How do we read the Bible like adults? For many people who grew up in communities of faith, the Bible stories have been a part of their lives for as long as they can remember. But it's often not until later in life that the richer meanings of the stories come alive, misconceptions are corrected, and the voices of the biblical authors become clearer—even as we relinquish naive certainties and the expectation of a black and white world.
In this episode, Dru interviews Dr. Avital Hazony Levi, instructor in Jewish philosophy and Bible at Midreshet Nishmat. They discuss everything from the nitty-gritty vocabulary of the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar to the ways in which Western philosophical concepts threaten to drown out the voices of the biblical authors to the psychology of female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Along the way, they examine core biblical concepts such as loyalty, trust, responsibility, and generational sin.
Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University, Avital has a rich background in both the Hebrew Bible and philosophy, and her work spans from moral epistemology to the nature of loyalty and worship. She has taught philosophy, Jewish thought, and Tanakh at Nishmat, TVA, and the Orthodox Union college summer program.
Show notes:
Show notes by Micah Long
Trusting Reality: ’Longing to Know’ Turns 20 (Esther Meek)
Old—and New—Testament Violence and the Shalom of God (Matthew J. Lynch)
ICYMI: Don’t Skip the Poems (Michelle Knight)
The State of Jewish–Christian Relations (Pesach Wolicki)
The Unwritten Word: Learning from High Orality-Reliant Cultures (Charles Madinger)
The First Christian Nation? Keeping Up with the Armenians (Heather Ohaneson)
Jewish Identity, Deconstruction, and Misusing the Bible (Marty Solomon)
Raising Chickens, Reading Scripture, and Running Governments, Reformed-Style (Jessica Joustra)
Most Popular Episode of 2022: ’Going to Heaven’ vs. Resurrection, the New Heavens, and the New Earth (J. Richard Middleton)
Paying Attention to the People, Places, and Things in the Bible (Kat Armstrong)
There Is No West without the Near East (Robert Nicholson)
What If We Took God’s Instruction Seriously? (Ryan O’Dowd)
The Knowledge Crisis and Misinformation in Biblical Perspective (Bonnie Kristian)
Wisdom of Primal Peoples in the Era of World Christianity (Jangkholam Haokip)
Our Complicated History with Evil (Discover Your Roots Season 2 Premiere)
Moving from Egypt to the U.S. as a Coptic Christian (Mariam Wahba)
The Pitfalls of Children’s Bibles (Rachel Wilkowski)
Israelites vs. Hebrews vs. Jews . . . ? (Jason Staples)
Growing Up Christian in the Gaza Strip (Khalil Sayegh)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
강유원의 책담화冊談話
The Art of Manliness
Dear Hank & John
Cult of Conspiracy
Conversations With Coleman