
Like much of the rest of the Pentateuch, Numbers 5 and 6 contain puzzling laws. What are we to make of the leprosy laws? How are we to understand the laws of restitution, jealousy on the part of a husband, and the rites and laws of the nazir (one who makes a vow of consecration)? Why such strange laws? Can we even make sense of them and apply them to our current situation today?
This exhibition at the Met focuses on the extraordinary art created as a result of a sophisticated network of interaction that developed among kings, diplomats, merchants, and others in the Near East during the second millennium B.C. Even though this exhibition has just wrapped, I found the following image-rich talk (with lively history, great maps and artifacts) very interesting. The lecture lasts about 20 minutes.
Of the portions of Genesis before and after the tower of Babel story, Richard H Moye writes that it is “commonly acknowledged that the first part is predominantly mythical, whereas the second is more nearly historical – or at least something between legend and history.”[1] Many cultures hold legends similar to the Biblical flood and surrounding events (6-11), such as the Greek story of Deucalion and the deluge sent by Zeus, or the Irish tale of Mongán and the flooding of the Lough Foyle.[2] Some patterns can be recognized in these accounts, as they are inextricably connected to idea