Robert Wright sees King Josiah as “a king who wanted to eliminate domestic political rivals. Those political rivals would have claimed access to various gods other than Yahweh, so King Josiah wanted to eliminate them.” This and more in a wide ranging interview on the history of the Abrahamic faiths. (Salon)
What do we do with a Bible passage that seems to promote genocide? (Jewish Week)
The new “JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible” has a translation that’s “both old-school and vibrant: “In the very beginning, God created a world–the heavens and the earth–out of nothing. But this world was without rhyme or reason.”–but Matthue Roth thinks the art falls flat. (Forward)
Robert Alter talks about his motives for translating the Book of Psalms.
When it comes to biblical scholarship, do generalists have an advantage over specialists? (Society of Biblical Literature)
