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Doors that can swing wide open into the most incredible stories. Take Enoch, for example. (Genesis 5:22) tells us, "Enoch pleased God after he begat Methuselah, two hundred years.”...
One fascinating perspective comes to us from a text known as The Midrash of Philo. Now, when we say "midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)," we're talking about a particular s...
The ones that make you stop and say, "Wait, what exactly does that mean?" I was pondering just such a detail the other day, specifically about Enoch. You know, the one who "walked ...
It’s easy to just chalk it up to ancient myths, but what if there's more to it? What if those numbers are telling us something deeper? That’s exactly what I was pondering when I st...
Day and night, up and down... Does it ever feel like there's a deeper meaning to it all?Stick with me, it’s more profound than it sounds. The passage starts by pointing out the obv...
Our focus today is on a seemingly simple verse from (Genesis 5:24): “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” But what does it really mean that Enoch "ple...
You know, Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam? The one who, according to (Genesis 5:24), simply "was not, for God took him." A verse so simple, yet so… strange. What does it ev...
We all know Noah. The ark, the flood, the whole shebang. But have you ever paused to consider the moment of his birth? What was his father, Lamech, thinking? (Genesis 5:29) tells u...
It's more than just a family tree, folks. It’s a key to understanding, well, practically everything! We find this question posed directly in the Midrash of Philo. A midrash (plural...
Philo, the great Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, certainly did. And in the Midrash of Philo, we get a fascinating glimpse into his allegorical interpretations. He reads the Torah...
That feeling isn't new. In fact, it's something that the ancient sages grappled with too. One particular verse that sparked a lot of discussion is from (Genesis 6:3): "My spirit sh...
These are the kinds of questions that the ancient interpreters of the Bible loved to wrestle with! And in a fascinating, though fragmented, text known as The Midrash of Philo, we f...
Wait a minute… God, anxious? God, regretting? It’s a pretty radical idea, isn’t it? We’re talking about (Genesis 6:6), that stark verse that says, "God considered anxiously because...
One that theologians and philosophers have wrestled with for centuries. We find it even bubbling up in the ancient texts. Take, for example, the passage that talks about God "repen...
God’s not just upset with humanity. He says, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I...
That’s the kind of divine regret we find hinted at in (Genesis 6:7), when God says, "I am indignant that I made them." Now, hold on. Does that sound. God, feeling indignant? Isn't ...
Take Noah, for example. The world’s about to be… well, let’s just say thoroughly cleansed. And yet, (Genesis 6:8) tells us, almost as an aside, that Noah "found grace in the sight ...
Jewish tradition explores that feeling in a fascinating way when it discusses Noah. The world was, to put it mildly, a mess. According to the Torah, humanity's wickedness had reach...
It’s a question that has puzzled rabbis and scholars for centuries, and it's precisely the kind of textual wrinkle that the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) loves to expl...
These are the kinds of questions that our sages wrestled with, poring over every word of the Torah for hidden meanings. Let's consider Noah. We all know the story: the flood, the a...
The Midrash of Philo delves into this very question, picking apart the scripture and searching for deeper meaning. One passage in particular focuses on a specific verse from Genesi...
It's like we're trying to soften the blow, to create a little distance between the person and the negative action. Well, it turns out this isn't just a quirk of human interaction; ...
That feeling, that nagging sense of injustice, it's not new. Not by a long shot. In fact, it’s a question that echoes all the way back to the very beginning, to the story of Noah a...
To a fascinating interpretation found in The Midrash of Philo. Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, wasn't afraid to think outside the box. He ...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, offers a unique allegorical interpretation of the Torah. And in this particular midrash (rabbinic interpre...
The sheer scale of devastation... it's almost too much to comprehend. And that brings us to a fascinating little puzzle tucked away within the text of Genesis, a question that the ...
The ancient sages wrestled with this feeling too. And in a fascinating passage attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, we find a ...
The verse in question, from (Genesis 6:13), states that "all things which existed upon the earth shall be consumed." But why? The text grapples with this apparent injustice. One ex...
We're talking about Noah, of course. The righteous man in a world gone completely bonkers. And just before the floodgates open, God says something really interesting: "I will set u...
The Torah tells us plainly: "Enter thou and all thy house into the ark, because I have seen that thou art a just man before me in that generation" (Genesis 7:1). But why? What made...
(Genesis 7:2) lays it out: seven pairs of every clean animal, but only one pair of unclean animals. Seems straightforward, but... why? That’s a question that’s been puzzling interp...
Philo, deeply influenced by both Greek philosophy and Jewish tradition, offers a unique perspective. He sees the number seven as "clean," a virgin number, untouched and complete. I...
The animals are all loaded, the family’s aboard… what’s the hold-up? Well, our sages pondered this very question, and, as they often do, came up with some beautiful and thought-pro...
(Genesis 7:4) tells us that the rain fell for this specific duration, but why this particular number? Philo, in his Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), delves into this ver...
Take, for instance, the verse in (Genesis 7:4): "I will destroy every living substance that I have made from off the face of the earth." (Genesis 7:4) Doesn't that phrasing strike ...
The words that seem almost... unnecessary? Like when we read, "Noah did everything which the Lord commanded him" (Genesis 7:5). Seems straightforward. Noah was a righteous guy, God...
This particular midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), let's call it Midrash of Philo 5, offers what we might call a "noble panegyric" – high praise, really – for the just per...
(Genesis 7:11) isn’t messing around. Why that precise moment for the deluge to begin? It’s a question that’s kept commentators busy for centuries. Specifically, the Midrash of Phil...
Our tradition is rich with layers of meaning, isn't it? And sometimes, the smallest detail holds a hidden universe. Take the timing of the great flood. It wasn't just any time. The...
Take the flood narrative in Genesis, for example. We read that "the fountains of the deep were broken open and the floodgates of the sky were opened" (Genesis 7:11). Straightforwar...
Like when Noah is safely tucked away in the ark, the Torah tells us, "And the Lord shut him in, closing the doors of the ark" (Genesis 7:16). Okay, so God closed the door. Makes se...
The Torah tells us, in (Genesis 7:19), about the flood: “And the water overflowed fifteen cubits above all the highest mountains.” Simple enough on the surface. But if we dig a lit...
We often skim past the stark pronouncements in the Torah, like "And all flesh capable of motion perished" (Genesis 7:21), without truly grasping the implications. But what exactly ...
What does it really mean? We find ourselves asking, what are we to make of the devastating phrase, "And everything which was on the dry land died?" (Genesis 7:22). Philo, the 1st-c...
That's precisely the question posed in The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and expansions on the Torah attributed to Philo of Alexandria, the great Jewish philoso...
They weren't afraid to ask the tough questions. Take this one, for example, posed in The Midrash of Philo: Why does the Torah specifically mention that God remembered Noah, the ani...
Take the story of Noah and the Ark. (Genesis 8:1) says, "God remembered Noah, and the beasts, and the cattle…" Beasts before cattle? What's going on here? Philo, the 1st-century Je...
We all know the story: Noah, the ark, the animals, and the rain that just wouldn't stop. But what about that crucial moment when the waters finally receded? (Genesis 8:2) simply st...
