12,014 related texts · Page 59 of 251
The Letter of Aristeas, a fascinating text that purports to describe how the Septuagint – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible – came to be, gives us a glimpse into just such ...
That's the picture the Letter of Aristeas paints for us, a glimpse into the lives of the 70 (or 72, depending on the tradition) Jewish scholars tasked with translating the Torah in...
Take hand-washing, for example. We do it all the time, but have you ever stopped to think about what it really means? The Letter of Aristeas gives us a glimpse into just that. This...
The Book of Maccabees I gives us a stark glimpse. Imagine this: a decree echoes across the land, reaching every corner of the kingdom. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king, is...
That feeling, that struggle, is at the very heart of the story we find in 1 Maccabees 2. It’s a time of immense pressure on the Jewish people. The mitzvot, the commandments, are un...
That’s kind of the vibe we get in 1 Maccabees 10. Remember Bacchides? He was that Seleucid general who was trying to crush the Maccabean revolt. He built fortresses all over Judea ...
We're turning to the Book of Maccabees I, a historical account that's part of the Apocrypha, those fascinating books nestled in some versions of the Bible but not in others. It’s a...
The story we're about to delve into echoes that sentiment, a tale of resilience, faith, and the enduring power of brotherhood. It comes to us from the Book of Maccabees I, a histor...
Today, we're diving into a specific moment in that saga, found in the Book of Maccabees I, chapter 13. The scene is set: Simon Maccabeus, leader of the Jewish people after the deat...
The Second Book of Maccabees, part of the Apocrypha, gives us a truly harrowing, yet ultimately inspiring, story of devotion in the face of unimaginable cruelty. It's a story that'...
The Second Book of Maccabees tells a harrowing, yet inspiring, story of faith and resistance. It recounts the persecution of Jews under the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a Seleuc...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating chapter from the Book of Jasher, a non-canonical Jewish text that elaborates on stories from the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, we're looking at...
The letter Vav arrives, and Ben Sira delivers one of his sharpest proverbs yet: "Woe to one who follows after his eyes! And know that they are the product of straying, and there is...
"My son, hide your money during your lifetime and store it, and until the day of your death, do not give it to your heirs." This is the proverb of the letter Tzadi (צ) in the Alpha...
"Distance yourself from an evil neighbor and do not be counted among their friends." So begins the proverb of the letter Resh (ר) in the Alphabet of Ben Sira. It sounds like a stra...
"Acquire for yourself gold coins, and all money, but do not tell your wife where the money is, even if she is good." And with that, the alphabetical proverbs of the Alphabet of Ben...
The Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed between 700 and 1000 CE, doesn't shy away from the crudest questions about the natural world. When Nebuchadnezzar asked why donkeys urinate on on...
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...
The second half of the Pesher Habakkuk turns from cosmic prophecy to personal vendetta—and the story it tells has haunted historians for decades. According to the pesher, a figure ...
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...
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 ...
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi was walking on the road when he met the prophet Elijah. "Would you like to see the gates of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death)?" Elija...
The jealous princes of Babylon set a trap with surgical precision. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, the...
Ptolemy of Egypt was a book collector. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, the Macedonian king who ruled Eg...
The stone god fell on its face. That was the beginning of everything. Abraham worked in his father's idol shop. Every day he carved gods out of stone and wood and metal for Terah, ...
Abraham left the room to cool his father's anger. But Terah called after him: "Abraham!" "Here I am." "Gather the wood splinters from the gods I carved before you came, and prepare...
Abraham laughed in his mind and sighed in the grief and anger of his soul. "How can something manufactured by my father be his helper? Should the body be subject to its soul, and t...
Abraham rose and saw the one who had grasped his hand and lifted him to his feet. The sight was overwhelming. Iaoel's body was like sapphire. His face shone like chrysolite. The ha...
Abraham turned to the angel in distress. "Why have you brought me up here? I cannot see anymore. I am already grown weak, and my spirit is departing from me." The mortal body was f...
"Now look again in the picture," God said. "See who it is that seduced Eve and what is the fruit of the tree. You will know what shall be and how it shall be for your seed among th...
The vision shifted. Abraham saw something that struck closer to home than the cosmic sins of Cain and Desire. He saw an idol standing inside a Temple. The idol of jealousy. It look...
The fourth heaven was a machine. The angels carried Enoch upward and showed him the workings of the sun and moon — not as distant lights in the sky, but as colossal engines of fire...
With his departure drawing near, Enoch delivered a series of blessings and curses — a final reckoning, sharp as a blade, that laid bare the difference between the righteous and the...
The serpent wept for her. That was the cruelest part. It pretended to grieve for her ignorance while plotting her destruction. "May God live!" the serpent said to Eve, its voice dr...
The parade of demons continued. One by one the thirty-six spirits of the zodiac stepped forward before Solomon's throne, each confessing the disease it inflicts and the angel whose...
Two men stood in the ashes of the world. Baruch and Jeremiah — the scribe and the prophet — whose hearts had been found pure from sin, who had not been captured when the city fell....
On the third day, Ezra sat under an oak tree. A voice came from a bush opposite him. "Ezra, Ezra." He rose to his feet. "Here I am, Lord." The voice from the bush was deliberate. U...
Gad, ninth son of Jacob, born of Zilpah, spoke to his sons in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life. He had been valiant in keeping the flocks, guarding them at night. When...
Joseph, eleventh son of Jacob, beloved of Rachel, was about to die. He called his sons and brethren together and spoke. "My brethren and my children, hearken to Joseph the beloved ...
Let’s delve into some vivid, frankly terrifying, descriptions of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death), often translated as Hell. It's a place depicted in anci...
It wasn't always this way! According to the legends, these creatures weren’t born rivals. Their animosity, like so much else in this world, has a story, a reason... or rather, seve...
According to tradition, God didn't just leave the entrance to Paradise unguarded. Instead, He appointed the cherubim, those powerful, almost indescribable angelic beings, to stand ...
It's easy to picture them, just the two of them, grappling with their guilt and trying to make amends. But what if there was another player, a persistent tempter who wasn't quite r...
We know the Bible tells us of their lives, their creation, their sins. But what about their final resting places? It's a question that leads us into the rich tapestry of Jewish leg...
When Adam lay dying, God called out to his body, "Adam! Adam!" And the body answers, "Lord, here am I!" It's a poignant exchange. God reminds Adam of his earthly origins: "Dust tho...
The stories surrounding the death and burial of Eve, the first woman, are rich with symbolism and provide a glimpse into early Jewish understandings of death, mourning, and resurre...
But what if that destiny also put your child in mortal danger from the moment they were born? That's exactly the predicament Terah, Abraham's father, found himself in. The story, a...
Angels, messengers of God, have rescued Lot and his family, leading them away from the impending destruction. They're given one crucial instruction: don't look back. Don't even thi...
