Archaeologists from Israel have determined through radiocarbon dating that the arrival of domesticated camels in the Middle East happened much later than the events in the Bible suggest. In Genesis 12:10-20 Abram goes to Egypt to escape famine and he … Continue reading
I’ve grown a bit tired of all the listicles floating around on Facebook these days, but it would seem that BuzzFeed put one together that’s too relevant for Holey Books to ignore. The list is called The 16 Most Bizarre Moments … Continue reading
At Salon, a post about abortion and the Bible gets a lot—although not everything—right: Given the amount of effort and political capital the religious right puts into trying to restrict abortion, you’d guess that opposition to women’s choice must take … Continue reading
As we have already discussed, the Book of Judges contains the stories of the Israelites’ leaders (termed “judges”). One of them, who possesses a more memorable name (at least to this blogger), mostly thanks to the Supreme Court case and … Continue reading
If the Book of Judges is an accurate guide, the ancient Israelites can perhaps best be compared to a herd of sheep: without a shepherd, without a strong guide, they flounder and, inevitably it seems, end up breaking covenants and worshipping … Continue reading
The Book of Judges, I recently posted, is not in fact about judges. While the name stems from a translation issue—the ever-shifting meaning of language—regardless of what we call them, the judges in the Book of Judges will, to paraphrase … Continue reading
As we’ve seen previously, Joshua and the Israelites conquered the promised land with very little regard to the people already living there. That, of course, is a little too kind. Joshua and the Israelites repeatedly wiped out whoever was in … Continue reading
It’s the last day of the year. Seems like an appropriate time to share a little bit of data we’ve collected. Here are the five most visited posts in 2012: The Top 5 Most Ridiculous Things in Leviticus The Top … Continue reading
After more than a few boring verses, the Book of Joshua returns to interesting territory (so this blogger thinks) in chapter 23. There, Joshua, who is by now nearing the end of his life, exhorts the Israelites, and presses them, … Continue reading
While we have written several posts about Joshua, the book, as far as the parts read and remembered, is top-heavy: the rest is, well, not terribly narratively interesting (some parts of the Bible, as anyone knows who has read it … Continue reading
