The Final Acts of Moses A HORIZONTAL STUDY OF FIVE MONTHS IN THE 40TH YEAR Many fail to recognize the intended chronology recorded in the Pentateuch. This is only appreciated when we carefully study the narratives and align the parallel passages. In this study, I show the following: The time and place of Aaron’s death […]

After the day of assembly at Horeb, the people were so afraid that they would die if they heard the voice again that they requested Moses to convey God’s words. In response to this request, God said that he would raise up a prophet like Moses. Is this a promise of a singular prophet figure […]

After the giving of the Ten Words, the narratives contained in Exodus and Deuteronomy inform us that the witnesses to this event were terrified. They were so fearful that they suggested an alternative to hearing the voice of God directly. They suggested that Moses go to God and hear the message, and then he (Moses) […]

Three subjects dominate biblical religion: sacrifices, the temple, and the monarchy. No one can deny the central place each of these plays in the narratives of the Bible. And yet, for the past 2,000 years, all who seek to follow or claim to follow “biblical religion” have been without all three. The absence of these […]

Torah portion Re-eh (11:26-16:17) begins with Moses describing a ceremony that will take place after the children of Israel cross the Jordan into the land promised to them by YHVH, but this narrative is interrupted by fifteen chapters of legal material (chapters 12-26). These chapters are referred to as the law code. After a brief […]

Exodus 32-34 and Deuteronomy 9-10 provide the material for a class comparing and contrasting the Bible’s narrative of the second set of stone tablets. The first set, seen only by Moses, was destroyed. What do we [think we] know about the second set of stone tablets? Who made the first set? Who made the second […]

Parsha Va-Etchannan (and I pleaded) arguably contains some of the most important words in all Scripture. It contains a version of The Ten Words, often referred to as The Ten Commandments. These words were reportedly spoken by God to the children of Israel at Horeb/Sinai from the midst of fire and later written on two […]

Deuteronomy begins by telling the reader that it contains the “words that Moses spoke,” but it also contains another voice – words written by another hand. This other voice/hand is that of a narrator or an editor. At times this other voice provides useful information, but the goal is to determine which words can be […]

In this introductory class, Deuteronomy is shown to be different than other books in the Pentateuch. It is often presented as a repetition of material already known and reported in other books “of Moses,” but a closer look reveals that this is NOT the case. Deuteronomy uses unique language and phrases, reports events with different […]

After the Balaam narratives (Numbers 22-24), another incident is recorded in the Book of Numbers. This incident is known to the Biblical writers as the “matter of Peor” and even as the “iniquity of Peor.” What took place at Peor? Our sources seem to be drawing on different accounts, at times referring to the daughters/women […]