Misquoting Moses with Joel Baden

The creation of the world out of primordial chaos. A catastrophic global flood that ends when birds confirm the re-emergence of dry land. A baby cast into the river in a basket sealed with bitumen, who would be rescued...

"Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one." Thus begins the most important prayer in Judaism, taken directly from Deuteronomy 6:4. Rendered this way, it appears to encapsulate the monotheistic essence of Judaism. One...

There is a scene in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus walks into a synagogue in Nazareth, stands up to read, and someone hands him the scroll of Isaiah. He finds his place and begins… "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...

If you open a Bible, the oldest thing in it should be on page one. Right? In the beginning? That is where it starts. Except the oldest words ever written in the entire Hebrew Bible are not in Genesis. In fact, one of...

<p>If you open a Bible, the oldest thing in it should be on page one. Right? In the beginning? That is where it starts. Except the oldest words ever written in the entire Hebrew Bible are not in Genesis. In fact, one of...

When you think of King David, images of the shepherd boy, the giant-slayer, and Israel's greatest king probably come to mind. That's the David people know. But strip away the Sunday school version, and the biblical text...

<p>When you think of King David, images of the shepherd boy, the giant-slayer, and Israel's greatest king probably come to mind. That's the David people know. But strip away the Sunday school version, and the biblical...

The great flood of Noah. The walls of Jericho tumbling down. The ten plagues striking Egypt. The Red Sea splitting in two. These are some of the most famous biblical stories ever told — but did any of them actually...

<p>The great flood of Noah. The walls of Jericho tumbling down. The ten plagues striking Egypt. The Red Sea splitting in two. These are some of the most famous biblical stories ever told — but did any of them actually...

Moses climbs Mount Sinai, God hands him two stone tablets, and the Ten Commandments are born. That's the story many people grew up with. But here's the thing: the Bible actually gives us two different versions of the...

<p>Moses climbs Mount Sinai, God hands him two stone tablets, and the Ten Commandments are born. That's the story many people grew up with. But here's the thing: the Bible actually gives us two different versions of the...

<p>In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You've heard that line a thousand times. But what if I told you it's not actually the first sentence of the Bible… that's a translation choice. And what if I...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You've heard that line a thousand times. But what if I told you it's not actually the first sentence of the Bible… that's a translation choice. And what if I told...

Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and why? Why does it contain so many competing perspectives and why do scholars sometimes disagree about what its words originally meant? In Misquoting Moses, Yale professor Joel Baden...

<p >Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, when, and why? Why does it contain so many competing perspectives and why do scholars sometimes disagree about what its words originally meant?</p> <p>In Misquoting Moses, Yale professor...