Think back to a time of struggle, a time when the very identity of a people was threatened. The Book of Maccabees I recounts just suc...
The Maccabean Revolt was in full swing, a desperate fight for religious freedom against the oppressive Seleucid Empire. Think David versus Goliath, but with more politics and a who...
We've been following the story of Jonathan, leader of the Maccabees, and the complex political landscape of Judea in the Second Temple period. He's navigated alliances, battles, an...
That feeling – that’s what I want to A time of immense struggle. Your people are oppressed, your sacred places desecrated. Hope seems lost. Then, a voice rises above the despair, a...
The Book of Maccabees I turns to A King Confirms Temple Gifts and Grants Freedom. The king – and the text doesn't specify which king – is basically saying, "Hey, all those offering...
The familiar story is this: from Genesis 34 – how Shechem, son of Hamor, defiled Jacob's daughter, Dinah, and how Jacob's sons, particularly Simeon and Levi, exacted a brutal reven...
Book of Jasher turns to Isaac Dies at 180 and Esau Returns From Edom. The scene opens with Isaac, Abraham's son, nearing the end of his long life – a whopping 180 years! Esau, havi...
This tale comes from a different, less-known source: The Book of Jasher. Specifically, Now, the Book of Jasher isn't part of the standard biblical canon, but it’s referenced in the...
The chapter opens with a change of leadership in Edom. Baal Channan, son of Achbor, dies and the Edomites reach out to find a new king. They settle on a man named Hadad. He reigns ...
The Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, tells the longest and wildest origin story for why dogs and cats can't stand each other. It goes all the...
Any cat owner knows the feeling: your cat looks right through you like you're a stranger who happens to operate the food dish. According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed betwe...
A demon without a head was brought before Solomon. It had all the limbs of a man, arms, legs, torso. But where the head should have been, there was nothing. Just a stump above the ...
While the Torah itself offers a relatively concise account, Jewish tradition, as it often does, fills in the gaps with breathtaking detail. In Legends of the Jews, a compilation of...
The familiar telling remembers the immediate aftermath – the vengeance of Simeon and Levi. But what about Jacob and his family? Did they just pack up and leave? Well, according to ...
Plagues, parting of the Red Sea, freedom! But the details…they’re wild. The scene: the Egyptians, fresh from the devastation of the tenth plague, practically shoving the Israelites...
Jewish tradition, particularly the aggadic literature (those stories that expand on biblical narratives and explore deeper meanings), paints a vivid picture of that encounter. It's...
Forget the pyramids; It all goes back to Nimrod. Remember him? The mighty hunter, the king who, according to tradition, was the first to really consolidate power after the Flood? W...
Not a single thread. Not even a shoe-latchet. A tiny thing. But according to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, this act of sanctifying the Holy Name had massive reper...
The joke being about your future descendants! That’s precisely what happened at a feast hosted by none other than Abraham himself, as recounted in Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews. Q...
The Torah often gives us glimpses, but sometimes it's the extra-biblical stories, the legends whispered through generations, that fill in the details. the story turns to one such t...
It's often because the story isn't just about one family or one kingdom, but about the tangled web of relationships between them all. Take, for instance, the story of Esau and Jaco...
Legends of the Jews turns to Jacob Recorded His Own Dream and Recognized Joseph's. Fast forward a bit, and Jacob's son, Joseph, has a dream of his own. And wouldn't you know it, yo...
The story of Joseph, as retold in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, opens with just that kind of primal animosity. The scene: Joseph, the favored son, approaches his brothers. But in...
That's where Joseph found himself in the house of Potiphar. Potiphar, believing his wife's lies, had Joseph brutally flogged. Can you picture it? The sting of the whip, the injusti...
Except Moses knew better. He knew the hearts of his people, the Israelites. The verse reads, "The last was a most difficult task." See, this wasn't just about facing a powerful kin...
The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, forcing them to build their cities, to serve their every whim. But the oppression wasn't just physical; it was spiritual too. One of the firs...
It wasn't just random chaos raining down, oh no. Jewish tradition paints a picture of divine justice, a kind of cosmic quid pro quo. What had the Egyptians been doing to the Israel...
Legends of the Jews turns to The Hailstones Froze in Midair When Moses Prayed. Here's the kicker: as soon as Moses prayed, the hail that had been pelting Egypt just…stopped. Suspen...
He doesn’t do it alone. He speaks to the elders, the respected leaders of the tribes. These weren’t just figureheads, but individuals who held the trust and confidence of the peopl...
Really trapped. Centuries of slavery, your identity almost erased. Then, a glimmer of hope appears: MOSES. But even after plagues and miracles, freedom seems just out of reach. Wha...
Freedom. Did everyone just instantly start singing and dancing? Well, not exactly. In Ginzberg's retelling in, Legends of the Jews, the Israelites were… well, they were exhausted. ...
As retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, Moses chose his servant Joshua to lead the charge. Why? Because Moses knew that only a descendant of Rachel, like the Ephraimite Joshua, could co...
The air is thick with the aroma of roasting meat, the sounds of laughter and song echoing through the desert. The Israelites, newly freed from slavery in Egypt, are gathered togeth...
His sons, in a moment of unauthorized zeal, offered "alien fire" before the Lord and were consumed. A devastating blow. How could joy ever return? Yet, according to Legends of the ...
It wasn't just divine intervention; sometimes, it took a little bit of clever strategy and a whole lot of faith. We pick up the story after the fall of Heshbon. Israel now possesse...
The story of Og, King of Bashan, from Legends of the Jews, is a wild ride that explores just that! The Israelites, fresh from their victory against Sihon (a battle that, by the way...
I'm not just talking metaphorically big, but physically, impossibly huge. Let's Og wasn't just tall; he was…unwieldy, let's say. Imagine someone so massive that a regular wooden ch...
Legends of the Jews turns to Og's Miracle. This giant, known as Og, wasn't just the last one chronologically. He was also, according to the tradition, the least significant. Can yo...
Think about Moses, right before the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. He has some serious things to say to them. Some… tough love, let's call it. But why does he wai...
King Solomon, with his legendary wisdom, knew how to untangle even the most complex lies. We see this in one particular story recounted in Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. It...
The ancient stories are full of that kind of energy. And no one knew it better than King Solomon, the wisest of all men. Solomon, holding court, his legendary wisdom radiating outw...
