The Old Testament – the Hebrew Bible or Tanach – combines myth, allegory and particularly in the later books, historical events. Modern biblical scholarship has worked for over a hundred years to decode the text so as to reveal the “true story” of the group that became the Jews. James Kugel is one of the leading contributors to that effort. Now at Bar Ilan University in Israel, he taught before that at Harvard where his undergraduate course in the Hebrew Bible usually drew 800 or 900 registered students. He joined us in this memorable 2007 program about the hidden meanings of the biblical text.

The beginning of modern Judaism can be traced to the crisis of 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. This was the point of transition from priestly to rabbinic Judaism. But as our three truly expert guests explain, the persisting duality between mysticism and rationalism can be found in every stage of the long history. Of special interest in this program is the attention given to the most mysterious of all Judaic scripture: The Kabbalistic Zohar.

Midrash is the Hebrew word for commentary, particularly commentary on the Hebrew Bible. Many secular intellectuals have been drawn toward that very challenge, among them Leon Kass, physician, philosopher and teacher of the humanities, now  a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. At the time of this 2003 conversation, he was a professor at the University of Chicago, on leave in Washington, where he chaired the President’s Commission on Bioethics.

The insights and meanings he finds in Genesis, as presented here, are focused not only on Creation but also on the possible realities behind the account of Abraham and his descendants and then upon the formation of the Jewish religion and its persisting “people.”

This was based on a prediction from, of all people , George Will. The 2001 conversation deals with “the psychology of religion,” a course that I was teaching at the time. Some 13 years later Cardinal George was about to retire but remained one of the great intellectual presences within the Catholic church.

 …was waged over the New Testament and the question of which books, including various “gospels,” were to be included and which rejected. Two great Biblical scholars, Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina and Margaret Mitchell of the University of Chicago, in 2005 reviewed the rich modern research including the most important issue of how the Resurrection acquired canonical status.