@bibleodyssey
BibleOdyssey.org makes the people, places, passages, and cultural impact of the Bible accessible. With articles and interviews by biblical scholars, historians, and archaeologists, you will find everything you need for teaching and personal study.
Tomb Relief of the Chief Physician Amenhotep and Family, New Kingdom Egypt, ca. 1279–1257 BCE, 128 x 120 cm. Courtesy The Cleveland Museum of Art.
"Many ancient Near Eastern societies had professional healers that we might call 'doctors.'” Read more in Doctors in the Ancient Near East by Laura M. Zucconi buff.ly/zPZvQlC #WomensHistorySBL26
Mushhushshu, a mythical creature that was a symbol of Marduk, the main deity of Babylon, and it was believed to serve as a protective talisman for the city.
"The Enuma Elish and...Gen 11:1-9 include stories about the founding of Babylon (Babel in Hebrew)....the Bible connects Babel to the Hebrew word 'to confuse.'" Read The Enuma Elish and the Bible by Kacie Klamm buff.ly/D71MkRs #InternationalWomensDay
Portrait of a young Roman woman in red (detail), 90–120 CE, encaustic on limewood with gold leaf, 38 x 18 cm. Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"What did it mean for Phoebe to be a deacon and a benefactor?" Read Phoebe by Susan E. Hylen buff.ly/oHjJlpE #WomensHistorySBL26
The koine Greek adelphoi in Greek script.
"Is it “brothers” or “brothers and sisters”?" Find out more about the translation of the Greek word adelphoi in Brothers and Sisters by Ma. Marilou S. Ibita. buff.ly/A7p6Gs1 #WomensHistorySBL26
Toros Roslin, Ancestors of Christ (detail), 1262, illuminated manuscript, 21.5 x 30 cm. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
"In an otherwise patrilineal list of ancestors, this genealogy includes four women from the Hebrew Bible (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba) as well as the mother of Jesus." Read more in The Women in Matthew’s Genealogy by Caroline Parish and Kim Bauser McBrien buff.ly/ED6xpSn #WomensHistorySBL26
Tractate Avot 1,6.7 in the Kaufmann Manuscript of the Mishnah, 12th century CE. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The earliest historian of rabbinic Judaism, Rabbi Sherira Gaon (d. 1006 CE) credits Rabbi Judah the Patriarch with compiling the Mishnah. Read more in The Mishnah by Elizabeth Shanks Alexander. buff.ly/tO1UYn6 #WomensHistorySBL26
King Esarhaddon of Assyria and his mother Naqi'a-Zakutu in the temple of Marduk. Relief commemorating the restoration of Babylon by Esarhaddon. Bronze (originally gold-plated), ca. 681-669 BC.
"Most biblical references to royal mothers occur in the announcements in the books of 1 and 2 Kings that a new king has begun to reign." Read more in Biblical Royal Mothers by Elna K. Solvang buff.ly/eygzPhq
Adriaen van der Werff, The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael (detail), ca. 1699, oil on canvas, 77 x 62 cm. Courtesy the RISD Musuem.
How and when did divorce take place in ancient Israel? Find out in Divorce in the Hebrew Bible by Eve Levavi Feinstein buff.ly/SeBeDlC #WomensHIstoryMonth
"Agar es quizás más un epíteto que un nombre, Ha ('la'), gar ('extranjero residente')." Hagar (Spanish) de Wil Gafney buff.ly/diFkpEp
"The customary practice of Christian conversion, at least among Paul’s churches, appears to have started with the apostle’s arrival in the city." Read Early Christian Converts by Michael Joseph Brown buff.ly/TDllHBl #BlackHistorySBL26
Marc Chagall – Meeting of Jacob and Rachel at the well, 1952
"There is another side to Rachel’s story. Her protracted infertility fits into a larger biblical pattern that signals the special importance of the child (Joseph) who finally arrives." Read Rachel by Amanda Mbuvi buff.ly/4JMMNPx #BlackHistorySBL26
The Daughters of Zelophehad. Illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us: Containing 400 Illustrations from the Old and New Testaments: With brief descriptions by Charles Foster
"Since the Israelites divided the land among male heads of households, Zelophehad’s daughters had to petition on behalf of their father." Check out Zelophehad’s Daughters by Kimberly D. Russaw buff.ly/xkpGS3s #BlackHistorySBL26
Martin Luther King Jr. Mpnument quote "Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
"How did the Bible guide participation in the Civil Rights Movement and articulate its outcomes?" Read more in The Bible in the Civil Rights Movement by Dennis R. Edwards #BlackHistorySBL26 buff.ly/abFAUt4
Image from interview The Importance of Diversity for Bible Translation with Herbert R. Marbury
"When we make decisions about which words to use to communicate particular meanings, we do so from within our own interpretive fields...framed by...our values and belief systems." Listen to The Importance of Diversity for Bible Translation with Herbert R. Marbury buff.ly/IM80Syg #BlackHistorySBL26
Cover of the book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker.
"Womanist biblical interpretation begins with black women’s ways of knowing and experience as normative for analyzing biblical texts." Read Womanist Biblical Interpretation by Vanessa Lovelace buff.ly/wDcNYe3 #BlackHistorySBL26
The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve by William Blake ca.1826
"Although nothing in the Bible suggests it is related to skin color, the motif that Cain was cursed with blackness—and that black people are cursed as well—was common from the 18th and into the 20th century." Read Mark of Cain by Eva Mroczek. buff.ly/5eounhK #BlackHistoryMonth
Hagar bust
"Hagar is perhaps more epithet than name, ha 'the,' gar 'resident alien.' She is an African (Egyptian) woman or girl of childbearing age held in slavery by Sarah (Gen 16:1)." Read Hagar by Wil Gafney buff.ly/A37N6gV #BlackHistorySBL26
Marc Chagall, 1911-12, Hommage à Apollinaire, or Adam et Ève (study), gouache, watercolor, ink wash, pen and ink and collage on paper, 21 x 17.5 cm
"What if we understand the statement 'Let us make adam' (Gen 1:26) to include the notion of general human personhood?" Check out Adam by Dexter Callender. buff.ly/xogvxzG #BlackHistorySBL26
Painting: Ben-Zion (Weinman), Deborah the Prophetess
"Hebrews 11 is often viewed as an ode to faith. The word faith...is repeated some twenty-six times in this chapter alone, demonstrating its significance to the author’s overall message." Read Heroes of Faith (Hebrews 11) by Jennifer T. Kaalund buff.ly/sLsRtkA #BlackHistorySBL26
Benjamin West, Conversion of Onesimus (detail), ca. 1780, pen, ink, and sepia wash on paper, 12.7 x 19.1 cm. Courtesy The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
"Does Paul plead for mercy on behalf of a runaway slave, or is there more to the story?" Read Onesimus by Demetrius K. Williams buff.ly/DPx2s9A #BlackHistorySBL26
Jacob Jordaens, Moses and his Ethiopian Wife (detail), ca. 1645, oil on canvas, 116.3 x 114 cm. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
"African American biblical scholarship took on an investigation of the word Cush to uncover a black presence in the Bible." Check out Cush by Stacy Davis buff.ly/9zTvWKz
Mosaic Reproduction of Emperor Justinian and Members of His Court (detail), early twentieth century (original dated sixth century), glass and stone tesserae, 264.2 x 365.8 x 12.7 cm. Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"Romans did not have a word for “crime” as contemporary people conceptualize it, but they had multiple words that carried various shades of negative nuance." Read Crime and Punishment in the Roman Empire by Jeremy L. Williams buff.ly/2JguQ1b #BlackHistorySBL26
Washboard mixed media. Timothy Washington, “Unauthorized,” from 2012
"In the tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. looked to the Bible for inspiration." Read more in Social Ethics of the Hebrew Bible by J. David Pleins buff.ly/8fDX8xe #BlackHistoryMonth
Painting: Romare Bearden, Evening Church, 1985, Collage and oil on fiberboard 14 x 11 1/2 inches
"For much of North American history from the 1600s to the end of the US Civil War, biblical passages were commonly used to affirm the institution of slavery." Check out The Legacy of the Bible in Justifying Slavery by Herbert R. Marbury buff.ly/Uc3NCn3 #BlackHistorySBL26
Kara Walker, Alabama Loyalists Greeting the Federal Gun-Boats, from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment © 2005 Kara Walker
"Jezebel, the prototypical evil queen of the Bible, has often been used as a racist stereotype against African American women." Read Jezebel from an African-American Perspective by Stacy Davis buff.ly/AxYWx6M #BlackHistorySBL26
Jeremiah by Andrew Mabanji. In Jeremiah’s hand is a book inscribed with Jeremiah 20:9. The statue is located at St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota.
"According to the book of Jeremiah (our only source of information about him), it was Jeremiah’s determination to preach the word of Yahweh despite opposition that established his authenticity." Read The Prophet Jeremiah by Brian Rainey buff.ly/E4CLDj1 #BlackHistorySBL26
Interview of Dexter Callender
"Genealogies...establish sociopolitical ties through expressing fictive kinship ties." Listen to the interview Genealogies in the Bible with Dexter Callender. buff.ly/RlzdqDj #BlackHistorySBL26
Image of interview with Cheryl B. Anderson on Law and the Bible
"Applying ancient laws can be tricky, especially if you’re not taking into account the reasons why they would have been written in an earlier time and place." Listen to the interview Law and the Bible with Cheryl B. Anderson buff.ly/CgoiDCC #BlackHistorySBL26
Interview of Dora Mbuwayesango
"There is an African hermeneutics of the Bible which grounds its interpretation on the African context & African issues; & asks questions about what’s happening in the context of Africa." Listen to African Hermeneutics with Dora Mbuwayesango buff.ly/qDYlCwE #BlackHistorySBL26
Greek icon of Lydia, Linden wood, 14 x 17 cm, Bihn Collection
"Lydia is traditionally regarded as the first European convert, but her background is mostly a mystery." Read Lydia by recent Agnes Scott graduate Kennedy Thedford with Tina Pippin. buff.ly/wLfCNLP #BlackHistorySBL26